Angelic Weekend

20Cm tall Angel

The weekend has gone - all too quickly. I've seen a great film, had a good time with friends, relaxed at home, shopped and done a bit of domestic stuff around the house. The weather's not been too bad either although it's been a bit chilly in a brisk stiff breeze which has just taken the edge off the temperatures.

The film (I'm not going to do a review like I used to) was Dark Shadows, a Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter and a delightfully evil portrayal by Eva Green. Briefly, Depp is a vampire who was condemned to lie for eternity in the 1700s in a grave. He was accidentally released by some workmen and went back to his ancestral home to reclaim his heritage. The film is both funny, dark and cleverly done by Burton with a decent storyline and apparently adapted from an American TV series of the 1960s which I can't remember ever seeing in the UK. 

25Cm tall Angel

This is a 12A and needs to be and you can imagine how difficult it is for this 18th century vampire to adapt to modern day America hence the comedy aspect to the film. If you like Burton's films then you'll like this one.

I've done the usual shopping bits and pieces over the weekend including some Arthur Bowers multi-purpose compost which was on good offer at the local DIY store and some paraffin for the greenhouse to ward off the effect of late frosts.

Glass Oil/Essence burner

The healing group I normally attend as a healer to every other Thursday night in Hull which offers healing using Reiki and Angelic healing was cancelled last week because the owner of the large house we use wasn't very well. Instead we held a meditation evening at my business partners home and what a fabulous night we had with our group of clients using two lovely meditations. I thoroughly recommend meditation as a relaxation tool and if any of you want to know about how to do it, let me know (by e-mail) and I'll point you in the right direction.

Wind Chime

You may recall I occasionally run a stall selling Angel related things (Touched by Angels) and I set up my dining table today to take some photographs of some of the new bits of stock that arrived recently and I've put some examples on here. You can click on them to enlarge them. It's the first time I've done this and I'm quite proud of the results and I aim to photograph the rest of the stock samples next weekend. I'm currently constructing a website and some of the pictures will go on there.  I had lots of offers of help before Christmas from blogger friends which I was eternally grateful for, but decided to get a grip and do it myself, both for the experience and for the purpose of getting off my backside and doing things.

My profile picture has changed too. An English portrait painter called George Dawes (1781-1829) bizarrely painted a host of Russian generals during Napoleon's invasion of Russia and they have all survived intact. They are very good portraits and my son John adapted one using Adobe Photoshop by putting his own face over that of a general in full regalia. I was so impressed, I asked him to do one of me and here is the result. The original uniform belonged to the man that was airbrushed out - General Konstantin M Poltoratsky (1782-1858) - but I respect his memory by mentioning him here. Clever eh?

'General' Rarelesserspotted

Have a great week.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Seven seconds of bliss

I hope the world is treating you all well this mid week in October.

After some period of apparent inactivity, I came home to find Colin the Model - you remember him - the modest one, trying to improve his physique on the ProTrainer using the half kilo weight. I don't know if he is trying to say something about my pitiful endeavours, but if he doesn't want to end up in Woollies window without any clothes (if you get my drift), he best be tactful about it. I don't know how he even got in the garage, the door is really stiff.

Brother in law and I were planning to take some long exposure pictures of the bright lights of Hull Fair this week, but the weather is against us with low cloud and mist, and getting close or in the fair taking pictures is problematic so hopefully if the weather lifts we may get some nice pictures to display for you.

I went to the quacks this morning and when I left him to go to work, I had my headlights on - the time? nine-fifteen. It was grey and miserable. I noticed that when I put my headlights on, the sat nav went into night mode and I couldn't read it, even though it was daylight, albeit murky daylight.

Did I say my knee was playing up? It's been really painful for about six weeks after a session one night on the treadmill when I was very tired and not in the mood. I went to my good friend Linda's house last night to work on my meditations which have been less than fruitful or beneficial in recent weeks and by coincidence, Linda happens to be my Shiatsu back therapist. I sat down, gingerly, and she asked me what was the matter with my knee. After the end of the meditation session, she sat me on the floor with my legs out straight and felt my knees (lucky me).

My right one, she said was fine, the left one (which was giving me some pain) had slipped out of position after I presumably twisted my knee even though I can't remember doing it. Anyway after about seven seconds of manipulating it, it went back and other than some muscular tenderness around it, it's now pain free. Just shows eh? Six weeks of pain, seven seconds to remedy it. Losing weight undoubtedly helped to minimise the pain because there is less stress on it - ironic that it should cause the pain (through exercise) in the first place.

Confucius

Anyway, I thought I'd bring you all some culture and I looked at the works of the mighty Confucius. He was a philosopher and thinker, as you would imagine and he was born as far back as 551 BC in China according to legend. His work influenced many far eastern countries such as Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam and it majored on governmental morality, social relationships, justice and sincerity. Thanks to Wikipedia for the info. Here are a few lines (best said in a fake Chinese accent):

Woman's charms like a spider's web - lead to flies undoing;
Man who drive like hell bound to get there;
Man who keep feet firmly on ground will have trouble putting pants on;
Man who live in glass house should change in basement;
Man who want pretty nurse should be patient;
Better to be pissed off than pissed on;
Man who leap off cliff jump to conclusion;
Man who put head in fruit drink get punch on nose;
Man who handles privates all day not necessarily sergeant;
...and finally to show Confucius not sexist:
Girl who sit on jockeys lap get hot tip.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Number 29

This must be the first weekend since perhaps this time last year where I can honestly say I have nothing planned, perhaps cutting the grass and that's it. I have pondered about sitting out, and enjoying the sun sheltered from the breeze and maybe listening to the FA Cup Final on the radio whilst enjoying the fresh air. Food has been bought in for the weekend and the car is already nice and clean. My wife has done the housework because she's been off this week and there's no washing and drying to do.

