to sell or not to sell.

The year is 1979; I have a shiny silver Mohair suit and black suede winkle picker shoes. I just managed to get accepted on a sales training course for a company called “Alico” (American Life Insurance Company) (that must have taken some brain power to come up with that name!)

I had 4 days to learn all I could about how to con, I mean persuade, someone they “really needed accident protection cover” 

The head office was in Crawley if memory serves me correctly, one of those big glass and steel monstrosities that probably don’t exist now (hopefully) there were 5 or six of us doing the course only one was a woman. I won’t forget her because she looked a little like Jodie Foster and she drove a new Fiesta XR2; it was the era of the Hot Hatch. “I” was without wheels which I didn’t give much thought to at the time even though it would be helpful in getting from town to town in order to harass, er I mean persuade people they really DID need cover.

Every morning we would all pile into a room and the sales trainer Paul would start by getting one of us to sing “Zippadee doo dah” not kidding! One would start and the rest would follow. It was a means of psyching up for the day and developing a happy mood! When it was my turn to start I was mortified, I was so shy and couldn’t perform in any way in front of strangers; but I did start, I started with my head facing slightly down and mumbling: zipadeedoodah zipadee ay, my oh my what a wonderful day……………and then everyone else chimed in and before you knew it we were all doing impressions of the great man himself! Then when it was over “everyone was laughing and talking as if they were at a party”! This system was loosely called “PMA” positive mental attitude.

Having started the day this way we were all quite prepared for the training sessions and they were quite fun. We would create situations and take turns as sales and conned er customer. A few days in and we were “tested” there was a prize to be had and yep, it was me wot won it, I was the bees knees in training, the dogs cojones, and what did I win? I won a book called “The success system that never fails” written by W C Stone. I was hoping for a car or something practical but no, I got a book!

A few times in my life I have come across people who have made it financially well and there have been those who applied the techniques of PMA. I even met a man when Barbara and I had the yacht who told me to “write down what I wanted and I would get it” if it was really what I wanted. What they are all getting at really is “focus” drive, direction, heading off with blinkers in order to achieve one goal “Wealth” the fact is, it works, of course it works! If you really have that drive and you exclude all else, you likely WILL achieve the goal. I often wonder why this approach hasn’t worked for other goals like world peace animal rights etc, it seems to have most positive effect when applied to Money. I wonder if it is because the desire for wealth has become the biggest driver of human effort now? I don’t know.

Back at Crawley the course finished and Paul took me to one side and said he had great expectations for or of me! He was mighty impressed with my training and would do everything in his power to see that I succeeded! We went to an “Alico” conference where awards were being given out to existing salespeople for their achievements and then at the end we were welcomed into the fold and given a gift, it was a little round side plate that had been created with a slogan on it, it said; “you have always said you will do (whatever) when you get around to it, well this is your “round tuit” so now you have no excuse”!  They had called a “Plate” a “Round Tuit” I was still hoping it was going to be a fucking car! But no, a “Plate”

Well, out on the street was a different matter. We had been told to be in Maldon (Essex) in the morning where we would start selling insurance.

Alico was clever, being a part of the largest insurance company in the world it could be. Alico took NO prisoners! We were told we started at the top of the high street and visited “Every” shop business on it. From cobbler to Bank. It was “cold calling extreme”

I was on one side and the “divorcee XR2 blonde” was on the other. My side had the Cobbler and hers the Bank!

I walked into the Cobbler and said “Hi, my name is Tony and if you have a minute I would like to talk to you about ……………..he responded “Insurance”!! Insurance!! I have had bloody insurance up to here!!! Now we had been taught “rebuttals” or “AH Buts’” but I can tell you, “I wasn’t going to try and go any further with this fella” he wasn’t happy.

Now bear in mind I was 19 ish and I was dressed in shiny silver mohair suit with those beautiful black suede winkle pickers. I was 6’2” and weighed around 9 stone! I must have looked like a silver toothpick! Meanwhile miss bloody wonderful was dressed in boob enhancing top and looked gorgeous! I ended the day with 2 sales to her 10, and that is how it went for the week. It wasn’t going to happen and I was ruining my shoes AND my feet!

