Countdown to the New Year

The countdown to the New Year has begun and, just as with the lead-up to Christmas Day, there's a sense of expectation in the air. But on top of that is a feeling that one door is closing as another opens, the sensation of a certain finality. The end of one year and the start of another makes us acutely aware of the passage of time, and the older we are the more aware of this we are. At this time of the year, thoughts often turn to our mortality as we review all those celebs who passed away during the year.

But as we cannot do anything about the march of time and, as yet, very little about our ageing bodies, it is surely the best policy to behave in a way which will make our time on this earth as worthwhile as possible. So we make New Year’s resolutions that we hope will improve our lives in the year to come and make us more content and hopefully happier. We promise ourselves and others that we will do this, that and the other in the months ahead and, I suppose, at the time we make the promise we mean it. But a few days, weeks or months down the line, our resolve proves to be less than steadfast and the cracks are beginning to show. Still, what the heck, there’s always next year ... we can renew our resolutions then if it doesn’t work out this year. However, as the years go by and we grow older, we no longer see the need for New Year’s resolutions and indeed it gets less and less likely that we’ll be around to keep them!

Of course no New Year’s Eve would be complete without all the celebrations and general festivities associated with seeing in the new year, and so this NYE, as with every previous NYE, there will be the usual partying and razzamatazz and woe betide those who, for one reason or another, are not in a mood to whoop it up. The best place for them would be in bed, their ears muffled, their eyes closed, and preferably asleep! I’m sorely tempted. As for the rest, who are in the party mood, this is their chance after several days of rest following Christmas, to get in another bout of revelry and overindulgence.

After the parties, the fireworks, the singing and dancing, the jubilation and the general madness of New Year's Eve, there remains only one thing to say before the lights go out for 2009:

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR, FOLKS!

Post-Christmas Shopping

Well, it's that other time of the year now. The frenzied pre-Christmas shopping, followed by the obligatory Christmas Day feasting and frolicking, has now given way to a frenzied post-Christmas shopping spree. Except that now there is the added delight that this new bout of shopping is mainly for oneself and not on presents for others, so some really expensive and useful stuff can now be bought which will soon become indispensable accoutrements of one's day-to-day life without which life would be unimaginable.

Now you may wonder at this point what ever happened to the economic recession which was supposed to have drained us of all our cash and emptied our pockets, making our very survival precarious. Miraculously, as from nowhere, we have money to spend on yet another frenetic round of shopping. In spite of all our earlier whingeing and whining, all our chest-beating and lamentations about our sorry financial state, our coffers are inexplicably full again. And so we lay siege to the stores again in our thousands, snapping up the bargains and must-have buys like there is no tomorrow. And where our pockets are not deep enough, there's always the trusty credit card to come to the rescue.

And so the show goes on, and it goes on simply because it must go on, simply because we know no other way of going on. We shop, we consume, we shop, we consume. We invent needs and we shop to satisfy these made-up needs. It does not matter that only a short while ago we felt abysmally sorry for ourselves and we raged against the bankers and the financiers for supposedly destroying our purchasing power and reducing us to penury. Somehow we're back on our feet and out there jostling with all the other dedicated shoppers to have our share of goods. You may have perceived from all this soul-searching an eternal truth of our modern world. Never mind about “where there’s life there’s hope”. I say unto you, my followers, “where there’s shopping there’s life”. As long as we can shop, we feel confident that there can’t be much wrong with the world whatever else is going on. As long as we can shop, God is in his Heaven, Satan in his Hell, and Man... in his Shopping Mall. And Christmas is of course the perfect excuse for a mad buying spree. The stores were closed for one day and already we were feeling the effects of this in nasty withdrawal symptoms. The ceaseless telly adds on Christmas Day have whetted our apetite and kept us wanting but we were powerless to do anything. Now with Boxing Day here and the stores open again and tempting us with unmissable offers at knock-down prices, it would almost be a dereliction of duty to stay at home and pass up such an opportunity. So out we go to the high street, the shopping mall, the shopping centre, the industrial estate, the hyper-market, to get in those items that will revolutionise our lives and ensure our happiness for a little while longer. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and get shopping!

