NEW YEAR'S EVE BLOG 2011

The time will come when greedy, materialistic people will be pitied for the sick, miserable wretches that they are.  They don't have anything except money.  They are empty and can never get enough to fill that void.  There are always more things to acquire, newer things, necessary things...


Now, don't get me wrong, having money is not a problem - needing money for a sense of who you are is a problem.  Loving money and what it can get is a BIG problem.    Most of the problems in the world could be easily solved if money were not the predominant idol - worshiped, prostrated before, obeyed without question.


Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...  Its called the American Dream because, according to George Carlin. quote- "you have to be asleep to believe it!"

Some years back, when I lived in N. Wales, One of my son's had a friend round after school. I asked if they'd like fish finger, chips and beans for tea? Both said yes with enthusiasm. They sat at the kitchen table looking at football cards or some such thing and I got the spuds from the pantry and put them in a bowl at the other end of the table. When the kid saw I was peeling them he asked me why? i said I was going to fry them as chips and carried on. His reaction was one of shock. He insisted that chips came frozen from Iceland and were cooked in the oven. Obviously he had to concede the point as the tea progressed but his faith in his Mother was shattered forever...

THIS FOOD IS GONNA BE GREAT!

Today we are having oven-poached salmon in lemon juice with seasonings and trout smoked with juniper berrries.This is being made into a fish pie. With the salmon and trout in a rich creamy parsley sauce and covered with creamy mashed potato, served with boiled carrot sticks. I am dribbling like a baby...  Its Dean's recipe this one so you'll have to wait for me to get the details so I can write it up.

WTF is happening?

"nagoul1 OneRevolution Now that The #Egyptian #Army is Killing unarmed #Egyptians in downtown #Cairo, everything is permitted"

"lissnup Anita Hunt Official death toll from violence against protests in #Kazakhstan rises to 14. Authorities say they're regaining control."

"AnonOpsSweden Anonymous Sweden Priests were arrested when occupy Wall Street tried to set up a new camp" bit.ly/vQzi6u

"RevoluSec RevoluSec Female protesters brutally beaten with metal poles; soldiers drag girls thru streets by their hair in day of shame" -- goo.gl/6hnVf 

I got these Tweets from Twitter just now. This is the state of things today.  It looks like the whole world is kicking off and being beaten but not staying down. The USA have brought in a law so they can lock up ANYONE, even their own citizens, without arrest or trial if they are thought a 'threat to national security'. No longer the land of the free. Their powers that be don't even bother hiding their contempt for the 99%. One wonders where it will all lead...

But, hey! No need to worry after all. The 'force' is with us.  "HuffingtonPost Huffington Post Thousands list 'Star Wars' as their religion on this national census..." huff.to/vevzM1

UK cop doublespeak: Peaceful protest is terror? — RT

UK cop doublespeak: Peaceful protest is terror? — RT

Bill Gates Says Vaccines Can Help Reduce World Population | Consciousness TV

Bill Gates Says Vaccines Can Help Reduce World Population | Consciousness TV

FUBAI PHLASHBACKS by Criminal Suicide Limited

The Most Powerful #OccupyWallStreet Clip You Will See This Month

The Most Powerful #OccupyWallStreet Clip You Will See This Month

GONE FERAL by C.A. JONES

I suppose Dean and could be said to have 'gone feral' in a lot of ways. The last eleven or twelve years have taught me just how thin a veneer our 'civilisation' is. Now I never sit with my back to a window or door, I wear Doc Martins so I can always run. I carry everything important in pockets, bags may have to be dumped. 


And though it only happened a couple of times it could happen to anyone at any time. What do people do about this state of affairs? Do they acknowledge it? Do people take precautions? No. They act like herds of Wildebeest - every so often one of them gets picked off, and after a slight feeling of disturbance and fear, everyone goes right back to grazing. 


Women go out, late at night wearing ridiculously high heels. If someone attacks them how are they going to get away? If I go out at night, I take Dean and hold my bunch of keys in my fist with the longest one pointing out through my fingers, to stab any would-be attackers in the eye with. and to strengthen my punch. I wear Doc Martins boots, at least to and from the venue or restaurant, put the heels on when you get there. 