Paul told me I had to persevere and he was really motivating but frankly, at that age and in those clothes and without a car I found “Motivation” very difficult. So I quit. What I discovered about the experience was that “everyone” “THOUGHT” I would make a great salesman, what they really didn’t realise was that if the product was shit I couldn’t sell it. I was too nice to people and didn’t like selling them something they didn’t want or need.

This situation has repeated itself several times in my life from English fine bone china to Motorcycles, if “I” don’t like it, “I” can’t sell it!  If that isn’t some kind of “Honesty” I don’t know what is.

Money.

Money doesn’t care if you live or die

Money doesn’t care if you laugh or cry

Money doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor

Money’s just another word for whore.

Why do I hate money? Well, “hate” is a strong word and requires energy so I suppose I don’t “hate” it, I just dismiss it.

Money? What the fuck is that all about! It seems like a “Middle man” to me, and we all loathe middlemen, don’t we?

You can trace the evil of “Money” all the way back to……………. Well, a soddin long way back. “It is the ROOT of all evil apparently, but the establishment that represents that view has more of it than anyone! And, positively encourages those who have both none and loads to give them more! Not sure why the blatant hypocrisy of that little scenario eludes people.

Don’t get me wrong here, I wish I had oodles of the stuff; but that is as far as it goes! I am not going to chase the damn thing for 60 years when it is as stable as a three legged chair sat upon by Cyril Smith! Oh bloody no. I have had some, once, and it was awful! I couldn’t keep hold of it for love nor…………….. Well, it slipped through my fingers like sand. It would even “Talk” to me! It would say things like “go on, use me to satisfy that daft need to look like something you are not” it would.

They say “Money talks”! Yes it does, and what it says is “give up your life for me” can you imagine that! Give up your life for an illusion (actually, if you believe in the Bible (instead of the Babble) you probably CAN believe it)

Ok, that’s a bit daft isn’t it, after all, with money you can buy food and toys (hey, we all have differing priorities you know!) but let me ask you a question; “what if it suddenly disappeared”? It’s gone and you have never heard of it? The word “Bank” only conjures up the scary approach to Gibraltar airport or a heap of earth beside a road. Are we really so feeble of mind that we believe all the things we have achieved in history “Needed” money to make them happen! It was a manipulation by those who had no “real” worth that brought it about and it is STILL being controlled by the same people! “YOU” are the providers of the wealth to the unworthy.

"Writing"

I can think of at least 3 ex girlfriends who said “you should write”. One was HR Director at Reid Elsevier so “should” have had a little knowledge on the matter. Another provided me with the environment under which I “Should” have been able to “produce” but it didn’t happen. And then there was Emma Shackle, my Psychology Tutor who even remarked “Your essays are very entertaining, Journalistic even” but she also observed that my “reading” required “Deeper effort”! I would read quickly, pick up on the salient points and then bang out 5000 words. It was quite effective from a “points” point of view!

What I was not able to do very effectively, was “stay on track”! Punctuation and grammar were also woefully inadequate and I would also get carried away on some contentious issue to the point of anger. Tom, the Sociology Tutor saw elements that he described as “Visionary” in my essays but also concluded that I was “NO Academic” J

I have to ask myself “why would I want to write anyway?”  For the moment it is an exercise in catharsis; I have had a very noisy cerebrum for at least 35 years and that coupled with a faulty cerebellum and an overactive Amygdala! Does NOT make for a very coherent writer!

I know that when I “write” it comes out lacking the detail of what I am trying to say. Even the “essence” seems faulty when I re-read what I have written, so it still seems a little early to be thinking of writing. I have not the desire to write something I have not developed complete confidence in! There are also “rules” which currently, completely evade me.

Having said all that; I DO like to empty my head of things now and then and THAT is what this blog is about. So for the moment “spontaneous waffle” suits me just fine and dandy.

