The Band/Rick Danko/1976

Last nights C5 Princess Diana drama-docu was very high quality television indeed , and whilst it did try to gently steer the viewer towards accepting the official version of her and Dodi's death it ultimately left it open for us  to decide , and , I do not believe that it was a simple straightforward tragic traffic accident , but  Mr . Al-Fayed is such an ineffective and counter-productive spokesman for his cause .

ITN news has gone so sensationalistically downmarket : Tonight it was 'internet paedophiles' again , wailing that one in four teenagers using bebo / facebook / teenspot etc. have had sexual references made to them by other users - They did not allege that all these abhorrent 'pervs' who have the appalling audacity to have any sexual interests are adult paedophiles , neither did they cite any cases of adult men who have 'met' under 16 year olds online having physically met and assaulted them .
Of course that HAS happened though thankfully I think it's very rare , and of course the message that it's dangerous to give out much personally identifiable information and that , if you do plan to meet anyone who you've 'met' online make sure you feel that you know and trust them and , if you do decide to arrange to meet them make sure it's in a public place and that you've told someone else where you plan to be and who you plan to meet - Especially if you're a young person - Is crucially  important .
But - Teenagers - Chatting online or exchanging emails with one another - being mutually interested in anything Sexual - OMG - Shock , Horror , Terror , Panic . . . I strongly suspect that the vast majority of teens who use the internet , whether or not closely supervised by their parents are far more astute that it suits the downmarket itn news to give them credit for .

I've just had the Bush/Brown news conference on , and , as usual , Bush was setting the agenda and it was nearly all about his continued justification of his 'war on terror' .
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Tonights Channel5 docu-drama 'Diana:Last days of a princess' , at 9pm , should be fairly unmissable or at least its second hour should ,
though as to be expected it will be leading us to conclude that the crash was no more than an accident .
Interesting that the Chairman of the 'operation paget' enquiry , Sir John Stevens , that it is largely based on allegedly told Henri Paul's parents that their son was NOT drunk on the night of the crash , though concluded in the inquiry that he was .

In Yesterdays D/Mail a fascinating article - And No Today Is'nt April 2nd ! - about the Distinguished
62 year old Black  American Physicist Ronald L Mallett seriously believing that for around $250,000 he can build a working Time-Travel apparatus , a sort of 'time-tunnel' a few feet across comprised of four swirling laser-beams , that could enable someone entering it to emerge at a predetermined point in the past - But - Only going back as far  as since the apparatus had been switched on . . . So . . . What are we to make of that ?
If it could work , and that's obviously a very big IF - Then they could of course only return to their starting point in time through the 'machine' which would already be operative .
And So , apart from making a lot of money through already knowing the results of lotteries , races etc. , and perhaps , being able to warn people killed in accidents during that timeframe , what would be the point - Well , surely much more worthwhile than in going to the moon again - We know what's there and , any 'time-travel' possibilities are so fascinating , so unknown , but with so many mind-boggling possible paradoxes and hidden dangers , perhaps left well alone . But if it's ever possible someone will try it , or rather , already 'has' tried it , which brings to mind the 'time-travellers from the future' theory about some UFO sightings and alleged alien contact .
Mr.Mallett wanted to go back in time to warn his late Father against the heavy smoking and drinking that led to his fatal heart attack in 1955 .
He seems to now accept that to be impossible in his lifetime but is very serious about his proposed prototype time travel apparatus .
As a non-scientist I cannot see how it could work , or that we'd be likely to be told about it if it did , but , absolutely fascinating  stuff .(His book : The Time Traveller : One Man's Mission to make Time Travel a reality , by Ronald L Mallett with Bruce Hendersion will be published in August by Doubleday.)

Vs Funkstar Deluxe

Have You ? The old pub , over the road from where I lived in Norwich , was said by the landlord to be haunted and when I was alone upstairs with the dj-decks , playing the music , through speakers downstairs , I often 'saw' , through the corner of an eye  shadowy figures ascending the stairs , or walking towards me , but whenever my brain fully registered it and I gave it my full attention it disappeared .
Apparently a 'medium' had visited the pub and given details of who the 'ghosts' supposedly were .
Also a young couple who lived directly opposite there had similar experiences in their home .
Well , you can call for the 'men in white coats' to drag me away if you want to , though many people have had not dissimilar experiences and , what does that prove ? -
That there is an afterlife , and that our souls do live on ? - If so the presumably quite ancient 'ghosts' in the pub must preclude any possibility of reincarnation , otherwise they'd surely have reincarnated long before now , unless thay are somehow 'earthbound' and can't/do'nt want to .
Or , that bulidings hold 'memories' ?
Or just that the subconscious human mind is far more influential than we realise and tends to 'play tricks' on us ?
I know that I sensed my Dad's prescence here soon after he died , but , that could be attributed to any of those three theories , or it could even point to those who contend that our souls do live on and those who say that , when we die , that is that ,  both being right :: That our spirit lingers for just a short time after we die , before dissolving into nothingness .
I'd be very interested indeed to hear any of any of your thoughts / experiences , - martin .

