V.cold night but sunshine and bliss today. Playing Henry’s CD of Etta James ‘cause I need it.

Huge computer / internet problems started Saturday. Tech.help from ISP rubbish for ten different reasons. Took me until late Sunday eve to make it all work again. See previous entry about extremely stupid IT people. I REALLY don’t need this at the moment.

Up and singing at 6 am. Spruced up and smart. Business today went well. Meanwhile - -

Parts of family and life making me so miserable. I love my ‘kids’ (who are all grown up and stuff) so when one of them turns their back on me it really hurts. Dear me how much it hurts.

Got more busines tomorrow and will be up for it, chipper, smart, on the ball. I’ll win. It can’t mask the hurt.

Dad’s rule today? Go stuff yourself because it will hurt less than when someone you love very much does it to you. Was it deliberate? Well, yes, the act was a choice but I truly hope that the result was unintended. Am I being reasonable? No. Am I hurt? Yes. Make of that what you will. Should I have said any of this? No. Will you tell anyone else how very miserable I am? Please, no. Blame Henry for encouraging me to say how I feel. Dad

Lordh put an interesting comment on my earlier blog. So let’s debate his various perceptions. For starters, too few people are looking over the lip of their glass at what is happening in terms of government. Big ‘G’ is not being looked at in terms of the larger picture. That’s where the trouble is coming from.

I fully agree with him that fascism never left us, it just hid for a while. Now it’s returning with a (real) vengeance. I also agree that this govt. is hideously authoritarian and is busy ripping up our Nation and our heritage by the shed load every day. But few people have cottoned on to this.

Like Lh I am sickened when I read of the ludicrous money paid to (not earned by) pluted bloatocrats whether they do good or not. Sickening. The current govt. is in thrall to anyone with big bucks (bizniz or showbiz) who will drop them a wodge of cash. Then they make them a ‘Sir’ or give them a gong - which promptly diminishes its value for peope who really deserve it.

But I can’t agree that the DM paper is wrong. I don’t read it but SOMEONE has to stand up to the b (as in b. blair) gov’t even of they go over the top. And there are ‘floods’of immigrants and they, plus this ‘diversity’ nonsense, are ruining our country.

No, Lm, Bush is NOT a criminal. He’s doing the best he can for his Nation, right or wrong. And no bastard is doing anything at all for ours.

As for the EU - how in Hell you can give that creepy crawly tape-worm unelected overpaid shower the time of day I don’t know. A slimy, disgusting, underhand sickness that has already sucked our Nation into crawling obsequiousness gladly urged on and abetted by a govt. that cares not one jot for our Nation. I think you should re-think your love of the EU. Or move there. Because we are NOT Europe, we are England (we were Great Britain but blair f’d that).

So what do you think - especially if you are not in what used to be great what used to be britain.

Definitely food for much thought. Miserable Dad

Puzzled by phone calls from chums saying ’snowed in’, ‘no food’, ‘car won’t start’. Last two days here dry / bright / sunny / cold-ish wind. Today same but much warmer. We have a micro-climate here that means we never get the weather they tell you about on the TV. Weird. Needed special music today so dug out my Gordon Haskell CD’s. Remember him? He had a one-shot wonder with ‘How wonderful you are’ a.k.a. ‘Harry’s Bar’. Works for me this morning.

Want to say thanks to visitors to the site and the very helpful comments I’ve had. Henry wasn’t sure I should do this and neither was I. Seems to be working and lets me imagine you all out there whom I’ll never meet but with whom I can share something.

Too much to do preparing for two Coaching Sessions Mon / Tue next week. I’ll get there. Actually too many things going on generally. I think I’ve lost the plot at the moment.

I’m feeling depressed about governments at the moment. Perhaps Russia needs an authoritarian hand, but I don’t like where Putin is coming from. Ending state communism was a good thing but the predictable following void was filled with crooks and chancers. Life was always like that. So how to have a quasi-democratic government whilst squashing the crooks flat? China worries me. That is one big mother. But if the steel bands that have throttled people are relaxed, might China break out into Regional strife? The Kurds, the Bretons / Cornish, various Irish, the Quebecoise - Regional focus is springing up everywhere. Meanwhile the EU is steamrollering on towards obliterating long established States - like England, for example. No more England, just nine Regions? What? Roll our history back a few hundred years? And people SUPPORT this? Why does our government (small g) scurry to abandon our RIGHT to govern oursleves? That’s why they’re emasculating our superb armed forces - so we HAVE to depend on the other EU lot. Just look back over two World Wars and see how well we would have done if we depended on them. We’d have been enslaved for decades and would still be now. And we are now. I just can’t see it. Am I the last person standing up for National independence?

Well, I’m too old for this. The baton must pass to other generations. But I’d hate to die with the knowledge that the country I love has been finally sold down the river. It’s the 11th. hour and 30 mins. - but all is not yet lost.