I purchased “Dragon Naturally Speaking” a while ago and have been unable to make it work so my dream of being able to “talk” and have it transcribed, has been dashed.

When I was 39 I was involved with a Swiss girl. That, like all before, had fizzled out but I was quite taken with her and so tried my best to re-kindle the relationship. I was working in Vienna but not enjoying the job and so one day I purchased a bicycle and panniers and decided to cycle to Wettingen in Switzerland. This I decided to do in March and via the Tyrol! It was foolhardy but an exciting prospect. Now I decided to write on the journey, and record everything.  It was a log and a diary and some form of poetry and it ended up looking like a love story. Fran (ex Reed Elsevier) read it one day and said “god Tony, this is great, you should get it published” I asked where the hell would I do that, and she replied in a “Women’s magazine”!

For me, after having re-read it, it just looked like a load of sad romantic slush and I was not happy with it. I certainly didn’t want to have something that seemed to me, naïve nonsense, published and so it never went any further. I have since lost the laptop it was on, so now cannot even edit it to my satisfaction. So far, anything I have written has been quite interesting to me because it has shown how much my thoughts have changed over the years.

It is also quite depressing for me to know my views/feelings are quite out of step with the “Norm”. it “doesn’t bother me “That” much but it does make me think “what’s the point in saying what no one wants to hear” you go through life “Knowing” you are alone in your mind and that a whole bunch of people say “well I am not bloody surprised!” no, I am not surprised they are not surprised! (Do you ever get a word or phrase that just keeps repeating itself over and over in your head and no matter what you do, it won’t stop?)

Annoyingly, (for me anyway) is that one of the subjects I would most like to concentrate my mind on, is “relationship” it has been the overwhelming preoccupation in my life and still confuses and befuddles the living hell out of me!

Problem is………… they are a seriously difficult thing to remain objective about. But it is my belief that it is a key subject in human development and it is not given enough importance in that development.

"A Moral dilemna"

I have heard the words “moral compass” a few times recently and so I wanted to waffle on about it.

It seems to me the word “Moral” is a very divisive one. There are no actual rules just a general expectation of how one should behave. “I” for example have NO morals. I don’t want any either, it should be then, that as I have none, there can’t be any argument!

“of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical: moral attitudes.” I mean, how bloody subjective is that lot!

The “elite” have none either, how could they. Politicians too. I am not going to list the multitude of “wrongs” done by the above they should be bleedin obvious to us all by now, but I am surprised that there are still people who blindly follow a “Moral path” they may say “yes, well, they are MY particular set of morals” but that is bollocks! They only have them because they were taught them and they generally work well in their particular world. When Aldous Huxley wrote “and the judge looked at the man in the dock and had to look away because he briefly saw himself” he was expressing perfectly normal natural state of affairs. “It’s wrong to kill”? No it isn’t, “It’s wrong to steal” no it isn’t, “It’s wrong to Lie, cheat, fiddle, etbloodycetera! I don’t think ANY of the so called “Bad” things are necessarily “Bad”! Obviously it “all depends on the circumstances”. If you rip me off and I can’t get recourse via the law, I will rip you off right back. If that makes me Immoral” bring it on!

Why do big businesses get away with what we would rightly call “immoral behaviour”? Because they are NOT human, a business is just that. And “You” are considered a “Business” if you deal with them. Anyway I digress……. The reason for the “Moral Blog” is because I was thinking about whether it would be considered wrong to do something to satisfy a nagging suspicion.

I could say, “bollocks", if I am unhappy about a feeling I should dispense with the cause and move on” but you see, the problem is, I feel I need to KNOW if my feeling is justified! I simply cannot go through life “Wondering” as well as “Wandering”! One is enough!!

Of course if everybody was truthful there wouldn’t be any dilemma! But let’s not delude ourselves; most moral compasses these days need a damn good “re-calibrating”

Plus, all compasses have 360 degrees, you can’t just go north! If you do you will miss loads of potentially interesting things.

