In at The shallow end

It seemed a good idea at the time..or so I thought. So with that in mind I launched a book on Amazon Kindle yesterday, it is live now amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DRJ3OIQ   and I am filled with trepidation and a certain amount of excitement, I know I have been writing for quite a few years but of late everything seems to be gathering a pace, with two books in the offing and perhaps a series of books to be getting on with its a steep learning curve, I have written stuff for other people before but not on this scale with so many projects on-going.
I am not worrying too much because you live and die with the content and the ability to keep your reader amused and interested and even more importantly coming back for more!. I hope this little snippet gives you an insight into the thoughts I sometimes keep, not always constructive thoughts but always mine, I also intend to publish a 20k word novellete about my time in OZ for those who are not so poetry minded but like a bit of a giggle, it's definitely got a different slant on the normal trip :-) .. hope you enjoy the poetry book and let me know your thoughts as to whether it was worth your attention.

Speak soon !!

The Sunday Roast.

A bright sunny Sunday morning in the UK, not a statement you hear often, so perhaps I should be out enjoying the sunshine rather than sat here typing away.  The fact I have about as much motivation as a Premiership footballer at a press conference is blatantly clear, it will take some time to get back into the swing of things and adjust to the UK again, even more so because I don't really want to, I enjoyed Australia very much but I need to get my head down into some meaningful work, so I suppose like everything else in life you have to just get on with it.
During many trips abroad in the 90's I was lucky enough to see many other cultures and also different outlooks on life, in Germany for instance I met some very jolly folk with a zest for life and food (Oh and don't forget the beer!), whereas the Scandinavian Countries I visited found a sense of humour a little bit difficult to handle sometimes, well either that or my jokes haven't improved with age.
 I loved the Dutch attitude and i loved the beautiful clean cities in Holland, I didn't like the food that much though as if it didn't start with Ham or Cheese of some description it didn't seem to be on the menu, even breakfast. I suppose I can now add Dubai to my portfolio as I have made a flying visit or two, but it's a little difficult to get a taste for a Country in 12 hours, most of my memories of it were McDonalds or CostaCoffee, which i suppose is a little off the radar, though there is a certain amount of hilarity if you are Western born and bred like myself at seeing fully regaled Arabs queueing for a Big Mac.
Ireland is a wonderful place to visit if you do ever get the chance, I never went there on business but i did go rallying over there once to the town of Wexford. You will never find a warmer welcome anywhere in the world, our arrival at the Bed and Breakfast coincided with scones and tea while the family parked the cars and trailer, even a lack of batteries for the rally intercom was not an issue as the landlady calmly grabbed the clock off the mantelpiece and handed them over to us without batting an eyelid, despite our protests that we could probably manage!. If you top that off with their sense of humour then it takes some beating, oh and I was never David over there always Davey!, that made me smile.
For now I am back in good old Blighty, it ranks in my top ten of locations but I doubt now it would reside in my top 5, I feel that the UK is losing its sense of humour somewhat, the service is getting worse for most aspects of life, the roads are falling apart, the Health Service is almost on its knees and it needs to realise its status is far from where it was 20 years ago. But I guess my ramblings aren't that important as I am only a voice in the crowd, all 60 million of us.

So I will knuckle down and get on with finishing the novels I am writing, you never know, one best seller and i can choose the next venue from where I write, at the moment the choice is obvious and I would be heading down under five times a week and 3 times on a Sunday.  Watch this space.

Right, I am going to go and enjoy that strange ball in the sky we collectively know as "The Sun" (that's the one without Freddie Starr and his Hamster) and maybe even get a tan, though if i do get my shirt off i just hope the neighbours have their eyes well protected from the glare, or better still don't look, as I find my six pack has now started a two for one policy since I have been away so that is something else on my "to do" list, mmmmmm.... it could be a busy summer.
Keep safe and enjoy your Sunday folks!.

A son's thoughts.

The gentle breeze that ushers through
The chapel grounds as I stand true
To gaze upon my flesh and blood
With haunted thoughts past childhood

For though my father's mortal gaze
Has ceased now to the Lord we praise
To keep him safe and take good care
Until we too can meet him there.

