It’s my Dad’s 70th Birthday this Friday 13th and seeing as how he was also born on a Friday 13th back in 1951 it somehow seems fitting that it’s a Friday that he celebrates his birthday on this week too. I can’t thank him enough for who he is what he does and how much love, support and help he has given me over the years.
He’s had his tough times in life but also I hope been given the opportunity to experience much joy too. I am not sure who or where I would be without his support. We are meeting up for his birthday in Exeter nothing too big or brash just a nice meal, some presents and a pint of ale or two for him and we will hopefully have a lovely night.
I have been digging through the archives of my computer, Facebook and other places and found a selection of photos that I really like that show you a little more about him.
Dad working in a Bar in North Tawton Devon, I took this photo and he has such a happy look on his face as if to say ‘Love you Son’
This is my Dad and his husband Shamen
My Dad me and a friend called Phill at my 18th birthday
My Dad on a holiday in Ireland that we went on in 2018
Well it was my birthday on 12th July so had planned to go out with some friends for drinks on Saturday night which was great and ended with me safely home after a great night out. Then on Monday 12th July I had booked some time off work and met up with some friends for a meal which was lovely and the first time we had all been together since last March. I then went on to a bar on my way back to mine which is usually a lot of fun and had a couple of drinks on my own before heading home at 8pm.
All was going well Saturday it was a fab night and met some new people as well as had fun with some old friends. It’s like I am playing catch-up now and meeting with friends that I have not seen since pre-pandemic times.
Things went a bit sour in the last bar I went into on Monday because suddenly it appeared I was fair game to shout threats to and give insults to simply for where I worked. As I work for the council in environmental health and a very drunken stranger was told by the owner of the pub where I worked which results with threats of potential violence and the only compliment coming from this complete stranger nut job was that well at least I’m not a traffic warden because they are worse than environmental health officers. Gee thanks pal!
He was taking about getting the lads around to sort me out, bare in mind this is a drunken complete random stranger, that I had only just seen and not even spoken to at all, who felt it amusing or necessary to hurl this drunken abuse at me.
I always try to be careful when I am out not to act like an idiot, bring to much attention to myself or in anyway put myself into a situation that could lead to violence or for want of a better possibly slightly melodramatic way put myself in a situation that could result in my untimely death due to violence at the hand of another.
There is something about masculine culture that can result in violence occurring for some people especially when alcohol is involved and the last thing I want to hear the next day or when I am unlucky or lucky enough to wake up in hospital or pick myself up from the floor is ‘Oh sorry mate it was not my fault I was drunk’!
I think like most males that have lived and been around the block a few times I have in the past been assaulted and it’s a nightmare situation that no one asks or volunteers for and I am so angry when someone tries to put me in that type of situation. In my younger days I used to make a move to try and stop fights when I saw them happening and that mostly went well and either stopped or prevented violence. But I am older now and feel like I should not be stepping in any more if I can help it.
I am not going to stop going out but I am also not wanting to put myself in harm’s way due to some drunken idiot the suddenly finds a kinship with violence due to how many beers are in his body.
I was the one that had to wake up my father in the middle of the night and tell him my brother’s life had ended. If I can help it I never want anyone else to have to wake either of my parents to tell them that my life has now been lost too.
So I have just gone and booked a little city break to Ireland in Dublin.
Ha’Penny Bridge Dublin
The accomidation we will be staying in is an appartment right by the bridge in the photo above.
I am so excited and it was a little bit of an impulsive holiday booking for me and a good friend to go over for a long weekend in late November.
At present you are not able to travel to Ireland from the UK without getting a Covid-19 test first and then self-isolating on your way there and on your way back. I am hoping these rules with have been relaxed by November and we are able to travel over without these restriction in place.
Dublin can be a very expensive city to get accommodation in and the 3 nights stay in Dublin in our apartment is costing us about £33 each per night to stay which is so cheap and it’s a perfect location for the area of Dublin we have enjoyed staying at in the past.
If we can’t go not to worry, nothing ventured nothing gained as they say. But if we can it will be blast.
So I just need to make sure I can get the time of work now and arrange how we get to Dublin too.
Exciting times ahead, needing some of that luck of the Irish for this trip to come off though.
One time when I went to Dublin I saw the Waterboys sing the song below at a race course it was amazing. I look forward to making more memories there in November
Wateboys – Whole of the moon
Dublin is such a magical place with people from all over the world mixing, chatting, smiling, laughing and drinking.
A great none judgmental place that takes you as you are. Had so much fun there on many an occasion that I have been there and I do really hope I am there again in November.
Well I am just coming to the end of a week off work, had an eclectic mix of things that I have done, went and caught up with some friends that I have not seen in over a year at a barbeque I made time to sort my home out a little too, taking out some stuff to the recycling centre and also some charity donations to the Oxfam shop.
Also made time to go to a friend’s birthday which was a great quite night in a local bar on a Monday where said friend was running around in a dinosaur suit, I have not laughed that much in a long time, a good night was had by all.
Kyle’s Birthday Suit!
