I watched The Future is Unwritten last night, the Julien Temple film/tribute to the late Joe Strummer. And it was excellent. Anyway, I found this interview clip earlier and a few things struck a chord, so I thought I'd share.

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Life is strange and beautiful. It is such a cliche that we can be surrounded by thousands of people yet be really lonely. I sometimes wonder if that is because we are too lost in ourselves. I wonder what would happen if one were to reach out to another in such circumstances? Sometimes we are bitten and become twice shy. Sometimes it's just easier to stay in one's own shell. I think there is a certain security in it. I wish this wasn't true. It is difficult to make other people like you. I have met so many people this year - lovely, interesting stimulating people. I have really wanted to get to know them more - find out what makes them tick. It hasn't worked out that way. Socially awkward is a term that springs to mind. Other people are so interesting. I would love to spend all day finding out one person's story. I had honey and lemon today...so sweet and fresh.

Great fun last night when a fly unexpectedly surfaced in the flat and Lord H attempted to tackle it with a spanner. Which was all he had in his hand at the time (well, the saga of the unforthcoming radiators continues apace …). Seemed a little overkill to me but hey we got the beast in the end, aha. That showed it.

Anyway, talking of peace and love to all living things (ho ho), here’s this morning’s meditation poem:

Meditation 9

Carry nothing with you
when you go.

Let the air drift round you
untrammelled

and do not take
what you cannot restore.

When you return
shake free

even the dust
that clogs your feet

and breathe.


At work, I am now neck-deep (possibly higher) in the rejigging of the personal tutors’ handbook ...


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And as Christmas is now less than a month away, I have got to say how very impatient I am for the Christmas break to begin so that I can write and write and write and work on my new project. Who knows - maybe next year, I really will be able to cut the hours at the day job and do what I am meant to be doing with my life. Well - I can live in hope, can't I? Maybe I will drop Santa a letter - how should it go? Oh yes ... Santa baby, forgot to mention one little thing.......

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I’d asked to be further back after nearly getting my eyebrows singed in ‘Zorro’, but I found that in the New Theatre, Drury Lane, Row D is the front row. R said he missed one key point entirely – a slogan painted on a briefly appearing backdrop. It was because we were looking upwards at an angle. A bit nerve-racking too when the Roman soldiers were using their lances for impromptu kung fu fights - even more attention-grabbing than Ian MacKellan’s full frontal as ‘King Lear’ in the same theatre.


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The fifth stop on my round-the-world virtual book tour is New Zealand author Tim Jones' blog, Books in the Trees. We're chatting about interstitital fiction, fiction which falls between genres... as well as books, trees, and the number 27! A taster:.................

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One of the many moments which made me lose my heart to my Mexican hosts happened just after I'd finished my second lecture, in Cuernavaca. It was packed: a 150 seat lecture theatre had another fifty people sitting on the floor and in the aisles. I'd talked, pointed, edited as I read to suit the audience, even got a few laughs, ended with a suitably uplifting idea, smiled sweetly at the applause, answered long and interesting questions, signed posters, shaken hands, been stood next to, smiled again at mobile phone cameras, answered more questions, shaken more hands, retrieved my notes and my memory stick, and departed in company with my host, Leonor. And there, coming the other way, was her assistant, with a large, flat box. 'When you've been lecturing,' Leonor said, 'You need sugar.' And in the box were doughnuts.

How right she was: I don't think a doughnut has ever tasted so good. But why? All I'd been doing was standing up and talking for an hour or so. The talking bit, as you can imagine, comes very naturally, as does the standing up since the demons in my lumbar vertebrae have been reduced to manageability.

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Hi

We are just now launching a new networking website for property, construction, services, homes and gardens, etc.
We have a forum to start so are keen to here from anyone with interest, knowledge and time to contribute.
Right now this is not a full-time or paid position so it would really suit someone with an interest in property and related industries.
In a few months we will reavaluate everything, so it could well develop into a good opportunity.

Please check out http://www.enska.com for more info.

Thank you,

RB

Am feeling strangely inspired (it can’t last, obviously …) this week, so I actually wrote my first ever horror short story yesterday. Well, subtle horror, but horror nonetheless. No idea what I’m going to do with it, but hey at least it’s there. Lurking. And, talking of writing, here’s this morning’s bible poem:

Meditation 8

Fasten my robe
with pomegranates,
blue, purple, red.

Listen.

Place next to them
the golden bells
that sing of heaven.

Listen

So let me taste and hear
the coming salvation.

Listen.


Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the hot water is working again and Lord H and I both managed baths (hurrah!) though the heating is rather dodgy ...


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Over this past week or so I've had loads of emails from people, some I know, some I've never spoken to before, telling me that they like my work. Usually I get that kind of mail now and again and it's lovely. It's really great. It's fab to hear that my work's enjoyed by people - it's something I'll never get tired of hearing. So to all those who've taken the time to read what I've written and then taken the time to tell me: Thank You.

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