The world of Brian Snellgrove

Last evening – We are using our wonderful heavy duty juicer to take all the grapes that were produced in our garden and obtain the most wonderful grape juice. I had a drink of it last night but alas a  little bit late and I forgot there’s an awful lot of sugar in it albeit natural so I had to pay for that, but overall it was refreshing and in future I will have such a drink earlier on in the day.

For some reason I could not sleep so I left the bedroom and went into the living room wherein sits the television. I switched it on and happily I caught an edition of the Great Pottery Throw-Down program run by the affable and emotional lecturer and potter  Keith Brymer Jones. I love exercises of creativity. Competition brings out the worst in people but it also brings out the best. On this occasion they were creating as their first challenge a crockery set. A young lady won Potter of the Week competition and it was so moving to see how she reacted, a mixture of surprise, disbelief and joy to be congratulated by her competitors.

I reckon that if everybody was contented creatively there would be only a fraction of the mental and spiritual problems that present themselves at the doctors and it is my goal, or one of them, to encourage others to be productive and free enough inside to express themselves in various ways.

I then turned to the Sky Arts Channel, not deliberately but flicking through as one does, to find an absolute treasure with Melvin Bragg interviewing Tracey Ullman. She gave a super honest account of her life including the death of her husband four years previously to whenever the interview was. She said she had lost her biggest fan but she reflected on the many happy years they had had together.  There was no bitterness.

I forgot what a good impressionist she is. She’s doing an impression of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She is boyish in her figure so can do impersonations of men as well as women and she has a fantastic variety of accents that she can do, working class, upper class, English, Greek, you name it, she can do it. It is exciting how the human being, this one in particular is so naturally talented.

What a pity that this wonderful ability is being systematically abolished by these woke idiots not to mention the politically correct. This all started back in the day with the Frankfurt Group in 1923 in Frankfurt, Germany (hence the name) after the take-up of communism in the west had failed. The group had to find ways of imploding western society from within.

Wokeness, like political correctness, involves a considerable amount of creativity in imagining groups of people will take offense, be hurt, be damaged to, be slighted, by the use of for example the word ‘black’ or ‘disabled’.  In their view, the human being is incapable of discriminating between pejorative and judgmental statements and matters of fact.  Everything that is not immediately acceptable to even the dullest mind is called hate speech.

If you as a teacher address your pupils as girls,  that is supposed to be discriminating in some way.  I read that a teacher was expelled for doing just this.  Strange how a group that claims to be inclusive is so intolerant of anyone that doesn’t fit in with their standards. If they were to engage in the activity of thinking, they would realize that there was a basic flaw in their reasoning if indeed they do reasoning at all.

Life is a journey, pain is a message

I had been recommended by Françoise  to see a highly skilled and talented practitioner called Virginie,  who lives in Glastonbury with her partner. If anyone needs a wellness consultant that you want to feel comfortable  with, do visit her website.

I thought I would take this opportunity of discussing on these pages how an initial session with a therapist or practitioner should ideally proceed.

First – what are my intentions.  I want to do some in-depth work.  I have had enough of being recommended to take pills. This does not apply to herbs. This requires not only trusting someone but being comfortable with them. This comfortableness arises from being on the same wavelength.  We certainly seemed to qualify in this respect as we both have the same attitude about vaccinations, EMF, life after death, life between life, quantum entanglement, telepathy,  the limitations of allopathic medicine etc

If that rapport is not there, a period of time together will be mechanical to say the least.  Françoise had had a good experience she passed it on to me and in a way I was pre-sold.  My therapist was dressed in white cotton which had a very clean feel about it.   One of my essentials is that I feel comfortable with the person in the first instant (first impressions and all that) and can make jokes if I feel like it. The first  session was an introductory session which lasted the best part of two hours.

During this time I presented my symptoms in response to questions. I was asked about family relationships, my childhood, any accidents  or hospital admissions, what drug regimen I was on.   During and in between these questions I peppered the therapist with miscellaneous information as it came to mind.  I think the patient or client should volunteer information as it comes to them, without worrying about anything being in order.  It is the job of a therapist to sort that one out.

I said to her that in my eyes the purpose of the ‘landing page’ session had been achieved. We have discovered that we are both on the same page energy-wise, that quantum entanglement information can take place between the sessions and that a dynamic and workable relationship has been achieved.

We discussed eating and diet and exercise. I acknowledged my lack of discipline in doing regular exercise. I discussed the effect of milk, dairy products, bread, eating late in the afternoon,  and eating too much and too fast and the effect on me.  I surmised that since my stomach worked well on certain days there was nothing wrong with my system,  it was more what I fed into it.

90 minutes in to the session she started applying healing to me and scanning, whilst uttering certain musical tones. She encouraged me to acknowledge the body, breathe, and embrace any pain.  In other words, making friends with my own body.  I found her method of asking questions to be very supportive and the order in which they were asked enabled me to reconsider my own position without going on the defensive.

This is something that public medicine cannot do because the practitioners have to stick to an hour or even half an hour.  My private dentist is the same, he is not subject to the rules and regulations and charges of the NHS so he can give a better more considered treatment.

