Comedy and Tragedy

This week has been very busy indeed coupled with the fact that I've been ill meant that this blog, which was mostly written last Monday, but never finished is four days late!

The first day back at work (Monday) was fine. I was warmly greeted by the Branch head and my former line manager Phill and my colleagues Ellie, Caroline, Tammy, Gemma and Kirsty and a couple of other good colleagues and it sort of gives one a glow that people still care about each other. In difficult and demanding times, it's good not to lose a sense of courtesy and friendliness. Without looking after your people, what would you have left?

I only had 85 e-mails which was a bit of a surprise. About half were for my information, about fifteen needed some sort of action  and the rest were just administrative thingybobs.

I'm on a diet again and to be fair, I have been throughout my holiday and the last three days, I've felt rubbish and in fact I think I've actually had a reaction to the stuff. They are sort of milk shakes with one decent meal a day. Bearing in mind that although I drank milk for England when I was younger, I haven't drunk milk except in tea for the last two years. I am now paying the price and I am starting a bit of a detox which leaves me with temporary inertia and slight dizziness which always happens when I cut down on food intake. My stomach is as solid as a rock. (Update - this was written on Monday - and apart from a sore throat - back up and running!)

But enough about that. The last week and a half has been pretty good weather wise so I've been lucky with my UK holiday in sunny East Yorkshire, however, my grass is starting to look brown again. I noticed that the forecast is for rain, some heavy, on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning so perhaps a bit of respite, I don't want to waste good tap water on the sprinklers.

To bring me down to earth, fellow blogger Weaver mentions in her blog the plight of women and children, the infirm and elderly in the Horn of Africa, East Africa and parts of other countries local to this area. This is indeed a distressing sight. I am so sad that the lack of meaningful Government in Somalia has meant that tens of thousands are marching simply to get basic minimal food and water. I am delighted however that the Muslim based self styled Government is now sufficiently embarrassed to allowed western aid agencies in to the country PROVIDING they abide by strict conditions and report to their committee first for permission. Their arrogance is staggering. What about their people? Don't they come first?

The News of the World are indeed in deep do-do. I am delighted that at last tabloid journalism is coming under very deep and close scrutiny. Whilst sympathising with today's NoW journalists and editorial team who had nothing to do with the early to mid 2000s scandals, I hope that this bites at the very heart of the empire that runs the paper that thinks it's invincible. Excellent coverage in the Daily Telegraph shows live daily news on the subject as it happens. 

To create balance, I was also disappointed to read that Police Officers were paid for information and I hope this doesn't detract from investigating and getting to the bottom of the evil that was going on at the time in the dark, dingy, back offices of NoW, but none the less also needs to be addressed urgently.

I hope this is a wake up call for all tabloid editors that public opinion and big business (by withdrawing advertising revenue) can and do make a difference to you if you screw up - oh how the tables have turned. It's about time the papers and editors started to treat the public with respect.

Finally, if you are in the UK and want a huge laugh, listen to a programme on BBC iPlayer (this is time limited) from a BBC Radio 2 boraodcast on Tuesday night, hosted by Barbara Windsor about the history of female comedians that shaped today's comedians. The subject on Tuesday night was the extraordinary character actress and comedian Hilda Baker. She was a northern lass who often got her words mixed up and in the first ten minutes of this programme, I was nearly wetting myself whilst driving home in my car listening to her repartee. He comic timing was brilliant.

So, some serious stuff and not so serious stuff today and looking forward to the weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

I'd love to go out with you but...

The holiday in sunny (actually it's raining) Portugal beckons and unless there is a computer at the hotel, this will be my last blog for a few days. I know the garden needs the rain, but it hasn't stopped here for what seems days - and more to come this week! The garden is very green right now and the ferns, naturally forest plants, are loving it (not that they've confided in me you understand, but they look good).

Preparation for holidays is always interesting and there are no children with us this year, they are staying at home. As two of my three children read this blog, they will know that I hope that when I get back, they keep from me tales of falling out and any petty mindedness at the list of tasks I've set them for while we are away and that the house is tidy and clean when we get back. Sometimes the phrase we use in my business, 'You don't know what you don't know' is apt. The list is not extensive:

• Put the bins out when needed;
• Water the house plants (only eight);
• Water the hanging baskets (only three);
• Put food in the bird feeders (only two);
• Feed the fish in the ponds (I've put food for every day into little pots... sad or what);
• Hoover round (once will do - preferably in the hours before we come back).

We will be shopping on Wednesday trying to second guess what we can leave in the fridge & freezer for them for meals and snacks.

We're taking minimum clothes, I'm taking three books, an iPod, my camera and my drawing things. This is going to be a generally lazy holiday.

My last psychic circle last night for two weeks was very successful with some good lengthy detailed mediumship messages and one pastel drawing of a young spirit woman who had met a violent death in her early twenties possibly in West Yorkshire (UK) in the 1960s and who was found in water near a bridge with two arches (very rare occurrence for me to get that sort of contact - not pleasant - in many ways, very sad!) Thanks to Shirley Ann for her continued support in my development. I'll be doing plenty of meditation while I'm away and this will lend itself nicely to the relaxing nature of the holiday.