After that it’s hard to find a good thought for today. Perhaps - never lose your belief. Never agree to something that denies us our freedom as a Nation. WHATEVER the bastards say, we can wrench our Nation back from being subsumed into a gross cattle-wallow. If you’re reading this and your Nation is still free, watch out and defend that. Hard won; easily given up by liars and cheats. Have a good one. Dad.

Dull day here, occasional mists of rain, nothing much, really. Warmer than yesterday. George Straight and Pure Country on the player today.

Been running around doing Dolls House business for herself. This is getting really serious. How do you make a cabbage 1/4 in. diameter? Answers on a £5 note please. But I’ll figure it out.

Apart from Henry’s preoccupation with food, there’s a lot about it in the papers. It seems that people here and especially the US are obese-ish. Apparently processed / fast food is much to blame for this. I have a problem understanding this whilst believing it to be true. Yup, I eat a hamburger at anywhere that is NOT McDonalds (because their food taste foul) about three times a year. Yup, I order in a takeaway - Indian, Chinese, w.h.y. about four times a year. No, we don’t buy / eat ready-made meals because we can do better oursleves very easily and at about half the price. No, neither of us are restaurant-quality cooks - but we like cooking. Simple food made from the best ingredients. Poole is a port and we can buy day-fresh fish from the guys that catch it. Fresh meat is around at farms, in Supermarkeys. Because if you use rubbish ingredients you get rubbish food and you’ve wasted your money, your time and the fuel needed to cook it. Good simple food can be cooked in minutes and costs less than bought-in meals-in-a-bag. So why do people spend more money than they need eating rubbish? It’s totally beyond me. Example: Buy a hock, (the pig not the wine) it costs about 50pence. Cook it with potatoes and other veg costing about 50 pence and you get a gorgeous meal for 4 or two meals for 2. Why pay more for rubbish? Even less easy to understand, if you’re tight for money, why pay more money than you need to for worse food? Can anyone explain because I can’t make sense of it. Peasants cooked peasant food over smoky fires in simple dishes. It’s all good tasty, inexpensive stuff and we can all do it easily.

So what elase is new? The garden is already getting away from me. Got to do the pruning before the Spring growth shoots. But it’s cold out there and I don’t fancy it. Hmm. I’m just not a natural gardener and I’ll pay for my reluctance later on. BUT I’ve created a garden with no grass because I have no small people who need grass to play on and I regard mowing a lawn week-in-week-out as a total waste of my time. So it could be worse.

If you wanted to give other people one brief idea about how to enjoy life more, what would you say? I’d like to hear what you think.

Oh and on-going thanks to Superior Simon. ‘online poker’ hasn’t reappeared. People like that curdle my stomach and make me feel very ungracious. I don’t ‘do’physical violence and don’t accept it, but I’d LOVE to have one or more of these pillochs who spam me and make me miserable in the same room for a (long) while whilst I expained about their total stupidity and lack of morality. And other things.

Hey, do something for me. Sit down, play some music you really love, think how much life offers to you - and all of us - and feel content if only for a few minutes. If you do that, you’ll make me feel good, too. Cheers, Dad.

Windy, cloudy, cold - a nuffink kind of day. No snow, never not nohow down here. Been out workin’ an’ talkin’ an’ doin’ de stuff now back and wrapped in warm heating and more Chet Atkins.

Well my sanity has been saved by St.Simon. Beset by pest ‘online poker’ he’s come up with a fix that turns the silly bxxxxr off. Apparently it’s a mechanised spam to do with influencing Google. Me, I don’t understand this stuff but praise St.Simon to the skies. When dealing with (other) IT people I stun them into silence by saying ‘I am an (old) engineer. I regard a computer and all its works as a spanner. I just want to USE the bxxxxy thing, I don’t want to redesign it, make it, mend it, keep putting it back in my toolbox in the middle of the job, shut the box, reopen the box, pick up the spanner again, start using it again’. What’s wrong with the IT world? Answers on a £10 note please, all 1,000 of you. Other currencies accepted at discounted exchange rate.

Which brings me back to yesterday. Post arrives. Short while after neighbour arrives (puff, puff) saying ‘Sorry, this your mail, came to us’. Form leter from TV authority sent to wrong house number telling me I bought a TV receiving apparatus from X & Y ltd in January but I have no TV licence so pay up or be shot. Hmm. Well I don’t live there, I live here. Have had licence for ever. Why are X & Y ltd snitching on me? Phone up. Get nice guy. Well X & Y ltd. are obliged by law to say to whom they sell things that take in TV signals and the VCR I bought does that. However X & Y ltd did not tell me they were obliged to snitch on me so it’s news. Hmm. G.Orwell, 1984, we’re HERE and NOW. Say for centuries English people presumed innocent until proven guilty but TV lot assume I’m guilty until I prove innocence. Yup. Hmm. Wrong address why no-one check? We don’t. Hmm. More stuff and then am told I will get a ‘reminder’. Say - ‘Stop it’. ‘Can’t’. Say will get out of pram if harrassed. So? Hmm. Say system devised for convenience of TV authority not respect for CUSTOMER - ie s/he who pay money. Designed by idiot. Much silence. Say ‘Arrange for letter of apology’. ‘Will ask’ ‘No, fix it’ ‘Will ask’. Please can we have our country back? If people are copping out of paying TV licence and I am keeping BBC going on my own then system is stupid. So change system. Cancel licence, get blair (doesn’t deserve capital although he is a capital ‘B’) to pay for own family holiday flights instead of using RAF aircraft I pay for and use money saved to pay for BBC. Oh and fire the left wing BBC people who pervert the National news. So now only 4 people left at BBC. Called applied economics.

