Christmas Day 2008

As I have mentioned before, I have strong connections with the church. My great grandfather was a vicar, and so was his half brother. My father studied to be a priest, but changed his mind. Pretty much all my relations on that side of my family are strong committed church goers - over the years many of them have moved between catholicism and C of E, and in some cases, back again. I was bought up catholic and never believed it for a minute. At my first opportunity, at ten years old when my Mum left and took us all with her, I quit.

I never missed religion - I don't like it.

It seems incredible to me that such organisations can be developed from the life of one person, and somehow create such bizarre logic about life, and make such wild promises about what happens after death. Christianity amazes me. I don't mind people being christians by the way - that's up to them - I'm fine with people believing whatever they want to believe. My father is a devout christian and I have utmost respect for him - he is a truly good person and he gets a huge amount of peace from his religion. I know there are countless millions more people the same way.

Myself, I'm not going to base my life on a possible reward or punishment when I die. To me it seems a bit more relevant to concentrate on what's happening while I am alive. My hunch is that when we die we just go back to where we came from and that's that. Our bodies are composted, our minds are just thoughts - what are thoughts anyway, they don't actually exist physically so I suspect they just go, a bit like a light bulb goes out when you turn the switch off - and our spirit, soul, life energy, or whatever you want to call it, just goes back into the pot from where it came.

I don't mind any of that - I'll be mighty surprised if it's any other way! Like my dear mother in law used to say to me, 'I'll come back and tell you if it's any different'.

Have a nice Xmas - hope you all get the presents you want, and here's hoping all the crazy people who go round causing shit, somehow get more sensible.

Love and Peace.

PS Btw, George believed in re-incarnation.

Happy Xmas to all

If you are a christian, a muslim, a bhuddist, or belong to any religion, if you are an atheist, if you hate religion, if you have a guru, if you don't have a guru, if you are not interested in anything about this kind of stuff, if you are happy to let people have their beliefs as long as they don't bug other people, if you are not happy to let people have their beliefs, if you wish everyone would just fuck off and leave you alone, if you sincerly enjoy everything about Xmas, even the bloody Xmas songs, if you believe in God, even though you have only an imagined idea of what he is, if you believe in God because you think you definitely know what he is, or if you don't give a shit, if you wish the world was a better place, if you think the world is perfect, if you are depressed, elated, or hanging in there on the middle path, if you are young or old, if you have your whole life in front of you, or if you are near to death, if you are fat, thin, ugly, beautiful, hungry, full, sweet, sour, funny, serious, rich, poor, successful or an absolute loser, if you are black, white or coffee coloured, if you are gay, bi, or hetero, if you are happily married, happily single or if you are stuck in some degree of nightmare, if you are nice to be with, if you are a pain in the arse or if you just like taking it up the arse, or if you are something else completely different that is not on this list - Have a happy Xmas if you can, and if you can't, well, good luck in your life.

Life isn't always easy - an old guy I knew quite a few years ago used to say to me, 'let's send our goodwill and good wishes to all living beings'.

Love and peace.

Bloody Blogger

Can you see the comments option on my previous post, cos I can't. I've tried reposting it and it puts it there, and then when I delete the previous post, the comments function bloody well disappears. GRRRRRRRRRRR

I've been listening to this band all week - it's been fun

So let me just describe the rules of Leni’s challenge, which I accepted. By the way, it took me hours but I loved doing it.

1. Post your picture.

2. Choose a favourite band/artist.

3. Answer the questions with titles of the songs of the favourite band/artist.

4. Choose 4 persons who you think might accept the challenge.

* * *

1. My picture - Me with my horse

2. Artist: The Rolling Stones are one of my favourite bands because when I was young they said what I wanted to hear. But as I've got older I listen to a lot more of this little band. I’ve chosen these nine songs – some for the titles and some for the content.

3. Questions:

a. Man or woman - Nowhere man

b. Describe yourself - The fool on the hill

c. What people think about you - The fool on the hill

d. Describe your last relationship - Yesterday

e. Describe the current status of your relationship - And I love her

f. Where would you like to be right now - Here, there and everywhere

g. What do you think about love - She’s (love) so heavy

h. What is your life like - The long and winding road

i. What would you ask for if you had a wish - Flying (freedom)

j. Write down a wise sentence - Tomorrow never knows

The 4 people of my choice whom I challenge - I have decided not to choose anyone, but please, if you would like to take up the challenge, then I choose you.