I met with Francoise in Glastonbury centre and went to get my usual fix from Burns the Bread (ibid)  She had done all she wanted to, so we decided to go to Chalice Well on one of the days where there is no special celebration. On the way, I wondered who I was going to meet and what I was going to say to them. Little did I know what was going to happen.   On our way out to Glastonbury it was raining cats and dogs but it cleared up and left us with a wonderful sunny afternoon with gentle breezes

There are numerous horse chestnut trees in the area and when I see the seeds or conquers as we used to call them when I was a boy it does bring back memories of competitions where some people used to soak them in vinegar so they were harder

Chalice Well always has some surprises.  When we entered there was about half a dozen people as opposed to a couple of hundred and that was very nice to have it ‘au naturel’  so to speak.   We came across a German lady again dressed in white, who had been leaning against a tree. I asked her whether she had benefited from her version of tree hugging.   There was a pause, an uncharacteristic pause,  during which she was I supposed figuring out what our motive might be. She asked me why I asked how she was. I said that I talked to anyone and everyone because that is part of the customs of such a special place.

She opened up somewhat and said that she had two homes in two places, one was in northern Germany and the other one was here in Glastonbury. where she had been living here for four years.  The German lady also mentioned that she preferred to come when there were few people and she felt stifled if there were crowds and in this respect I can totally sympathize with her.

I asked if she had visited adjacent places and there was some disconnection at this point because she said as an answer, I have no car. The adjacent places are readily available by public transport. We figured out that she was recovering from some sort of mental or physical condition and was vulnerable because we observed her and felt her energy. We parted on good terms wishing each other all the best.

Lovely to be here when there are only a few people

Our adventure number two was when we sat by the pool where people paddle, water fed by the offerings of the well that are supposed to have beneficial powers.   You can tell when people have not been before, because they clutch a brochure.  This is a good opening gambit.  Two Italian ladies, or maybe Indian, had visited from London for a couple of days.  The younger lady lived in Holborn  in the legal center of London near the High Court. I told her this was a place completely the opposite to that  in London where you could let the peace and the good vibrations sink in.   Again I wish to all the best and she on her friend went on their way.

Adventure number three was quite spectacular.  There were three people near the well talking about dowsing and particularly about the British Society of Dowsers.  Apparently they were all members. I approached one of them, an Italian lady, and I asked what sort of dowsing  she did and she replied that she started off with other disciplines such as geomancy  but then moved to energy dowsing. I was then moved to do one of my spontaneous readings.  Which involves me asking them to raise their left hand where upon I put my hands either side but at a distance of three inches or so. The energy field talks and I have learned to understand what such reactions as heat, cold, pressure, tickling  mean and I translate this and tell the recipient.

She took the advice very well I’m glad to say. The two people who were also dowsers  became slightly embarrassed and moved away.  But not really that confidential and we did not know each other anyway and will probably I will not meet the other two.  I never caught their names.   I continued to talk with her and we continue to towards the exit but I felt strongly that Francoise should be involved  so I ran up to the top meadow and found her and invited her to come and talk.

We had a very long and meaningful conversation during which I was able to give further reading on her, her husband, her brother, her early life,  things that would normally be done in a clinical situation but if you can’t comment on someone’s consciousness at Chalice Well where can you do so?

She recommended that we reconsider rejoining the British Society of Dowsers, as new and professional leadership has made the whole more approachable.

Talking to our new found friend in the Upper Meadow which has many chairs that people can sit and have picnic meals, or just contemplate their surroundings

I have noticed that I have an impulse to help people with no expectation of any financial or other reward, if they have helped other people. This is another way of saying that if she had been the selfish type of person or self-centered even, I would not have been motivated to give her feedback which by the way she enormously appreciated. I’m not reporting this in order to feel good  but I’m saying it to show that completely unexpected and unplanned situations, mutual benefit can happen as in this case.

She turned to go and went down the hill but came back again very shortly afterwards to say that something had popped into her mind. She was working with a 23 year old client who was not in a very good mental state and …could I help. Again I felt very honored being invited to be part of something and did a quick intuitive check to find that yes, I could be of some assistance.  We look forward very much to meeting her again at some point.

I find a great sense of fulfillment doing these sort of things and it is an extra pleasure when it is completely unexpected. Our new friend said that she was not planning to come to Chalice Well but decided on a whim to pop in since she had not been there for some time.   I sometimes think that the last people to know about synchronicity events are the people concerned and that’s the lovely thing about it.

The road between Chalice Well and the town centre is pretty much fully decorated with many houses choosing to put pot plants and other decorative plants and it makes such a change from the rather sterile and boring streets that we have to put up with.

View of the aircraft wing above the clouds at sunrise.

The value of gossip in my view

How to share a spiritual perspective with people we do not know 

I find all zoom calls can be hit and miss especially when you have to fix on a title in advance. Last week we in the Scientific and Medical Network group were supposed to discuss relationships and we started off  by everyone discussing hugging and they could not be persuaded to part from this theme so obviously the needed agenda emerged.

This week we had the above title, how to share spiritual perspectives etc. For some reason the first half an hour was taken by people discussing ghosts and aliens. It took a good hour for people to actually get around to discussing the subject. You always get some unexpected gems so it’s better to wait until the end of this one and a half hour session because something someone says really strikes home but you have to sit through a lot of material which is either known already or irrelevant.