Surely, please, pretty please, I can’t be the only person who knows this government is filled with statist wankers? Give us back our freedom. Lab wants to make everyone dependent on the government so they are shackled and daren’t argue. That is totalitarian and I’m really not up for it. Every damned day they steal our birthright, history and freedom from us. Look at it. blair’s lot are doing EXACTLY what Hitler did in the 20’s / 30’s. No I DIDN’T say little b (that he is) wants to kill Jews - but a totalitarian takeover is a totalitarian takeover wherever it leads. He’s following EXACTLY the same line Hitler did when he took over the Reichstag and Germany. Read about it. Help! Now! Please!

Take a breath and do one kind thing today. I will and it will help to subdue the pain I feel. Take care, everyone. Dad

Cloudy, windy and cold today - and that’s just the weather. Music Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler.

FIRSTLY - to ‘online poker’ @ ‘tigerspice’ - as a Solution Focussed Brief Therapist (the full title or an SFBT for short) there are certain problems I don’t deal with and they include ’substance abuse’. I don’t know what you’re on, but it’s something. You’re out of your skull and whether or not your ‘insights’ have a value (and in a different context they may have) they do not relate to my thoughts and you are really not welcome on my site. OK? Got that? Go bother someone else.

Alright, what do I do as an SFBT? Well for most of my life I’ve been working with / studying / w.h.y. applied psychology. Conventional psychotherapy lasts for yonks and takes you back - inch by inch - to when you were in your mother’s arms and seeks to rebuild you in a different model. That’s why so often in American films a character says that s/he visits her/his therapist every Thursday at 3 o’clock and has done for the last 10 years. Here, John Cleese has often commented on his reliance on his therapist. Yes. Well. As an SFBT I don’t seek to rebuild you. I just focus on ‘the problem’ and how it can be fixed / ameliorated right now. If a client is still with me 10 sessions on then they are becoming dependent on me - which is not what we do. So I turn it off and tell themI can’t accept their dependency. SFBT’s collect data and the average number of client sessions is three. Well, it works for my clients and it sure works for me. Might it work for you?

OFFER - if you have a problem, I might be able to help you. It works better face-to-face but even via e mail. Just ask - no charge for blog site members. Use my private e mail windsor@power-base.co.uk Well, you can’t lose with that, can you? But NOT ‘on-line poker’, OK?

Well herself is back home and it’s lunchtime. I’ll leave the problem of Orwellian 1984 and the TV Licensing people for another time. But I’ve had a REALLY bad morning and I’m quite out of shape. Don’t like that. Dad

NEXT -

Where did the weekend go? Oh well, it’s 36 deg. C this morning but a steady fresh beeze makes it feel MUCH colder. We don’t normally ‘do’ real cold in Dorset. Off sharpish to the village for money moving, cleaning collection and library visit (was too busy writing a Proposal on Saturday to make usual visit). Saw nice man in cleaners and discussed his new shop in Wimborne, spread cheer at bank and bldg. soc., chatted with nice library ladies - pretty usual enjoyable social visit. Back home, door shut, heating on. Bach and Handel for today. Need tranquility.

I’m playing myself in with some different herbal teas. I’ve been drinking camomile (with honey) for years but thought I’d have a change so I picked up two blends, one based on green tea + herbs and the other on dandelion & burdock + herbs. Much nicer than one might think. I’m an early bird, not a night owl, so my most creative time of day is the morning. For years I drank too much / too strong coffee then. Decided to change the rules and for a few years had just one mug of tea when I got up then no more caffeine till tomorrow. Rocket from the Doc suggests I don’t drink enough fluids so hence the tea experiment. We’ll see what (if anything) is the result. Anyone got any favourites that I might try?

It’s turning into a scrappy morning. I’ve a number of different things to do so chopping and changing interrupts the flow. I’d better get on with it all instead of using blogging as a diplacement activity!

Most people are as as happy as they choose to be. So why not choose ‘happy’ today. Who knows - you might make someone else happier that way, too. Take care - Dad.

Well it’s cold, clear blue sky and bright sunshine. Fire lit early so temptation to laze by it - throw another log on - BUT there’s masses to do. Music Buddy Rich at the moment. Various Baroque next.

