Sunday, 25 September 2011
The End Times
The end times will be signalled by a series of disasters and a web that spans the entire world.
We might just be in those end times when you consider all the disasters we are now able to see on television.
The world wide web (at times of our own choosing) and television (at times the broadcasters choose) enable us to see disasters across the world that at one time we could only read about in the newspapers.
I do not think the number of disasters is increasing by any means. It is our access to those disasters that gives us that impression. There have always been disasters, and there have always been criminals. People feel less safe nowadays because broadcasters choose to pick the most salacious stories and spread them widely. In the past a story that would have stopped in a local area is now told across the globe.
This is in fact the beginning of the end.
We might just be in those end times when you consider all the disasters we are now able to see on television.
The world wide web (at times of our own choosing) and television (at times the broadcasters choose) enable us to see disasters across the world that at one time we could only read about in the newspapers.
I do not think the number of disasters is increasing by any means. It is our access to those disasters that gives us that impression. There have always been disasters, and there have always been criminals. People feel less safe nowadays because broadcasters choose to pick the most salacious stories and spread them widely. In the past a story that would have stopped in a local area is now told across the globe.
This is in fact the beginning of the end.
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Time Management
Have you ever noticed how there is never enough time?
This is always down to time management because we always find the time to do the things we want to do. It is things we ought to do or have to do that grate when we have to use up time that we would rather put to other uses.
These things are choices that we make. We can choose to use our time ticking off our "must do" checklist or, as most of us do, other procrastination tasks to put off the tasks that we do not really want to start.
Sometimes we find that there is nothing to do. This is wasted time. At other times there are many things we want to do. There are those occasions when we are invited to two functions on the same night. For me it is often the day when the football, the rugby and the speedway are all on TV at the same time, just different channels.
Access to a time machine would allow the possibility of seeing all the events as live events, except for the fact that information is passed from one event to another, so you would almost always have some advanced knowledge, and the only true "best experience" is observing something as it happens. The temptation to bet on a situation that you have prior knowledge of, let's say a goal in the football while you are watching the rugby as a second live event may prove overwhelming.
Given the nature of existence where people can pick up 'vibes' from others this knowledge would escape making the events not as live as we would like them to be. There are some people I have known who seemed to be in two places at one time. I have not completely excluded the possibility that they actually were.
I ask you to open your minds to the possibilities and not be like the church authorities from a century or two back who taught that the Earth is flat and anyone who disagreed had to be excommunicated as a heretic.
The Earth has convinced me that it is spherical because my visit to Australia showed me that Orion can be viewed with a stiffy rather than a sword and the Southern Cross is quite striking in the southern sky.
There are now too many distractions in this family home to continue.
Back again sometime.
This is always down to time management because we always find the time to do the things we want to do. It is things we ought to do or have to do that grate when we have to use up time that we would rather put to other uses.
These things are choices that we make. We can choose to use our time ticking off our "must do" checklist or, as most of us do, other procrastination tasks to put off the tasks that we do not really want to start.
Sometimes we find that there is nothing to do. This is wasted time. At other times there are many things we want to do. There are those occasions when we are invited to two functions on the same night. For me it is often the day when the football, the rugby and the speedway are all on TV at the same time, just different channels.
Access to a time machine would allow the possibility of seeing all the events as live events, except for the fact that information is passed from one event to another, so you would almost always have some advanced knowledge, and the only true "best experience" is observing something as it happens. The temptation to bet on a situation that you have prior knowledge of, let's say a goal in the football while you are watching the rugby as a second live event may prove overwhelming.
Given the nature of existence where people can pick up 'vibes' from others this knowledge would escape making the events not as live as we would like them to be. There are some people I have known who seemed to be in two places at one time. I have not completely excluded the possibility that they actually were.
I ask you to open your minds to the possibilities and not be like the church authorities from a century or two back who taught that the Earth is flat and anyone who disagreed had to be excommunicated as a heretic.
The Earth has convinced me that it is spherical because my visit to Australia showed me that Orion can be viewed with a stiffy rather than a sword and the Southern Cross is quite striking in the southern sky.
There are now too many distractions in this family home to continue.
Back again sometime.
Friday, 23 September 2011
A Spurious Entry
A great week in terms of Arsenal football club. Following the worst start to a league season in living memory we beat lowly Shrewsbury while Spurs got knocked out. Sanity has returned.
Monday, 19 September 2011
Future Transport
Transport in the future will be very different.
If you look back through history from the early days of horses and donkeys to the invention of the wheel so that carts could be hauled by these beasts, we have made major advances in the last century and I believe even greater advances are imminent if they are not already being trialled.
The motor car originally required a man with a flag to walk in front of it, warning people that there was a dangerous vehicle approaching. This was a sensible precaution when people had no concept of the motor vehicle. People always need to be educated slowly, carefully, and at a pace that allows them to assimilate the implications.
Time travellers will not have access to this slow learning process. They will be presented suddenly with vehicles and pathways that they have no concept of and cannot possibly prepare for. Maglev is a great transport system and I would like to see more friction free transport but it has not become commonplace. There must be a reason.