Maybe a whole session will  prove to be worth it for one phrase.

I spoke up on the title above. I found it poorly based so I deconstructed it.

How To.. Is a very mechanistic way of thinking. it is like fixing a car or how to cook a meal it’s not method it is state of mind.
Share – it takes two to tango as we say so you need the interest of the other person preceded I would suggest by their trust.
Perspective – no two people can possibly have the same perspective and if you’re going to change their perspective that is a long-term project because perspectives were honed when we were very young.
People we do not know. That is an incredibly naive statement. I would rather say come up people with whom we are not aware we have an affinity with. Who knows we may be a soul match with someone walking down the street towards us, or with the office cleaner. The whole point is to be honest and open about yourself and this will create an atmosphere where people can share their true selves.

Below are some snippets of what people at the meeting said and at this time of the evening I’m not going to do a full precis.

This is what I was faced with when I returned from the church group. Francoise had been diligently collecting produce from the garden which includes grapes and we are going to have to use our juicer to extract the juice. They are small and who wants to spit out pips each time.

We discussed how to remember the names of people especially on the first occasion and someone said that they remember them by association.  For example I chose to remember his name because one of Jesus’ disciples was called by the same name. He was very honest and I responded by saying what a time saver it was to say what you think and not to pussyfoot around*.  I followed this up by asking which of the disciples he thought he was similar to, personality wise, so this was a stimulus to me to read my Bible with new eyes and see what sort of an answer I can come up with.  That is homework indeed.Watch this space.

*  To “pussyfoot” is to proceed with caution, to move warily but steadily or to sidestep an issue as to not take a side. It is almost always used in a pejorative sense and, as such, its synonyms include equivocating, hedging, or even using weasel words.  Someone who pussyfoots around an issue does not want to express an opinion about the issue, usually because it could be controversial and could lead to a problem.The term dates back to at least 1893; that’s when Scribner’s Magazine wrote about “men who were beginning to walk pussy-footed and shy at shadows.”The expression comes from the soft steps of a cat. President Theodore Roosevelt popularized the term around 1905, using it to refer to men he believed were excessively cautious and sneaky.

 

I met someone who had been in the police service for 20 years and was used to assembling police officers together in times of disturbance or riot.   I remarked that his Christian faith must have helped him with his own strength of character to rise above the situations and retain his humanity.   Since taking early retirement he has devoted himself to helping people with a variety of jobs to do with house maintenance. He is  a person who always likes to be active with of course the risk that he could over promise, such is his goodwill for people.

I asked him if his default mode was lack of trust, in other words did he trust people. He gave a strange answer including a comment that when he goes into a restaurant, he sits with his back to a wall so he can notice who comes and goes and feels in a more secure position. I said that I do the same.  I said that perhaps using the phrase ‘lack of trust’  is a bit inappropriate. I would rather say that he has learned to be vigilant and this seemed to be, give or take, acceptable.

I did not go out with the others talking to people on the street because I’m not ready for it. Instead I lingered behind and had a chat with a young lady who it transpired at had a difficult time with drugs and was trying to come off them. She wore a very optimistic t-shirt. (below). During our chat it transpired that she was too hard on herself. I made the comment  that a day without relapse is a day of victory  and she should be proud of herself.

Interestingly  she was not even intending to come to the group but only did so because the van driven by her partner had packed up with  a suspicious battery problem.   The husband said that had the battery not packed up, his partner would not be here talking to us. “all things work together for that love the Lord” is the expression that comes to mind.

 

I also talked with a lady who was going to have a cataract operation in the near future at the Circle Center Hospital in Peasedown  wherein the NHS pays for private treatment in certain types of operation.   I was able to reassure her and describe exactly the process,  thus hopefully taking away some of her fear and apprehension which in my experience is quite common with people who are going to undergo operations, irrespective of their nature.

 

I also chatted with someone  in one of many conversations, about why I write my diary.   He had said that he could not imagine himself writing 1500 words a day. I’ve said that when I started this project I could not have imagined that I could write such an amount of words daily with very little repetition.

 

I said that it’s part of training the mind and the more you try at something the better you get. This applies to any skill or discipline, it’s the nature of the brain/mind that it needs, and indeed likes, to be trained so it can be useful.   I said that you never know what you know until you tell somebody or committing it to writing,  and that the actual process of sharing brings to the surface information and ideas and views that you did not know you had.  I consider it a joy and a privilege to do this irrespective of a number of people who actually read it.<br>

As I’ve said before, when you paint a picture you don’t make it better or worse  do to the likely number of people that will see it. You write because it is in you, because it is your contribution.

 

I also talked to the leader of a house group with whom I meet on Tuesdays saying that due to my difficulty in driving at night, particularly in view of my cataract operation, I was going to transfer to another nearer group which meets on Thursdays and to which I am looking forward.   Why did I do this?  Because it is basic politeness.   It’s not acceptable saying afterwards,  “oh I’m sorry I forgot to tell you, I’m having to transfer to another group which is more local”. You should be upfront with the person, if possible speaking face-to-face, and tell them of your change or plan and why.  On this occasion the news was positively received with the assertion and reminder that we are all one  consciousness anyway.  You can call it a bit of closure if you like.