Herself can hardly keep up with need to make more dolls house gardens - trade with the USA now up to 70%. One garden with fountain and bird sold to Texas on e-bay at Buy Now price - bang - in 50 mins. Crumbs.

I’m thinking about hospitals (there’s a cheering idea) at the moment. I spent a year in a sanatorium in Norfolk in the 1950’s with TB. Being confined to bed for weeks when you’re about 24 is a life-defining experience. I’ve been in hospital(s) at other times including a fairly recent interesting time when I was supposed to be in a coma and I have to say that whilst the nursing staff are (fairly) OK the rest is, in comparative terms, rubbish. No wonder MRSA kills 5,000 people a year. My mini-ward was FILTHY. In a week I never saw a nurse or doctor wash their hands between patients at the conveniently placed ward washbasin. I won’t detail the rest of it. And a Staff Nurse (nice person) refused to put a fresh canula in my wrist (don’t ask) not because she couldn’t do it but, as she said to me, she’s ‘not paid to do it’. What? She’s a senior nurse! Many things are incredibly wrong with the NHS which neither the REAL people in it (ie not paper-pushers) nor the poor bxxxxy patients deserve. Thank you, el-pretendo-presidente blair. The NHS was not right before you conned a minority of people to vote for you and you have managed to waste TONS of OUR money on crap non-medical non-patient costs and simply made the whole thing worse. I really don’t feel happy about that. And as for the mixed wards the S.Telegraph is exploring!!! Please think of the worst word you can, then imagine a word worse than that. And you still won’t have thought of the bad language in my head. Oh, and minimus blair PROMISED in both his last two stunning (minority) election victories that mixed-sex wards would no longer exist. WHO THE HELL votes for a disgusting liar? - because mixed wards are disgusting.

Well, better out than in, as Mother used to say. Think of something good, Dad. Yes. Another of Dad’s aphorisms: Excellence is not an isolated act, but a habit. Seems to me that a lot of people have the wrong habits. I wonder why?

It’s Sunday. Listen to fine music. Read a little of something that makes you reach for higher goals. Enjoy the people, pets and environment around you. And so feel calmer and stronger for tomorrow. With Dad’s love.

Sun shining again, not too cold, busy Saturday and herself having her hair cut in the kitchen. Bought more logs, new fire shortly. Nothing new there, then. Chet Atkins playing today.

Yes, well, it seems that most of the things I write about are as interesting as a dead slug. Hmm. I’m sorry about that. Small, modest fame went to my head so forgive me. Henry says I should continue. Hmm.

Herself is going like mad with the mini-gardens and can’t keep up. I’m trying to help any way I can.

Meanwhile have two requests out of the blue. Can I help deliver Dorset’s ‘Workforce Development Strategy 2003 - 2006′? Yes. Do I believe that massive cost of buildings / people / guaranteed pensions will actually improve anything? No. See T.Blair, the liar and G.Brown, the thief. Can I provide ‘Anger Management Programme for 17 - 25 yr old people’?Yes. So have spent some time writing proposals etc. etc. Prefer the Anger one which means I probably won’t get it. A funny thing, anger. Lots of causes. Simple ways to deal with it. Please let me be wrong and help young people.

Well, that’s as much as I have the strength for. May your God be with you and be happy. Dad

Yesterday’s anniversary was a lovely day. Soft, gentle, warm. Today the sun shines, it’s not so cold and I’m listening to Randy Edelman.

Funny things, computers. They keep not doing what they should. I regard them as something like a spanner. I don’t want to design it, manufacture it or understand it. I just want to use the thing. How have we all become brain-washed to accept computer company dictatorship? Not doing what one has been told they will do is OK and if they don’t - tough. Why is it that the rules that apply to any other product / service conveniently don’t apply to computery? Weird.

Moved on to Scott Joplin.

What’s the matter with people? Got a message to phone X at Y phone number. Do. Answerphone. Leave message. No call back. Phone again. Ditto. Phone again, this time get Z who says X in at 13.00hrs and will phone as soon as is in. Now 13.30 hrs. No phone. A promise is a promise and a promise given on one’s behalf is also a promise. Are modern promises like computers? No, we won’t do what we promised and hard luck? Oh dear oh dear. Sorry, I don’t inhabit that world and don’t find it acceptable.

Why is my office full of stuff that’s so old it can’t matter any more but I daren’t throw away because within two weeks I’ll need it again? You too?

Enough, Dad.

Dad’s rule today? There’s no shortcut to anywhere worth going. Just a thought.
Stay well, be happy, bring some small happiness to someone else. Dad.

Wedding anniversary today so broad smiles all round. Lunch should be good and I’ll light the fire before herself comes home. That will be nice. Lots of hyacinth bulbs now blooming in the house - just in time. Smells gorgeous. Severely shaken to find Dave Brubeck CD case empty!! As a drummer I love his ‘off-beat’ tempos. Have run screaming to classical with Lyrita CD by Quad. First number is ‘A Winter Idyll’ by Holst. About right for today’s cold.