Love to all!

Books - yep, they're out in the soddin shed!

Ok, I'm going to work my way down the list and the first thing is books. I haven't read one for a while - I hate them. Actually I'm lying there, I have been reading a little book about a horse, written by a friend of mine. I say 'a little book', it's actually quite long, nearly 300 pages, and with very small type, so I'm guessing near 100,000 words.

The author is an Irish gal called Elaine Heney and she writes in what you might call an Irish style. Lots of short stories about life as well as horses, and some nice explanations of how she deals with various situations she gets into with her horse. If you meet El in real life you can hardly understand what she is saying - I think she comes from some remote part of Ireland that has lost touch with the modern world. I'm kind of reading the book hearing her speaking in her accent at the same time - so it's like talking to El and having subtitles, which actually I could do with when I talk to her in real life.

But what I really wanted to talk about, and what I also really like about this book is that it is self published. Hooray for El I say.

* * *

My wife has worked in the publishing world since before I met her (obviously I would have stopped her if I had met her before), and over the years I have come to despise books. Honest books are few and far between, and when you find one it is truly a joy. It doesn't happen often. Most honest books don't make it past the costing stage of the publishing process, and most don't ever see the light of day. Some of us are so desperate to get our names in print we compromise. We allow the publishers to use our ideas and bastardise them into some hideous commercial production, even down to having the title changed.

Some brave souls publish their books themselves and most of those books end up sitting in cardboard boxes out in the shed. I have 350 copies of my first book sitting out there myself. Sarah advised me to publish 500 but me, the eternal bloody optimist, went for a 1000.

My second book was actually commisioned by a publisher. My commisioning editor is a good friend and she allowed me to write my book as I wanted it to be. It was published a few years ago and I am happy to say, I love that little book. I am really grateful that I was given the chance to write it and if I'm honest, I have almost made my career out of it.

My third book sits languishing on my desktop. It's a great little book but it is about as commercial as I am. I originally planned to publish it through Lulu.com, which is a fantastic idea for self-publishing. You can get your book published and printed one copy at a time which hopefully ends the '350 in the shed' situation once and for all. I stalled in the production stages though - you have to produce the book in a pdf file which means you have to have adobe acrobat, I think (am I right?).

So don't back off from writing. The published writers aren't necessarily any better, in fact in a lot of cases they are obviously worse. It's kind of the same as blogging - in a lot of cases the bloggers are better than the paid journalists, and I guess that's why some journalists don't like bloggers. But what I am trying to say here is this - don't ever think writing is the preserve of the 'special few'!

Will the credit crunch affect my pension plan - will it Bollocks!

OK, desperate times need desperate measures. I have to rebuild my readership. So I think we'll take a little break from matters equine for the time being, and focus on subjects that are more common to most ordinary people.

So, here is a brief list of my worldly interests for me to choose from.

Books - no, I don't do books - used to, but got bored with them.

Music - no, not really, although I do listen to the odd CD in the car

TV - no not really, although I do enjoy HIGNFY and the odd comedy.

Fashion - don't get me started - I just don't get it!

Gardening - yes, I am a fanatical organic gardener, but it doesn't make for exciting blog posts. Although take a look at these veg I harvested today. No man made chemicals are used in my garden - better for us, better for wildlife and better for the planet.


The internet - yes I admit it - I spend far too long in cyberspace, mainly playing a boardgame I am addicted to. I was heavily into Second Life until I realised I was the only normal person in there - actually I did meet one other nearly normal person in there and we are still very good friends.

DIY - Fuck Off!

Motoring - Oh yes, so many happy hours out there in the garage restoring my old V8 etc etc...

My family - jeez, what a bunch! No seriously, I love them but I am a bit of a crap family man - I make very little effort but thankfully they are mostly ok with that.

My life - Yep, really interested in that, mainly focus on trying to enjoy it, or to be more truthful, I focus on it not turning into a pile of shit. I know that's not totally in my control but I try to do what I can.

My pension - I do have a pension plan. If I run out of cash I'm off round to my mate Vicus's house - he'll feed me, or at least his Mrs will.

My blog - eeeeeeeeeeeeek dunno what to do with that!

My horses - noooooo, this isn't about them.

Women - I absolutely love them, but I am married, so other women right now, no can do!

So there you have it - most of my life in one blog post. Wanna trade it, or any parts of it? What have you got to offer? I'm always open to doing a deal!