Morning Mugs,
3 years ago I had kidney stones. They were the single most bloody painful thing I'd had aside from Gout...which is excruciating. It transpires the cause was probably the fact that most days I'd drink a cup of coffee or two each day, and maybe a pint of squash or diet fizz in the evening. Over years this led to kidney stones, simply because I didn't drink enough fluids during the day.You think they might teach you that at school huh...but then I went back in the 70s when even smoking was seen as nothing more than a minor health hazard.
Nowadays, since the lithotripsy treatment which worked but also hurt, I now drink around 3 - 3.5 lites of fluid per day. The upside of this is that there are no further signs of stones forming.
The downside is that at 57 years off age, I need to use the loo every bloody 30 minutes. I have to plan all journeys around toilet access, or being lucky enough to be a bloke ensuring the routes have lay-by's available - one upside of being male is we can pretty much pee anywhere. Train journeys become all about ensuring you're near the loo and you known which direction it is from your seat. If of course you're lucky enough to have a seat. Plane journeys are all about planning when to have your last drink and 'comfort break' in case you're stuck on the runway, or as far from the pleb class loo as it's possible to be. I now wear trackie bottoms to ensure theres no belt pressure pushing down on the bladder along with the seat belt. On city or countryside breaks I now ensure the app Toilet Finder is on the phone so I know where I can go in the inevitable event of needing a wee. Believe me, from Imperial Harbour station to Stamford Bridge, I know every pub and restaurant along the walking route where you can get away with using the facilities without being a drink or food.
At school we were taught about the changes as we went into puberty. They were exciting changes. Hormones running wild and good physical changes. I firmly believe they should also add the changes the occur as middle age tightens it's grip. Tell them they will change again, and that this time...it may not necessarily be for the better.
Later Mugs, GJ
Friday 22 March 2019
Tuesday 19 March 2019
Relentless Bad News...it has to be bad for us...doesn't it?
Morning Mugs
It occurred to me this morning, whilst Google Assistant was replaying how my day was set up by telling me the news from the BBC and SKY that none of the news was good. None was positive. There was zero in there to affirm life. Nothing to give the impression that anything anywhere was actually any good.
Has anyone ever done a thesis or study into how this relentless barrage of bad news from social media, from the radio, the press, the TV and from every conceivable angle? it has to affect people, it's like brainwashing over long period of time. Humans are social animals and that mind infused negativity dripped into us over time must surely spread, and with that spread comes inaccuracies and exaggeration, and with that inaccuracy and exaggeration the fear grows, and toque Pink Floyd, 'and as the fear grows, the blood shows and and turns to stone'.
I'm pretty sure any study would show that negativity spread is growing, that the media and it's owners and the politicians know the best way to control, repress, oppress and bend the will of the people is by creating a culture of fear. They promote their negative perspective s concern for our safety. They tell us we need protecting from the big bad evils the world will throw at us. And only they can provide this. And collectively we fall for this. And collectively we turn the constant negativity into truths and maxims and the spread continues.
It really is a very miserable time to be alive in the UK. Yet....just a few short months ago I spent a week in Ireland. In the very south west corner on the Wild Atlantic Way and the Ring of Kerry. Everywhere we went we were met with an almost covert and subtle cheerfulness and optimistic positive outlook. From people in the fields to the bars to the shops to the museums the same cheery outlook pervaded every aspect of the break.
I'm very tempted to chuck all this shite in and shift my life to somewhere simpler, less materialistic, where people take the chance to breathe, to talk, to sing, to dance, to shrug their shoulders to the world and say 'whatever...just leave us be...'
Thats the life I really want.
Later Mugs, GJ
It occurred to me this morning, whilst Google Assistant was replaying how my day was set up by telling me the news from the BBC and SKY that none of the news was good. None was positive. There was zero in there to affirm life. Nothing to give the impression that anything anywhere was actually any good.
Has anyone ever done a thesis or study into how this relentless barrage of bad news from social media, from the radio, the press, the TV and from every conceivable angle? it has to affect people, it's like brainwashing over long period of time. Humans are social animals and that mind infused negativity dripped into us over time must surely spread, and with that spread comes inaccuracies and exaggeration, and with that inaccuracy and exaggeration the fear grows, and toque Pink Floyd, 'and as the fear grows, the blood shows and and turns to stone'.