I once watched a period piece being filmed and as the carriage emptied of people in the foreground, a sports car shot down the road at the end of the drive. The director shouted "cut" and asked who let that idiot onto the road. The point I am making is that the sports car did not fit into the time period being filmed.
Now think of those cartoons that we all watch on TV where the toon approaches a railway line. He looks left and there is nothing as far as the eye can see. He looks right and there is nothing as far as the eye can see. He then takes one step forward and an express train cuts him in half. There are restrictions (air resistance for example) but many things may be possible in future.
By far the most dangerous transport will be the time machines themselves as materialising in the same place as another machine, or even where a person is standing will result in death and carnage. That is the risk, and it will not happen often, just as motor racing drivers occasionally crash and some die, but that is the risk they accept when they race.
There will be rules. There must be rules. My rule would be that any time travel should only take place off world, and if possible outside any solar system. The universe is so vast that the odds of disaster are dramatically cut.
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Now
Yesterday is history
Tomorrow is a mystery
Both of these will cease to have meaning once you start travelling in time.
You will only have the ever present now, dealing simply with whatever confronts you at each moment of time you are in. The future and the past will be irrelevant because you can change them, but you cannot change NOW except by what you do, think and say.
It is an alien way of thinking and I have tested it. There is great freedom in it, but a lot of what makes us what we are in modern society is tied up with our jobs, workmates, sports clubs, team mates, social club, friends and family.
All of these would be lost the moment you travelled in time. You could never relate in the same way that you do now. Using the multiple universe theory the first jump may anihilate everything you have ever known. That is unlikely as so many of the close universes are remarkably similar to our own and expectations play a great part in how we perceive the world today. If we expect the bus to be on time it is remarkable how often it will be. Most of us expect something else.
This is the end of weekend one allowing my mind to let some inner secrets out. Let's see how long it takes the men in black to seek out and destroy me.
Experience says it will not be long.
Element 115
Chemistry was always my weakest subject.
Putting a lump of phospherus into a bowl of water is the sum of all the chemistry I enjoyed at school. If I remember correctly the bowl did not survive.
Recently I was watching a discovery program talking about element 114 being an island of stability in a world of instability. Getting the right number of protons together has proved possible but getting the right number of neutrons in place to stabilise the element has proved to be the stumbling block. Element 114 is about to be created and the scientist stated that nobody has any idea what qualities this element would have although it should be similar to lead and tin.
I have also, you will not be surprised to know, been on websites where they talk about time travel engines and these are apparently powered by element 115 which is must less stable.
Element 115 can warp space in just the way that we need to travel vast distances in a short amount of time. The warp drive, I am convinced, is a long way off, but getting quantities of element 114 is a necessary step on the way.
Having heard that the scientists have now created and stored antimatter in an electro static chamber I have confidence that once stable element 114 is created we will be able to create and store quantities of element 115. I do not believe this will be safe so perhaps that particular experiment should be conducted on the moon or on Mars, where we are planning to go in the foreseeable future.
The analogy I shall draw is that Jesus travelled from Bethlehem to Jerusalem on a donkey because at the time there were no petrol stations on the way so he could refuel his Porsche.
I am trying to put all the theoretical pieces in place to create a time machine although I have no money, no technical expertise, no idea where to start, and no hope since I passed the age when I felt able to take on all comers at whatever they did. Experience teaches us that although we may have good ideas many of our fellow citizens are not ready to hear them. Imagine what people will say when they discover that aliens are here and living amongst us. I know this because I played cricket against the London Underground team made up entirely of West Indians.
These aliens have considerable strength and can hit the cricket ball out of the park using nothing more than expert timing. They can even do this off a good length ball. Incredible super powers that us mortal humans have no means of fighting against.
I need to do more research before I write about epigenomes, but if we can detect the genome that is responsible for time travel we can switch it on and off just by changing our diet. I will eventually work out which vegetables can take you back to last week and which fruits can move you forward to bypass exam week.
Exploring ideas is my forte. If you want facts go somewhere else.
All my love,
Per
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Time Police
The Time Police is an organisation I want to set up.
This would make me part of the authorities and thus a hate figure for people like myself who despise authority. I accept that but I also recognise that a certain level of authority is necessary to keep the innocents in any society safe. I personally support the concept of capital punishment although I do recognise that perhaps one in a hundred criminals can turn their life around and become a valuable member of society. That would not be possible if we killed them. The savings from killing rather than jailing murderers and rapists would be enormous. We could then afford much better health care although I expect the government would spend any savings on bigger weapons or better pensions for MPs. I have little faith in those who enter parliament, not because they are all bad, but because the successful ones are self seeking publicists.
N.B. Ireland have just beaten Australia in the group stage of the Rugby World Cup. Yes!
The Time Police would definitely need the James Bond "Licence to Kill" as the dangers of tampering across space and time are potentially catastrophic. For a start we would need any society to understand the implications, so there would need to be a 'time limit'. Because it is a date across the internet let me suggest December 21st 2012 as the date before which any time travellers would be summarily executed. After that date any journeys should be logged for data tracking purposes. Any computer professional understands the need for comprehensive logging if they want to solve a problem.