 

One of the pastors from the Bath area, Mike,  has had to withdraw for a sabbatical  due to pressure of work and toll on his health.  He spent a long time telling us this last Sunday in a sermon.  David and I agreed that he may have gone over the top a bit in his apology and explanation  because everyone needs a rest and normally people know when they should withdraw.  I previously remarked that Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness so he was resting from his daily task so I observed that he has set a good precedent.

 

So we see above,  if it needs to be said,  how if you feel you should go along to a particular event you should cast any doubt aside, trust your intuition, and just turn up and see what happens.  The pattern soon emerges which shows you why you should have turned up in the first place.  The main reason that I can see was that we were able to give testimony and encouragement to this lady who had been troubled by drugs. That alone made the morning worthwhile.

MMS (Master Mineral Solution)

Have you heard of MMS?   It stands for sodium chlorite – as opposed to sodium chloride.  When mixed with dilute hydrochloric acid it produces chlorine dioxide which is a good cleanser and restorer of many body conditions including viruses, HIV, and many other diseases. It has been touted as a ‘cure all’ and when you bear in mind that a series of doses costs about 25 dollars you can see why  Big Pharma  would get annoyed.

Here are two videos. The first one is explaining what MMS is  and the second one is what happens when you annoy the authorities especially any threats real or imagined against the prophets of the pharmaceutical companies.

Video one – an explanation and some claims:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/GVDStmSb6uhI/

Video two is what happens when you annoy the authorities
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/grenon-mms-bleach-guilty_n_64b94ad0e4b093f07cb366ab

 

The mistake that the defendants made was to sit silent in court, and represent themselves at the same time. This shows an innocence bordering on naivety to think that if you know what ‘the truth’ is then somehow people will pick it up and follow suit. When you are dealing with pharmaceutical companies it is not a question of if they are corrupt but what type of corruption or corruptions they are slaves of. The judicial process is brutal and  in this case it was quite simple. The prosecution were not interested in reading anything  or take into account anything that showed the benefits of MMS,   but were simply interested in removing them from the market.

It does not matter that alleged protocol has saved tens of thousands of lives. The point is that profits have been threatened. The defendants are now in prison if we believe the article in Huffington Post.   So, if anyone is reading this who has any interest in  promoting alternative medicine this is a salutary lesson.

It is routine for the powers that be to discredit, disable, or even kill – sorry terminate – those who will not buy into the system.

If you want to know more about the topic visit www.mmsinfo.org

Timsbury Monthly Village Market

We didn’t have much in our diary for today but saw that the local village of Timsbury was holding a  market between the rather strange hours of 9.30 and 11 30 in the morning.   Since we had not been before we thought we would check it out.

The event was much smaller than we expected with six or seven stalls selling bread, decorative flowers, honey,  meats of various types, lovingly grown vegetables, and someone selling Weleda biodynamic products and also giving a free hand massage.  There was a bijou coffee van and a setup with tables and chairs and everyone seemed chatty and  contented enough.  We arrived about 10 am when there were a couple of dozen people there, fewer than I would expect.  I am normally geared to bigger events but actually I am glad we went.

Francoise  did question whether this was the first one as we had not heard of it before but evidently it been going on all summer and this was the last one of the year.

The times they are a-changin’.

We are used to seeing shops and establishment closing but we were particularly sorry to see that Connie’s Tea Room, the only decent place to have a coffee in Timsbury itself, had closed. We knew this because there were ‘ to let’ signs out side

Who knows why? When I passed, they were always people in there enjoying themselves and having meals and they did a pretty good job with two or three staff. Maybe their lease had been terminated, maybe they couldn’t cover the increase costs, maybe the owner had decided to retire and no one wanted to take their place.

This is one more nail in the coffin of this delightful little village.  The community spirit is good and the Hall above has many activities throughout the week. I hope the pub in the centre will stay. There is a chain supermarket that I doubt very much will close as it seems to be doing good business

Use of language

This was sparked off by hearing a man at the show discussing the meaning of the term  a little bit.

‘A little bit’.   A curious little phrase maybe born out of politeness and the desire not to stand out from the crowd. Consider the following uses
A little bit much
this is about pressing people’s buttons and taking them outside their comfort zone
A little bit too far
….to walk. This is outside our capability
He is going a bit too far 
– his use of language is inappropriate. We could leave out the ‘bit’ in this case
A little bit on the side
a sexual relationship with someone who is not married to you, or the person you have the relationship with: We’ve thought for a while that he was having a bit on the side.

———

A little bit and a bit are common idiomatic phrases in English meaning “a small amount.” Directory Editor Neil Serven helps explain this idiom: This phrase may sound redundant because the word ‘bit’ on its own can mean “piece” (as in “a bit of news”), so “a little bit” is often preferred to reinforce the idea of smallness.
What is a ‘bit’
It should be more accurately stated in most cases as a part or a piece
Just wait a bit – a little while, but a subtle way of saying ‘not bound in time’
as in ‘see you in a bit‘ i.e. when we next meet.
I am in a bit of a hurry
This can mean that I have not organized my day, or I have lost control of my circumstances.
In computer jargon, a bit is a 0 or a 1. Eight of them make a byte.
He is a bit rude, a bit cheeky = rather ***  but not over the top

A strange leaflet comes through the door

To which I wrote

Hello,

I got a very nice leaflet through my door today about offering shopping etc.