My Birthday

Yes, it's my birthday and I'm wishing myself a happy birthday on here. It would be nice to have lots of fellow bloggers wishing me a happy birthday but, since that is about as likely as my growing a pair of wings and taking to the skies, I'm doing the job myself! How old am I? Well, let's just say I'm one year older than I was last year on this day, and leave it at that, shall we? After all, it's rude to ask a gentleman his age.

Needless to say, having my birthday on the day after Jesus's birthday, is no fun, in fact it's pretty shitty, as you might imagine. It means it is completely overshadowed by Christmas, that I have always received one lot of presents, taking in Christmas and my birthday, and that friends and family have been too busy organising for Christmas to think too much about my birthday. This bothered me when I was a child and a teenager and when people's presents and presence were very important to me, but it has long ceased to concern me now that I am much older and do not even really want to celebrate my birthday. But having one's birthday so close to Christmas day has been and always will be crappy and I wouldn't wish it on anyone!

Just take a look at that dark chocolate mousse cake. Wicked, isn't it? If the devil had a birthday cake, you might imagine it looking something like that. The blackest of chocolate with a forest of burning candles as a hairdo. If you manage to avoid singeing your eyebrows on those candles, the over-rich concentrated mass of chocolate is sure to make you sick as a parrot!

And of course we mustn't forget the presents. The above two are not mine, by the way. They only serve as props to give me an excuse to write about Xmas presents. They are 'generic' presents; often representative of presents whose wrapping is better than their content! In fact, with lovely wrapping such as this, if the gift inside isn't any good, you find yourself regretting you damaged the wrapping when you opened it up and now you can't use it to wrap up another present.

Christmas Thoughts II

Well, Christmas is all but upon us now and even the last bits of shopping have been done and what has been forgotten and not bought must now remain forgotten. It's time to get down to the preparations for Christmas Day. The decorations should already be up, Xmas cards should have been sent out days ago, the Xmas tree should already have been erected, where there is one, and presents should already be wrapped up and under the tree or wherever they are to go. Only one thing remains: Xmas fare. Food and drink! That at least makes all the running-around worthwhile... or does it?

As for Santa, he will still be doing his rounds as I write (as per the pic above) and will continue to do so for most of the night. So if you've been good throughout the year, you can expect to find your prezzie waiting for you when you get up in the morning. If there's nothing there, then maybe you have behaved rather badly and forfeited your right to a Xmas present. I suspect there will be a lot of glum faces on Christmas morning and a lot of soul-searching to understand why Father Christmas has not left a prezzie for certain individuals. But he knows, we cannot hide this sort of thing from him. So if you're one of the disappointed ones, then all I can say is "try harder next year!"

In all this of course we mustn't forget why we have Christmas in the first place. It's all about a baby boy born over 2,000 years ago in the Middle East who founded a new faith, who taught about the one true God and who handed down to us a moral code by which to live our lives. If we lose sight of this, then we have forgotten what Christmas is all about, why we celebrate it, what its message is, and what significance it has in our world today. And that's a pity, I think, regardless of whether we are believers or not. If nothing more, the existence of a man called Jesus (Joshua) who spoke about a God in Heaven is a historical fact. What is more, the Christian faith has shaped and moulded our world over the centuries and still does, and that, whatever else one believes, is a historical fact. And a myth, just as much as a historical event, can give rise to factual events through the influence it has on people's minds and consequently on their actions.

Christmas Thoughts I

So here we are again, at the threshold of another Christmas, poised to enjoy ourselves, by hook or by crook, and dreading what may go wrong over this critical period. The festivities have begun, Xmas cards sent out and pre-Xmas bashes attended; Xmas shopping is well under way if not already done, presents have been bought, wrapped up and some of them even given out, and Xmas fare has been brought in and stuffed in the larder and the fridge which is now groaning under the weight. There may be some last-minute things to do, some last-minute arrangements to see to, some last-minute gifts or food items to get in before you can finally sit back and contemplate Christmas Day with equanimity and without suffering panic attacks. Anything missing, anything not right, anything that needs fixing, must be attended to now because time is quickly running out.