If we did set that as the date then knowing human nature as I do there would be a rush in the future to be the first one to travel back at midnight plus a second on 22nd December and return home saying "I was the first". There would be many attempts that missed and I think we can see them in the sky from time to time. Unidentified Flying Objects are those failed attempts.
Accidents would be common place and in that first rush I would expect to see a mass of debris as hundred of time travellers tried to occupy the same space and time just as cars trying to occupy the same bit of road at the same time crash, or ships trying to occupy the same bit of sea crash, craft would be badly damaged trying to be the first back to the point when time travel became legal.
Time travel should really be restricted to outer space where there is (lets face it) a lot of space. The Earth is extremely crowded when you look at the universe. Any attempt to travel even above the surface of the earth which is certainly much safer than trying to travel on the surface of the Earth would carry the risk of bumping into something that is not there, was never there, but appears there at the same time as you do.
There is another aspect to time travel that we need to think about. Instrument failure. All the equipment that I have ever know has failed at some point. I accept that we are getting better and there are some new items (my car for example) that have yet to fail but experience tells me that the time will come. We should, therefore, have a method of knowing what time period we are in whenever we move through time. I propose that the International Space Station starts broadcasting a date and time stamp across the universe accessible to all.
Visitors approaching Earth can then use this, even extrapolating it back into the past, to contact us with any knowledge they have. I trust that aliens have recorded much of our past history and if we ask the right questions of the right monitoring group we will find out much more about what has been going on throughout history.
As I have said before, you are entitled to call me mad but I want to explore the possibilities rather than remain restrained within a fixed time with little hope of escape.
The Time Police must be feared but will also be a target just as the conventional police are now.
This would make me part of the authorities and thus a hate figure for people like myself who despise authority. I accept that but I also recognise that a certain level of authority is necessary to keep the innocents in any society safe. I personally support the concept of capital punishment although I do recognise that perhaps one in a hundred criminals can turn their life around and become a valuable member of society. That would not be possible if we killed them. The savings from killing rather than jailing murderers and rapists would be enormous. We could then afford much better health care although I expect the government would spend any savings on bigger weapons or better pensions for MPs. I have little faith in those who enter parliament, not because they are all bad, but because the successful ones are self seeking publicists.
N.B. Ireland have just beaten Australia in the group stage of the Rugby World Cup. Yes!
The Time Police would definitely need the James Bond "Licence to Kill" as the dangers of tampering across space and time are potentially catastrophic. For a start we would need any society to understand the implications, so there would need to be a 'time limit'. Because it is a date across the internet let me suggest December 21st 2012 as the date before which any time travellers would be summarily executed. After that date any journeys should be logged for data tracking purposes. Any computer professional understands the need for comprehensive logging if they want to solve a problem.
If we did set that as the date then knowing human nature as I do there would be a rush in the future to be the first one to travel back at midnight plus a second on 22nd December and return home saying "I was the first". There would be many attempts that missed and I think we can see them in the sky from time to time. Unidentified Flying Objects are those failed attempts.
Accidents would be common place and in that first rush I would expect to see a mass of debris as hundred of time travellers tried to occupy the same space and time just as cars trying to occupy the same bit of road at the same time crash, or ships trying to occupy the same bit of sea crash, craft would be badly damaged trying to be the first back to the point when time travel became legal.
Time travel should really be restricted to outer space where there is (lets face it) a lot of space. The Earth is extremely crowded when you look at the universe. Any attempt to travel even above the surface of the earth which is certainly much safer than trying to travel on the surface of the Earth would carry the risk of bumping into something that is not there, was never there, but appears there at the same time as you do.
There is another aspect to time travel that we need to think about. Instrument failure. All the equipment that I have ever know has failed at some point. I accept that we are getting better and there are some new items (my car for example) that have yet to fail but experience tells me that the time will come. We should, therefore, have a method of knowing what time period we are in whenever we move through time. I propose that the International Space Station starts broadcasting a date and time stamp across the universe accessible to all.
Visitors approaching Earth can then use this, even extrapolating it back into the past, to contact us with any knowledge they have. I trust that aliens have recorded much of our past history and if we ask the right questions of the right monitoring group we will find out much more about what has been going on throughout history.
As I have said before, you are entitled to call me mad but I want to explore the possibilities rather than remain restrained within a fixed time with little hope of escape.
The Time Police must be feared but will also be a target just as the conventional police are now.
Crop Circles
The phenomenon know as Crop Circles holds a fascination for me.
I would like to find some meaning in everything I look at and after listening to some art critics waxing lyrical or as my mate says "talking bollocks" it is possible to read into what you are looking at far more than was originally meant unless you have access to the artist and know exactly what he was thinking at the time.
The significance of "The last supper" with its hidden reference to the possibility that Mary was one of the disciples of Jesus and a woman who "washed his feet" when academics are aware that feet was the slang for private parts in the common language of the time gives me hope that the more we learn the more we can interpret but only by working together and accessing the little nuggets of knowledge held by others.
Crop Circles have been faked by many and the authorities want us to believe they are all man made but when traces of radiation are found at the scene I prefer to believe that the circles have been left by an 'other' intelligence that may or may not be trying to communicate with us.