The big omission, unfortunately, is that you do not say who you are, your background, where you live, what your history is, whether a company or an individual and no website.   I don’t think you’re going to get much of a response for these reasons although the idea is good in itself.

It’s always better to test any leaflet with people who don’t know you to get their reaction and you might have saved yourself a lot of time and frustration.

People are not very trusting these days, that is the problem. I’m sure your motives are of the best.

Brian

Visit to our local community allotments

It takes a couple of years or so to lick something into shape. This area of field was donated by the owner on the grounds that it was used for communal purposes. People responded and the area is growing slowly but surely. Well done people, a step in the right direction.

What have dogs done to deserve all this association?

Dogmatic  Asserting or insisting upon ideas or principles, especially when unproven or unexamined, in an imperious or arrogant manner:
Doggerel
Crudely or irregularly fashioned verse, often of a humorous or burlesque nature.
Going to the dogs 
Criminals and social outcast were often expelled from cities and were sent to live among the rubbish – and the dogs. Such people were said to have gone to the dogs
Dogged  (behaviour)
having or showing tenacity and grim persistence.
“success required dogged determination”
dogishness
Stylish in a showy way
In the dog house
in a bad situation because someone is angry at one : in trouble. He’s in the doghouse for forgetting his wife’s birthday
dog leg Something that has a sharp bend, especially a road or route that bends abruptly.
Dogma
A doctrine or a corpus of doctrines relating to matters such as morality and faith, set forth in an authoritative manner by a religion.
Dogsbodies
a person who carries out menial tasks for others; a drudgery
Dog tired 
Exhausted.I’m always dog-tired after a day at the amusement park.
watch dog
1. A dog trained to guard people or property.
2. One who serves as a guardian or protector against waste, loss, or illegal practices.
hang dog
1. Shamefaced or guilty.
2. Downcast; intimidated.
sea dog
1. Nautical A very experienced sailor.
2. A seal.

I love the English language. 🙂

Help behind the scenes

I had the pleasure and the privilege of meeting a worker or employee of a charity and I was able to make my comments  which were hopefully helpful based on their remarks on the state of the company.

 I wonder what draws people to work for a charity, we have this phrase ‘ lady bountiful’.  The idea  is that they work for the charity not the charity for them. Jesus Christ came not to be served but to serve.  This is not concomitant with any ego-led decision making which does not take the colleagues into account.

The problem is that once a person has been hired save gross misconduct or incompetence, there is very little that can be done to remove them and so an  organization can accumulate such people. It’s a bit like silting up a river.  It becomes less and less efficient and therefore the cost per person served will increase.

I have always said that the best unit is one.  With the world the way it is and everyone looking after their own interests,  it is very difficult to create a community atmosphere which really does serve the public.  Look at the term public servant. The clue lies in the name. Servant means ‘to serve’  the public is us.  Get it?

It will be my great pleasure to continue to serve this person as and when they need it.  I’m a bit skeptical and cynical about giving money to charities, certainly I would never give money to the Red Cross. Many charities have been taken over by ideologies such as Greenpeace.  I would rather help participants behind the scenes to be more effective in their work

Evening Virtual Bar with the SMN

Of all the therapeutic communication skills – listening is the most difficult. Very few people are able to listen. The Chinese verb ‘to listen’ One listens with head, eyes, ears, heart, throws some light on it.

Benig Mauger is an Irish Jungian Psycho therapist who has worked for 30 years.  She addressed us. It takes many years to become a qualified person and you have to undergo therapy yourself for an umber of years.

I’m French by birth. The culture of the Catholic church was very much to divide you from your divinity and to make you think that your humanity, your physical body etc is sinful therefore you need to escape from it whereas what we need to understand is that our humanity and our wounds and our vulnerability is part of how we can connect with the Divine

I always had a spiritual feeling and a sense of spirituality if you like as I said before in the earth and in the way I grew up. My parents were refugees in Ireland in the 50s and I was born there in extremely difficult circumstances in a very rural and poor part of Ireland at the time it used to be said people were either banished to hell or to county (Clare?)

in a time of spiritual awakening we know what is this time …well it in a way we’re now living in the age of personal responsibility because the outer  institutes and the outer forces that used to hold us up no longer do. We cannot be with that anymore; these are all crumbling and we now have to be focused on ourselves. We’ve been taught to look outside of ourselves for answers for our healing, for love, for whatever you’re asking whatever you want outside but in fact we’re being thrown back to the earth.  I think that if there was any silver lining to the years of the pandemic it was very much that people were thrown back on themselves and to connecting with nature.

 Someone said that you emerge from the lockdown either as a good cock or an alcoholic. There is more than a grain of truth in that.  Ed.

I contributed:  I think there are as many types of intervention as there are human beings on the earth. We are all unique. This afternoon I had a woman come along in some distress because she couldn’t share her terrible work situation. My qualifications are not Jungian but they are to love people and to listen to them and to care for them. She went away saying ‘it’s such a relief to meet someone who is actually interested in what I’m doing and I feel free to speak to them.