A faith he held and never left
From straightest path now stands bereft
Of warmth that shone into our day
And filled those hearts that came his way

Now I must stand and prove my worth
As he had taught me from my birth
Stand straight and true and hold your ground
For there within true peace is found. 



 

Reaching new heights.

Having just landed from the other side of the world I have been suffering the usual after effects, feeling so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open and then back to almost ready to run a marathon, all very confusing for you and more so those around you, but I am here writing at home on a Saturday morning, not at the yard but at home, its a very strange feeling as we self-employed just don't see a Saturday to ourselves and mostly not even a Sunday!.  It would be nice to get used to it, but staff and finances wait for no mortal, I am sure it will be battle stations again soon enough, but for now I can at least imagine what it would be like to have a wage and a weekend.. bliss !.
As I write I am thinking of getting some treatment for my crazy fear of heights, it's something I have had all my life and trust me it really doesn't get better the older you get, I can manage the top of a long ladder no problem but when you go that extra couple of feet higher I feel like a jelly balanced on a toothpick. My hands shoot out to the nearest thing to hand, (so it's advisable you don't stand too close to me in a lift) and I freeze so well it makes Marcel Marceau look an amateur. It's very funny if you are stood watching me, especially the other day when I was in a flat that had ceiling to floor windows 9 floors up and i was glued to the door at the back as i didn't want to get close to the edge!.
 As you can imagine this is somewhat of a problem when one needs to fly. I would imagine I would be quite comical to observe as it's about the only time i am completely quiet, I don't fidget I just sit like a condemned man, on take off i close my eyes and pretend it isn't happening and then the pilot says "if you look to your right you will see Sydney Harbour Bridge..." No no no thank you Mr pilot just get us up high enough that I cant relate the height to the ground because of cloud cover, do not ask me to look out of the bloody windows for God's sake!.  I know this is crazy, because other people are going "ooooohhh look at that" while i am sat bolt upright with my head facing forwards and my eyes shut, oh yes you can laugh alright,  topping all this off, the new technology available on long haul planes means you can now activate cameras situated underneath the plane, or on the nose, so even if you are looking straight ahead and trying not to look if the guy next to you is watching said views you find your eyes wondering across to his screen, you simply can't get away from seeing outside now!.
So, I think perhaps i need some help in overcoming this irrational thought process, after all we know its not the fall that kills you its the ground. I am tempted to try hypnotism, after all my mind is always open to new things, but knowing my luck i would come out being able to climb the Empire State but start smoking 60 a day. The other way of getting over it I suppose is to address your fears like people do with a spider phobia, like holding a tarantula for 10 minutes or so, but I have been at 40,000ft for 21 hours so i can't see how that will work, just how much addressing do you need?.  The other way is to sit and talk to a shrink, (mmm I know what you guys are all thinking....) but I cant see how they could talk me out of a fear I have had all my life, or maybe I am doing them an injustice.
 Either way I am getting tired of what I can see is a totally irrational fear and if i know its irrational why can't I overcome it?. Perhaps some of you may have suffered with the same thing and can give me a few pointers on how you managed to conquer your fears!.

As I said its been a very calm Saturday, not like any Saturday I have had for many years, I have not been to the yard and looked around or worked, I have simply chilled and enjoyed the sunshine, something I had plainly forgotten was possible. There are many things I need to do and perhaps should be doing but for now this is some me time, no requirements other than be me. I like it. I recommend it. We all need that little bit of time to ourselves.

Gatwick Airshort.