As we know Egyptian hieroglyphs were unintelligible until the discovery of the rosetta stone. At that point we were able to begin translation and have learned a lot since by working through the texts/pictures to recover the information left behind by an earlier civilisation.
I think it unlikely, if the crop circles are left by an extra-terrestrial society, that we will find the tablet with both human and other world translations on so we will need to use another technique if we are to work out what the circles mean but I have been on at least one website where there is an attempt to translate the circles and their meaning which is trying to make us aware that we can make a power source using water.
I don't know if you remember a few years back when a couple of scientists claimed to have been able to make a cold fusion reactor using seawater. I thought at the time that if this were true the authorities would have to cover it up in double quick time or we would all have our own power and the oil companies would lose millions, the governments would lose millions in tax, the generating companies would lose millions. For all these reasons I believe it is true and that cold fusion exists.
Going back to Crop Circles. Think of our own society and the graffiti that we find on our walls and bridges and trains. Some of it is pure art from the mind of the artist, some of it is a cry for help ... "George Davies is innocent" (he was not) ... some of it is teenagers adding their tag as an "I was here" memo. There are many kinds of graffiti and so I believe there will be many kinds of Crop Circle, from teenagers in their whizzo spacecraft tagging the Earth through to genuinely caring extraterrestrial folk wanting to give us a heads up if there are things we can do to help ourselves.
Since space and time are now talked of as one thing and the concept of "warp" travel is being used in scientific circles I think we need to understand that with any time travelling comes the knowledge that the entire universe and perhaps many universes come within our reach once we start and just like trying to teach rocket science to junior school pupils we need to take one step at a time to understand what the future will hold once time travel is possible.
For a start the concept of future will no longer be a valid one. Think about that for a minute.
I would like to find some meaning in everything I look at and after listening to some art critics waxing lyrical or as my mate says "talking bollocks" it is possible to read into what you are looking at far more than was originally meant unless you have access to the artist and know exactly what he was thinking at the time.
The significance of "The last supper" with its hidden reference to the possibility that Mary was one of the disciples of Jesus and a woman who "washed his feet" when academics are aware that feet was the slang for private parts in the common language of the time gives me hope that the more we learn the more we can interpret but only by working together and accessing the little nuggets of knowledge held by others.
Crop Circles have been faked by many and the authorities want us to believe they are all man made but when traces of radiation are found at the scene I prefer to believe that the circles have been left by an 'other' intelligence that may or may not be trying to communicate with us.
As we know Egyptian hieroglyphs were unintelligible until the discovery of the rosetta stone. At that point we were able to begin translation and have learned a lot since by working through the texts/pictures to recover the information left behind by an earlier civilisation.
I think it unlikely, if the crop circles are left by an extra-terrestrial society, that we will find the tablet with both human and other world translations on so we will need to use another technique if we are to work out what the circles mean but I have been on at least one website where there is an attempt to translate the circles and their meaning which is trying to make us aware that we can make a power source using water.
I don't know if you remember a few years back when a couple of scientists claimed to have been able to make a cold fusion reactor using seawater. I thought at the time that if this were true the authorities would have to cover it up in double quick time or we would all have our own power and the oil companies would lose millions, the governments would lose millions in tax, the generating companies would lose millions. For all these reasons I believe it is true and that cold fusion exists.
Going back to Crop Circles. Think of our own society and the graffiti that we find on our walls and bridges and trains. Some of it is pure art from the mind of the artist, some of it is a cry for help ... "George Davies is innocent" (he was not) ... some of it is teenagers adding their tag as an "I was here" memo. There are many kinds of graffiti and so I believe there will be many kinds of Crop Circle, from teenagers in their whizzo spacecraft tagging the Earth through to genuinely caring extraterrestrial folk wanting to give us a heads up if there are things we can do to help ourselves.
Since space and time are now talked of as one thing and the concept of "warp" travel is being used in scientific circles I think we need to understand that with any time travelling comes the knowledge that the entire universe and perhaps many universes come within our reach once we start and just like trying to teach rocket science to junior school pupils we need to take one step at a time to understand what the future will hold once time travel is possible.
For a start the concept of future will no longer be a valid one. Think about that for a minute.
Unidentified Flying Objects
The phenomenon called UFOs has always held a fascination for me.
I worry when I hear the authorities (persons of limited intelligence who always follow the rules) talk about impossibly fast aircraft. The secret to me is simply understanding that these craft are space/time vehicles.
We are always hearing that the object "Hung in the sky for hours" or "Suddenly shot across the sky". Both of the these are simply explained by placing the objects in their own time/space.
We have all heard that the astronauts who went into space are two seconds younger than the rest of us because of the way that gravity changes time. Using that understanding but ramping it up by a large factor you can realise that a craft in its own time/space may experience a few seconds while we watch it for hours, and equally it may take minutes to travel across the sky while we watch it do so in a fraction of a second.
These UFOs are time machines and we would do well to capture one. There is strong evidence to suggest that we have already done so and I am a believer that Area 51 contained the remains of a craft that crashed in Roswell. I also saw early pictures from Google Earth before the authorities started monitoring and banning some of the imagery. There were flying discs and landed discs in several places on Earth that are no longer there in the latest imagery. Either this was a bit of fun orchestrated by the owners of Google Earth or it was the truth that has now been covered up as all authorities do to preserve the status quo.