Well, this is one side of Christmas, maybe the side most familiar to all of us. But there is another side. This is the time of the year when everything is magnified, when anything that is bad in your life will be felt all the keener and appear all the worse. If, for some reason, there is sadness in your heart, the sadness will seem all that greater. If... your life has taken a wrong turning, you are missing the company of someone, you have lost a loved one, certain relationships have gone sour or broken down, certain hopes have been dashed, aspirations snuffed out, dreams wrecked... if you feel you have been treated badly or snubbed by certain friends or relations... if you feel alone, forgotten, unloved, deprived of the affection of certain persons... in short, if things are not as they should be and your life is in a mess or seems empty and meaningless, then Christmas will heighten your sadness and your sorrow and, though you might put on a brave face and try to join in with others in the festive spirit, deep down inside you’re hurting and you cannot wait for Christmas to be over so you don’t have to pretend to be merry and joyful and happy and you won’t have to take part in all the festive activities that have become a part of the Christmas ethos.

Yet there is worse to be found in this world... there are those who are truly alone, who have no-one to care about them, who are deprived of human warmth and affection, who, for one reason or another, are isolated from society in general... the old and the infirm, the mentally and physically handicapped, those who have little or no family or friends or have been abandoned over the years by their close ones. There will be people who dread Christmas, fearful of spending it alone or in the company of strangers or persons indifferent to or resentful of them. Essentially they are the four h’s... the homeless, the helpless, the hopeless, and the hapless, and they are unlikely to feel much festive cheer and comfort at this time, rather their plight will be accentuated and they will feel even more benighted and more bereft.

Truly this is a world of many divisions and discrepancies and life is a constant struggle to survive and to be happy for as long as we have breath in our body. Christmas time sharpens our senses, concentrates our minds, intensifies our emotions and exaggerates our reactions. At Christmas the good seems better but the bad seems worse. There are no shades of grey, only black and white. Relationships are tested to breaking point and tolerance is stretched to the limit. The demands and upsets of Christmas can constitute a tinder-box. It needs just that little spark to set it off. But, with all that said, Christmas can be a time of great joy, of togetherness, of camaraderie, of celebration and goodwill, even, dare i say it, of Christian charity and love, when we all commemorate in our own way the birth of a baby those many centuries ago who, whether we believe in him or not, shook this world to its very foundations and transformed it forever.

Through my window

The sun shines through my window and illuminates a narrow slice of the room,

outside the sun is a dazzling splash of pale yellow light low on the horizon,

it lights up a corner of the sky, still magnificent as it slowly sets in the west,

the dark leafless trees are silhouetted against its flaming gold splendour,

frosty corners of the window panes glint magically in the dying sunlight,

outside freshly-fallen snow blankets the ground and tops the garden wall;

The sun is a spectacle of golden dazzling light but it’s a sun that gives no heat,

it is a cold sun in a harsh winter and there are many more chilly days ahead.

From the warmth of my heated room I peer through the window and shiver,

only necessity will persuade me to venture out in this cold winter’s chill.

In a matter of minutes the fiery disc of the sun will dip below the horizon,

then a sudden darkness will descend upon a silent wintry landscape,

and with the coming of night will come a bone-piercing numbing cold,

and the only sight dimly perceived in the pale moonlight through my window

will be a carpet of snow maintaining all things in a long dreamless sleep.

Snow!

Part One:

Well here it is again... snow! This year's winter is set to look more like the sort of winters we used to get when I was a child where snow was pretty well on the menu every year around this time. As I write, late at night, it is snowing fairly hard and the landscape is gradually turning white. And the short-term forecast is that snow will continue to fall throughout the night and perhaps into tomorrow. So we shall see what we shall see. But snow or no snow, it's damn cold!