Someone mentioned the “Trolley problem” to me the other day and I thought, fuck it, I would make “whatever decision” FELT right at the time! It isn’t a dilemma for me,

It goes like this:

A trolley is running out of control down a track. In its path are five people who have been tied to the track by a mad philosopher. Fortunately, you could flip a switch, which will lead the trolley down a different track to safety. Unfortunately, there is a single person tied to that track. Should you flip the switch or do nothing?

Firstly, if “That” was ALL the information available, being a supporter of the Optimum population trust (now renamed population matters) I would probably save the one. However, there could be a plethora of reasons to make the other choice from age to gender to personal knowledge of the victims; it’s a bit of a daft scenario. One thing is for sure “Nothing” isn’t an option!

A more interesting “dilemma”? Would be (for me) you believe someone is or has lied to you or deceived you or stolen from you. The evidence is within your grasp but to get it, you must essentially “spy” or go through their things. If you are correct about your suspicion but do nothing, they get away with it, if you succumb to the curiosity and do the deed, you have essentially done something else “underhand” but what if you are proved right? (Moral dilemma, “The ends don’t justify the means”!) “Bollocks”!! We use “Spies” all the time in order to be aware of other country or persons behaviour/actions. We simply apply a “Justification” in that instance. Personally I don’t give a fuck what my country says “we need to know”! They haven’t seen fit to let me know “WHY” so I do not agree on the course of action. If they deem it important enough to seek my approval to “govern me” they sure as hell need it to make the decision to sell bombs to despots. You NEVER see that one in the manifesto!

So back to the “sneaky peeking” if you do nothing and the person “Had” been lying or whatever, then they have got away with it. If you do “Something” you have also committed a “wrong”. So, so far we have “two wrongs”! And what do they make?? “Wrong”! No, I mean, “Right”! No, what I “mean” is, two wrongs do NOT automatically NOT make a “Right”? Forgetting about the juvenile “two wrongs don’t make a right” crap, what they may well do is, make a difference upon which you can, “make a decision”! “A VALID decision. What we need to remember is if you were right, then they started the whole fucking problem by being deceitful! That is to say; don’t fuck with me; if you fuck with me then I am definitely going to fucking fuck with you! “Fuck it” Simple, do you know, no matter how many times I look at this type of dilemma, I simply can’t come to another conclusion. It just seems absolutely fair to me. (This is how I feel)

This scenario has happened in my life where “I” have been “caught out” and when “They” have been caught out. What interests me most is when “I” have been sussed, I blub and stick my hands up! “It’s a fair cop guvnr” but when it’s been the other way round! Blimey!  Have the banshees been let loose or what! “How dare you blah blah blah”!  I can never get my head around the discovery of the “original” issue suddenly being relegated to a “secondary issue”!!!

(This is what I do)

My attitude these days is; if I have a suspicion or a feeling something isn’t quite right, I decide to accept my feeling as the truth and leave it at that. In other words “I do nothing” which is contrary to the Trolley Problem. Yes they get away with it maybe but if I do something underhand it always comes back on me, all I can say is may the same fortune smile on you.

Just re-read this and ALL the instances of the world "Dilemna" have been changed to the American! 

E&oe. All of the above is entirely fictitious, all characters and scenarios are also fictitious. I reserve my right to change my opinion/mind at any time and bollocks to the royal welding.

Unemployable

I was thinking about how many jobs I have had in 35 years and remembered that at 22 it had already reached 80. Some only lasted a few minutes before I realised I couldn’t be arsed and some lasted as long as……… 2 months! There were a load of “training courses” included in that number and a few attempts at self employment. The one thing that did remain “constant” was “Boredom”! I quickly became bored with all of it.

I went to the “Employment advice centre” in BSE once and had a full assessment of what I could do. The man who saw me was a retired businessman who after 2 weeks of deliberation kindly informed me, “I was Unemployable”! NOT because I wasn’t capable of any particular job, but because he thought I was more “Self employed” material. Problem was, that at the time the DHSS considered a “Bucket and ladder” the best way to get people started, I think it was more likely they didn’t want to invest any more money than the cost of same!