Of course, I am a member of the underclass, being on Incapacity Benefit, so the police are of no use to me. In fact, quite the opposite, as I found more than once. Corrupt or incompetent is the default setting for the filth.


What I learned is that you are ON YOUR OWN!!!  


   

EEYORE CAN'T TAKE IT

BLOODY BONKERS BOATMEN by C.A. JONES September 2011

Come Join Us on Wall Street ! Occupy Wall Street !

First video of deadly Kenya blast site, over 150 killed in pipeline fire - YouTube

First video of deadly Kenya blast site, over 150 killed in pipeline fire - YouTube

The 3 Coming False Flags | Before It's News

The 3 Coming False Flags | Before It's News

A WALK OF FEAR by C.A. Jones

Maybe fear is to strong a word - profound disturbance probably describes it better.  I went to the shop earlier on my own and it was bloody horrible. There were hoardes of holiday makers everywhere and they were ugly motherfuckers!  I almost screamed as I rounded the end of my road and came face to face with them; however I kept a straight face behind my sunglasses and headed for the shop. 


Everyone I saw was looking at me funny. I have not had a smoke or a drink so my sensitivity was well up. I looked normal - hair up, lippy on, black skirt and red hacking jacket. Sandals. Nothing untoward about me, yet virtually everyone stared at me. And most not very nicely. I was very relieved to reach the shop and go in, away from the weird people.


I wondered if I was maybe having a flashback but when I saw the staff and other customers they were all normal. I got the bottle of water, stood in the queue and chatted to a young woman with a little boy. I exchanged a few pleasantries with the chap who served me and left the shop.


Right outside - glares - hostile glares from a woman with a dog ,and all the way back home it was the same. A gang of pissed up men shouted something but I ignored them. In fact the only people who did not look at me funny were two black families with kids. But then they were getting their own share of staring from the locals. I had my shoulders back and my chin up so I didn't look like a victim, but I felt they might suddenly conglomerate into a mob and attack me or something.


It was pretty scary. I carried the bottle of water like a weapon in case I needed it. I didn't but it was not a nice experience. 

Fascist Britain.

I grew up in what was a free country. I did not sign up for a police state, where the poor and disabled are left to die on the streets....




Police forces come together to create new regional surveillance units http://t.co/iIBSapS via @guardian Now they can just come in and bug.


UK Police Tells Public To Report Anti-Government Beliefs As Terrorism - http://t.co/dqE0rUq


RT @tom_peters: Welcome to 2011+. HSBC reports super profits. Simultaneously announces THIRTY THOUSAND job cuts.


and so on...

WHAT IS IT WITH PEOPLE? by C.A.Jones

What is it with people nowadays?  When I was young everyone went on the pill. We were not all promiscuous but neither were we stupid enough to think we'd never have sex.  It also ensured regular periods, less bad periods and floods. But mostly - NO BABIES!!!


Nowadays girls feel it makes them a slag to be on the pill. It doesn't. It makes you equal to men who don't get pregnant. An unwanted child is a misery to be. And even if the mother does love the child the father is usually nowhere in sight for unplanned children. So they grow up knowing they were an unplanned mistake. They have no male role models and only the ever emasculating tv and media to look to. No wonder everyone is so soft now.


And nowadays they don't stop at one. New boyfriend, new child, new break-up, new misery. It follows like b follows a. Children have many males in and out of their lives but no constant role models. Kids grow up and choose the wrong people themselves ad infinitum - ad nauseum.


And so it goes on. Our entire culture needs to get its finger out. We were getting somewhere before Murcoch bought our country and we can do it again. But you gotta get engaged with it. You can't take your eyes off these buggers for an instant, they'll shaft you.

KROKODIL by C.A.Jones 2011

In Soviet Russia drugs eat you! 


Savouring and developing

The shabby ritual deed;

Breathing through the mouth

As you anticipate your greed.

Iodine and lighter fuel

Industrial cleaning oil,

Cooking pans and vials, syringes,

Little stove to make it boil.