If you spot a UFO please record it as best you can. I know there are thousands of fake UFO clips on You Tube for every one that is an accurate record of what happened but I love exploring the clips and trying to gain understanding about what is happening from those that are genuine.
The truth will always come out in the end. We know a lot more now about the past using new and varied forensic techniques and analysis. Geologists theorise about the past and gradually piece together how the Earth has changed over millions of years. We can recover the bones of dinosaurs but what if creatures existed millions of years before that and have now been subducted into the Earth's mantle?
These thoughts are spewing out at the moment, but given time I hope to format them, and if I do not, at least they are now out there for somebody else to read, digest and either reject or use to take the journey towards time travel forwards.
I worry when I hear the authorities (persons of limited intelligence who always follow the rules) talk about impossibly fast aircraft. The secret to me is simply understanding that these craft are space/time vehicles.
We are always hearing that the object "Hung in the sky for hours" or "Suddenly shot across the sky". Both of the these are simply explained by placing the objects in their own time/space.
We have all heard that the astronauts who went into space are two seconds younger than the rest of us because of the way that gravity changes time. Using that understanding but ramping it up by a large factor you can realise that a craft in its own time/space may experience a few seconds while we watch it for hours, and equally it may take minutes to travel across the sky while we watch it do so in a fraction of a second.
These UFOs are time machines and we would do well to capture one. There is strong evidence to suggest that we have already done so and I am a believer that Area 51 contained the remains of a craft that crashed in Roswell. I also saw early pictures from Google Earth before the authorities started monitoring and banning some of the imagery. There were flying discs and landed discs in several places on Earth that are no longer there in the latest imagery. Either this was a bit of fun orchestrated by the owners of Google Earth or it was the truth that has now been covered up as all authorities do to preserve the status quo.
If you spot a UFO please record it as best you can. I know there are thousands of fake UFO clips on You Tube for every one that is an accurate record of what happened but I love exploring the clips and trying to gain understanding about what is happening from those that are genuine.
The truth will always come out in the end. We know a lot more now about the past using new and varied forensic techniques and analysis. Geologists theorise about the past and gradually piece together how the Earth has changed over millions of years. We can recover the bones of dinosaurs but what if creatures existed millions of years before that and have now been subducted into the Earth's mantle?
These thoughts are spewing out at the moment, but given time I hope to format them, and if I do not, at least they are now out there for somebody else to read, digest and either reject or use to take the journey towards time travel forwards.
The Dream
My happiest times have always been while travelling.
I do understand the phrase 'Enjoy the journey' as I was brought up to achieve. You wait and wait while the journey is going on and then tick the box when you arrive. This results in a moment of pleasure when, by enjoying the journey, the pleasure could have been continuous.
So, while my dream for years has been to use a time machine to discover what actually happened rather than rely on reports of history written by the winners, I will use the analogy of the well known question "How do you walk to India?" to which the answer is you start with the first step in an easterly direction.
I have been watching the Discovery channel and I have been told that the scientists have now proved mathematically that time travel is possible. Harking back to Leonardo Da Vinci and his drawings of flying craft long before air travel was a reality I am certain that there is no harm in dreaming now of what is currently impossible.
I have done so much thinking about the various issues and technicalities that it will take a lifetime to put it all down on paper but the theory is that we need to achieve truly massive acceleration but at zero velocity. Talk to any right minded person and they will tell you that is quite impossible, but get hold of the dreamers and their minds immediately come up with "Rotation".
The observing history theory is that all you need to do is travel away from the incident faster than the speed of light and then train a powerful telescope on the place you came from to see what actually happened. Why not?
In one of my dreams I travelled to a centre for journeys through time and the portal was explained to me as a rotating ring with some kind of particles travelling close to the speed of light being fired from all sides so as they pass each other in the middle of the ring the speed of transition can at maximum be close to twice the speed of light.
This meant that if both streams were travelling at half the speed of light the transition was the speed of light and the time transfer was consequently zero. Adjusting the speed resulted in the passage through time both forward and backward. There was also a warning issued was that was a one way journey. It was not possible to return the same way. I remember choosing not to use the device.
That was all a dream but another adage passed down through the generation is "Hold onto your dreams" with the hope that perhaps one day they may come true.
There is so much to discuss that if you have any thoughts I would welcome them.
I have no problem with being perceived as mad. The best people in history were perceived as mad because they refused to accept the status quo and set about the task of changing society.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Nicholls out
I am delighted to hear that misery guts Scott Nicholls has been dropped from the Great Britain team in the Race-Off in Gorzow. His comment that the team could not perform without Lee Richardson was another downer in so many "I am the best. My team are rubbish." comments I have heard from him over the years.
The team spirit will now be twice or even three times as strong. Ex Falcons Bomber Harris and Ben Barker can lead the way with good support from an ever improving Edward Kennett, the always competitive "Dryml sisters" Tai Woffinden, and the enigmatic maybe he will maybe he wont Lewis Bridger.