Now I am NOT work shy! But I DO insist that if I am to provide MY labour in return for money, I would like the lion’s share of that money for myself. I haven’t really managed to get beyond 80% of it going on “Living” expenses and a little “Pocket money” left for me, so I am not going to do that. I have looked quite carefully at the rise in living costs over the years and the “Lack” of rise in earnings, the most obvious example being the cost of a house/flat whatever. It was once possible to buy one on your tod with a mortgage that could be dealt with in 25 years! That is no longer possible for the average earner, that tells me, “we are being shagged” it has been a sneaky steady increase in what one pays to live and has been largely ignored because the anaesthetic is television. I haven’t watched it for 6 months now and I find my brain is starting to get stimulated again. See the problem for me is, I am easily led into falling for the “shiny” things! Yes, I loved expensive clothes and watches. For fucks sake, I have “Zimmerli” underwear! There is a photo on my FB I looked at yesterday and realised that every piece of clothing was a “Label” not just an average designer label, oh no, jacket was a 100% Cashmere blazer, shirt, Brioni, Tie, Emilio Pucci, Watch, Cartier, socks, Pantherella, Trousers,  Loro Piana, Boots, John Lobb and yes Undies, Zimmerli! Now had my name been Alan Sugar or Donald Trump, I might have been able to get away with it but FFS, I was potless! Slowly but surely I am getting rid of all these “Illusions” on eBay. I had suckered for Mark Twain’s quote “Clothes make the man” they may well have had an influence on how one was viewed back in the 1880’s and it would still help open a few doors today but that is totally “Dishonest”! I have even been refused work because the interviewer was “Intimidated” by my appearance, a professional recruitment company in NZ told me “try and dress down” as you will find it hard to get a job looking too smart!

Having been “dishonest” in my life I know it is useless. I don’t want to be dishonest in any areas anymore; it’s a fucking trial having to maintain an illusion in both appearance and manner. It is also what keeps the status quo, rich, poor, them us etc. as long as I have a hole in my arse I will not accept there is any justification in one man having billions when billions have nothing. I am not a socialist, I just don’t see why “Hard work” should ever result in little reward and some do very little and get millions. If “I” worked hard to build up a business and it made millions and was the result of help from all the workers then the share should be more equal.

When I call a call centre and get some slack mouthed indolent tosser who is of no help, I am NOT going to be surprised!

Where am I going with this? Well, if I had left school and pursued a course of action not unlike the one most people have followed, and then after 35 years realised that things were not any better than when I left school, “I would be majorly pissed off”

How many times have the goal posts moved! And if you say “ah, that’s life”! I am certainly going to reply “Is it”!?

Going to watch the “Royal”? Wedding this weekend? Remember the last one? If I were Kate, I would try my best not to piss off Philip and steer well clear of Paris! “I” don’t know what really happened, but then “No one does”! Suffice to say it was about as honest as a banker.

Wiki leaks are only a problem because they don’t want us to know the devious bullshit that goes on in our name. And whether we like it or not, it’s ALL about flogging guns and buying oil!

And the worst of everything is the Media. They know full well that if they run a story and then pull it, it will be forgotten about quite quickly! My problem if you like, is I still remember “Stephen Waldorf” Sean Greenhaulgh, Ben Lewis’s report on the Art scam, all the things that have quietly gone away but the shit that created or surrounds them is still happening. You may say, well, the Stephen Waldorf” thing is done and dusted? What about “Ian Puddick” then? Waldorf just got pistol whipped, Puddick is being “Terrorised”! That seems like a major escalation of tactics. And what are millions of people going to do this weekend? “Watch the |Royal wedding and wonder who designed her dress!

Raymond Baxter told me all sorts of brilliant things would happen by now, and I fell for it! That really pisses me off. 