Its not the desamorphine

- A synthetic opiate -

But the shit you mix in with it, 

That eats you where you're sat.

With Krokodil your skin goes grey'

You get scales like crocodiles.

Then bits start falling off you

But you shoot up til you die.

NATO in trouble - English pravda.ru

NATO in trouble - English pravda.ru

Pets & Rented Accommodation.

Since losing my dogs due to homelessness several years ago, I have lived in rented accommodation. I have therefore kept hamsters instead of dogs as fewer landlords object to hamsters etc.

So our third hamster died a couple of weeks ago. A few days later m7 housemate and best friend, Dean, brought me a pair of baby hamsters. They were delightful. They ran about a lot for the first day and night then settled down to sleep.

Previous experience had taught that after the initial bedlam the hamsters will then sleep for a few days, and should be left to do so. That is what we did.

After about 36-48 hrs we thought we should be seeing something of them by now, so we proceeded to try and wake them up. First of all by banging gently on the cage and calling to them.  Nothing. 

Then we tried gently poking the bedding with a blunt stick. Nothing.

"Oh no!" I said, "They're not dead are they?" and we took the gage to the bathroom and stood it in the bath. Gingerly we took off the top part of the cage and started feeling for the baby hamsters. Nothing.

I started taking out the bedding and found the hamsters were not in the cage! 

We looked everywhere but the were long gone. We had seen them sleepily go to bed on Friday afternoon, and had gone down to the pub. We sat outside with our drinks and I noticed the landlady and her husband driving past and off towards our building.

We thought nothing of it and finished our drink. We popped in the offy for a couple of takeouts and went home. Hamsters made no sound. "Must be really sleeping," we thought.

Saturday passed in a flurry of activity and it then it was Sunday morning. No noise from the hamsters. I asked Dean if he'd seen them on the Saturday; he hadn't. Neither had I, hence the search and the discovery.

At first we stared blankly at the cage, it wasn't sinking in. I started to go through the bedding again. "They are not here!" said Dean. I stood up slowly and left the room. I sat at the table and tried to understand what could have happened. Well. obviously, someone had let them out. 

"Someone has been in here." I said to Dean as he came into the room. "Someone's been in and let the fucking hamsters out!" It didn't take long to reach a conclusion as to who.

There was no sign of forced entry. Whoever did it therefore had a key.  When we moved into the flat from the house on the High Street, our landlady brought the lock, which she said was new when we moved in, to this flat and swapped. I have a key, Dean has a key. And the Landlady has a key.

Nothing else was touched. The pc, the desktop, the digital radio, the guitar, the amp, the camera... not touched. Just the hamsters not in the cage but with the cage door shut. What burglar takes time to stop and try to pet a hamster? What sort of unauthorized intruder WOULD?

Who would think they could do that? Who would try to cover it up so they didn't get blamed. Who would think they had a 'right' to be there? Who would be able to come up with a good 'reason' for being in there, like "I smelled gas."? Who had a key?  Who used to be a social worker and managed to get sacked for being crap?

We came to the conclusion that our landlady must have done it. 

I asked her outright a day or so later but she denied it, of course. We now have a padlock on the cage and a new pet, a gerbil safely inside it.

Of course, as the landlady insists it wasn't her. I don't suppose a padlock will stop a creature who can walk through locked doors.

How David Cameron ducked the BSkyB questions | Politics | guardian.co.uk

How David Cameron ducked the BSkyB questions | Politics | guardian.co.uk

Share a link on Twitter

Share a link on Twitter

The Telegraph, News Corp, and the disintegration of Britain... by Dean Elvis James on Saturday, 16 July 2011 at 14:05

This is a piece just written by my band partner Dean. Too good not to publish, because I could not have put it better...


