Little Black Book

Well isn't the weather gorgeous, although there's a bit of high cloud scudding along, the temperature is warm and balmy? Good stuff and it's about time. I was doing some training in the summer of 1976 in North Yorkshire for ten weeks during the long HOT summer and can remember brown grass, a healthy tan and a relaxed atmosphere... what were you doing in 1976?

What were you doing on such and such date when this or that happened and people often say, "I remember what I was doing on the day when..." I can't remember what I did a week last Friday!

There are exceptions for me where memorable events are concerned. I can remember being at work when 9/11 happened and a woman ran into the office and told me to switch the tv on, something was happening, only for me to see the second plane hit the tower. There was something surreal and unbelievable about the whole thing, even now.

My lad came home from staying at his grandmothers the day Lady Diana's death was announced and I hadn't heard the news that morning and as I let him in the door he asked me if I'd heard the news and I thought he was having a bad joke and was about to give him a bollocking until he persuaded me to turn the tv on. I spent the whole day watching tv. I remember crying.

I don't keep a diary of the sort that you write down what you've done in your life or for appointments, because I've never needed to really, and at work I use the mighty MS Outlook and at home too for wedding anniversaries, birthdays and when to put the rubbish bins out. This blog is the nearest thing I've ever kept for a diary other than when I did my Reiki training for level one where you had to keep a diary of what you did and how you felt for 21 days after the training. I have read other people diaries (published of course - never personal ones) and Kenneth Williams was one of the most interesting - talk about a complex character - a psychologist or psychiatrist would have had a field day analysing that one.

Here's a couple of more photographs I took on hols... the first one shows (not very well - click on it to enlarge it) a wind surfer taken on a long zoom lens at the other end of the beach well off the water and he's lifted off the surface by the wind.

You know me and night shots, here's one along the beach across the dunes (no evening lovers there unfortunately) - very romantic, if not a little gritty.

I hope the week remains good for you, weather wise particularly, they reckon it may be 30 degrees Celsius or 86 degrees Fahrenheit on mainland UK over the weekend - cool (or not as the case may be.)

Chat soon

Ta-ra!

What's in your little black book?

The sun is shining - thought I was in a dream. As I wrote this line, I looked out of the window - and yes it wasn't my imagination.

I had a fascinating day yesterday on a course and as a result I now have a certificate in Reiki to the first degree (there are three degrees). Pronounced 'ray-kee,' it's an old and simple method of hands on healing. Roughly translated, Reiki is 'universal life force energy' and helps to heal at all levels: mental, physical, emotional, spiritual and helps the body heal itself.

Although based on a more ancient form of healing, Japanese Kiko, this was the result of a quest by Dr Mikayo Usui born in 1865, a Buddhist monk who was studying healing and realised that the problem with Kiko was that the healer's energy was completely depleted during the healing. The resulting Reiki method allows the healer to tap into the body's own pool of life force energy to facilitate healing.

I now have to keep a diary, for the next 21 days at least, outlining my experiences at cementing Reiki exercises into my every day lifestyle and self healing in preparation for the next degree which should be interesting. I've never kept a diary although my youngest children do - well done them. This blog I guess is a sort of public diary of musings, laying bare the private soul and giving away secrets of thought, but I would never have the patience or perhaps time to do one on a daily basis and I'm not sure what the benefit would be other than recording a life for posterity for a time after my death.

I don't think I've done anything that warrants being in someone's little black book, but if you keep a diary, let me know why you do it - I would be fascinated to know.

Diaries have made people lots of dosh over the years. Anthony 'Tony' Benn has kept extensive diaries some of which he has published but then he has had an interesting, active and busy life. Alan Clark wrote a very revealing diary of his life in the Thatcher governments and of course there are the famous Anne Frank diaries; the short diary of a life of incarceration of this young displaced German born Jewish girl awaiting inevitable capture by the Germans in 1942/44 Amsterdam.

Looking on my bookshelf, the only diary I have is Kenneth Williams posthumously published diaries (edited by Russell Davies) and I can imagine why he wouldn't have wanted them published during his life time. This was a man in emotional turmoil living a dark and lonely life and his comments were vitriolic and often confusing and gives away the difference between his public persona and what he really thought of his colleagues in the world of show business. Yes there is plenty of evidence to show his intelligence, wit, observations of humour, life and people, but by goodness he told it as he saw it.

Soup for lunch today because despite the sun, it's still very chilly and we need internal warmth, then it's off to Sainsbury's for some shopping. I'm in London for three days next week, so I need some provisions and toiletries for the trip.

Hope you've had a good weekend so far, enjoy what's left of it.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.