I guess its a little unfortunate to land in Gatwick the day after you have been in Dubai International, well, unfortunate on Gatwick AND myself for that matter.
The extremes seen between Dubai's no expense spared philosophy and poor old Gatwicks no expense spent really highlights the difference between the economies of the two countries. There are toilets and prayer rooms about every 300 yards in Dubai, complete with attendants. I had to ask where the toilets were in Gatwick and was told to use the two disabled loos with huge doors next to the departures drop off point, I had to chuckle.
Instead of people walking around with "can i help you?" on their blue shirts as in Dubai you have the fluorescent "Don't speak to me I am important" bibs in Gatwick..oh and not forgetting son of Adolf patrolling the drop off point with his armband and ever present bib making sure you say goodbye to your loved ones within 15 seconds or you get a ticket, he even stood over the top of one family with his arms crossed and his foot tapping as they said their tearful goodbyes just in case they broke said rule.
It would be better not to ask me about the queue to passport control, it took longer than the flight from Dubai to get a casual look at my passport from someone who could barely speak English, ironic that his very smart Arabian counterpart spoke perfect English. Not to worry I thought, I can go get a coffee and a nice sandwich. Well no, you can get a Costa coffee and no sandwich, so from Dubai with more shops than you find in a city centre to 3 shops take it or leave it in Gatwick, what a total embarrassment, the ferry terminal on Manly has better facilities than this so called International Airport.
Still, all was not lost, the sun was shining and it was 5 degrees warmer in the UK than in Sydney, but no surprise it was 12 degrees cooler than in Dubai!. Surely we can beat those Arabs at something? well of course we can, the queues were bigger... for everything. By the time I had enjoyed a little stop and go fun on the M25 I was crying into my steering wheel in the knowledge i had returned to this third world country and am now planning to sneak back over to Dubai on Friday and seek asylum.

One thing that hasn't improved with age is aircraft food. I only took the top off the "scrambled egg and sausage" before hurriedly putting it back on in case i actually decided I may be hungry, as I did so i swear I heard it growl at me. The coffee should have been ordered by the slice and the water (of which you are reminded to drink plenty) was warmer than a firefly's armpit. The wonderful sky waitresses busied themselves and did their usual sterling job, but if you sit a little too far away from the trolly starting point you WILL lose out because they never return if they run out, something i noticed on more than one occasion, but knowing what was on the trollies I don't feel as if i was mistreated in any way!.
 On the return from Dubai just over the Black Sea we hit some turbulence, this continued in bursts of 10 minutes or so until we reached the Channel, another reason i was happy I fought to put the lid back on my scrambled egg and sausage as seeing it more than once would have been a frightening prospect even for the hungriest of weary travelers.
So, all in all it was a fantastic time in Oz, even though a lot of that time was spent inside writing my first novel and editing, I thoroughly reccomend going if you get the opportunity and Dubai is worth it as the first stop if only for the spectacle of that amazing airport, it is however a stark reminder of just how blaze we have become in the UK about our world status, we are not even close, sorry Gatwick no cigar, in fact not even a tatty old roll-up.

Dubai (DXB) Int. lounge area.

Away..

Dress it up how you like, use the ubiquitous English 'stiff upper lip' but farewell is still farewell.  I am heading back to England within the next few hours and that wonderful British summer my friends keep reminding me of, the truth is I will miss this part of the world. It has grown on me and I am finding it a tough move to say goodbye. The up side is i have two wonderful smiling faces that light my heart up and send it soaring into space to catch up with when I get back, they have been very busy with SATS tests and Karate and parties with friends etc but all the time I wrestle with their absence.
It has been a very deep searching hard fought time out here, I have completed a book and half way finished a second, albeit with much more editing to be done on both, I expected nothing less as the road to producing anything worth while is never a short one. I sometimes wish my mind was not quite so active and deep, it makes life so very difficult at times, almost like a curse, but in reality I know it's a gift that I should learn to  harness better than I have been doing. The rain is hitting the apartment window as darkness descends here in Manly, I am seeking all the positives from the trip and trying to look on the bright side, I would be lying if i said i was finding it easy. But life goes on.

So, I must also tackle the back log of work and enquiries that no doubt sits on my desk in Shropshire, it is just another part of life that must be addressed, I appreciate that and the opportunity to come out to Sydney and be creative and take time out will never be under sold to me, I am so fortunate i can scarcely believe my good fortune, but when you have had something so precious its very hard to let it go.. very hard.
I will be blogging from the UK in the next 48 hours, that in itself will feel strange but i have many family and friends to catch up with, so I guess that will soften the blow of exiting such a beautiful country.