original of the species

My Mum watched a video of 'The Bridge' , a well acted but dull film , filmed around here , that she was an 'extra' in , and I watched 'Marked For Death' (Steven Segal) , which is 'alright' though I'll not watch it again .
I'm reading Lynda La Plante's ' The Red Dahlia' : She does'nt write as well as Ruth Rendell for example but it's very well plotted and the characterisation and  dialogue is all believable .
I've had three bets since R/Ascot , all wining short priced favourites ,  and have won back about three quarters of what I lost on r/a races , though , if I'd gone there it'd have cost me a lot  more . I was'nt quite brave enough to back another Newmarket winner yesterday , though , when a horse that's been tipped and backed heavily suddenly , soon before the 'off , drifts back to what it was originally  that means that the bookmakers , having taken their money now want to get more because they know it can't win , which is why it  often makes sense to wait until just before the race before if having a bet . And that the RP's Tom Segal , despite his few amazing runs of predicting winners , is far from  invincible .
Though short-priced favourites should'nt be ignored even if they do 'drift' in the betting a little.

My Mother has much faith in the teachings of Rudolf Steiner (1861 - 1925) , which are very difficult to decipher but which seem to contain a lot of knowledge especially about the spirit and spirit worlds and reincarnation , if you can believe in all that , and I am certainly at least 'open to' it .
She subscribes to the 'New View' magazine which a year or so ago included an article that absolutely incensed me - Re. a meeting with , and giving credence to a severely disturbed and despicable man called Michael Werner who claims to have no need for food or liquids and to have hardly eaten anything for years .
Mr Werner quotes a despicably lying madwoman who calls herself Jasmuheen who claims not to eat but who has been exposed as the fraud that she so obviously is .
Now Michael Werner has had a book published about his professedly hardly  eating or drinking anything whilst remaining perfectly healthy .
Well Fuck You Michael Werner , and your publishers for spreading these highly dangerous obvious lies , which can only give encouragement to vulnerable anorexically inclined young people . 
I do'nt know why this makes me so angry - I have never been anorexic or close to anyone who is - but it does .
Maybe a few people , 'mystics' and suchlike , if they really know exactly what they are doing can go into trance-like meditative states in which they can survive without the sustenance of food or water for some time but anyone who claims to continuously be going without food or food and liquids without losing weight , going into a coma and dying a horrible death and who then seeks to make money out of those claims is an attention-seeking highly irresponsible dangerous liar .
post-script , the late R/Steiner is in no way to blame , it's just that a few of his present-day followers seem remarkably gullible and naive in this instance ;                                                    post-script 2 ; MW does not claim to be a 'mystic' ; just to be living an ordinairy life , with a wife and children , but to have eaten and drunk almost nothing for several years .

How I'd love to have a woman friend , or more than one , not necessarily anything intense , committed or very intimate , just someone to be physically and socially relaxed with , 
walk hand in hand with ,  share things with .
Will I ever have that again ? - Who can say . Before last Christmas I gave a card to a lady who works in a shop here , I wrote on it "to lovely -------- ",  she gave me one , signed "love from" and took to calling me darling but I just did'nt have the confidence to ask her out and now , understandably , she's cooler towards me , perhaps having felt slightly humiliated by my having flattered her by having got the message over that I liked her then not following it up with asking her out or anything but I just could'nt .
Maybe she and I would'nt have been right for each other , we'll never know , but I'd so love to have a good solid healthy pleasant meaningful friendship with a local woman , anyone who's unattached and a decent nice person who I can get on with , aged 20something to 50-ish .
Which is something that money can't buy .

Jo's daughter Georgie brought her bengal kitten round to show me , and informed us that Leo was entertaining them in her Mum's garden , showing off climbing and prancing around in the tree , with her two female cats (who she brought with her) looking on in awe and admiration of him !
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I had to wipe out everything and revert my desktop pc back to factory condition - The problem seemed to coincide with my accidentally switching off the 'phone/ans machine -
Have re-installed all of the most important s/ware though cannot find the disc for the s/ware that I was using to rip cd tracks with , so may not be able to upload any music to here for a while , but I'll figure something out .

You either love it or hate it but I think it's fab : David Bowie , from 1967 . . .

A lot of young teenagers out on the green over there last night - Sounded like sexually rampageous baboons - And there they are again tonight - Do'nt they realise this town is largely made up of respectable , retired folk , such as I - Please - - - Have your fun but let us oldies rest in peace in our coffins , thank you .

(though what I'd do there I'm not sure)

So Gordon Brown , who - a fellow-'blogger reminded me -  lost the sight in one eye after being kicked during a school rugby match wants there to be much more competitive sports games in schools - That's brilliant for the pupils who want to take part but there should be alternatives for those who do not .
I was absolutely terrible at football at my 'junior school' , just did'nt have a clue and did not want to play it or enjoy it in the slightest , and at another school that I was breifly at had the indignity of always being the last one chosen to be in the teams for basketball which I was similarly hopeless at , and , being made to go cross-country running - May not have done me any harm but certainly did'nt do me any good either .
At another school I did'nt so much mind volleyball , except if having ones foot accidentally landed on by the teacher .