Previous post brought universal agreement no-one voted for Blair’s lot. There MUST be enough of us by now to tip them out, surely?

My views on men protecting women / children threw up a real misunderstanding over the fact that a (missing) culture of male chivalry has enormous broad social benefit without conflicting in any way with women’s potential. Men behaving chivalrously towards women and protecting all children from harm is a thoroughly appropriate male role. It has nothing whatsoever to do with gender equality which I’ve been preching since before it was an issue. I appointed a female Managing Director and made her a Member of the Inst. of Directors years ago when she was a real curiosity. We were often invited to give a joint talk about women being pretty good at things and how to break the infamous glass ceiling. Oh, and she had two children whilst doing the job. No prob. Actually, there are various ways in which women out-perform men. That, too, has nothing to do with protecting them. Chivalry and care result in much improved standards of social behaviour from which both men and women benefit. Coarse and inconsiderate male behaviour makes life worse for all of us. As for abusing children - ! The nauseating behaviour towards women of men from other societies is merely a sign of a repressed and undeveloped society. Were our standards of behaviour much more chivalrous we would have a good example to demonstrate. As it is, public behaviour by too many Brits at home and especially on holiday might lead others to prefer a more structured and respectful form of society even with manifold attendant disadvantages. Both are bad but in differing ways. Hmm. I’ve long felt that aggressive feminism did women’s lot in the world a great deal of harm - albeit for misgiudedly good reasons. End of social commentary.

Am back in the saddle teaching people things. When I started providing business training 40 years ago I figured the idea had a life-span of 10 years. After that, the people I’d taught would be managers and able to teach their own people themselves. Instead of declining, the need just got bigger. And today’s people seem to know much less about things in general than their peers of 40 years ago. Weird. The more we learn the less we know.

Two more of Dad’s rules: Losers let it happen; winners make it happen. And if you can’t be beautiful you have to be tidy. (That’s NOT a gender-based statement!) Have a good one, everyone. I plan to. Dad.

I’m not in a good mood today. It’s bright and sunny here in Dorset but VERY cold (We don’t ‘do’ cold in Dorset). Music is Billy Ray Cyrus and I’m struggling with some research for a job I’ve got to do.

In case you missed the comments, there was some chat about PC language / attitudes. I’m v. strongly in favour of respect and courtesy as well as care and defence of women and children. PC is simply stupid. The leader of a committee is a Chairman.That word has no gender connotations, it’s just a word describing a role. A chair is something you sit on. I’ve had to put up with some of this stupidity and it, and the people who use it, make me exceedingly cross.

Which brings me to the current government and would-be president Blair. If we live in a democracy, how can a raving pilloch whose party won a minority of just over 40% of the vote have such a whopping majority that he can ignore Parliament altogether in many ways, smash both Great Britain and the United Kingdom which have been around for a few centuries and take his family on holiday in our mini-equivalent of Bush’s Air Force 1? I’m paying for that and I REALLY don’t like it!! The reason for the vote fiddle is gerrymandering. The whole beastly lot are as bent as a nine bob note, as we used to say. But can I find who the person is who voted for this ramshackle Nation shattering party? No. And why has this person n-million votes when I and all the people I talk to have only one each? I’m not joking - because destroying my country is not a joke. I could go on for another couple of days but I’ve had it up to here with lies and fraudulent theft of people’s money (ie stolen by force under false pretences).

Pursuing Kimberley Quinn the moment she leaves hospital after the birth of her child with legal actions demanding paternity rights and God knows what else is a good example of a Labour politician’s idea of caring for someone. How in God’s name can Blunkett do that to a woman? Putting her through the wringer says a lot about how much he cared for her. He should be put down, behind the potting shed, preferably in a way that takes rather a long time and hurts quite a lot. He’s a damned disgrace to every man in treating his one-time lover like that for his own satisfaction. Graceless, domineering sod. And yes, I think he’s climbed mountains dealing with his infirmity and I don’t think I could have done it. But that’s no reason to behave so disgracefully to a woman. See above reference to care of women / children. They come first for real men.

I’d better stop. As I said, I’m not in a good mood. I think I’ll have lunch.

Dad

Well the sun’s shining, it’s cold, and I’m playing Rimsky-Korsakov and other Russians today.

Had a busy morning so far doing ’stuff’ for the mini-gardens. Much excitement yesterday as 8 people fought each other to a standstill on e-bay for a matched pair of dolls house flower beds. Stratospheric price! Plan A this week is to make some more, pronto. US market still buying more than Europe. Must think about what that means.

Apart from helping herself by preparing materials, sawing, filing, etc. ready for her brilliant craft skills my working week started today by NOT buying interesting small business that needed rescuing from idiots (plural) who think that posh new premises (always v. expensive) and IMPORTANT personal motors (always leased) come first and making a profit so the business can continue will look after itself. So 35 nice, ordinary people lose their jobs. I HATE that kind of thing. But can’t do the deal at a price that would work. So, there we go (again).