Now I didn’t get a qualification in love or speaking I just have it in me but I also watched other people and I respect everyone and I think if you have a caring nature you’re more than halfway there, otherwise you’d have to argue that the most qualified people are the best helpers and I think the opposite is often the case because some are politically correct and they over analyze and are painful basically. Some of the best help I’ve received is from people who were not qualified at all but just cared for me. They were not even aware that they were being helpful.  They were just being them.

And so to bed. My operated-on eye much better. Less swelling but still occluded.

I went to bed last evening really tired. My eye was sticky so I thought I’d follow my own advice so ‘in case of need just go to bed’.

The danger symptoms we are told to look out for are

flashing lights or floaters,
if you feel sick or you vomit,
if your vision becomes worse in operated eye,
if your eye becomes more red,
if you develop a continuous headache or pain

none of these have happened so far anyway. However, I notice that my left eye vision is still blurry as if I had not had the operation. They say in the advisory literature that it will clear up within one or two days; I hope it does.

Smart Meters and smart things in general

E.ON,  one of the UK suppliers of gas and electricity have pestered me for the second time in a month to have a smart meter giving numerous reasons including of course our safety and security.  In return I have sent them about 200 references from my 5GExposed.com site  showing the deleterious and health disadvantages of such machines.

Anything with the word ‘Smart’ in  should be regarded as suspicious.  It always has a bigger benefit for the supplier than the consumer.  With smart meters for example they can change the rate or charge you more between the hours of five and nine pm without you being able to do anything about it.  The idea of smart cities is an abomination where people live in their own very limited accommodation and have limited rights of travel and behavior.   A smart home is where everything is controlled by electronics, voice control or click on a mouse on on your mobile.

‘Smart’ is a very clever psychological term because it implies that if you are not smart enough to get one you are somehow lacking in intelligence.  Curiously, the main negative use of the word is to call someone a ‘smart aleck’. It basically means a person who is too smug for his own good,  who makes impudent displays of knowledge and who is annoyingly self assertive to the point of being obnoxious.

The word has been around for some time.  In 1981 (USA) SMART goals were developed by George Doran, Arthur Miller and James Cunningham in their 1981 article “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management goals and objectives” . Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely (SMART) Specific: What are you trying to do? Who is going to be part of the team?  My guess is that the term was hijacked by the more cynical manipulators as its power was realized but then who am I to know all the twists and turns?

S M A R T can stand for

• Specific: target a specific area for improvement.
• Measurable: quantify, or at least suggest, an indicator of progress.
• Assignable: specify who will do it.
• Realistic: state what results can realistically be achieved given available resources.
• Time-related: specify when the result can be achieved.
• So for a mental exercise how would you relate to the term  smart meter.
  Clue – a smart car.  An umbrella term for an automobile with advanced electronics. Microprocessors have been used in car engines since the late 1960s and have steadily increased in usage throughout the engine and drivetrain to improve stability, braking and general comfort. There can be a hundred or more microprocessors in a car today.
• However there is another more dystopian reading of this acronym:
  S for surveillence
  M for monitoring
  A for analysis
  R for reporting
  T for technology
  see video in this Rumble video

  Barbara Hepworth

I watched a wonderful, moving documentary on the sculptress Barbara Hepworth who after living in London decided to move to Penzance where she lived the last years of her life and whose studio I have visited.  She was a shy person who preferred to work on her own.

I love hearing people speaking the English language without every other phrase being ‘like’ or  ‘sort of’, and worse ‘if you see what I mean’.  She like many others working during the war found little demand for work and her partner had to go busking in order to earn some money. This is true of many great artists.  It is so easy for us to get a sanitized version of famous people. It would do us good to read their biography to see how much struggle they have had to overcome circumstances and finally they are recognized, sometimes only after their death.

Dealing with noise  in public places

Today is the day when I have my cataract operation. Since it is a procedure entirely new to me I had no views about it and no fears of it.  So great is my trust in the eye department  of the Royal United Hospital here in Bath, and so many operations of this type have been performed that there is no reason to fear.

For some reason, we had to suffer noise on our travels.   A man got on at Midsomer Town Hall and he had a very loud voice, almost shouting you could say.  He got on to one of his mates on the phone. He was obviously a plumber and gave instructions at full volume so loud that  although I was sitting at the other end of the top of the bus my ears actually hurt.  Mercifully he got off at Peasedown  and I shouted back, imitating his voice, ‘goodbye’ because he had loudly shouted  goodbye to his friend a few moments before.

He actually turned on me and asked me if I was trying to make a point to which I replied yes I was, it was that his voice was loud and disturbing. He then got aggressive, said a few unmentionable words  and said that my voice was dreadful as well.  We felt this was a hostile person who would not be  willing to listen to anybody who dared to ask him to keep his voice down.

There was also a woman upstairs talking to her child in a loud fashion which she wanted everyone to hear and I did not want to learn about her domestic problems thank you very much.