"Our country always prided itself on the low level of corruption in its public life. Can it still?", asks the conclusion of a leading article in the Daily Telegraph today. My reply on their comments thread was this:

No. It is shameful that is has come to this. But I'm afraid, it actually dates back to Margaret Thatcher. For all the good she is puported to have done - enough to warrant a statue in Parliament & talk of a state funeral as if she were Royalty - the very fact that she and this pernicious, lowest-common denominator, ruthless businessman were in bed together has led to a corruption of everything being British stood for. Page 3 & descent from the gutter to the sewer has eroded standards for nearly four decades. Richard Desmond, with his porn empire & vulgar ambitions to 'be' someone in the eyes of the Queen, for example, is the same type of person - charity donations ensure the 'meet & greet's he so craves - but the filth he peddles should leave even a halfwit in no doubt about his true nature & thus why he donates in the first place. Philanthropy is not just a non-issue with these folk, it has no place in their remit at all. They are greedy, selfish, social climbers, who will stop at nothing to achieve that aim; the type of person who sees others as objects to be toyed with, lied to, and exploited. But if you're rich enough, being a sociopath isn't merely tolerated - it is very well rewarded!

 ·  · Share

MOUNTAIN EYES

Eyes of such a clear mountain blue;
Like pure lakes
Inviting me to fall,
Fall into their depths
And bathe in the caress
Of their gaze.

C.A. JONES   2011

George Carlin ~ The American Dream

RELIGION DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.

Why do people still believe unreliable, imaginary bollocks! Not just one load of crap either. All mixed up, all thought up when people hallucinated all the time due to illness, poisoned wounds, adrenalin breakdown and starvation. We've had thousands of years, all that accumulated knowledge, yet we still believe in magic...  

We managed to accept the world was flat, why do we still believe all this mystical shit!!!

Grow up! No gods, no magic, no miracles - or it would still happen.

How can Christians believe in Mayan mythology?

How can Christians enter Law and Politics when Jesus said don't?

How can people living in cities, working in banks be Zen Buddhist?

How can people claim to be Christian when they are so obscenely rich?

Why do religious people kill each other all the time?  Catholics v Protestants, Shia v Sunni, etc.  They don't even fight other religions half the time! 

Why do religious people not obey their Holy Books. They are mostly against violence and for equality. Don't see much of that happening.

"LOVE of money is the route of all evil" says the Bible - yet the US still claim to be a Christian country. What's more, its uninformed, oppressed masses believe they ARE Christians.   Preachers on TV selling 'salvation' to poor, uneducated, lonely, vulnerable people so that they can regain power through the governments, using the billions collected on TV in order to force their own agenda on the country.

IT IS BASE HYPOCRISY!!!

THE END IS NIGH

It would be good to have a reason
To stay alive from season to season.
Unfortunately, or maybe not,
Its all we have, life's all we've got.

So what do we tell our children?
And what do we tell their kids?
And what do we say to explain away
All the fucking shit that we did?

Oh! Sorry, we fucked the planet,
We were greedy, stupid and thick.
We thought it wouldn't matter,
That we could deal with it.

But it doesn't seem to be working
Everything is going wrong;
Earthquakes and volcanoes
From here to old Hong Kong.

There s every chance we've fucked it.
That there's nothing we can do,
So what do we get from the media?
They keep selling things to you.

We can see where it's going wrong, right?




(c) 2010 C.A. JONES

THE CAROLE ANNE JONES BLOG: The Trouble With Men

THE CAROLE ANNE JONES BLOG: The Trouble With Men

IT DOESN'T RHYME

Everything you're told,

Everything you learn,

All turns out to be lies,

Your ideals have to burn.

You know the things you wanted,

You know the things you need,

But 'form' declares its wishes

And hatred plants the seed.

So denial becomes common,

Until everyone believes,

That it is the way it ought to be

But its not true - is it?

It doesn't even rhyme...

Working Class Hero - John Lennon

JAMMIN 1 C.A. JONES

MEN.

People ask me, "Why don't you go out with men your own age?"
I reply, "They don't ask me..."
Its true. Its like trying to get blood out of a stone talking to men of my age. They live in a world long gone. I've met people I like of my own age, but they can't seem to deal with it.
So, what am I supposed to do? Be celibate? I don't think so.
I like men to be men, is there something wrong with that?
I don't like having all these girly-boy bands pushed on me. I don't like pretty, I like handsome. A man should look like a man not a girl. I'm not a lesbian so I don't find girly-boys attractive.
I like rugged men with eyes that melt my knees. Anything wrong with that? No.
So... Any offers?