So I will be back in work tomorrow and a little nervous because I am so darn tired today and have not left the flat since Thursday. I have no idea why I am so darn tired. It’s been a great week though.
I have not lost any weight this week though but I think that is down to the drinking of Guinness on a couple of nights out and also eating larger meal sizes than I have been used to of late. I did not put any weight on also which is good.
Still in two minds presently about the unlocking of lockdown, it’s lovely for us all to be catching up with people we have not seen for a long time and also be just around people in general. But you just hope that the vaccines continue to work their magic and we get on top of the virus in the long term.
I had my second Covid-19 jab over the weekend all went well and no ill effects from my second oxford astrazeneca vaccine injection. I am incredibly grateful to the NHS staff and volunteers that have helped deliver millions of vaccinations in the UK and covered over 50% of the adult population with 2 injections now
So I have my little NHS Covid-19 card with my name spelt wrong on it, to say that Hugh has had his 2 jabs done now so I will keep his card safe for him just in case he needs it back.
In the last 24 hours in the UK there have been no Covid-19 related deaths for the first time since March 7, 2020. Which is really good news, it hopefully shows that vaccines are working, the latest lockdown worked and the unlocking of lockdown is not resulting in increased deaths. But you just really have to be mindful of other variants and their future impact on all societies.
I feel a little strange at the moment like the calm after a storm that I am still not 100% sure is over yet. I still remember some of the good and bad times from last year, the light and dark moments and still think did that really just happen. It’s such a weird time to live through.
I know I have been told throughout my life by peoples whose views I respect and cherish that I can over think things, so maybe it’s just one of those over thinking times. I do like over thinking, as I do like to over think positively too. To be grateful for what I have more so than I am fearful for what I do not. To be happy for what has happened to me rather than sad about what has not.
I am definitely a glass half full person rather than a glass half empty person and even if a glass is less than half full well the fact that it still has something left in it has to be a bonus right!
I hope your glass is half full from where ever you are reading this and you feeling good today.
So I have just renewed my membership of Moor Trees a fantastic rewilding charity based here in Devon. Their long term vision is for a Wild Heart of Dartmoor, a core zone that is predominantly wooded and largely shaped by natural processes, but combined with low density grazing. The core zone would be surrounded by a mosaic of moorland, blanket bog, mires, pasture and crops with managed native woodlands, including working woodlands.
Dartmoor is the closest area we have near to where I live that can be described as close to a wilderness area as we have. A stand out wild area of beautiful landscapes and legends. Dartmoor National Park is a vast moorland in the county of Devon, in southwest England where Dartmoor ponies roam its craggy landscape, defined by forests, rivers, wetlands and tors (rock formations). Trails wind through valleys with Neolithic tombs, Bronze Age stone circles and abandoned medieval farmhouses.
A Dartmoor Pony grazing next to Plymouth Leat, above Clearbrook in south-west Dartmoor. Photo by Nilfanion
In the UK if you stand still long enough one of the utilities companies that you use will find a way of making more money out of you or just simply taking you for granted. So I decided to shake up some of my utility suppliers last night. Its well worth checking prices online and going to a comparison sight to decide what it is that is important to you and then signing up to who can best deliever what you want
I signed up last night to an Octopus Energy – renewable energy deal where they are also able to carbon offset my home gas usage. My Dad has been signed up with them for a couple of years now and finds them really easy to work with and loves there ecological motivation and credentials. I clicked on a link from my Dad which enables us both to get some cash back by me signing up.
I also eneded my contract with Talk Talk for my Phone and Broadband deal after they deciding early in the year to double the price of my broadband and mobile deal that I had with them as well as destroying the quality of my broadband speed and reducing the customer service number to a we wont answer your calls line. The speed of braodband was so slow that it was affecting my abilty to work at home.
So I also changed broadband supplier in order to get a fastrer supply for a cheaper price and a better customer experiance. So I am going to try POP telecom Broadband and see how that goes.
Exeter (my city), Devon (my county) and the rest of the UK (my country) held elections yesterday and many of the results have been announced today.
I voted for the green party where I live and I am very pleased to say that a green party councillor called Amy Sparling won the local ward on my council so Exeter City council and St Davids ward where I live now has two elected green party councillors.
It would be awesome if one day Exeter could send a green party elected official to our parliament in London to represent the people of Exeter, who knows what might happen in the future!
So I have just put on my green party of the USA T-shirt this evening, which I bought during one of the lockdowns last year while they were campaigning for the USA Presidential election, though it could have got here by plane so not sure how environmentally friendly my purchases method of transport was!
I also joined the green party in the UK last year and had some help from the other Green Party Councillor regarding an investigation into chopping down hedges along the rail track by my house during the bird nesting season in a spring 2020 lockdown. Although it was all said to be legitimate cutting of greenery by network rail by the wildlife crime officer which I could not really argue with in the end I was grateful to my local green party councillor also for checking out the legality of the cuttings being done and that really won over my support to the local green party even more than it already was.
I have already been really interested in politics from an early age and studied politics at university (although not staying there long enough to get a degree). I struggle to understand why so many people say politics is irrelevant to them or that it does not matter who you vote for their all as bad as each other.