Thank you for your attention OZ, thank you for the welcome and your great hospitality which has been the warmest I have known from any country i have been to. You can adopt me any time :-)).

Dubai International featuring a carp pool, (Koi of course)

Sydney Pictures June 2013

I thought perhaps a few pictures of my visit to Sydney would be of interest to a few of my regular readers,or even better a respite from my wittering, anyway whatever the reason I hope you enjoy.

Sydney June 2013

My Apologies to the Australian Nation for this picture in advance:-)

Sydney 11kms away across the bay from North Point.

Path News.

Straying off the beaten path can be an exciting experience or it can bring you back to earth with a bump, either way it's something that we should all try as perhaps always sitting in your comfort zone is a life only half lived.
I went for a walk around North Point which heads up the gateway to Sydney harbour a day or so ago and visited the Artillery barracks or at least the ex artillery barracks as nowadays the Australian government has set the land aside for a conservation area and to be quite honest the investment is clear to see, it was mapped out well and looked after impeccably.
I would advise however that sticking to the beaten path is the most responsible course of action on said walk as straying off the track here would invite you to meet a few of the local critters who are a little less understanding to your ignorance, in other words they would suffer fools a little less gladly than my hosts.
This said, that is exactly what I did. It was only when i got back to the hotel in Manly and showed the locals what stunning pictures I had obtained and from where that I realised I had been more than a little stupid.
Apparently long grass, swamps and undergrowth mean things that bight here. Lesson learnt.

I strayed deeper into Sydney yesterday,only this time the city jungle, taking the Manly ferry across to Sydney and then on to the train to Central station, where i disembarked for a walk around the City itself.
If anything struck me it was the similarity to London Borough street shops where little businesses sprang up from everywhere, although I didn't miss the smell of Indian cuisine so prevalent the moment you reach Uxbridge Road and follows you until you reach Erith, but what did surprise me was the amount of empty business premises, I suppose very much like our own Town's and Cities the supermarket chains and major retailers are sat in large scale Industrial Estates ripping the heart out of Main street shopping.
Sad times indeed but a reflection on our crazy pace in life that we have to have all the shops in one small area so that it wont take us so long to shop.
I did however witness the same multi-cultured society that London so thrives on, there were many different nationalities and religions clearly in evidence, though it wasn't as crowded as London. The trains are very easy and very frequent, the timetables are every simple to grasp and they are very cheap, my little adventure only cost four dollars, about £2.40 which wouldn't buy you a pint of ale in Blighty.

My impression of Sydney was that it could be a little unpredictable, varied, colourful and sometimes a little uncomfortable if you stray into the wrong area, much like my walk off the beaten track in Manly, that said it is vibrant and the transport infrastructure is excellent, something many of the locals use to its maximum.
I am glad I went into the city and looked around, peering under the welcome mat that says 'tourist areas' is quite often a good way to see somewhere more for what it is than what governments and councils would want you to perceive it to be. I wasn't disappointed in Sydney however, it has many great assets and is well worth taking a good look around, whether you stray from the known tourist spots is up to you but with a little thought and pre-planning it should be an enjoyable experience as it most definitely was for me.

It will soon be time to up sticks and return to England, the process of writing and experience I have gained while over here will stand me in good stead for my next attempts at book writing. I enjoy writing tremendously and my time here has been very beneficial, it would have been nice to be here purely as a tourist but that would involve much higher costs than my budget writing trip incurred.  I take with me a whole host of experiences and adventures, some good some some thought provoking but always entertaining.

True Lies.

This life just beats me up and spits my dreams out one by one,
My open mind a curse I find to all that I've become.

The dirty streets are lined with concrete, Gold is just a myth,
The speed of life the sharpest knife for man to cut you with.

My fingers pounce on laptop keys to find some restitution,
From days like this in dark abyss that shake my constitution.