Improving a cheap pizza and thereby making it do two meals.

 FISH CHOWDER

To be honest you can put any vegetables and any fish that you like in this dish and it will taste great. Just cut them small and add with the potato and carrot, you can leave out the garlic and the cayenne pepper if you don’t want it too spicy or want to feed to kids. (Kids will love it.)

INGREDIENTS:

2 fillets of salmon - or any meaty fish.

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp dried parsley

black pepper

2 bacon slices - cut into small pieces

1oz/28g flour

1 red onion, sliced and quartered

1pt fish stock (2 fish stock cubes)

4 cloves garlic, chopped. (optional) ½ pt milk

Small tub prawns

1 red caspsicum pepper, chopped small

1tsp salt

¼ tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

I large potato - diced

3 carrots - cut into small sticks

2oz margarine 

METHOD:

1. Prepare all the ingredients. Melt the margarine in a large saucepan. Add the bacon, onion, pepper and garlic and fry for 5minutes.

2. Add the black pepper, salt, stock, dried parsley, diced potato, carrot sticks, cayenne pepper and any other vegetables you wish to add. 

3. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are softened, stirring occasionally.

4. Add the fish chunks, prawns and lemon juice, cover and simmer for another five minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Put the flour in a small dish and mix to a smooth running consistency with some of the milk, then add to the chowder. Stirring constantly. Add the rest of the milk to the chowder.

6.Bring back to the boil for one to two minutes until sauce has thickened. Serve immediately.

Recipe (c) Copyright of C.A. Jones 2010

The Usual Lego Suspects

SUPERMAN GAMES

One day, when my two sons were little, they decided to play Superman. The following conversation ensued:

Duncan(aged 5)  Richard (aged 3) and myself (age irrelevent)

Duncan: "Right Richard, I am Superman and you can be Superboy, because Superboy couldn't fly."
Me:       "Yes he could fly."
Duncan: "Oh, well then Richard, you can be Superbaby, cos Superbaby couldn't fly."
Me:       "Yes he could."
Duncan: "Ok then Richard, you can be Superseed......."

ROFLMAO!

After Madness pt.?

I suppose the upside of having been pretty much off my rocker is that I learned a hell of a lot about human nature in a short space of time.  I learned that human nature is not very nice. It is still rooted in the herd and is like chickens pecking at the one with the black feather, they don't want you to be different to them.

The next ten years was spent learning to recognise this and, hardest of all, learning to live with it.  It has been an isolating experience, but then I discovered the Internet. Yes, I was a latecomer, I AM poor, you know, but I would not like to live without it now. Through it I have met many like-minded people and this has restored my faith in things.  A few people is all it takes.  As it is I meet more every day.

Of course it spells the end for the gravy-train. The govts fear revolution. Pah! We don't want a revolution, we want things run PROPERLY and with integrity for the good of the electorate.  NOT for the good of a few multi-national companies. They can keep most of it, but why do they have to have it ALL?

SPIRITUALITY

I think the search for 'spirituality' is a psychological dysfunction many of us monkeys have. We don't want to be monkeys so we search for the elusive proof of our non-monkeyness. And then everyone apes each other so they won't look like a monkey either.

CHICKEN SOUP A LA CAROLE

serves 2/3

INGREDIENTS:

I chicken thigh - wrap in foil and cook for 1 hour in an oven at 150deg C               

1 banana shallot, halved and sliced

Spring onions, chopped                  

1/4 yellow pepper, cubed tinily

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 mushroom, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely with salt

1 carrot cut into matchsticks

1 med potato, cubed

several small broccoli florets.

1/2 tsp of cumin, turmeric, ginger, fivespice

Dash of Soy sauce

1oz flour
1/4 pt milk

METHOD:

1.  Take all the meat from the chicken bones and reserve; put the bones in 1/2 pint boiling water and simmer for 30 min.

2.  Put the carrot, potato and broccoli in a pan with a teaspoon of salt, cover with 1pt boiling water and microwave for fifteen mins.