I just proofed the above before deciding to post it and I thought “what a load of aggressive reactionary disjointed anger that is! But then, I still believe it, I did think, but I am not that angry!! I have a great laugh generally; I love to find humour in life, “fuck me”  “I have to”

Luckily, all that is how I feel and I don’t have to make it my life’s story. All I insist on is keeping well aware of my surroundings and a weather eye on when I need to get out the crossbow and dig in!

“Coming soon, Relationships”! (I should cocoa)

"Nocturne"

3:45am and sleep just ain’t happening. It is always the early hours that my mind starts working. I start to “analyse” and this time I was analysing “thinking”!

It has been said that “I think too much” usually accompanied by “and don’t DO enough”!! That makes me laugh. “Thinking” burns a huge amount of calories! Anyway, I was giving thinking some thought and it started to dawn on me (in more ways than one given the hour) that being an “analyst” isn’t such a bad thing, even unfettered analysis. I am well aware that my thought processes are a little random; I am also well aware that I allow my mind free reign and that it sometimes takes me to very odd places, but what is wrong with that? As I write this for example, there is no real direction! I just have a “thought” and want to see where it goes.

There are already “plenty” of minds working away in “One” area. Even on a metaphysical level, I have seen the effects of “restraining” the mind to one particular area of focus and I “think” that is folly.

A friend once explained the “cocktail effect” of food and all the other things we have around us like, deodorant, shampoo, soap, smoke, whatever. Tests carried out to decide what is “safe” to eat and in what combinations, give us a feeling of security when eating whatever it is, but, did these tests take into account the absorption of chemicals from your clothes, shampoo, deodorant? I think not! It would be impractical to carry out a test that took ALL permutations into account. Our bodies being an incredibly intricate organism can and do get affected by the tiniest of atoms/molecules and we don’t have a Scooby doo if it caused the Cancer we got or the allergy. So; I was doing this thinking and relating it to the capacity of the brain, and it’s potential. We all know it is said we only use a fraction of it and let’s be honest, some don’t even use that! Personally I believe that whatever “I” can “think” is possible. I don’t know why, but it seems to me that if I can “think it” it can be done! And I am not talking about becoming an X Factor star or making a million. It may sound arrogant but they are just simple mechanisms that are more or less “controlled” by a set of circumstances influenced by others. I met a guy here in Spain many years ago who had a yacht worth 300,000 pounds, he paid 120,000 for it and couldn’t get his head around the fact that if he wanted it re-upholstered, it would cost a load of money, “But I only paid 120k for it” he said, I replied, “yes, but it still has the maintenance of a 300k yacht”! he also bragged about, “having a 120k yacht and 250k in the bank” his bragging would be laughable if he was saying this to a man with a 200k yacht and half a million in the bank! His thinking was “limited” to numbers and costs, a very low being on the brains scale despite his reasonable financial wealth. Some would say yes, but he is being successful in “this” life! But if the person who designed his yacht had limited “His” thinking to the same level, he would not have had a yacht. All the people who make huge amounts of money are technically useless! It is the “creators” who are the worthy.

I thought about “facebook” and I thought, “What a fantastic opportunity for the human race to connect” the biggest “family” possible. And then I thought about the internet in general and must admit, I think it is the most stunning thing to have ever happened to mankind! There isn’t anything off limits now the entire knowledge of human endeavour now available to everyone! And what is it used for mostly?.............”pornography” and social networking! (Which quite often become one and the same thing online) I am astounded that after so many years of this available technology, we haven’t progressed beyond inane social sites and Porn! Sure, there are people who do use it for the feeding of the grey cells, but not the vast majority of us. I think if we did, there would be no war, Cancer would have been eradicated, and the levels of intelligence in school leavers would have increased not “decreased”! (I am talking “en masse” here not the individuals who ARE developing)

Surely we can agree that “communication” is key to growing? If so, what are we using this magic to “communicate”? A load of puerile nonsense is what! “Mafia wars! “My friend answered a question about you” on facebook apps! “Farmyard”! What the fuck!  I am seriously hoping that one day soon, we will wake up to the potential the internet has given us and say “right, that was fun, diversion over, now let’s sort out the fucking mess we created” ( I am not going to hold my breath!)