Part Two:

It's all over. At least as far as the next few days are concerned. It didn't snow in this part of the country today and now it's all clearing, moving northwards to hit those tough northerners.. But I dare say if we don't get any more snow this year the likelihood is that we will get some early next year. Pity though that it never coincides with Christmas or at least Christmas Day anymore.

Part Three:

Snow or no snow, it's coooold... brrrrrrrrrr! And once snow has settled in any quantity, ice will begin to form in the days that follow and that's even more treacherous than snow. Oh well, happy days!

Hey, this is looking very civilised... a handful of cars moving along in a very orderly fashion, considerately spaced out, all very gentlemanly! Not the usual bumper-to-bumper crawl of hundreds of cars that we are used to seeing. On the other hand they are probably in some god-forsaken out-of-the way part of the country where five cars in a row are already seen as traffic congestion!

At my desk

That's me in the picture at my desk, working on my computer, and pausing to look out of the window in front of me. Well, not quite. I'm not that young, nor that slim, nor that cute... except in my mind, of course...hehhe... And when I was the same age as the youth in the picture there was no such thing as a desktop or laptop computer, or many other things, come to that. But I do pause from time to time from my work at my computer to look out of the window ahead of me. That much is true. Though i don't stuff my hands in my pockets!

This morning when I paused from my work to look out of my study window it was grey and gloomy outside, and I knew it was cold too, the scattered patches of frost testified to that. But it was also snowing. A light sprinkling of snowflakes that were falling sideways blown by the breeze. But it didn’t last very long. In fact it wasn't really proper snow, it was more like sleet. In less than an hour it had come to an end and there was just a light dusting here and there which I knew was not going to be there for long. And by late afternoon there was no evidence that it had been there. The grey sky was still there though. And the wind. And the cold.

...........

It's on dark days like this that I often find myself daydreaming. Funnily enough I seldom daydream when the weather is fine and the sun is out - that's a sure turnoff. But when it's dull and dreary like today or, even better, when it's raining or sleeting or snowing, my mind begins to wander as I stare out of the window at the wintry scene outside. There's nothing like grey and grim weather to get the creative juices welling up, assuming one has any, of course. So here I sit at my desk on just such a day and waiting for inspiration to flow into me and creativity to flow out... I only hope it won't be a long wait!

The above pic was taken in a more clement season some while back and gives a more faithful image of the view from my study-cum-office window. Below is the garden and beyond that is a park. Not a bad view, eh? It has a calming effect on me and helps me work. It also helps me write this blog when I can spare a moment. It is my window on the world, you might say.

Through the Woods

There is a long and winding path that wends its way through an enchanted wood below a canopy of green foliage and pockets of blue sky. It is said that for those who do not wish to come under the spell of these woods, they do well to keep their steps to this narrow path and their gaze fixed ahead...

"...for the feet may wander and the eyes may stray, and they should not even think to venture on this path save in the full light of day. Though, where this path leads to, strangely no-one can say, not even those who have gone that selfsame way.

"They may claim with not a shadow of doubt, to have taken that path, the very same, but somehow it seems, at some point did stray, for when from the wood they came out, they were back where they started, of that there was not the slightest of doubt!

"But of the few who have ventured by night on this path, little is known and less is said, for none returned and none were found, not one soul came back from that unhallowed ground!"

Love in the Rain

Well now, what lovelier scene of human affection can one imagine than this? Made all the lovelier, and more poignant, by the rain, which as we know is no respecter of human emotion. A young couple expressing their love for each other and getting soaked to the skin doing so. The rain gives added vibrancy to almost any scene or image, be it joyful, sad, funny or just plain ordinary. Imagine this same scene minus the rain. The magical effect of the rain on the car lights and their dazzling reflections in the puddles would be absent. The resolve of the lovers to express their love in the face of stormy weather adds a thrill to the whole tableau that would otherwise be missing. And their increasingly sodden clothes and hair would not sound a note of stoicism for the cause of true love were it not for the pouring rain.