I am looking forward to this meeting so much more now that the loser has been dropped.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Living for a day
Today is the first time I have felt alive for a long time.
Perhaps it is the arrival of spring, the arrival of May, the warm weather, but I think it more likely that the proliferation of Bank Holidays has given my body the rest it has long needed.
The probability is that the return of the speedway season with a chance to see a side representing the Exeter Falcons has sparked something long dead.
It is not much, but it is a spark well alight amid the ashes of broken dreams.
Now I have to make the most of the feeling.
Perhaps it is the arrival of spring, the arrival of May, the warm weather, but I think it more likely that the proliferation of Bank Holidays has given my body the rest it has long needed.
The probability is that the return of the speedway season with a chance to see a side representing the Exeter Falcons has sparked something long dead.
It is not much, but it is a spark well alight amid the ashes of broken dreams.
Now I have to make the most of the feeling.
Saturday, 7 August 2010
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Monday, 31 August 2009
Hertford
Sunday gave us an opportunity to meet friends that we have not seen in five years as we drove from Exeter to Hertford and back in a day for a one hour dedication ceremony and an hour and a half of coffee and chat.
We attended the methodist church there where there seems to be a vibrant church full of young children and babies. The star of the show spent much of the time crawling around behind the lecturn or being passed from parent to parent. This one is going to be an explorer.
We got a chance to hold him at one point but he was far more interested in the map of the world than in us. Perhaps the fact that his parents were born 12,000 miles apart has something to do with it. He has northern and southern hemisphere genes in his body.
Today is bank holiday monday and I cannot remember the last time we had no plans for such a day but school starts quickly this season as Dawn is back to work tomorrow so today will be the day of rest in place of yesterday.
We attended the methodist church there where there seems to be a vibrant church full of young children and babies. The star of the show spent much of the time crawling around behind the lecturn or being passed from parent to parent. This one is going to be an explorer.
We got a chance to hold him at one point but he was far more interested in the map of the world than in us. Perhaps the fact that his parents were born 12,000 miles apart has something to do with it. He has northern and southern hemisphere genes in his body.
Today is bank holiday monday and I cannot remember the last time we had no plans for such a day but school starts quickly this season as Dawn is back to work tomorrow so today will be the day of rest in place of yesterday.
Saturday, 29 August 2009
The Holiday
We got away, thanks to mother, on a very pleasant cruise of the Adriatic.
Flying out to Heraklion in Crete we joined up with Ocean Village Two or as we have renamed it (along with many others) Butlins-on-Sea with all the charm and sophistication associated.
To be fair, the accommodation was excellent with no bits falling off like some other ships we have been aboard. Sadly, the decor improvement was at the expense of choice of things to do and places to go on board. There is no cinema, no library and no nightclub. The choice of food was less than previous experiences but I cannot complain as there was an excellent selection of fish so I was in my element.
It took us a while to relax but after a day at sea we were in Dubrovnik and walking the city walls in intense heat. It was a delight to get back to the swimming pool and dive in to cool off. We then found out that rather unusually the jaccuzzi was cold. The HOT TUBS on BUTLINS-ON-SEA are COLD. This, we decided between us and other clientelle, was another cost cutting measure of which there seemed to be many.
The second port of call was Venice, a lovely city in north east Italy. My memory will be of my wife spotting the buildings at sea level and commenting "There is something in the sea". I knew instantly that we were fast approaching the city in the sea and fortunately we had to cruise through the main canal offering top quality views of the main island and surrounding islands. We also spotted the base of a new barrier that is being built to protect the city from the worst tides of the future.
Dubrovnik and Venice are both tourist traps full of trinket shops selling identical trinkets at identical prices. We were much happier when we stopped off on the Croatian island of Korcula. This proved to be a tender port, meaning that the cruise ship anchored offshore and we were delivered to the quayside by tender. We disembarked early and found a lovely cafe overlooking a bathing beach where we tried to local brew 'Lasko'. Like many I have tried in my life I will be very surprised if that is not in the English supermarkets before long.
From there we moved on to another tourist trap. Corfu town in Corfu was full of trinket shops selling identical trinkets at identical prices. Come on you tourist traps, at least make us buy things by varying your prices so we can think we are getting a bargain somewhere. Following a morning suffering the tourist shops we took a tour of the island during which I was educated. I have always loved the word Kumquat and I knew it was a fruit but I have never in my life seen such a small orange. Think Orange, Satsuma, Tangerine, shrink it down to the size of a grape and you have a Kumquat. We tried the spirit brewed from it and decided not to buy. The next stop on the tour was a beach resort where we indulged in an ice cream. The coach then wound up the mountain using those narrow roads where you can look out of the window and see no road but a steep drop. We also passed the worst traffic lights in the world. Fifty seconds of green are followed by seven and a half minuted of red. This allows a convoy to make its way through a very narrow lane the full length of a village. This is a four or five minute drive but our coach slowed as the windows came within centimetres of the walls on the corners. The view from the top was a bit special and no doubt my wife will put the photographs on facebook.