My dream is that we very soon create a symbiosis between technology and ecology; it IS possible to have a “green planet” and an ubertechnical one and it IS known by those who organise us, but unless we tell them in much larger numbers than from the lobby of small groups, they will ignore it. At the moment it is “too fucking slow”!

When a disease is in a tree, it is no good pruning a visibly affected limb, you need to uproot the bastard and burn it!

Its 5am and I just went up to try and grab a couple of hours and the moment my head hit the pillow… the bloody floodgates opened!

I tried to imagine what it would take for there to be a major shift in consciousness. Bearing in mind the shift of which I speak is heavily biased towards peace and positive human growth, and I thought about the 60’s and the peace and love movement. “There were millions of them”! Fucking millions of people all wanting peace and harmony and love and a better world! The music? All about banning wars and love and peace and shit, “Man”! What the hell happened?? I tell you what happened; they were all stoned! A few went off and lived true to their beliefs and the rest capitulated and became accountants and office bod’s they continued getting stoned and it all fizzled out like a damp squib. And the machine marched on, weapons got smarter Banks got richer, and a drive to find “instant” pleasure thrived. “There” was an opportunity to galvanise a change in consciousness that was missed or defeated! We got some great Art out of it, and Music and some cracking books, probably got a lot of herpes and HPV too as a result of “free love”! “Enlightened relationships” and what have you. My feeling? I don’t think being “peaceful” about change works. We have sat around for 60 years watching Arab countries be ruled by despot’s dictators and tyrants and we have allowed it to go on so we could get “Oil”, now the people have had enough and are doing the ONLY thing that works to any degree, and it ain’t “peaceful”! The west didn’t help over the last 60 years but now we want to help them? We didn’t supply any of them “despot or revolutionary” with the means to create a peaceful solution, we provided both sides with guns and bombs! It was a cast iron gold plated inevitability they would use them, and bet your last one “a few people” will get even richer off the back of it. Hey, I am no Einstein but doesn’t it seem incredibly simple to you too! And if so, why are you not (for those who aren’t) using the social network to make a noise about it? Do you think it won’t make any difference? Well, the social network managed to get enough support and pressure to get an abused Elephant released from the scum that were “caring” for it!

Take a look at Ian Puddick on facebook, this guy was/is being terrorised by the murder squad and terrorist squad for ………..”Grassing up an adulterer to his employers”! And he has…………….662 supporters on his facebook. Now I think we can do better than that surely? Which brings me neatly on to “relationships”!

I am crap at them.

Viva el Toro, "Suerte"

Running with the Bull tomorrow, not me I hasten to add! It sounds so “romantic” doesn’t it? “Running WITH the Bull”?

I have to admit, I gave thought to doing it too. It sounds “exciting” Dangerous, Adventurous, in a sort of “Hemingway” kind of style. But I have pledged my support to trying to stamp out ANY forms of animal abuse and so I decided despite it being an opportunity to experience “Real Spain” it was not going to sit well with what I believe.

I think “running” with a Bull might still be an exciting thing to do though; but I decided it would be braver and more challenging to do it on equal terms. Give the Bull the freedom to give me a heart attack on open territory! This poor beast will be funnelled into a town with hard streets on a long rope. There will of course be an opportunity to give someone the Horn, and call me callous, but if it happens, then bravo Bull! If you are prepared to run with it, then prepare to be gored by it and don’t complain if it gores you!

I remember a field of cows with calf’s in Richmond that were mingling with the Wensleydales from Izzy Lane. Isobel and I were walking in these fields and a silly Sheep had been butted into a ditch by one of the cows. It was still trying to butt the sheep even though it was stuck and so I ran at the cow and punched it on the nose. It looked at me with vague contempt and sauntered off back to the herd. It wasn’t a brutal punch but it got the message. I then helped the hapless Wensleydale out of the ditch and it too looked at me with disdain! I think the cow saw the sheep as a threat to its calf why it didn’t see me in the same light I don’t know, but it seemed reasonably fair for me to approach the problem this way. It could have trampled me but didn’t.