So the question is, do we just ignore disturbance , move away if possible, or confront the person.  I think it depends on circumstances but from what I have seen the person knew that they are making a noise and did not particularly care. I would have been very surprised if the chap with the loud voice had said to me, “oh I’m terribly sorry I didn’t realize that I was making such a noise I will do my best in future to be quiet” Most people will go on the offensive irrespective of the way the complaint is made.

We caught the local 4A bus to the hospital from the town centre and sat on the top deck and again there was a youngster playing his mobile phone in loudspeaker mode and we all had to suffer.  As it was only a short journey and the lad was only about 14 I did not see any point in mentioning it so we put up with it for the next 10 minutes or so and then we got off at RUH

Detailed description of my operation

We were asked to arrive by 12:45 to allow time for admission and registration.  This involves a lot of paperwork  including asking us what medications we are on, particularly blood thinning agents. We  also had to say if we have any allergies, I had to say if I had any operation on my brain or my spine, my blood pressure was taken as was my oxygenation of my blood. The pressure was high but within acceptable limits.

There were six of us scheduled to be operated on by the surgeon. He had a Greek assistant whose  job was going around everyone making sure the paperwork was in order and also to do immediate preparation.   A nurse had put a hospital ID band around my wrist.  I was asked three times to identify myself, say what I was expecting, and in which eye.  This was in addition to the first staff member,  who was called Gayle,  asking me questions.  I cannot remember having been so thoroughly checked for identity and purpose in my life. It was quite friendly and thorough. I suppose they are worried about being sued for malpractice.

Gayle  was the same person who gave me such a wonderful injection last time. I felt she deeply understood the body and worked with efficiency and professionalism.  I was very intrigued by her accent.  As you may know, one of my useless hobbies is in collecting accents and trying to guess where people came from.    When I asked her and suggested the Caribbean she said I was way out and said that she was from ‘ everywhere’.   She was born British American and apart from working here in the UK she has worked in Publishing and has worked in the Philippines,  Malaysia and Singapore.  She was delighted to hear that I wrote a diary and I handed her a business card inviting her to read today’s issue, the one you are reading now.

There was a lot of waiting around. We were in a large room with six cubicles for 6 people numbered 1 through 6. The first lady to arrive had been allocated the sixth place. She was not pleased at having to wait so long.  Our order of being operated on had been decided before so I was allocated cubicle number three. A very senior lady went in first. She was very anxious about the procedure but came out smiling, always a good sign.   The second person was a chap who had contact lenses for 37 years. He came out not smiling but contented.

I was called forward and had to answer the same questions, my name, what I expected etc, this was even repeated in the operation theater itself. I was taken across the corridor and entered a preparation room. I lay back on a bed and my knees were supported with a cushion underneath for which I was grateful for. As I was uncomfortable,  the head was raised up a little bit.  My eyes were then flooded with antibiotic drops, and then more antibiotic drops and then more.  I was then injected with a numbing agent directly into the eye.  I had previously asked for something to make me drowsy but they said they could not do it as I had not given enough notice.

I was then wheeled into the operating theatre itself where there were lots of lights and microscopes.  I was wired up by a very warm and comforting nurse who put one of my fingers in an  oxymeter (% of oxygen in the blood)  and in the other hand I was given a button to push just in case I had to sneeze or blow my nose or something as a warning to the surgeon The great man himself appeared, gowned up,  Mr Antclif,

I’ve told him and the nurse that I would be more comfortable if I could have a running commentary of what was going on. They said they were quite happy to talk to me but once the operation had started I was not to speak since this interferes with the muscles of face and thus the eye.  There were about five people in the room three nurses, the surgeon and his assistant. They will all top rated people in my eyes.

I was aware of some poking around but there was no pain and no sensation to speak of. One thing I liked was that he was using a water jet with the cutting instrument so it was a nice cool sensation.  I just lay there and let them get on with it.  The whole procedure took 30 minutes  of which 15 minutes was preparation. The surgeon told me as we went along what he was doing.   At a certain moment there was a funny machine in the background that made musical tones. I believe this was sucking out the remaining detritus from the lens of the eye. After about one minute it stopped.

The surgeon then said quietly, ‘it is all done now’ and before  I knew it I had been wheeled out of the operating theatre into the pre-operating space and helped off the bed on to a wheelchair. I offered to walk out but this was not allowed on the grounds of safety. I imagine that some people are more wobbly than they think so I’m sure that was the reason.

Postoperative care –  we have to go and see the department again in four weeks.  Immediately post operatively we were offered  a cup of tea or coffee and biscuits.  People gratefully accepted the tea but I decided to have some water. Gayle spent about ten minutes with the elderly lady who had been operated first and she spent somewhat less time with me mainly because I said I had heard all her advice and she did not need to say it again.

We were given a paper to read which tells us all the things we need to do and some eye drops which we have to use at least for the next four weeks.  We were very struck by the comradeship and cooperation between the members of staff.  It was a happy as a positive atmosphere.

I should add at this point that I spent the previous evening or parts of it looking at videos of these operations,  and what patients said about their impressions.  I can only say having experienced the same thing myself I can mirror what they said. Many of them said they were nervous beforehand but it the procedure was different to what they expected and a painless operation to boot.

We arrived at the hospital at 11:30 a.m. And left about 4:30.  There was a considerable amount of waiting but then there was always something happening so the time did not really matter.