You're young, in love, and in the rain... and feeling great to be alive. So let it rain, who cares? And the wetter you get the more in love you feel and the more you want to carry on hugging and kissing the object of your affection. The rain seems to conspire in your madness and pours down all the heavier in celebration of your love. And somehow, as though the rain affords you some veil of privacy from prying eyes, you forget you're in the middle of a public place with people all around able to observe your outpouring of passion and you kiss on.. and on.. and on. So kiss away, young lovers, and let the rain be your orchestra and your glorious backdrop. This may be a moment you remember for the rest of your lives.

I personally love rain. I like watching it when it's heavy, and see how it transforms everything around, and I like to be in it, whether I'm walking in the street, subject to the shelter afforded by a brolly (oh yes!), or strolling around the garden with just a pair of boxer shorts as 'protection', temperature permitting of course, and feeling the cool rain on my bare skin. Once when I was holidaying in a tropical country, as the rain started to come down, I took the opportunity to make use of the hotel's outdoor swimming-pool. As the rain intensified into a full-blown storm, so did my pleasure and delight as I swam about the pool feeling the flurry of raindrops peppering my bare skin. I flung my head back and opened my mouth, trying to gulp some of the heaven-sent water down. Eveyone else thought I was quite mad but I loved every minute of it and would do it again if I had the chance.

Island of Your Dreams

I am a fair isle of natural beauty and wondrous enchantment, a green oasis set in a vast ocean. I am clothed in a dense tropical forest which reaches down as far as the shore. There golden sandy beaches stretch for most of my length. I am bathed by warm ocean waters that glisten and sparkle in the afternoon sun. It would be fair to say that I sit in a sea of tranquillity, in an ocean of calm, in an earthly paradise that exists... somewhere out there.

The rain that falls on me is plentiful and it is usually heavy, driving in from the sea and sweeping down in sheets across my length and breadth. It may last for an hour or for a day, but when it is over I feel thoroughly cleansed and reborn. More importantly, it has made me into what I am today, a verdant jewel lush with vegetation. It has filled my forest with life of many forms and colours and of many sounds and songs.

The blue waters that bathe my shores are smooth and crystal-clear and I delight in their warm and gentle caress, in their soothing sibilant murmur. But there are times when, driven by strong offshore winds, they form tall waves that come roaring in, racing up the beach and slamming into anything in their path. And there are times when this coincides with one of the many rainstorms that lash me, and then I am buffeted by wind and drenched by rain, but I never fail to stand my ground.

Yet for all that, I am truly blessed with the best that nature can bestow... sunshine in abundance, waters that cradle me in their gentle embrace, rainfall to satisfy all my flora and fauna, beaches that form a golden girdle around me, a forest that pulses with life and is my beating heart, and... and this is vital to my well-being - a total absence of humankind! Now tell me, what more could an island like me ask for?

On the other side

Dead of winter and outside the trees stand bare,

hard and cold is the ground beneath its dusting of frost,

cold is the breeze that blows throught the leafless trees,

and chilly is the dying day as it gives way to colder night.

Yet through the tinted flower petals edged in the glass,

a world of changing colours moves before my searching gaze;

where the seasons parade in a kaleidoscope of rich hues,

where dark sluggish clouds scud against a ruddy sky, or

puffs of white cotton are blown across a firmament of blue;

where gentle ripples from a warm sea expire on shore,

or furious foaming waves crash across defiant rocks;

where soft breezes are like the gentlest of caresses

and howling winds like icicles pricking the skin;

where the dazzling globe of the sun climbs in the sky

sending its heat to earth to rouse life and hasten death.

This is our World... from this side and the other side.

Britain under Water

Giant waves, driven by gale-force winds, pound Britain’s sea defences and threaten homes along the coast.

Flood waters sweep through the town centre, past closed shops. Ducks and swans however make the most of the new-found watercourse.

A car forces a path through a water-logged street which will soon become impassable as more rain falls overnight.

A police officer wades through knee-deep flood water in rescue operations throughout the stricken area. A bridge finally collapses under mounting pressure from a fast-flowing river swollen by torrential rains. A rescue team takes to a dinghy to search for survivors and others trapped in buildings by the fast rising water level. Storm or no storm, Fido must be walked and, if the worse comes to the worst, a swim in the park is no bad thing!