3.  Heat a small amount of olive oil in a lge frypan, add the onions, shallots , pepper & garlic to the hot oil and fry for 8-10 mins until soft. Add the sliced mushroom and fry for another two min.

4.  Add the turmeric, ginger, cumin & fivespice to the frypan and cook for one more minute. 

5.  Strain the chicken stock and discard bones etc. Strain cooked veg and keep 1/2pt stock back.

6. Conbine all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring back to the boil; mix the flour and milk to a smooth paste and slowly add to the soup cooking for one minute until thickened.
7.  Serve with crusty rolls.

N.B. This same dish can be made by boiling the leftover carcase of roast chicken.

Once I was a child,

With everything before me;

Then I was an adolescent -

Everything bored me;

Then I was a young woman,

Fertile and ripe;

Then I was a mother

Believing all the hype.

Then I was 'In my prime'

At my physical best,

I deserved much more, but realised

I was settlling for less.

Elmlea Advert - Harry and Porsche

MY DOC MARTINS.

I wear Doc Martins 8 hole dress boots in black most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I love women's shoes but most are not the shape of my foot, so I may do a photo shoot in heels but for everyday?  No. I like my feet.  They do not narrow to a point in the middle and I refuse to ask them to do so. I take a size 4/37 so I can buy boys boots and save on VAT.  Also they don't expect boys feet to come to a point.  I have been wearing boys shoes since the seventies because I saw my mother-in-law's feet and what ill-fitting shoes could do.

The funny thing about the Docs is that people, men in particular, get all rhapsodical about it.  I went to a friend's the other day and this friend of his kept going on about it with a maniacal gleam in his eye.  Very unnerving.   Does it mean something to wear Docs?  I do it just because it is comfortable.

Plus you never know when you might have to kick someone or make a run for it, or both. Be prepared, that's my motto.

CHINESE CHICKEN SOUP. by C.A.Jones January 2011

CHINESE CHICKEN SOUP.

 INGREDIENTS:

I med. shallot - sliced                          
1/2 pack spring onions - sliced              
I red onion - sliced

1/2 yellow pepper -diced small            
3 cloves garlic - diced small, with salt    
1 large mushroom - sliced

2 tblsp olive oil                                    
1 pint water               -                            
1/4 pint milk

I large carrot, cut into matchsticks        
7/8 small broccoli florets                        
1 med. potato - 1cm cubes

1 teasp turmeric                                  
1 teasp chinese five spice                      
1/2 teasp ginger                

I/2 teasp cumin seeds                          
Salt and pepper to taste                        
Dash of soy sauce

1 oz flour                                            
1 cooked chicken breast, remove skin and bones and reserve

1 pint veg stock.

METHOD:

1. Flake the cooked chicken meat into small pieces & reserve in a dish. Place bones in one pint of water and boil for half an hour/30 min. Strain stock into a 3pt saucepan.  

2. Chop the shallot, spring onions and red onion roughly. Finely chop the garlic adding salt as you chop to soak up the garlic oil. Finely dice the yellow pepper. Place all chopped ingredients in a bowl.

3. Cut the potato into 1cm cubes, cut off 7/8 broccoli florets, peel and cut the carrots into matchstick sized pieces. place in a microwaveable jug or dish. Sprinkle over with a vegetable stock cube and add 1/2 pint to 3/4 pint of boiling water to cover. Salt lightly and place in microwave, cook for fifteen minutes on high heat leaving to stand when done.

4.  Heat 2 tbspn olive oil in a frying pan till sizzling. (if you put a small piece of food in the oil you will be able to see when it is sizzling and avoid undercooked food or a fire.)

5.  Add the three onions and the pepper and garlic to the pan. Stir until all covered in oil, cover and leave on a low heat to sweat down, for 5-10 mins, occasionally stirring to prevent burning..

6. Meanwhile measure the turmeric, ginger, cumin and Chinese fives-pice onto a saucer. When the onion mix in the frypan is softened add the dish of spices and stir-fry for another minute or so.