Tomorrow is Pin Point Coaching day. Have developed new approach to training business people which I’m trialling with a nice company. First session well received; session 2 becons. Hmm. We’ll see. If it goes OK I might Franchise the idea. I’m serious.

Why don’t people answer? I wrote to four people from the 1950’s and e-mailed a couple, too, about something v. important about our past, and memories about when we went into the RAF as raw officer cadets together. One (mini) answer. Am I the only person with a passion for the past? If we don’t save it, future people will never know what we did. Example: V. important Officer came as Guest to v. important dinner. All there in full fig. Posh. Smart. Yessir, nossir. Boring speech. Relaxed coffee and stuff after. Thought rotten speech deserved dealing with. Collected al-fresco gang. Sauntered out to the Gents. One distracted driver of BIG BLACK car parked at front door of Hotel. Rest of us highjacked bronze bust from entrance hall, wrapped it in (hotel) blanket and parked it, carefully, in the boot. NO in those days that was NOT vandalism - it was initiative. Took them days to figure it out. Heh, heh. Am I the only person who’s been doing stuff like that? Feels like it, sometimes. Harmless fun. No damage, no-one hurt, good jape though. Hi Henry - bet you never knew about my non-conformist past.

Just a Dad thought. Edna O’Brian said: ‘Political correctness is the replacement of intelligence by cant’. She could be right, but how many young people know what ‘cant’ is? Why is this stunningly stupid government (not worth a capital G) ruining our children’s future - and our land? I’ve never yet met anyone who voted for Blair so who the Hell is Hell bent on detroying our country? Dad.

Weather bright and pleasant. Music on computer John Denver. His ‘Sunshine on my shoulders’ has me in tears every time.

Self & wife paid regular Saturday visit to village for library and other chores, she having visited dreaded Tescos at 05.30 as usual. We’re early birds not late owls! She now off to purchase more materials for making more dolls’ house gardens - demand is booming! New product idea was flower bed with some flowers + dug hole, trowel, plant in ceramic pot and empty pot with earth left in, brick surround, sold to USA full price within minutes of appearing on e-bay. (Help - how do I put pic’s on this blog?) Now selling more than half to USA. Thinks - set US trips off against tax, open US Branch? Whatever next? Old shedfull of illegal immigants living in squalor on no money mass-producing ‘genuine fake mini-gardens’ (see prior post re e-mails)?

Had an odd ’senior moment’ yesterday following a late lunch (veal escallopes + veg). Had a snooze (a.k.a. Power Nap), did an hour’s worth of research into current project and said ‘I could really go some suet pud’. Enterprising wife says ‘Will Christmas Pudding do?’ ‘Yes - with syrup on.’ Ate. Happy.

It’s dangerous leaving me alone. I read in the DT that a Poole-based company is to be closed by a B-I-G Public Group. Just fire the 35 staff and move on. Having trawled the web for info - successfully - have e mailed the Ch.Exec. (the one with the posh chuvver driven car; multi-mega-bucks pay; stratospheric expense a/c; obscenely big bonus - and various things I can only guess at) and told him I’ll rescue it. If he says yes, I’ll have to figure out how the Hell to do it. I suspect he’ll say no (too much trouble) and I’ll tell the press. Sad, that (Heh, heh). The little people really do have ways of biting the ankles of the obscene. Watch this space for news.

I was never a conformist. I’m happy about that. So it’s my fault Henry’s a non-conformist, too. But I figure I have to live with myself 24 / 24. It brings me a lot of pain; it brings me some fun; now & again it brings me such pleasure of spirit when I get a result for someone. Above all, it allows me to live with myself.

Henry, who bravely invited me into his world, hoped that the nature of this blogging dialogue would grant him an insight into Dad’s world. I think his wish is being granted by some weird form of osmosis.

Dad’s (borrowed) rule today is a quote from George Bernard Shaw: ‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.’ No sexist attitude implied by the use of the word ‘man’. Oh, and it works for me. Stay well and be happy. Dad

Well nothing much seems to be happening on the blogging front and my last comments clearly didn’t hit any funny bones. It’s wet down here and rather raw (or as raw as it gets in Dorset) so having been up to the village I’m glad to be home. Music at the moment is Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris. Good stuff.

I suppose everyone will be doing Charles & Camilla. Same problem as with Ellen - very yes or very no accompanied by muck-raking and invidious comparisons. No quiet, reserved view focusing on the ‘now’ just a media feeding-freenzy. Dream marriage gone sour + media assassination + divorce + death + gross comments at funeral service + unending prurient media interference - blimey, how would anyone feel with that round their necks? Surely he deserves a bit of peace and happiness now? Certainly marriage beats a kind of shady ‘love life’ business. If they’d let the poor bloke marry her in the first place a whole lot of bad news would never have happened. You’ve deduced I’m not a Diana fan. As for the fathead who came up with the idea of the lethal rock-pool compounded by the group of even bigger idiots who had it built (with someone else’s money) what were they all on? Half a mind would have said what a lousy / impractical idea it was. I dunno. I’m just sick and tired of having it all thrust down my throat. I expect he is, too.