It's a while since I did a list, but here are a few handy excuses for getting out of that date with someone you really don't want to go out with:

*I'd love to go out with you but...
I have to worm my dog;
I want to spend more time with my blender;
I'm staying at home to work on my cottage cheese sculpture;
I'm being deported;
None of my socks match;
My plot to take over the world is gathering pace;
I have to study for my blood test;
I'm going to count the bristles in my toothbrush;
I have to check the sell by dates on my cheese selection;
I'm teaching my ferret to yodel.

Have a good week.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.
*Thanks to Geoff Tibballs

Holiday - what holiday?

This is the calm before the storm. Today is a day off from the holiday (lounging and pottering). Today is a preparation day. In order of occurrence: a trip to York for a walk around the city wall (research today) on Thursday, a walk around Hull on Friday, family reunion for my father's mother's family on Saturday (getting some display photos ready today), most of whom I have never seen or met before and Sunday an all day local Boys League football tournament; and this is a holiday!

Breaking news: Scientists have discovered something that will do the work of five men - a woman.

Ah well I can be stressed at leisure in my own time. Most of it I am looking forward to and in between times, I will be listening or watching, if I can get near to the TV, to the first Ashes test between England and Australia played for the first time at Cardiff and England are doing okay, not brilliantly, but okay.

I'm just about to do some light reading this afternoon, David Well's book on improving psychic ability and I will be listening to his CD with a guided meditation later this afternoon. It helps me relax if nothing else during the day, I will probably have to wait until evening time to link into my psychic mind with the meditation.

I thought I would put a photograph of the Mayes family - above - (my father's mother's family). Two generations ago have all passed now, all eight of them, five girls and three boys and their spouses all barring one wife. The picture is my grandmother taken by a professional photographer around 1930.

Q Why are families like a box of chocolates?

A Mostly sweet with a few nuts.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Dreaming of Holidays

The weekend is upon us folks and sadly the nice spring-like weather has deserted us for a few days with rain forecast on Saturday - oh joy! Never mind - I'm having a few days off over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend and beyond and it's now that my wife begins to plan what I can do with my time - oh joy!

Fortunately, I've never had to decorate during our marriage because my better half is certainly a superb decorator I'm just never around when she's decorating - she's like a bear with a sore head, so decorating isn't a worry. I once told her that she'd done a great job but when I noticed that she had put a piece of wallpaper upside down and gently pointed it out - well needless to say I keep my mouth shut now and keep well out of the way. There'll be handyman jobs in the house and in the garden, the tip to go to and other delightful domestic chores.

I was casting my mind back to childhood holidays which I adored. My earliest memory of a holiday was in a caravan on the East Yorkshire coast near Withernsea somewhere. I took a mate from school and that was fun. Other holidays included a week in Belgium. It was in Ostend by way of a twin prop plane from Luton Airport in an horrendous storm which I enjoyed but apparently my parents didn't. That was in 1966 when England beat West Germany 4 - 2 in the World Cup final and my father didn't have to pay for a drink all week courtesy of grateful Belgians. 'World Cup Willie' was the theme tune to the competition - a tune the local Belgian drinking hall concert pianist didn't know strangely enough.

Many years were spent in Butlin's camps at Skegness in Lincolnshire with free films and plenty of fresh air; Hi-de-hi!. We went to Majorca one year which was my first real taste of hot holidays abroad and that was great, just swimming and sunbathing. I was probably around 16 - my second trip abroad!

There were many years of not having holidays away through lack of cash or general interest in going anywhere. I remember taking the car across the ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg to Denmark for a week in Silkeborg one summer - a flat but beautiful country, sparsely populated. When the kids were small we spent time in Penrith in the most gorgeous countryside of Cumbria in northern England in to-let cottages. We are lucky these days after years of struggle we have some capacity to travel a little and have been to America, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and France My wife managed to get a trip to South Africa with my eldest son and the kids have done European holidays through school.

The video below shows the view from our hotel room on International Drive, Orlando of one of the many almost daily rainstorms with severe thunder and lightening that normally accompanied them. This was the result of the passing tropical storm Ernesto in 2006 which later developed into a category 1 hurricane. Water was pouring off the roofs in torrents and the pools and theme parks closed whenever the afternoon storms appeared.



If I have any ambitions left for holidays, it's to visit Eire where my father went fishing every Whitsuntide for donkey's years, Canada for its scenery, New Zealand for the same thing perhaps and possibly Hong Kong just for the experience.

If I were twenty again, I would like to have experienced the spiritual nature of Vietnam or Thailand, the great railway journey across India or to walk on the Great Wall of China. I can dream and if Mr Camelot obliges, I may still travel with my family to such places.

Mind you, the last flight we took was very cheap. There was no in-flight movie, instead the pilot flew low over a drive-in theatre. The plane was so old, it had Amy Johnson's packing up on the co-pilots seat as well as an outside toilet. I knew it was a disaster when we had a whip-round for fuel over Wigan. I've no idea how we made it to our destination, the plane landed in a kneeling position.

Chat soon

Have a great weekend!

Ta-ra.