I person in work said I quote that I had not heard before which is ‘if you don’t do politics, politics will do you’. I think that is an excellent phrase in which never was a truer word spoken.
So I went on a train trip down to Cornwall, a couple of weeks ago, where I was able to celebrate Christmas, Easter and pubs reopening all in one week with my parents. I also even found time to get my hair cut for the first time in 6 months to ensure that I no longer look like I am in some kind of 70’s TV police show.
Haircutted April 2021!
I have also been trying to lose weight, since my diabetes diagnosis and its happening slowly but surely and I weighted in this morning and find that since I started reducing my intake of unhealthy foods, portion sizes and eating less carbohydrates and more vegetables I have lost about 1 and half stone in weight or 9.5 kg. I was a little worried about my weight this week because I went out on my first lads night on the beers for the first time in over a year and also had a meal out to. But I was still able to loose a little weight due to the healthier eating and drinking in the rest of the week.
I still have a heavy weight to loose and a long way to go but it’s all going in the right direction. My biggest risk to my physical health will be when the pubs open up full time and I want to go out and be social and have a pint and listen to live music. But if I do so once a week and keep on track with my eating for the rest of the week (and my life) I should hopefully be ok.
The following definitions of democracy are commonly understood and accepted
Government by the people especially: rule of the majority
A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.
All that sounds very straight forward and who would argue against that well if you watched any TV in the UK or picked up a so called News Paper then you might have been under the misimpression that we have a one state controlled media promoted through TV and written publications all singing from the same hymn sheet.
A picture of the UK has been attempted to be painted this week of a county full of royalist worshipping citizens whom need to be reminded every 15 minutes through news bulletins, and documentary dramas that we have a monarchy they are very wise and superior to us mere mortals, intellectually, spiritually and genetically. There will be no talk of the future of the monarchy in anyway of whether we want, need or even should have one moving forward. If you are not crying at your TV because someone you have never met and never loved has died, then there is something wrong with you. It’s all quite an odd state of reality really.
The British Royal Family is deeply part of the political fabric even though the monarch is claimed to be above politics is still a deeply political position. The head of the machine of the states is our monarch and the tentacles of the state and our poorly unevenly handed media went into overdrive in the last week showing just how important to the system the promotion of the status quo is within the UK and chance of change or how such changes might take place in order to make our unwritten constitution and the construction of how our state works and to whom it works for are very remote.
Are we merely born into a system where the blood line of a head of state is more important than the blood line of any and all other citizens born with in it? If the answer to this question is absolutely yes, then this system is very much archaic and needs much needed reform which may never come.
We have a house of lords with some peers appointed from state supporters (none elected though the ballet box and some life long peers). They are responsible for keeping an eye on our political laws and ensuring due process is undertaking in parliament.
There are many who ridicule democratic due diligence, process and democratic political power. The reasons for these are often complicated and not easy to understand or even see. But most notably if you are not in favour of democratic due diligence, process or democratic political power it is because you have an invested interest and already receive power from an alternative form of government within which the ordinary man or woman does not have such power or privilege from.
A day of mixed emotions today I have been advised that I no longer needed to shield and so stepped out of my home and walked to work this morning and returned to the office. Its the first time I have walked into Exeter since I had my coronovirus jab, so things on the up for me personally.
But the lives taken of two young people in Exeter were also weighing on my mind. Firstly Lorraine Cox who was murdered in the Summer of 2020 had a jury find the murderer guilty of killing her and he is due to be sentenced next Wednesday. On the night she was last seen she was drinking in a local bar I drink in which is a lovely and friendly place, always welcoming to people who come through its doors and little did the people drinking with her on her last night know when she left what would next happen to her that terrible night in August 2020. It really has been deeply dark time for some of her friends and family that know and love her.
Lorraine Cox RIP
Secondly there is a wonderful young man, younger that is than me that very recently died in Exeter and his funeral was today. His name was Trevor Garman and he was a local legend within his lifetime. He had such a warm and worldly way to him and when we would get talking he was always very welcoming, kind and a great teller of stories and a champion of social justice to boot. Plus he made a great pirate and ran the most awesome karaoke night in town, where even I would occasionally get up and sing. He was always so warm and welcoming to the people that got up and sang and really made you feel supported up on the stage and was always making you want to go back for more.
Trevor Garman RIP
Sadly after posting this page I have another soul to add to the list of the lost humans
I was lucky enough to meet and work at the Devon Wildlife Trust with a wonderful woman called Emma Parkinson some 20 years ago. We used to chatter in the office, go camping on Wildlife Nights Out for School groups and also go out with the rest of the crew at DWT for an occasional beer or two. When I moved away from Exeter she was one of many wonderful people that I lost touch with and hoped to one day meet again. So I was trying to see if she had a facebook page this week and sadly came across her memorial page I don’t know how or under what circumstances her life was lost but it happened a couple of years ago another real tragedy of a good person taken before their time.
Emma Parkinson RIP
So all in all a sombre day for many Exetonians today.
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