"A husband is what is left of the lover after the nerve has been extracted."
Helen Rowland.

So, this is a time perhaps I like most, taking the opportunity to relax, recharge the batteries, read, meditate and just chill out. Lazy? No I think I'm entitled now and then. One none energetic thing I will be doing is testing my memory again in meditation looking back to childhood, remembering smells, events, sounds, feelings, sights, people, home and whatever else comes to mind. My friend Shirley Ann says that most memory survives and is locked away somewhere and I guess that meditation really does allow recall to become easier and is certainly remarkably so in my case.

The large Victorian house - 'number 29' as the family remember it had surprisingly small gardens. The front was perhaps only eight feet deep, concreted with a small bird bath in the centre surrounded by four standard roses in neat square holes in the grey utility ground. London pride and cotoneaster grew on the edges and the low wall with sandstone top was convenient to sit upon and chat to whoever was around. The iron railings which must have once stood proud on the wall had clearly been taken during the war years to help with the effort against the enemy and surely built spitfires or tanks.

Mr Western lived next door, a former war hero who sadly decayed into dementia and alcoholism in his dotage. His back garden was untended and knee deep in nettles, always an unpleasant experience when trying to retrieve one's tennis or cricket ball. The back gardens were shallow too, perhaps twenty feet at most with borders made of sandy soil, made gritty over the years through dumping ash from the many fires in the house in the garden. A small home made concrete fish pond stood lonely in the corner of the garden with a lily that was too big for it and indeed dangerous for goldfish because my father, a fisherman had once brought home a pike he had caught in a plastic bag that he thought was dead with a view to feeding the cat, Thomas. The pike miraculously had survived the journey and refused to die and lived out its life in the pond for several years, feeding on goldfish and goodness knows what else - stray curious cats and birds landing on the lily pads to drink I suspect.

Although there was a toilet and separate bathroom in the house with a huge zinc bath, there was also an 'outhouse' and coal house next to it. The toilet had to have a little Kelly lamp lit in the winter to stop the water freezing. The coal house had coal and coke for different fires which for some reason were peculiar for what they would or wouldn't burn. The back garden was too small to play ball games in and friends and I would play cricket and football in the back ten-foot (because it was ten-foot wide) using Mr Kirkness's garage door as a goal or wicket.

This is the first and probably the last picture you will ever see of me, and that's as a young boy, seven or eight years old, proudly stood in the back garden of 'number 29' with Grandfather, a blind World War 1 veteran with one leg, the other having been shot off in the trenches. Spiritually, I know he's still around my family today even though we have moved many miles away; spirits have no sense of distance! A great background detail is Mr Western's 'outhouse' and coal house!

"Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house!"
Rod Stewart, musician.

Chat soon

Ta-ra!

Menagerie

Menagerie... in the context of this blog, 'a diverse or miscellaneous group'. So much to say, so little time to write blog - indeed, it's gone 10 pm and I should be in bed.

But, dear blogger friends some good news to impart about the diet. I hadn't forgotten to update you, but if you remember I am only getting weighed once per month and Tuesday was the day. My belt is getting smaller, my trousers baggier and there is a gap appearing around my collar making my shirts just loose enough for me to button the collar for the first time in many a good year.

Well I did it again, I lost 4.9 Kg or 10.75 pounds in four weeks. That makes, in total, a loss in three months of three stone one pound. Low fat (as few saturated fats as possible) is doing the trick, plenty of fluids and walking. My wife who is also doing the diet has lost 14 pounds in the same period.

Work is busy and I have just had a promotion which is good news in this economic climate, but the price to be paid is a lot more responsibility and staff to supervise which I thought I had left behind some three years ago. But I like the challenge and having supportive, intelligent and 'can-do' line managers helps drive the job ever forward. One of my valued work colleagues and friend has moved to another department and although his move is temporary, I suspect it will become permanent as he such a professional and will make excellent headway in a difficult role. One of my line managers is retiring shortly after exceptional service and he will be sorely missed, but I am very lucky as a human being to count him as a friend and I will follow his retirement and the exciting plans he has with a lot of interest - more on that when he goes in July.

A blogger friend Magnumlady who lives in Sligo, Ireland has complained that while we were having glorious sun last Bank Holiday weekend, she was having drenching rain and her latest lovely picture shows a flower, perhaps an iris, covered in rain. Well news for you Val, its been raining here and temperatures have dropped dramatically and a cooler breeze has set in for the time being - a bit of a shock, but a nice weekend is forecast - I'll order some sun for you.

My psychic work took a turn for the better this week with an excellent psychic circle and clearer contact with the world of spirit than I've had for a while, it made it all worthwhile. Psychic ability, skill or gift, whichever you prefer to call it goes in peaks and troughs - good weeks, bad weeks and indifferent weeks and I suspect it very much depends on how you feel, what your attitude is, how calm and relaxed you are and what meditation and practise you do.

Well that's about it for tonight. Having watched Manchester United get turned over in Rome by Barcelona (they just didn't turn up!) on very poor quality ITV coverage and helped my middle son write some letters to cancel all his bills now he's moved out of his student flat, I am now going for a meditation while listening to some very soothing Gregorian Chants in the background. I think this weekend, I'll post some details about the way I do meditation (from a very good teacher) and see what you think to having a go to relax the mind and body yourself.

"I want to be young and wild; and then I want to be middle aged and rich; and then I want to be old and annoy people by pretending I'm deaf."
Rowan Atkinson, Blackadder

Chat soon

Ta-ra