Good afternoon everybody , I've been so tired today , just had a lovely long sleep ; What I meant last night is that yeah I get a bit stuck on getting certain words out sometimes though in
the 2 'phone calls I mentioned it did'nt happen much at all but I got the impression that in the minds of the people I was speaking to that marked me out as a nuttter  , and , this is years ago now but when the young police lady came to the door but would not come in after my having reported the young man with the scarf  round his face obviously about to break in she kept saying "but how do you know he was going to break in ?"
I think I  know what that was about , 'Secondhand-land' in Norwich is reputed to sell stolen stuff - We'd
bought a tv from there which developed a fault after about a month - They came to collect it to repair it , and soon bought it back duly repaired but while they were in the flat the man was looking round a lot , at cd's etc and the attempted break-in happened within a week from that .
(But just in case they see this and think of sueing me for defamation I cannot prove the link , it is my perception which could be false , as could the rumours I've heard of them knowingly selling stolen goods.)

     
Not only does he keep trying to purloin food from my plate and lick my Mum's  butter ,  this morning he dragged a poor helpless young bird through his cat flap , and , by the time we'd rescued it the poor thing was no longer able to fly ~ But , yeah , I know , his nature , and an 'occupational hazard' of having a cat .
After what I wrote here last night about drinking a little more than is wisest I unexpectedly felt a bit hung over this morning prompting me to be more careful in that way which I am being ;  I still went on the bus to the nearest cinema to see Die Hard 4 which was SO disappointing , and ridiculously incomprehensible and implausible .
Die Hard 1 is solid 5* material , Part 2 is very good 4* fare and  Part  3 is 'okay' 3* star rateable but DH4 is just very silly , moronic 2* rubbish .
Looking forward to seeing Madonna live on BBC1 at 10-ish , she'll finish with 'Hung Up' , and , I can't sing but if I were there I'm sure I'd manage to chant #"Time - Goes - By , So Slowly"# .

Two things that caught my eye in todays d/mail : In the "ephraim hardcastle" column :
'Bawdy comedian Frank Skinner , whose speciality is jokes about anal sex , has become a regular worshipper at St Thomas More Church in  Swiss Cottage , North London , the only Parish in Britain run by Opus Dei ,
Those members of the group who are celibate practise flagellation and the wearing of a cilice , or spiked garter to stave off temptations of the flesh'
 - How Peculiar-
And secondly the death of George Melly , aged 80 , who was said to have smoked 60 a day AND regularly consumed vast quantities of alcoholic beverages - Just goes to show that the medical prophets  of doom who say that drinking more than about 25 - 30 units a week will definitely lead to an early death from liver disease are'nt always right ; I do not smoke but usually get through several cans of 4% lager , watered  down a bit with cheap 2% stuff each evening , which I usually derive some enjoyment from and which does not make me drunk or agressive or lustful , just more relaxed .
Saw the bbc1 programme about saving borneo's orang utangs , and , how I'd love to go there and give some of the babies some of the hugs that they are missing from their despicably murdered Mothers , and , in one scene a baby o/u was playing with the ear of a delightfully docile ginger cat .

The Wimbledon Tennis so far behind because of all the rain : Well , why can't they have retractable roofs and artificial lighting , but , " Oh No , We are the All England Club and we do'nt do THAT sort of thing " .

Living in  Norwich it was kind of 'cool' to be able to go just over the road , amongst people , where I was known , even after midnight if I could'nt sleep , until it all 'turned sour' , partly my fault and partly not .
It was a gay pub and I did act a bit gay there sometimes but , I would not say this if it was'nt true ,
I have never been or desired to be 'actively' gay .
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I hate the pubs in Southwold , though at least I presume they are smokey no more ; No decent music , if any , Holidaymakers eating meals , old codgers being boring and young folk interrogating oneself about work and employment history .

So now Powergen have - I think - Though nothing can now surprise me re. this - at least temporarily called off the debt collection agency - probably staffed entirely by shaven-headed tattoed thugs - and now they are oh so graciously offering me 10% off the 'debt' , and the oportunity to pay it to them in 12 monthly instalments ;
" Following a price incresase we attempt to recalibrate prepayment meters three months after the price rise becomes effective . Regrettably , your meter has not been recalibrated for some time and whilst the tariff prices have been increasing , the settings on your meter have remained too low resulting in the balance now owing on your account."
They do not seem to be blaming me for incurring the 'debt' ; just to be saying that due to Siemens on their behalf not recalibrating the meter despite being given regular access to it I have to make up their estimated difference in what they say that I owe them , and , they just do'nt seem capable of comprehending that I moved out in November , not february and that I am not still living there now . I'm sorry if this seems trivial compared to people finding themselves , whether through their irresponsibility or through no fault of theirs in big , serious debt that they cannot afford to pay , but it's just really annoying nevertheless .
I'm really looking forward to seeing Hostel 2 , Die Hard 4 and The Bourne Ultimatum .
Where I would least like to be : In an AOL Chat Room .