The thoughts that make me who i am seek also to destroy,
The adult screams at 'worthless' dreams that drown the little boy,

Nothing will tomorrow change, nor life at last become opaque'
For conscience rules we busy fools, decisions formed for us to make,

So just for now I rest my case and roll with all that life has brought,
And take the day that comes my way and not give fools another thought..

Brought To Book.

Resisting the temptation to use the well worn and definitely over-rated cliche "It's been an incredible journey" I sit in the surreal silence of a room that has been both my jail and my bolt-hole for the past few weeks.
Writing a book is a battle not only of the mind but also a battle of physical endurance too, it can be debilitating in it's selfishness and can take your mind and thoughts into black holes and joy rides at a moments notice without you even getting up from your chair.
As you know I have tendencies to let my mind wonder on to all sorts of unexplored paths, this is a subject that has been covered by my blogging here on many occasions, but while I am writing, all that energy is drawn toward the subject at hand, there is no off-piste activity where I suddenly find myself wondering what flavour yogurt I might get when shopping later or what time shall i break for lunch?, I am transfixed on the task in front of me and that, as far as I am aware has never happened before in my life, not once.
 Writing just silences my thoughts for everything except the job in hand and if you have a brain like mine that never stops and constantly has to handle incoming thoughts of every description, only then could you appreciate what a wonderful feeling that is.
So, armed with this new found knowledge what am I to do with it?. It's a no-brainer I am going to continue to write. I have a second novel that is currently 30000 words to the good and I am planning a sequel for the one I have completed this week, I am not sure if it is the passion for writing or the relief that my thoughts are so easily controlled while writing that I like so much but either way I have found a task that, just for once my head has to concentrate on and deal with!.

At the moment the new book is undergoing some close scrutiny from people far better placed than I to decide if it is newsworthy or cringe worthy.  I have to admit I know myself I can do better, (I am actually looking to sell a few but you would never guess) but i was tempted to keep the book accessible to a wider readership rather than make it heavy going, the plot takes a little time to open up and once it does it is like Concorde at 50,000ft but then its slowly descends towards the ending with some uncomfortable turbulence just before the end. The title? at the moment I have called it "Intention To Possess" which is a little bit deep but hopefully covers exactly what i wish to convey.  As a first effort I am pleased, as a piece of worthwhile literature well only time will tell, I doubt it will set the world on fire but it is mine and it's the first of many so if i receive criticism I will grab it and run with it, learn from it and digest it and put it to use in my next book, I don't intend to stop writing now I have started, just don't tell my poor fingers !.

At risk of plagiarising a well known Monty Python sketch from Life Of Brian, "What has Australia done for me?, well I guess it has given me a wonderful back-drop in which to write, pleasant surroundings and pleasant people, the risk of thinking every Australian has a broad smile and says please and thank you is very high as i am in the middle of a well known tourist area in Manly, so i have taken the time to wonder off the beaten track. The majority of OZ people are very approachable and very pleasant to speak to, it's a very diverse country that is having trouble getting to grips with racism and bigotry towards it women folk as most of the late night question time programme topics will bear out, it is not dissimilar to where the UK was in the early 80's though with Social Networks now fuelling the debate poor Australia is having to do some of it's dirty washing in public.  Seeing the at present Prime Minister Julia Gillard quizzed on a radio show about whether her husband was gay or not was astonishing and would have set the tabloids on fire in the UK. There would have been gay rights protest marches and calls for the mans head, which in this case (and rightly so might I add) did actually roll, the man has no business in media if that's the best he can do. But it shows that there is a mentality here that if you can get a cheap shot in and laugh afterwards its OK and i actually like it as it's less clinical than the way we do the same interviews in the UK, but as always some idiot ends up over stepping the mark as in the PM's case.

Would I come back? damn right I would, I love it here in Sydney. Is it what I imagined?, everything and more, the only things that amaze me as i have said is Australia's internal battle with racism and sexism, but the fact it is constantly on the TV agenda here is a sign that it is being tackled head on and I am sure it will not be allowed to spoil what is a land full of promise and plenty.
 Thanks Oz.