7.  Add a dash of soy sauce to the fry-pam and stir for one minute. Remove the fry-pan's contents into the sauce-pan. Add the cooked vegetables and vegetable stock to the sauce-pan. Add the meat and return to the boil, simmer for 20-30 mins and serve with hot buttered bread rolls.

(C) C.A.Jones 2011

ROAST TOMATO SOUP serves 2

ROAST TOMATO SOUP serves 2

INGREDIENTS

250g tomatoes                                              1 med potato

4 lge cloves garlic                                          1 rounded tsp tomato purée

A handful of basil                                          1tsp castor sugar

Olive oil                                                        A splash of white wine/wine vinegar.

1 heaped tablespoon of creme fraiche.          Salt & ground black pepper

METHOD

1.  Halve the tomatoes and place cut side up in a baking dish.

2.  Peel the garlic cloves, chop into quarters and place at random in the baking dish.

3.  Sprinkle the castor sugar over the tomatoes and garlic.

4.  Sprinkle a handful of chopped basil over the dish, then drizzle tomatoes with olive oil, season to taste with salt and pepper.

5.  Cook in the centre of a medium oven 150deg C for half an hour, until starting to brown, add a splash of wine/wine vinegar and

      cook for a further five minutes, remove from oven.

6.  Meanwhile, peel and cube the potato, place in a pan with 250ml/10 fl oz water; add the tsp of tomato puree to the water.

7.  Bring potato to the boil and simmer for ten minutes, until soft.

8.  Empty the contents of the dish and the saucepan, including water to a blender and whizz for a minute or so til smooth.

9.  Serve with hot buttered toast or an oven fresh roll.

Sundance Film Festival 2011 "8 Bits"

Sundance Film Festival 2011 "Skateistan"

NO BOOZE, NO GRASS & NO SLEEP

Isn't it strange how you can be almost asleep at the keyboard but by the time you get into bed you can't sleep? I was dozing off earlier but now its five hours later and I can't get to sleep at all.  Its 06:00 GMT now.
I have given up booze and grass which may be why I can't sleep. I just need to accept the fact that Xmas is over. This last binge started a week before Xmas on my birthday, 17th Dec. but its over now.  All I need to do now is keep up the diet and exercise to remove those few extra inches off the spare tyre.  Mind you, not sleeping will knock a couple of pounds off , ha ha.

Depression.

   Depression is a strange illness. People think it means just being sad, like when your puppy gets run over and killed - but it doesn't., its far more complicated than that.  It is a daily fight with total apathy. Nothing seems worth it. Washing, getting up, food - its all meaningless when one is on a downswing. But when one is on an upswing its hyperactivity all the way. Both states are emotionally exhausting.

06 JAN 2011

The Gas ran out AGAIN!!!

I rang up and its some stupid way they have of doing it now. Once, If you used the fiver emergency credit you would put in seven pounds, it would take five pounds leaving two pounds credit. If the two pounds got used up you could go back on emergency credit. No more. New rules say that the meter has to give you 30% of whatever you put on it, so if you put seven pounds on now, that means two pound ten pence has to be given to you. This means that you still owe ten pence, so if it runs out again, you have no access to emergency credit because you still owe it ten pence!!!
Is it me or is that stupid???

A few seconds ago · 

DEATH & TAXES

There's nothing certain in this world,
Except for death and taxes,

Yet everyone's caught up in a whirl

And no bugger relaxes.

Jesus said, "God will provide."
The church says, "Boy! Get workin'!"

"God won't let you into heaven

Unless you all stop shirkin'."

Jesus said, "No need for priests,
Just talk to God direct."

The church says, "You must go through me."

So that they can collect.

Jesus said, "God loves us all
And wants us to be free."

Priests say, "Sinner, on your knees!

You talk to God through me!"

The church says we are born in sin
And live our lives that way,

That everything we think and feel

And everything we say

Is not allowed by God above,

So why make us this way?

Did he really want us to suffer?

To be made to pay and pay?

Not according to Jesus,
Who they all claim to follow,

But as they twist and change his words

Their meaning becomes hollow.

Jesus said God loves us,
A Father to us all;

I really don't know how the church

Can spit out so much gall!