The last port of call was Zakinthos where I was able to purchase a pair of turtle bottle openers and a turtle kids bag for the next door neighbours. I still, however, have not seen a turtle, so if I go back for a third time I must take a trip to the turtle farms on the island. This time we sat outside the main church enjoying a quiet pint of the local brew (name not known) (too relaxed) when a firecracker disturbed the silence at precisely eleven o'clock. This was followed by the locals firing guns into the air and many other firecrackers obviously part of a celebration that I found unusual primarily because this was a wednesday.
We returned to Heraklion and flew back to Britain leaving early but once back in our own country life immediately became unpleasant again as we were met by the Gatwick Gestapo who treated us like criminals and made us wait two and a half hours for our baggage. Welcome home to the worst country in the entire world.
I may add more about Gatwick Airport later but it would contain too many expletives if I were to write it now.
Flying out to Heraklion in Crete we joined up with Ocean Village Two or as we have renamed it (along with many others) Butlins-on-Sea with all the charm and sophistication associated.
To be fair, the accommodation was excellent with no bits falling off like some other ships we have been aboard. Sadly, the decor improvement was at the expense of choice of things to do and places to go on board. There is no cinema, no library and no nightclub. The choice of food was less than previous experiences but I cannot complain as there was an excellent selection of fish so I was in my element.
It took us a while to relax but after a day at sea we were in Dubrovnik and walking the city walls in intense heat. It was a delight to get back to the swimming pool and dive in to cool off. We then found out that rather unusually the jaccuzzi was cold. The HOT TUBS on BUTLINS-ON-SEA are COLD. This, we decided between us and other clientelle, was another cost cutting measure of which there seemed to be many.
The second port of call was Venice, a lovely city in north east Italy. My memory will be of my wife spotting the buildings at sea level and commenting "There is something in the sea". I knew instantly that we were fast approaching the city in the sea and fortunately we had to cruise through the main canal offering top quality views of the main island and surrounding islands. We also spotted the base of a new barrier that is being built to protect the city from the worst tides of the future.
Dubrovnik and Venice are both tourist traps full of trinket shops selling identical trinkets at identical prices. We were much happier when we stopped off on the Croatian island of Korcula. This proved to be a tender port, meaning that the cruise ship anchored offshore and we were delivered to the quayside by tender. We disembarked early and found a lovely cafe overlooking a bathing beach where we tried to local brew 'Lasko'. Like many I have tried in my life I will be very surprised if that is not in the English supermarkets before long.
From there we moved on to another tourist trap. Corfu town in Corfu was full of trinket shops selling identical trinkets at identical prices. Come on you tourist traps, at least make us buy things by varying your prices so we can think we are getting a bargain somewhere. Following a morning suffering the tourist shops we took a tour of the island during which I was educated. I have always loved the word Kumquat and I knew it was a fruit but I have never in my life seen such a small orange. Think Orange, Satsuma, Tangerine, shrink it down to the size of a grape and you have a Kumquat. We tried the spirit brewed from it and decided not to buy. The next stop on the tour was a beach resort where we indulged in an ice cream. The coach then wound up the mountain using those narrow roads where you can look out of the window and see no road but a steep drop. We also passed the worst traffic lights in the world. Fifty seconds of green are followed by seven and a half minuted of red. This allows a convoy to make its way through a very narrow lane the full length of a village. This is a four or five minute drive but our coach slowed as the windows came within centimetres of the walls on the corners. The view from the top was a bit special and no doubt my wife will put the photographs on facebook.
The last port of call was Zakinthos where I was able to purchase a pair of turtle bottle openers and a turtle kids bag for the next door neighbours. I still, however, have not seen a turtle, so if I go back for a third time I must take a trip to the turtle farms on the island. This time we sat outside the main church enjoying a quiet pint of the local brew (name not known) (too relaxed) when a firecracker disturbed the silence at precisely eleven o'clock. This was followed by the locals firing guns into the air and many other firecrackers obviously part of a celebration that I found unusual primarily because this was a wednesday.
We returned to Heraklion and flew back to Britain leaving early but once back in our own country life immediately became unpleasant again as we were met by the Gatwick Gestapo who treated us like criminals and made us wait two and a half hours for our baggage. Welcome home to the worst country in the entire world.
I may add more about Gatwick Airport later but it would contain too many expletives if I were to write it now.
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Hectic Life
I would much rather be busy than bored but just lately we have been so busy that there has been no time to think, let alone achieve all the targets that we started aiming for at the start of the year.
Work has become a drain rather than a boost so something needs to change in that department. The role I had worked myself into has been ripped apart and I have been left with a rather dreadful portfolio that will require more time than I have to resolve. Time will tell, but I have no time for anything at the moment.
Now - Find the positive in all that - No time to worry about the really important issues.
I need a holiday so I think I may just take one.
Work has become a drain rather than a boost so something needs to change in that department. The role I had worked myself into has been ripped apart and I have been left with a rather dreadful portfolio that will require more time than I have to resolve. Time will tell, but I have no time for anything at the moment.
Now - Find the positive in all that - No time to worry about the really important issues.
I need a holiday so I think I may just take one.
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Deep in the Motherlode by Genesis
And this one with one of those haunting lines that keep coming back to me ................. what if you had no friends and were so alone that there was ....................... no-one to pray for a safe journey home?
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Renaissance - Northern Lights (1978)
I have been searching for a version of this that sounds good through the headphones and this is it. ENJOY.
Sweet-Love is Like Oxygen ( 12" long version )
This is a very happy memory from the past. I got a new record player with speakers more than twice as loud as the previous set and used to fall asleep listening to this one through the headphones to get the full effect of the stereo.
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Gollob dropped by Boyce
This sort of thing just does not happen any more.
Why did we replace emotions with professional etiquette?
Friday, 8 May 2009
Authoring
I have an ambition.
It is to create a world where people can be themselves.
The problem with this is that individuals are so diverse that what suits one person may well be HELL to another. I loved the fantasy world of DOOM on my computer. The rules were easy as it was a simple game. Anything that moved had to be killed. There was a time when I could have brought that attitude to the real world in the city of LONDON. I can understand when one person snaps and kills another but it is certainly antisocial behaviour.
In a totally free world we would have the right to kill those who displease us, but that would take away their right to displease us as much as they want. I certainly curse with the most painful cancers all those who deliberately blew smoke in my face when I was a young innocent in the city. There are worse curses wished upon those who committed worse antisocial behaviours.
Church teachings suggest that we must forgive those that sin against us. Why? The reason is that we may well have upset others without intent and without realising what we were doing. I know this is the case in my life when I think back. Many times I cracked jokes aimed at one individual with the intent of entertaining others in the group. It is only years later that I know how painful that experience can be for some at certain times.
My world will be perfect in every way. It will be the same as the world that we have now. I shall explain that logic in a future post.
It is to create a world where people can be themselves.
The problem with this is that individuals are so diverse that what suits one person may well be HELL to another. I loved the fantasy world of DOOM on my computer. The rules were easy as it was a simple game. Anything that moved had to be killed. There was a time when I could have brought that attitude to the real world in the city of LONDON. I can understand when one person snaps and kills another but it is certainly antisocial behaviour.
In a totally free world we would have the right to kill those who displease us, but that would take away their right to displease us as much as they want. I certainly curse with the most painful cancers all those who deliberately blew smoke in my face when I was a young innocent in the city. There are worse curses wished upon those who committed worse antisocial behaviours.
Church teachings suggest that we must forgive those that sin against us. Why? The reason is that we may well have upset others without intent and without realising what we were doing. I know this is the case in my life when I think back. Many times I cracked jokes aimed at one individual with the intent of entertaining others in the group. It is only years later that I know how painful that experience can be for some at certain times.
My world will be perfect in every way. It will be the same as the world that we have now. I shall explain that logic in a future post.
Friday, 1 May 2009
Approaching Chalkwell Station
I used to travel to London every day from Leigh-on-Sea station until I got my own place in Chalkwell. That short extra journey from Leigh-on-Sea to Chalkwell has the finest of views over the Thames estuary. Here they are.
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Somerset v Newport - 27-03-09
I was there.
This was the race of the night.
Full marks to Mark Lemon who never stopped trying.
Friday, 27 March 2009
Eve Appeal
It is dress down day at work today.
This is in aid of the Eve Appeal. The Eve Appeal is collecting for research into Ovarian Cancer which is known as the silent killer because there are usually no signs until it is too late.
In an odd twist of fate Dawn is going in for an operation on her ovaries. We trust that it is merely endometrial tissue that has accumulated and not the dreaded cancer but we will only know once the lump is removed and analysed. The doctors are taking it seriously enough to get her into hospital within the month.
The Speedway season started on 15th March and we visited Newport to see Kevin Doolan win the event while our men finished third and fourth. A good start to the season. Today I expect to get my first visit to Somerset but I am not 100% certain of going as it is only a challenge match.
The weekend sees a break that is rare as we have had busy weekends for several weeks on the trot. I should be able to catch up on the paperwork. Maybe the bills will get paid at last.
It is a boring old week for football as the internationals take over from domestic competition and as we all know England are rubbish. Arsenal have 16 players taking part in internationals but not one of my team is playing for England.
For both of you who read my blog at last I have made two entries in quick succession.
Enjoy.
N
This is in aid of the Eve Appeal. The Eve Appeal is collecting for research into Ovarian Cancer which is known as the silent killer because there are usually no signs until it is too late.
In an odd twist of fate Dawn is going in for an operation on her ovaries. We trust that it is merely endometrial tissue that has accumulated and not the dreaded cancer but we will only know once the lump is removed and analysed. The doctors are taking it seriously enough to get her into hospital within the month.
The Speedway season started on 15th March and we visited Newport to see Kevin Doolan win the event while our men finished third and fourth. A good start to the season. Today I expect to get my first visit to Somerset but I am not 100% certain of going as it is only a challenge match.
The weekend sees a break that is rare as we have had busy weekends for several weeks on the trot. I should be able to catch up on the paperwork. Maybe the bills will get paid at last.
It is a boring old week for football as the internationals take over from domestic competition and as we all know England are rubbish. Arsenal have 16 players taking part in internationals but not one of my team is playing for England.
For both of you who read my blog at last I have made two entries in quick succession.
Enjoy.
N
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