As I had not had any lunch to speak of, I took Francoise  to the restaurant which was gearing up to serve the evening meal.  They do a great service, breakfast lunch and early dinner.  I had a very nice cottage pie containing apart from mashed potato, minced beef and peas, and an absolutely delicious bread and butter pudding.  Raisins go very well and bring out the whole thing. This is my all-time favorite.

I felt I had achieved a milestone in that I had experienced something new  and had passed the test fairly well.  As I write this at 7 pm  I know that the effect of the anaesthetic is going to wear off and I will probably experience some pain this evening.  We have been warned of that and must take some paracetamol.  This is a small price to pay for getting my site back in my left eye. If the eyesight can be improved as well  that would be a bonus.

So well done everyone at RUH.   The only thing that bothered me was that two members of staff complained about their pay thinking it should be more and I could only agree with them all be it tacitly.

Back by bus, a very crowded 172 via Midsomer to Bristol.  I had to decide whether to come by car or bus and I thought that in view of the difficulty of parking there was no reason why we should not use public transport.

So much for the weather forecast

We were warned Monday in the usual alarmist fashion that there would be winds up to 80 miles an hour in the latest named storm, Agnes. As we started our journey home there were some rain showers and then we had a bright sunny evening with a maximum wind speed of about 20 miles an hour

I must admit that  my image of Bronze Age and other ‘ages’ people are more primitive than they may have been in reality.  I imagine cavemen with clubs. This portrayal I now see is far from accurate.  Were they less intelligent than us or just differently informed?   If we look at so-called primitive or indigenous societies today we find they are far better able to take care of themselves in for example times of shortage then us ‘civilized’ people. They had no supermarkets or convenience stores. What would we do without them and how long would we be able to sustain life?  I’m sure our future would be far less certain than these historic people

See above the ‘amazing’ facial reconstruction of a Bronze Age woman discovered crouching in a 4,200-year-old grave
More than 4,000 years ago, a young woman who died in what is now Scotland was buried in a crouched position within a stone-lined grave. She remained buried for millennia, until excavators at a stone quarry unexpectedly unearthed her bones in 1997. Read the article if you wish.

A quote for a gardening job – with a twist

I spoke to someone yesterday and agreed to come round at 10 o’clock today  for viewing the job.  I expected to see a man of middle to late 60s appear at the door but instead it was what turned out to be his mother.  She was well dressed, well composed and articulate and it turned out she was 84 years of age.

The job – When people plant hedges they often mix varieties and we had the normal private hedge with a foreground of four bushes that had been planted far too close.  People should speak with an expert before doing any such planting because the expert will know what the genre will look like in 10 years time and what their requirements will be in terms of physical space and nutrition needs.   Putting it another way  that through making the wrong choice you can make a rod for your own back in the longer term because of more expensive maintenance costs.

This is the first time in my gardening career that I would have preferred to deal with the mother  of the client not the actual client. The son, with whom I arranged the visiting time, was not there.  That should have rung alarm bells.  I quoted between £100-£150,  the majority to be spent on re leveling the five meter long dense hedge which, my dear reader, is far more difficult than you may think.   The mother had been trying her best with shears but you cannot do such a job without fairly heavy equipment.   When we left, she said she would have a word with her son.   I am not holding my breath.

Is this a warning or a scam?

For those of you that are not aware of things that are going on behind the scenes the overall plan is to reduce people’s dependency on meat to an occasional treat and encourage people to eat bugs, crickets, meal worms, grasshoppers, flies and the like. Anyone any idea why this should be the case?

NOT all it says on the tin – Mince pies

Francoise discouraged me  from buying a packet of six mince pies as an early Christmas celebration. I love mince pies and eating  them makes me sentimental.  Curious, I went back to the store to see exactly what was in the tempting Christmasy  package. Normally I never read the ingredients if I am in a hurry and/or like the product.

The main ingredients are (roll of drums)  mince meat filling 46%, apple puree 17%

The puree needs preservatives namely potassium sorbate, sodium
metabisulfites and also sulfites, sulphur dioxide

We then have Sultanas 16%, raisins 12% glycose syrup, sugar, humectant: vegetable glycerine; currants 5% ,dextrose, candid mixed peel consisting of orange peel, glucose-fructose syrup, sugar, lemon peel

We then have for some reason an acidity regulator: citric acid

We then have preservatives: sulphur dioxide then rapeseed oil vegetable suet (vegetable oils both palm and sunflower)    then we have fortified wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin)

 We then have black treacle, ground mixed spice ( cassia, coriander, ginger, nutmeg, caraway, clove)

We then have a acetic  acid

and for good measure  fortified wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin)  vegetable oils, palm and rapeseed,   glucose syrup, butter – cows milk 3%,  sugar, salt.

Raising agents: disodium diphosphate, sodium bicarbonate

I don’t know how much research has been done on substances added to preserve the life beyond its natural span, I don’t know about the origin of the ingredients and whether they react with each other in a way that is unfavorable to the body. I don’t know how much of the flavoring is safe or necessary. In fact, there is a lot I don’t know. Should I trust food manufacturers to have my best interests at heart?

I asked myself that if I were to make these from ingredients, how long this list would be. Picking one or two at random: