30TH JULY 2012 - SHHHHH - WHY SO QUIET?

No post for months. It has been a busy and stressful time. The Jubilee, The Olympics, family problems and a summer that can be forgotten. No worries I am getting my act together and have scores of things to post on.

Now just to do it.

17^TH APRIL 2012 - STOP THESE CHAINS! 

I was sent a chain email recently. I wrote this in reaction to it – they are negative in their aim most of the times and peddle on fears. The email said pass this on and get money, break the chain and… The email linked the idea of passing it on to Feng Shui. I sent this reply to the person who emailed me and asked them to break the chain too and send back good wishes.

Dear …….

Feng Shui is about opening up your life – if you Feng Shui your own life, your car, your house, your office then you will see good health, wealth and joy flow around you like water around a rock. Embracing and covering you and flowing to others around you.

These chain letters are about fear. When I read this one I felt panic and fear. Who can I pass it to….my family? My friends? Maybe someone I don’t like and if I don’t like them why am I even letting them in to my life? I and time have cleaned out of my life people with a “vexatious spirit”.

Why would you send someone you care about (or even someone you don’t care about) something that perpetrates to bring them bad luck, fear, ill health or loss of wealth. The message in the email chain is pass it on and get good fortune for you – what about the other person. That is not Feng Shui or anything good. The essence of a chain is selfish at the core.

I look at the stresses in my life. I look around the world and see people dying in Syria, Bahrain and Palestine for freedom to walk where they want. In this country a Government bill to snoop on our emails and this….

I wish for anyone who forwarded this email, or has been sent one or ever forwarded one:-

Good health-spiritual, physical and emotional.

An opportunity to sit and smell the coffee – hear the birds sing above the    rattle of your mind and life’s daily grind.

The joy of hearing and seeing something or someone old as new again.

A new friend or person in your life who breathes joy like smooth, sweet toffee all over you.

Stop these chains. Send people good wishes. When someone sends you this sort of trash send it back to them and wish them well. That opens up the world and light pours in to yours and into their life.

22ND MARCH 2012 - HOPE DYING.

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22^nd March 2012 - HOPE DYING

The queen has rededicated herself to the service of the nation. Tough break Charles.

“I’ll serve this great country for years….”

Unlucky Charles-just like Tony did to Gordon. Stuffed. You should have paid for the curry.

CLEVER STATEMANSHIP – IT’S ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS.

The Evening Standard – the guardian of Great Britain’s sacred city writes objectively about the 2012 Mayoral contest. Or so it seems – the headline, the flow of the content but like much of modern politicking the airbrush is hard at work Hollywood stars take note.

Boris (last one out switch off the lights) as the next Leader of the Conservatives and possibly Prime Minister. Almost makes me want to see David/Nick stay on. I imagine Obama, Putin would look and say the clowns are here. A new sideshow. But the article cleverly compares Boris’s rising start to “gaff prone “George Osborne. While Boris is gaff free. What short memories journalists and the public create for themselves. In the early days Boris dropped a few – I mean to lose one Deputy Mayor is a shame, to lose two unfortunate but three… He is a laugh, a character, doesn’t take himself seriously (or you for that matter) people say. Now we elect our leaders with which way is Essex or Made in Chelsea analytical depth.

He treats everyone the same – doesn’t see colour. I mean he is an ordinary bloke. Earning 250k a year writing for a newspaper. “Knocking one off” in his spare time and being paid for it he says. Doesn’t affect his role as Mayor, especially as he does very little – I mean the London boroughs function without permission of the Mayor. They have staff and Leaders – they empty the bins and provide your local services – not a former member of the Bullingdon Club. Of course if I went to a restaurant, got drunk and smashed it up you would expect me to write a cheque to pay for the damage and go.

  

ROLE MODELS

We need more gay teachers. I don’t want to be known as black, gay or whatever. Please call me Keith, know me as a positive human being. When you talk about gay, black etc. role models don’t forget everyone does not choose to follow that picture. Maybe they can model humanity and being the person first. And in that being someone who is achieving despite, against, because of the odds.