I'm pretty sure any study would show that negativity spread is growing, that the media and it's owners and the politicians know the best way to control, repress, oppress and bend the will of the people is by creating a culture of fear. They promote their negative perspective s concern for our safety. They tell us we need protecting from the big bad evils the world will throw at us. And only they can provide this. And collectively we fall for this. And collectively we turn the constant negativity into truths and maxims and the spread continues.
It really is a very miserable time to be alive in the UK. Yet....just a few short months ago I spent a week in Ireland. In the very south west corner on the Wild Atlantic Way and the Ring of Kerry. Everywhere we went we were met with an almost covert and subtle cheerfulness and optimistic positive outlook. From people in the fields to the bars to the shops to the museums the same cheery outlook pervaded every aspect of the break.
I'm very tempted to chuck all this shite in and shift my life to somewhere simpler, less materialistic, where people take the chance to breathe, to talk, to sing, to dance, to shrug their shoulders to the world and say 'whatever...just leave us be...'
Thats the life I really want.
Later Mugs, GJ
Friday 8 March 2019
Jacko. Wacko? Nonce? Both?
Morning Mugs,
Like many I watched the Leaving Neverland documentary over the last two nights.A very difficult watch, very difficult. I am no huge Jackson fan , but it's hard not to twitch a leg to Off the Wall or the Thriller albums. It's hard not to get swept up by the majesty of The Earth Song. There's a hell of a legacy there for fantastic pop music, even if by the end the talent was spent...unlike Bowie, Jackson had run out of creative steam.
So, a fantastic pop star, but for me nowhere near Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Stones, Beatles, U2 or Abba. That's just personal taste though.
After all of the latest allegations he now looks like primarily being remembered for being a child abuser. A paedophile. A sex criminal. Which is all rather sad and to me unnecessary. Watching the documentary wasn't easy, the detail was very graphic and hard to listen to. I'm still not quite 100% there bout the second part which exposed the rifts in the families involved seems very hard to make up. Both 'victims' came over as seemingly honest. Interestingly neither of them seemed to want to say anything nasty about Jackson which was odd, but also seems to underpin the conflicts the victims of child sex abuse feel. They feel they are breaking the trust of someone who loved them....as children that's a very big heartbreak.
Some aspects of the documentary made me uneasy though. First of all, the two men's statements we're virtually identical when describing the activities they were engaged in by Jackson. Spookily so, and had I not known better I would have suspected they'd been coached by lawyers or others. That seems unfair I know......and maybe they're both describing the modus operandi of Jackson...and it seems well known that abusers follow patterns that have previously been successful. A tried and tested formula I suppose. Then there are the families...the nearest and dearest who allowed this near abduction to take place. A mother who slept along the corridor whilst her son shared Jacksons bed. I mean, come on what parent would find that acceptable? Unless of course, the money, the reflected fame, the gifts and the promises all add up to bribes used in a complete and planned grooming process.
I've been sceptical that sane adult people can be groomed...then I watched Abducted In Plain Sight and that weird documentary truly opened my eyes up to the sheer gullibility, malleability and susceptibility of seemingly sane people to acts of apparent altruism and kindness. Groomers will groom whoever they feel is advantageous to them reaching their target. I'm also sceptical as to why, now he's dead, there aren't staff and workers and friends and even relatives who haven't seen this, haven't known this stuff was going on. What is there for them to fear? Backlash from 'the estate'? Well, fuck the estate...it's just an organisation dedicated to preserving the good memory of a flawed man in order to keep the big money rolling in. There must be so many others who knew...and if they're not speaking then they're being complicit aren't they? Would an amnesty on perjury or any follow up criminal action help? Would protection of any received income or 'pay offs' under a gagging order help them come forward?
Who knows? But as I say I'm leaning towards his guilt, quite heavily now and more so than before. I'm still uneasy about allegations against someone no longer able to defend themselves or explain but the truth is the greater priority I suppose. One thing is certain, Jackson himself was deeply flawed and deeply mentally ill. I can't help but think this was all a result of a bullying overbearing father, a culture within the family to be nothing more than a human performing seal. A closed brotherhood with secrets protected by the heinous false religion of Jehovah's Witnesses (how the hell does a civilised society allow them to exist?) and a willing and knowing collective cognitive dissonance amongst his family, his friends, his employees and maybe even the authorities. I think it's fair to say that in this case, the abused becomes the abuser. I hope the cycle stops with his alleged victims, both of whom came over as damaged and yet stable people trying to live as normal a life as is possible.