Are you sick of e mails? Well Iam. For a start, every day my Norton Security throws out about 35 mails concerning medical pills, my sexual performance / personal characteristics, spoof ’send us your bank details now’ stuff, offers of visual images of things that sick people do but I don’t fancy - and dud products. I loved ‘Buy genuine fake Rolex watches’ Wow, rip-off stuff is now official!! Since I never open / reply to this stuff, why do people keep mailing me? Crazy. Then I get some genuine stuff which I am happy to deal with. The main problem is that when I mail out with some query that is important to me but not to the person I mail, they simply ignore it. So what’s the point? I’ve gone back to sending faxes because no-one does any more. So at the other end someone comes up to a desk and says ‘Wow, look, we got a fax today!!!’ That way my fax trumps whatever is on their screen or in-tray. Works for me. I reckon the whole e mail thing is just too clogged up to work as a means of communication. So what next?

Saw my chum from 60 yrs ago yesterday. His home has no shower and no full length mirror. He stayed Wednesday night in a Travelodge down here and rejoiced in a (rare) shower. Stepped out and was confronted by full length mirror. ‘Aaargh - do I REALLY look that fat?’ Is now on self-imposed bread & not much water diet instead of daily fried breakfast / whisky / heavy lunch / wine / sleep / repeat as required normal programme. Well, he might have had a heart attack.

Remember, there are five keys to our lives:
The things we HAVE to do
The things we WANT to do
The things we HOPE to do
The things we do for FUN
The ATTITUDE we show to others

Make sure to do some of each one every day. Dad’s rules!

Take care, everyone - Dad

Re Lordh’s comment, teacher to bunch of 14 year olds - there should be a Team Leader (a.k.a. an NCO) in other words a pupil appointed as Team Leader and therefore (a) on the spot and responsible when teach is elsewhere (b) peer to other silly wally 14 yr old and can sort him/her out or yell ‘TEACH!!!!

Sorry about that.

Lordhutton’s comment on my post ‘It’s a busy day’ raised a fundamental point. How do you stop young people from being irresponsible? By making them responsible at an early age. As a Brief Therapist (another of my ‘hats’ - it’s a special kind of psychotherpist - works wonders) I’ve been helping someone whose child is being bullied at school. ‘Teachers can’t stop it because they’re busy and aren’t there to see what happens.’ Precisely. ‘Does the school have Prefects / Monitors?’ ‘No’ Wrong, wrong, wrong.’

The armed services have been figuring out how to run a navy/ army/ air force for centuries. They do it quite well. There are two basic groups, commissioned officers and other ranks. Called Teachers and Pupils. Officers come in two groups called field rank (army term) and junior ranks. Called Head Teachers / Heads of Year and Teachers. Other ranks come in three groups called Warrant Officers / Non-Commisioned officers / other ranks. Called School Prefects / Form or Year Monitors / Pupils. Other ranks can become Warrant Officers. Pupils can become School Prefects. Other ranks can become officers by passing through officer training. Pupils can become teachers by passing through teacher training. Spooky, innit? But it works. So which b idiot had the idea that no pupil should have more responsibility than another? Teaching kids from an early age to take responsibility for others and for various functions in school is a tremendous benefit to them. It also teaches those who are not promoted to that role to achnowledge authority and do their bit - otherwise their peer pupil will explain the meaning of life in simple terms. Not an adult - an equal.

So to the 14 year old kids. NEVER let anyone (kid or adult) loose without necessary training and a sound briefing about the task they face. After that they are responsible for themselves. Come on, people & kids have to learn to take responsibility for themselves. How do they learn? From training and by experience. We all fail at times (experience). Occasionally the outcome will be really bad. That is awful - BUT it’s how real life works. We CAN’T wrap kids and adults in all-safe cotton-wool. We learn our lessons and take our chances. It is impossible to gurantee 100% no-fail security. Life isn’t fair - but the better prepared one is the better chance of dodging many of life’s nasty little surprises. But we ARE at risk all the time. There’s no such thing as life-cotton-wool and the sooner we learn to be responsible for ourselves - and others - the better and safer for us. Here endeth the lesson.

Answering Lh’s post - when it all gopes wrong somebody learned something. Very occasionally it goes horribly wrong. V.sad for the one caught; huge lesson for the rest of us. Real life’s a bitch.

Posted previous and then found this mail from the USA. My, I’m so proud of her!