************************************

So is this violent weather the result of global warming or is it just the start of a bad winter? Is global warming the result of the greenhouse effect or is the earth going through one of its hot phases? Is mankind upsetting the earth's weather patterns and provoking violent climatic excesses that will eventually lead to disasters and catastrophes on a global scale? Time will tell.

. . . . .

But one thing's for sure, regardless of the effects of global warming, man has caused untold damage to the earth over the centuries and has wreaked destruction on his environment in a way that could not easily have been imagined. No other creature on God's earth has inflicted such deep scars on the face of our planet and produced such widespread pollution. What else do we need to make us act? Global warming and the disasters that come with it are the nails in our coffin lid that may seal our fate. And, i have to say, we will have deserved it!

Lest We Forget...

"For your tomorrow, we gave our today."

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

extract from For the Fallen

by Laurence Binyon, 1914

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow.

In Flanders fields. by John McCrae, 1915

These are just a few of the thoughts expressed about all-out war and its aftermath. About the loss of life on an unimaginable scale. And they are made all the more poignant when one considers that war is seldom if ever the outcome of the actions of a people of a country; it is nearly always the consequence of decisions taken by those on high, the politicians who run a country, the very people who survive to tell the tale after thousands or millions of the countrymen they ordered into war lie lifeless beneath the earth, the great majority of them young men and some of them still in their teens. The elderly politicians who take a country into war live to a grand old age, the young who are sent by them to the killing fields of war die before they have scarcely lived. And many thousands of them lose their lives because of the unworkable and badly-thought-out strategies of generals who, from the safety of their positions, send them out as cannon fodder, so cheaply are their lives held.

Halloween

To my mind, there is something mysterious, even magical, about Halloween - the pagan celebration that occurs on the eve of All Saints or All Hallows' Eve - whether one chooses to actively participate in it or not. And the hollowed-out Jack-O'-Lantern pumpkin that has become such a part of the festival adds to the macabre aspect of it all, indeed has perhaps become the embodiment of it!

When I was a lad, though, we in this country never celebrated Halloween, indeed most of us would not even have known what it was! No, the special occasion for us was Guy Fawkes Night on 5th November, when we made up a bonfire and set on top of it the ragged effigy of Guy Fawkes who centuries ago attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and almost succeeded! So our celebration is actually one born of a historical event, not a supernaturally based one that Halloween is in essence.

Halloween is really something imported from the USA, as far as I am aware, and, as with a lot of other American traditions, we have adopted it as our own, although with less gusto and fervour than over there where they really take it seriously and the custom of going out trick-or-treating from house to house at night is a much more widespread practice.

But coming back to jack-o'-lantern, there's something definitely spooky about him, lit-up from the inside and grinning ghoulishly as if he has something gruesome in store for us! He almost seems to come alive and Halloween without him would just not be the same. Together with witches and haunted houses and supernatural goings-on, he now embodies the very spirit of modern Halloween.

Before and After

BEFORE

AFTER

We took a refreshing brook with flower-covered banks and surrounding woodland and turned it into... a road system for lots of cars to crawl along bumper to bumper.

BEFORE

AFTER

We took an invigorating rushing stream banked by trees and shrubs amidst woodland... and turned it into a dual carriageway which quickly choked up with cars.

BEFORE

AFTER

We took beautiful woodlands crossed by a sluggish watercourse and... yes, you've guessed it... ran a motorway through them for... you've guessed it again... endless lines of speeding motor vehicles to drive on!

AND COULD IT ALL BE LIKE THIS AGAIN?

I DOUBT IT!

Well, there are parts of the country that are still like this or the other pictures here. The question is how long will they last. Our forests, woodlands, meadows and wild places have continued to diminish over the centuries as we concrete them over for housing and other buildings and drive roads through them. Perhaps our uplands and mountains will fare better given the difficulty involved in turning them into highways and housing estates!