But we certainly haven't heard the last of this whole sorry saga that is the life of Michael Jackson yet. The man who had everything and yet seems to have had nothing.
Later Mugs.
Like many I watched the Leaving Neverland documentary over the last two nights.A very difficult watch, very difficult. I am no huge Jackson fan , but it's hard not to twitch a leg to Off the Wall or the Thriller albums. It's hard not to get swept up by the majesty of The Earth Song. There's a hell of a legacy there for fantastic pop music, even if by the end the talent was spent...unlike Bowie, Jackson had run out of creative steam.
So, a fantastic pop star, but for me nowhere near Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Stones, Beatles, U2 or Abba. That's just personal taste though.
After all of the latest allegations he now looks like primarily being remembered for being a child abuser. A paedophile. A sex criminal. Which is all rather sad and to me unnecessary. Watching the documentary wasn't easy, the detail was very graphic and hard to listen to. I'm still not quite 100% there bout the second part which exposed the rifts in the families involved seems very hard to make up. Both 'victims' came over as seemingly honest. Interestingly neither of them seemed to want to say anything nasty about Jackson which was odd, but also seems to underpin the conflicts the victims of child sex abuse feel. They feel they are breaking the trust of someone who loved them....as children that's a very big heartbreak.
Some aspects of the documentary made me uneasy though. First of all, the two men's statements we're virtually identical when describing the activities they were engaged in by Jackson. Spookily so, and had I not known better I would have suspected they'd been coached by lawyers or others. That seems unfair I know......and maybe they're both describing the modus operandi of Jackson...and it seems well known that abusers follow patterns that have previously been successful. A tried and tested formula I suppose. Then there are the families...the nearest and dearest who allowed this near abduction to take place. A mother who slept along the corridor whilst her son shared Jacksons bed. I mean, come on what parent would find that acceptable? Unless of course, the money, the reflected fame, the gifts and the promises all add up to bribes used in a complete and planned grooming process.
I've been sceptical that sane adult people can be groomed...then I watched Abducted In Plain Sight and that weird documentary truly opened my eyes up to the sheer gullibility, malleability and susceptibility of seemingly sane people to acts of apparent altruism and kindness. Groomers will groom whoever they feel is advantageous to them reaching their target. I'm also sceptical as to why, now he's dead, there aren't staff and workers and friends and even relatives who haven't seen this, haven't known this stuff was going on. What is there for them to fear? Backlash from 'the estate'? Well, fuck the estate...it's just an organisation dedicated to preserving the good memory of a flawed man in order to keep the big money rolling in. There must be so many others who knew...and if they're not speaking then they're being complicit aren't they? Would an amnesty on perjury or any follow up criminal action help? Would protection of any received income or 'pay offs' under a gagging order help them come forward?
Who knows? But as I say I'm leaning towards his guilt, quite heavily now and more so than before. I'm still uneasy about allegations against someone no longer able to defend themselves or explain but the truth is the greater priority I suppose. One thing is certain, Jackson himself was deeply flawed and deeply mentally ill. I can't help but think this was all a result of a bullying overbearing father, a culture within the family to be nothing more than a human performing seal. A closed brotherhood with secrets protected by the heinous false religion of Jehovah's Witnesses (how the hell does a civilised society allow them to exist?) and a willing and knowing collective cognitive dissonance amongst his family, his friends, his employees and maybe even the authorities. I think it's fair to say that in this case, the abused becomes the abuser. I hope the cycle stops with his alleged victims, both of whom came over as damaged and yet stable people trying to live as normal a life as is possible.
But we certainly haven't heard the last of this whole sorry saga that is the life of Michael Jackson yet. The man who had everything and yet seems to have had nothing.
Later Mugs.
Tuesday 5 March 2019
25 days to go
Morning Mugs
25 days to go then. Brexit looms large and there is still no deal on the table. If we crash out with no deal then the economy is forecast to tank by 9%. Put that into context, the 2008 recession caused it to drop by just under 2%. Expect bad things. Lorries queueing at the ports. The cessation of the transport of medicines and chemicals and many other specially licensed goods. Services of course, such as lots of finance will be on its arse as various licences to trade cease. Eurostar, the shuttle and air travel will be disrupted. And of course we have the irish border issue. I rediscovered my Irish roots recently. My mum was Irish and so I took advantage of this and got my Irish passport at the end of 2017. I've not used my UK one since and the chances are I won't even bother renewing it. Right now I truly hope the UK gets broken up, that Ireland reunifies and Scotland goes its own way. Why is one Union entered into voluntarily a bad union, but another forged by force a good one?
