Ok. I've seen a white skunk thing. Frigate birds. Brown Pelicans. Mahoosive butterflies. Clown fish. Puffer fish. Iguanas. Buzzards. Vultures. Big bugger wasps. Fish that looked like Angel fish. Big arse crabs. A bird that looked very much like road runner. Ants that'll have your leg off. And tomorrow, hopefully humming birds. All in the wild. Not to mention the crocodiles, ostriches, deer and monkeys in the hotel zoo.
Ash's Brain Drain
A plunge into the fathomless depths of the philosophical mind of a 21st century technophilic father.
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
Saturday, 30 May 2015
Jet Lag
Here I lie in the dark. Wide awake at 5am. The dreaded jet lag. It's 11am in real money and my body insists I should be up and about, completely refusing to sleep. But it's still nighttime. Full dark, with no signs of the sky starting to lighten any time soon. I went out onto the balcony and looked over the trees outside. There was a rustling sound, and I could see below me a whitish creature with a bushy tail that reminded me of a skunk.
We're in Nayarit, Mexico at the Grand Palladium Vallarta. It's beautiful. Our room's not quite what we expected, far more basic than the suite I thought we'd ordered, but we'll sort that out later this morning.
It's all inclusive, something we've never done before. But I'm liking it. You ask for a drink and you get it, with no charge, anytime. We ate at the Viva Mexico restaurant last night. The food was just what we needed after a very long day. We'd been up since 5am and it was 9pm Mexico time.
It's still dark. It's still early. Let's see if I can get 40 winks.
Monday, 8 July 2013
Beat-Herder
Saturday, 22 June 2013
I did it!
Sunday, 9 June 2013
Butterflies
Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Mmmmmm....
Tuesday, 4 June 2013
Bats and Gongs
Monday, 27 May 2013
Good news, and not so good news
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Life Drawing
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Tooosday
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Gaddings Dam
Friday, 10 May 2013
Curry
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
Writing Course - Week 4
Monday, 6 May 2013
Bandy Legs and Flowing Fiction
In fact, it's been great. I managed to write loads. I got in the zone and it started to flow. I started writing in Costa Coffee again. Whilst there I ran into Stephen Murphy. He's interested in coming to my new writing group that starts in June. PenPals it's called.
The writing started off slowly. It was like trying to ride a rusty bicycle. The more I wrote, the easier it became. The wheels turned more easily as the rust rubbed off. By the end, I had written 3 scenes which form about a third of a chapter. What I'm really pleased about is that I ended with something that I'd known would be a challenge, dialog.
It's extremely difficult to portray a character's traits through their words in such a way as the dialog gives the impression of two or more intelligent independent beings each with their own points of view, perspective, preconceptions, motives and ideas. I wrote a scene which involved dialog and read it back time after time. I think I pulled it off. I even managed to get the flow of time to feel right as well as the reactions of the characters and the timing of the actual dialog.
I was quite impressed.
Not bad for a day recovering. Recovering from last nights debauchery at the Inn on the Wharf in Burnley watching Emmot and the Folkestra with the swimmers.
Whilst there, I ran into David Allen and Andy Cole.
How awesome is that! It was such a terrific night. As usual, the AWS bandy legged dance troupe served as model dancers to be copied by the other mad folk on the floor. Yes, that's right, we set the trend and the rest followed.
There were more bandy legs than you can shake a stick at.
Friday, 3 May 2013
A Vision
Kerry invited us to chant today for Soka Gakkai day. We did.
But my head wasn't in it for some reason. I've been ridiculously tired recently and it's been a bit restricting. I've missed BookFace conversations. I've missed watching TV with Cherie, I've missed a lot of things.
Because I've been too tired. I've been going to bed early.
But this morning's chant was worse. I also felt really negative and small. Insignificant.
I need to sort that out.
But whilst chanting, I had a vision. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a religious visitation or some future prophecy. The world around me didn't change into some otherworldly experience.
No, this was to do with a story I'm writing. I had a vision of a place. A setting where part of the story unfolds. A very rich and vivid world filled with jaw dropping wonders. A dangerous but beautiful place thronging with colourful characters going about their daily business. A city where all things come together.