‘Hi , the beautiful little gardens arrived today, long before I was looking for them, so they came as a surprise. I think they are lovely and I’m so glad I bought them. Thank you so much for sending them to me so quickly. They look beautiful outside of my dollshouse. I have left very positive feedback for you and would love to buy from you again. Thank you very much.’

Quite brings a tear to the eye. She’ll be dead chuffed when she gets home!

Blown away by kindness / number / swiftness of comments. Cor! Thanks. Re kind enquiry about my handle, I think just Dad wivout the Henry. Then I can be anyone’s Dad who happens to need one for a moment or two. Music first - I normally put a CD on when hunched over my keyboard. Vangelis’ Oceanic this morning. s-o-o-thing. Might be Chet Atkins, or the Tavener Consort (that was yesterday) or Gregorian Chant. That’s for when I’m trying to manage a piece of research and make sense of it all! Expecting flying visit from teenage chum (from 60 yrs ago) who lives in St.Albans. I want to show him some of my wife’s work. Apart from her (half) day job she hand-crafts gardens, flower beds and planted containers for dolls’ houses. 1/12th. scale a.k.a. 1″ =1ft. V. artistic & v. fiddly. They sell like hot cakes and she has a growing fan club in the USA. I help with Product Innovation, Raw Materials Purchasing, Marketing, Admin. Oh, and light the fire.

My desk is acquiring snow-drifts of paper so must devote an hour to my own admin. I hate that. Actually I hate anything that is basically mindlessly repetitive. That’s why when we moved into the last house and then this bungalow I had ‘the men’ in and all the grass removed. (No small kids so no soft landing needed). Replaced by hard landscaping, low maintenance planting and a pond. Must have a pond - which must be 3′ deep for it to be ecologocally balanced. (No kids). Works well. (I’m a mine of small pieces of useless info.) In both cases ‘men’ said ‘You can’t not have a lawn’ (I LOVE double negatives). ‘My garden - no lawn. Mowing lawn more than once boring, repetitive, dull. Waste of part of my life-time.’ ‘Small piece of lawn?’ ‘Nope.’ ‘It won’t look right.’ ‘It will to me. And remember flower beds DON’T have straight dges.’ ‘Straight edges neat, orderly, easy for trimming edge of lawn.’ ‘Listen, sunshine, we have deal. I pay folding used money and make tea / coffee / provide biscuits. You do what I ask you to do. Which bit of ‘please’ don’t you understand?’ ‘Yes, Guv.’ ‘Splendid. More tea, anyone?’ Well it works for me.

A couple of things in the paper including the one about the Parliamentary Education Committee unhappy because School teacher Union urges members to refuse to take kids on trips for fear of litigation if there’s an accident. Me, I think this litigation / compensation thing has got seriously out of shape. Accidents DO happen. Why has this culture developed that says any ‘it’ must be someone else’s responsibility / problem? Any accident is a terrible thing. But people are fallible / stuff breaks / weather happens. Providing there was no deliberate / criminal intent - like beating up half blind 80 year old widows in their own homes (oh how proud some young muscle-bound total moron must be to brag about doing that to some inoffemsive pensioner - too scared to take up boxing so someone your own size can smash your face in, too?) then it was ‘an accident’ and stuff happens. Ah well, have a good one, everyone, and remember another of Dad’s rules. Do someone a good turn today without anyone knowing and without being thanked. Otherwise it won’t count.

O’erwhelmed by general feedback and extravagant compliments from son, I’ve caved in under Simon’s kind offer to help a web idiot to have his own blogsite. So I’M HERE NOW! By the way, pls see my comments on Simon’s site about the Ellen issue. So why am I mad about what happened today ? Well amongst other things I’m a qualified Mediator and have researched and published stuff about the subject. There is a NationalBody called Mediation UK to which I belong. I was asked to present a Workshop at their conference in March. Blushed. Said ‘Sure, thanks’. Phoned today to ask for details so I can prepare. New boy in job says ‘I’ve never heard of you’ Thinks: ‘Sounds good’ I gave him reference to the details and he is so off-hand and rude. Keep smiling. Agree I won’t do Workshop and say no, I’m not offended. I am, actually. Very. By what he said and how he said it. Ask if he wants copies of a special check-list I did which other Mediators say is great and there’s nothing else like it available. He’ll think about it. Could you let me know in 7 days please? I have to get the quantity you need printed. ‘I’ve got a lot on and can’t do that. I’ll let you know sometime if I want some.’ Dad’s rules are that if you agree something should happen then you agree the date by when it will happen so the person waiting needn’t worry every day in case the ‘doer’ has forgotten. No need to chase until agreed date. Simple, practical sense, also good co-operation. Explain I need to know if he DOESN’T want them and will be on tenterhooks because of time needed for printer to do job if it’s needed. ‘Well I’ll look into it some time.’ This person is young enough to be my grandson, goddammit. Since when was uncouth rudeness a part of business life? And who the Hell does he think he is? I’m happy to be an egalitarian but he reckons he’s superior. Really??? Enuff, Dad, enuff.