The truth is I'm not sure I want much to do with a country so seemingly willing to believe the lies of Farage and Rees-Mogg etc, a country of people that denied the 16 year olds a vote and then told them they were doing it for their best. How fucking patronising is that? A country that decided it's now citizens abroad a vote on an issue directly affecting them? A country that is about to give up the single biggest freedom - the right to live and work in 27 other countries - on the sword of a non-existent immigration issue, stoked by the fear factor racist right wing press. When did this country ever remove such a wide ranging human right in its entire existence? There is so much wrong with the UK, I'm now rather hoping everything is worse than the alleged 'Project Fear' forecast. In a sadisitc way I hope the very people who were told it would impact them the most find themselves impacted the most. I want to hear the hollow calls of how unfair further austerity is on them, how they are even poorer, how they can't get medicines they need as quickly as before. I really and rather childishly want to be able to say
'We told you so'.
Even though there's every chance I could be impacted by this. I have some vague plans ready but who knows how things will impact everyone. I do wonder, for example, how the banks are fixed for the mass mortgage, loan and credit card defaults that might be heading their way. What if a civil disobedience movement occurs, where people refuse to pay for fuel, debts etc en masse? Could we really be heading for a form of martial law? Riots on the streets? Civil War?
It may not go that far, but one thing is for certain, this country is divided like never before and those divisions will not be healed in my lifetime, and maybe not in my children lifetime. How incredibly sad and how easily avoidable ll of this mess was. But one good thing right come of it.....the death of the party system in this country, and with it the death of career politicians, first past the post electoral system, an unelected second house and the Conservative party who have acted in their own interests ahead of the nations. Scant compensation I know, but maybe the start of something new that makes society fairer and more representative.
Later Mugs
25 days to go then. Brexit looms large and there is still no deal on the table. If we crash out with no deal then the economy is forecast to tank by 9%. Put that into context, the 2008 recession caused it to drop by just under 2%. Expect bad things. Lorries queueing at the ports. The cessation of the transport of medicines and chemicals and many other specially licensed goods. Services of course, such as lots of finance will be on its arse as various licences to trade cease. Eurostar, the shuttle and air travel will be disrupted. And of course we have the irish border issue. I rediscovered my Irish roots recently. My mum was Irish and so I took advantage of this and got my Irish passport at the end of 2017. I've not used my UK one since and the chances are I won't even bother renewing it. Right now I truly hope the UK gets broken up, that Ireland reunifies and Scotland goes its own way. Why is one Union entered into voluntarily a bad union, but another forged by force a good one?
The truth is I'm not sure I want much to do with a country so seemingly willing to believe the lies of Farage and Rees-Mogg etc, a country of people that denied the 16 year olds a vote and then told them they were doing it for their best. How fucking patronising is that? A country that decided it's now citizens abroad a vote on an issue directly affecting them? A country that is about to give up the single biggest freedom - the right to live and work in 27 other countries - on the sword of a non-existent immigration issue, stoked by the fear factor racist right wing press. When did this country ever remove such a wide ranging human right in its entire existence? There is so much wrong with the UK, I'm now rather hoping everything is worse than the alleged 'Project Fear' forecast. In a sadisitc way I hope the very people who were told it would impact them the most find themselves impacted the most. I want to hear the hollow calls of how unfair further austerity is on them, how they are even poorer, how they can't get medicines they need as quickly as before. I really and rather childishly want to be able to say
'We told you so'.
Even though there's every chance I could be impacted by this. I have some vague plans ready but who knows how things will impact everyone. I do wonder, for example, how the banks are fixed for the mass mortgage, loan and credit card defaults that might be heading their way. What if a civil disobedience movement occurs, where people refuse to pay for fuel, debts etc en masse? Could we really be heading for a form of martial law? Riots on the streets? Civil War?
It may not go that far, but one thing is for certain, this country is divided like never before and those divisions will not be healed in my lifetime, and maybe not in my children lifetime. How incredibly sad and how easily avoidable ll of this mess was. But one good thing right come of it.....the death of the party system in this country, and with it the death of career politicians, first past the post electoral system, an unelected second house and the Conservative party who have acted in their own interests ahead of the nations. Scant compensation I know, but maybe the start of something new that makes society fairer and more representative.
Later Mugs
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