And that's where I went whilst chanting. I walked its streets. Looked up at its starry sky. Smelled the fragrant air full of exotic spices and engine oil. Peered through the windows of the banks, the inns and the auction houses teeming with customers. Listened to shouts of joy, cries of pain and whispers of conspiracy.
I can't wait to get it down on paper.
Thursday, 2 May 2013
Hot Thursday
I'm waiting for Cherie outside the doctor's surgery. In the car. Roof down.
And it's warm,
At times like these I realise how much I crave the sun.
Maybe I'm photosynthesising.
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Writing Course - Week 3
Just lil'ol me.
I did the homework. But only just.
After such a busy week I really struggled to fit it in. I'd left it too late. I'll do the next assignment as soon as I can to avoid that happening again.
Monday came around and I had to be up early, go to work, take William to the dentist, shop for the big Buddhist meeting (with help from Nat), prepare for the meeting (with help from Cherie), take Nat and his gear to a band practice and then host the meeting.
So no time for writing then? Well, I vomited the words onto a blank page in the twenty minutes it took William to have his dental checkup. People must have thought I was a very odd character sitting in the waiting room frantically tapping at my iPad screen.
Click Click Clickety Click.
I tidied the text up after work today on the iMac. I added a title and a subtitle, broke the text into sections with headings and stuck in a few rapid screenshots.
I felt very guilty at not giving it my best.
I gave it to Mr Steve the Writer and he read it. I'd already apologised for my lack of effort.
But I think it was alright. He gave me the next assignment and said I'd got the narrative style of the magazine off to a tee.
I smiled. Had I achieved the chatty style on purpose or had it just emerged from the rushed approach?
Either way I came out pleased with myself.
I have taken the course tutor's email address and I must send him something. That way he gets my email address and can send me the homework in an electronic form. I'll then forward that to Sam, Kaye and Caroline.
I know at least one of them has dropped out already, but I didn't let on to Steve. I'll forward the stuff and they can do with it what they like.
Another thing, Kaye sent me a message about getting involved with a creative writing group. I need to make that happen.
Looks like PenPals will become a thing.
Big Buddhist Meeting
Have you erased said picture from your mind? Sure? Not even a single bloater rolling around in there?
Good.
It was a men's meeting, HQ level. A meeting for any SGI men from Lakes and Lancs. there were eleven of us, which is a pretty amazing turnout.
I made pizza. Lots of pizza. And biscuits.
A bit too much really. It wasn't all consumed. I took the rest into work today. The gannets devoured all the leftovers in minutes.
The meeting was vibrant but challenging. One of the guys described it as 'a significant meeting'.
It was fairly heavy, content-wise, and it made me feel a bit, well, inadequate. I'm supposed to be a district leader. I need to do better. After an hour of chanting this morning I realised that I had been leading and that wanting to do better is a vital ingredient in human revolution.
So, win-win then.
We made a unanimous decision to hold HQ level men's division meetings every other month. What a result!
There were also people there who shared the view I had when I started the practice. Why do we have separate men's and women's divisions in the first place. I suppose I'd got so used to having the men's meeting each month I'd lost track of that particular question.
It was worth it. Thanks to everybody who made it their mission to come. Shame John couldn't make it.
Sunday, 28 April 2013
Preston Station
Waiting for my love. She's been in London.
Not that far. But it seems further.
When we're apart.
Won't be long and she'll be back. And then we'll be together.
Wow, that just came out. 2 minutes. No rewrites. Almost poetic.
Cool.
Tested out my wetsuit today. Impressed by how warm and buoyant it is. Lots more wild swimming in the future I think.
Fun day
Got a wetsuit. Literally the last one in the shop. The guy said it had been an incredible day - they'd sold practically all of their Orca wetsuits today. They only had this one left because someone had tried it and ended up upgrading to a top of the range one. It fits well. It's actually a size bigger than the one I tried before. The shop guy saw me and said I'd be better with that size anyway.
It is miles easier to get on and off than the other was. And still really snug.
Spent this evening watching Dr Who and Breaking Bad and describing the plot for my story to William.
I don't hate my story half as much now. In fact, I impressed myself. I think its time to start the actual writing.
Going to try my wetsuit tomorrow at Brungerley Bridge.
See you there.