13TH MARCH 2012 - GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

13/3/12

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

Clever manipulation? Harry and his first tour is a big success. Don’t we ALL love Kate? She always seems to me to be in need of a serious fry up –chips and fried bread included. I am not against The Royal Family – what they cost against what they bring in is a good balance sheet. Abolishing the Monarchy would do more harm culturally and economically then we could gain. I get bored with the media driven “love-in” – another free magazine for The Mail. How come there is such emotion and hearts fluttering for them No hearts flutter for David, Nick or Ed.

Charles must be peeved. Kate is out travelling with the Queen and being groomed for the job. He’s out in the cold. Maybe there has been a deal. Like with Gordon and Tony. Probably they all met at the Kennington Tandoori – Phillip, Charles, Camilla, Liz, William and Harry and made a deal over the popadums. In between Phillip’s culturally sharp comments and Liz collecting the dishes together for the waiter.

The Queen keeps the crown until the 60^th is over. Charles gets it for ten years while Will and Kate knock a few little ones out and then… with all our hearts ringing. King William.

NO HONEST DEBATE PLEASE WE’RE BRITISH.

We need much more public debate about issues – monarchy, immigration, NHS, gay marriage – all the BIG things affecting society. Less polarised, open to options and airing opinions with clear information. Then informed choice can develop and be made.

PRESIDENT DAVID

David and Barack – the love in. Both men in need of some stature raising photos. Anything to help raise their profile and keep the focus groups happy.

THESE PEOPLE RUN OUR SERVICES?

I went to a meeting in Wandsworth. I was astonished and saddened and shocked to hear a Council official say “We are all equal” when asked about dealing with discrimination in her role. In the Public Sector too many lame duck, brain anorexic people are fluttering around. On their sides like a pigeon hit by a car. Flapping their wings busily but moving nowhere. Bits of brain and feather flying in the wind. Dying and unable to put themselves out of our misery.

8TH MARCH 2012 - FEELIN' ALRIGHT.

FEELIN' ALRIGHT

Fantastic – my best day for weeks. I was able to complete the three/four mile walk to the doctors without stopping and getting breathless. Enjoying every step of being out in the sunshine on a beautiful day. With a sky, temperature and light that marks the relentless march towards spring. The waiting room TV was pouring out classic, inspiring Britishness – Carry on Cruising. My back is healing well. And the pneumonia is all clearing up. I can breathe; no pains and I can sleep. The British Health Service is still the best in the world. My care wasn’t perfect and it’s time for people to think about perfection. But it was good enough to get me back out there. And we need more celebrating British success and less jabbing at it like we want to pop a blister.

I got home and relaxed more classic stuff – Norman Wisdom. Did I need my painkillers this afternoon?

4TH MARCH 2012 - MUCH, MUCH LESS PAIN.

4^th MARCH 2012

MUCH, MUCH less pain. More sleep. Even more joy was the visit by my sister and two nieces which raised spirits to stratospheric heights. I was last IN hospital aged eight with a broken leg. It feels like a surreal experience being IN hospital now. Normally I am here with my mum, settling her, dealing with her needs. Now I am partly helpless and dependant on others. But I am still keen to maintain my independence.

Medical practitioners are not good listeners. They are good at hearing. To reinforce their opinion, the signs, the symptoms, their hunches and past experience. They then prance on to the next step and with only a few minutes per interaction that’s no surprise. During my hospital stay I didn’t feel really listened to. Even the guy who put sugar on my cereal – seconds after being told no.

3RD MARCH 2012 - THINGS ARE IMPROVING SLOWLY...

3^rd MARCH 2012

Things are improving slowly. I am still getting pain but not as much or as often as before. Eating better – hospital food is palatable. It is like a digestible Big Mac meal. I am sleeping in between screams of agony. It is my right to be a drama queen. And there is a bit of a view of the sea, if I raise the bed high and look over the rooftops. I haven’t read a paper, an email, heard music or seen the TV. for four days – what bliss. It has been a great chance to rest my brain – let it process what is already there and add very little more. My brain is on vacation. Plus the ward had no windows. Who knows what the weather was like? And to be honest I am exhausted by this illness and can’t compute too many things in the moment.