Who's crazy now?

Today marks another milestone in my life. I am fifty four years old.
Jean Rostand said: “A man is not old as long as he is seeking something.”
I think that most agnostics are very happy people. They go through life looking for its meaning. They derive their pleasure from the searching and seldom get depressed with the lack of answers.
This reminds me of a French philosophy mock Baccalauréat exam in the early 70’s. The paper offered a choice of three questions. Monsieur Baudouin, our lecturer gave the signal for the start of the test and as soon as I turned the page over I knew which question to pick.
"Le biologiste passe, la grenouille reste. Discuter."

(The biologist passes, the frog remains. Discuss.)

Needless to say I got a very good mark (16/20) for my efforts to unravel the philosophical mysteries of Creation, Science, etc…
But what struck me most was that I was the only one in the class to choose that question. Was that an early hint of my weird singularity or simply the sign of mad genius?
For the rest of the year, Monsieur Baudouin cast a knowing look towards me whenever he broached a complicated philosophical enigma. Yes I became teacher’s pet thanks to a little frog.

I have always considered myself a restless rebel. Those of you who have got to know me a little may have realised that already. I cannot stand being happy with my lot. It is not a question of ingratitude. It is simply the fact that there is so much to discover out there and so little time.

I am forever on the move mainly inside my head. I have a phobic fear of mental inactivity. And as the years begin to weigh down on my shoulders, the feeling that there is another life awaiting me is becoming an obsession.

Do you think I am cracking up?

Mirror, mirror...

While I was drawing this, I couldn't help wondering what attracts us to or makes us attract other people. Then this morning a good friend of mine sent me this link The shiny spot of your nose

...When you think about other people and what they think of you, do you understand that what they think of you has very little to do with what you are? It has mostly to do with the habits of thought that they have developed. It has more to do with them as thinkers than it does with you as the subject of their thought. If nothing is more important to you than that you feel good, you can form a fantasy about someone who is in your life and they will begin to modify to meet your fantasy, because Law of Attraction is a very powerful thing. Excerpted from a workshop in Asheville, NC, on Saturday, September 5th, 1998

Pottering around...

Bill is an expert potter and a raconteur. A few years ago after the last of my Morrocan terracotta tagine dishes got smashed, I asked him if he could make me a few. He asked for a design. I downloaded a few examples and he began supplying me with English made tagines.

Today, I spent nearly two hours at his village pottery, watching him throw lumps of clay and magically turn them into beautiful tagines.

Bill loves talking. He made me a cup of Yorkshire tea after going through what felt like a slow Japanese tea ceremony. And then he began reeling off tales of pottery, clay, noisy neighbours, foreign holidays, tandoori ovens, etc...

It took him about ten minutes to make two dishes and one lid in all the time I spent with him. As I was leaving, he said: "I could've been making a few more while we were talking!"
I gasped: "WE were talking?"

I know that, by the time he fires and glazes them it will be summer.

Vocation...

Saturday night, our pizzeria broke the record! 234 diners!!
I reckon that half of the customers were guys who had forgotten about the card and roses on Valentine's Day...
I think I have found my artistic vocation!
Cartoons about North African life (Women in veil are so easy to draw!)
WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

The sum of all our fears…

To be A.T.W.P.A.T.W.T. at the wrong place at the wrong time.

This can apply to anything one can think of.
Crime, accidents, embarrassing situations, fortuitous encounters, etc…
Many innocent bystanders are implicated in crimes they have not committed just because they were A.T.W.P.A.T.W.T…

People are often labelled “lucky” because they have avoided accidents by just a few seconds. The unlucky ones happened to be A.T.W.P.A.T.W.T.…

Have you ever been caught with your pants down or walked in on embarrassing or compromising situations.

But what if we happened to be A.T.R.P.A.T.W.T. at the right place at the wrong time or A.T.W.P.A.T.R.T. at the wrong place at the right time…

Do you really believe that things are meant to happen the way they do?
Just by chance...
Or could there be a giant egg-timer tic-tocking away while we are shuffled around like puppets on a string ...
Should we just blame our failures on bad timing?
Could we bend time to find ourselves at the right place?

The sum of all my fears is that I may have been A.T.R.P.A.T.R.T. and known bugger all about it.

Time for a break...

Bye! I am off again...

This time to Spain to try and unravel stuff and see if I am ready for the final assault...

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
E.B.White US author & humorist (1899 - 1985)