Paradise

Please accept my apologies for not keeping up with the blog... Life has been really very busy, even for a retired old fellow like me.
I will be updating all with more frequency after the next two weeks are done.
For now, I leave you with a couple of amazing pics taken in a little corner of paradise in the Essex coast.

NANNY STATE GOES OTT...

Harlow council posted something on Facebook about using the municipal dump instead of dumping stuff anywhere.... How ironic, given today's circumstances, no wonder people fly-tip!

Being a Sunday, the municipal dump gets busy, so the queue was long, so as I only had two items to dispose of, I parked my car on an area outside the municipal dump and walked to the gates.

As I to walk into the municipal dump with a couple of items I was be confronted by a security man, in a dump, ironic!!
What precious things was he guarding? Not sure but I accepted the presence of this person.

Anyway, he addressed me and stopped me and others going in because of 'health and safety'. He stated that no walk-in's were allowed. I was a walk in now.

Someone was run over last week apparently and therefore no walk-in's allowed.

I asked the individual to let me in for a moment (after all, I am able to follow green cross codes etc...) plus I was only two or three metres from the target destination and I would not be crossing a road or anything.. Again, I asked him to be reasonable.

He again asked me not to and when I argued, he then stated I was Queue jumping and if I did not like the rules not to use the facility.. I reminded him of a fact that I was paid for the use of this in my council tax.
He didn't care, he was there to blindly keep a rule that had no sense or substance to it and just be obstructive, unhelpful and a nuisance.

I walked away, despite the urge to leave him with the 6 foot broken blind and an old washing basket as an added adornment to the numerous piercings he sported. Alas, I didn't...

The sad ironic thing is this will increase fly-tipping and just because one individual was careless, the variables were stacked against him on the day, we now all had to suffer the 'little Hitler' enforcing unreasonable rules.

Was I aggrieved, what do you think?

Harlow Heritage piece

Here's a @yourharlow heritage piece about living in Harlow.
I was asked to give an interview as to why I live here and what made me stay.
Harlow is a New Town in Essex that celebrates 70 years this year.

Enjoy the link

Author on the BBC

I'm being interviewed on BBC Essex on Dec 27th regarding a New Town project... Why we came and what made us stay?
The interview is on at 07:00 GMT

This is part of the project Michael from YourHarlow.Com has been working on.
It commemorates 70 years of Harlow new town.
The latter sounds like a mammoth task and an interesting piece...  I'm doing 1985.

The BBC piece involves an overview of experiences and evolution of the town I adopted as my home 31 years ago.

It's also a great opportunity to plug my books...
Tune in and listen.

Musical interlude

As an author I love creativity and yesterday I went to watch a demigod of music, Mr Joe Satriani in concert.

I love music and rock especially.
He played in Cliffs Pavilion, Southend, Essex. Yesterday was a masterclass of showmanship and musical talent.
A class act and well impressed.
My favourite, Crystal Planet was played too... 
Thanks again Joe,  keep on rocking

Creative art

Julie and I attended a sculpture class today.
It was brilliant fun,  creative and we learnt a lot...  Especially the fact that most of us need to keep the day jobs...

Here are some of the pics...

If you want to have a bash...  Click

Political Snow

I posted a short video of the first snow shower we have had this winter.

A friend of mine in Scotland quoted:
Hahaha. Your snow falls vertically, how quaint. It looks almost pleasant. Not like the horizontally flying 80mph ice flakes we call snow up here. ❄️

My reply :
Lol even the English snow is different...  Should the SNP used that as grounds for separation from UK...? #PoliticalSnow

His reply :
They might use it next time....watch this space.
Although Glasgow is under snow, it's remarkably warm and sunny up here the day. Love this global warming! 

Funny!!