Now obviously it would have been slightly different had it been a “Bull”! I might well have thought twice, but then again, I might not! My concern was for the poor helpless Wensleydale. I think other animals know when fear is present and also when it isn’t and most of them will think twice when faced with “equal aggression” there are cases of a lowly cat seeing off a Puma for e.g. and I know someone who yelled and screamed at a large wild Boar and it left her alone! This Bull in town though, will have noise and much activity and taunting, that would surely make it confused and both angry and defensive!? Not a “Fair” situation at all.

I then thought of going to photograph the spectacle but now, I don’t want to be anywhere near witnessing it and so, shall toddle off to the  woods maybe and listen to the wild, without human interference.

Viva el Toro, “Suerte”

Being an Aquarian..............

Being “Aquarian” I am apparently “A little odd”! which is strange, because I “don’t FEEL odd” in fact I would go so far as to say, despite my ramblings, my affinity with certain groups, I have an abiding sense of “normality” and by that I really mean straight, fair, courtesy, civility and justice. Of course all of those are subjective and differ in interpretation depending on the society one lives in. if one is a tribesman in the boonies of South America, it is ok if you are first back to the village after a hunt trip, to sleep with someone else’s wife. Burping may seem rude in the west but is considered very correct in some countries. And lopping off a limb is perfectly acceptable as a punishment for swiping something in other countries. Quite frankly, I find all three, unacceptable. I am wondering where we as a race are heading?

I always thought it would be a good thing to reach ever higher in our quest for whatever we are questing!

Necessity is the mother of invention apparently and I am now wondering what is “Necessary”? What is “really” necessary? Not what we “Think” we need as a direct result of the particular society we live in. you “think” you need that McDonalds? No you don’t, you need a carrot or cabbage, you “Want” a McDonalds and you probably “Want” it because of some mysterious marketing or mass hypnosis. An addiction we don’t think of as an addiction.

I was thinking about these small hidden communities in South America and wondering why they had remained the same for centuries-millennia, whatever it is they believe, has kept them in a perfect state for so long and their number has remained balanced and in harmony with their environment, while ours in the west has spiralled out of control and continues to do so. Most of us are absolutely dependent on the system continuing as it is, and it is NOT a good system! In a couple of hundred years we have gone from being able to float in a balloon (Montgolfier bros) to unmanned drones bombing the fuck out of whatever. And apparently, we have sent men to the Moon! But our cars still use rubber to roll on and internal combustion to propel, just like they did in the beginning! Every piece of technological advancement has been in the “how to get more money out of the people” sector.  And just about ALL of it has been based on “Oil” consider the following:

If the sunshine radiating on the surface of an area 100 miles wide by 100 miles long would provide all of the electricity that America needs, every day, why would Americans hesitate to use it? There are millions of open acres in the deserts of America, where the sun's energy does nothing more than heat rocks and sand.

This is using CSP (concentrated solar power) a technology that has existed for quite a while now. There is NO justice while we are enslaved to Oil. If that philosophy makes me “Odd” then odd I bloody well am! The reason we don’t get it is because you can’t really justify making us pay for it! What do you think it “Actually” costs to make a mobile phone call? About fuck all is the answer! The technology and systems are in place and have been paid for a trillion times over, so now it is just a revenue generator, but we pay and pay and pay and say “ooh I got a great deal with carphone whorehouse or whoever, 500 texts included! Whoopfuckinee, I say. And the same will happen with energy.  And all is to satisfy………….. What? A “Need” we don’t really have! A “need” we have been conned into “thinking” we have. Physically we need food shelter and warmth the rest is window dressing at the expense of what our minds may achieve.

Being an “Aquarian”, I think like this!!