An Epic

Maybe I'm slightly biased but the love story of Gillian and Ralph Stone is one of THE great untold love stories, an epic spanning seventy years since they met just after the chaos of world war 2 through the second half of the 20th century, until now amidst the chaos of 2017.

Families, seeds and flowers

Families expect domestic bliss and togetherness to continue for ever,

but familiar forms fall apart and the child leaves the family. 

Carrying the essence of what they know as a hidden seed,

 like a burr brushed past caught coincidentally and carried  on a sock.

It will flower sometime in the future

The child doesn't choose  its parents

The Story of the Wandering Goodie

Do you see that tallman?' she said, as a doctor approached a nearby patient on nearby bed,
' he' she said secretively, 'is a wandering goodie'

The phrase 'This hospital is full of wandering goodies' came into my head.

I laughed at the thought - it sounded like guardian angels or wandering souls. I imagined these nomadic spirits wandering around the world looking for a place to help people and congregating around  hospitals.

Later, wanting to write more but in a quandary because she had triggered the image,
I said to her 'can we make a collaboration?'
 I imagined a story around the idea of the Wandering Goody.
 She inspired it but I would write it.

'You don't have to ask me to collaborate ' she said as she lay weakly semiconscious on her hospital bed,
she had probably forgotten that she even said 'wandering goodie'

Tickboxes

RESEARCH INTO TICKBOXES
You may tick more than one box if they apply. Think and be
truthful

Do you like tickbox questionnaires?
     yes

     No
     Yes, but with reservations
     No but they are useful sometimes

Do you use tickboxes?
     Always

     Very often
     Occasionally
     Never

Do you like yes/no questions?
     Yes

     No
     Occasionally
     Sometimes

Thats alright then isn’t it?
     I strongly agree

     I strongly disagree

Do you agree with this statement: “If it was always good i’d
be much happier”

     I agree
     I disagree
     I nearly agree
     I nearly disagree
     Nothing is perfect

Do you like it when things go wrong?
     Always

     Very often
     Occasionally
     Never

Generally, do things chug along nicely for you?
     Always

     Very often
     Occasionally
     Never

Do you want it to be perfect?
     Always

     Very often
     Occasionally
     Never

And when is it perfect?
     Always

     Never
     More often if I worked at it

How often do you think?
     Always

     Very often
     Occasionally
     Never

How do you feel?
     Numb

     I don’t
     Emotional
     I can’t explain

If I was to ask you an open ended question how would you
answer?

     An open ended question?
     Yes
     No

Are you positive?
     Always

     Occasionally
     Often
     Never

Is this a joke?
Yes
No
You’re weird
Don’t be silly. A box is a box is a box

Do we know more about you than when we started this
questionnaire?

     Yes, I feel robbed, naked and ripped off

     Slightly
     Depends on what algorithm you are using to assess the

results
     No, I am an unknowable fortress and mystery even to my

closest friends
     Who me? I’ve got nothing to hide

Complete the following sentence using one of the following
options:
Tickboxes ________

     1)______  magically sum up what I was thinking anyway

     2) _____ are rubbish.Who cares? I just tick any box and
     move on

     3) _____are great because they distil all my thoughts
     into a simple yes no decision thereby circumventing
     much  angst and verbal diarrhoea enabling the assessor
     to see how  I truly truly feel

     4).___ are  a bit freaky because I don’t know how who
     is going to see them

     5)If you truly cared for me you would give me a big box
     like the one below where I could explain exactly how I
     truly am.

6) I don’t understand this form of question. I want a tickbox please (ok)

please read this survey aloud to friends

Please put any other comments or feelings in the box
below

Thankyou for completing this survey.
 Please return to jonijonjon@mac.com

3 photos

 

          

with Mad People in Power

How polished and efficient it all is,
How trimmed the lawns are,
How lumberingly efficient the big bureaucracy is (well at least its there),
but how thin this veneer of civilisation is.
Is it sturdy? could it all just crumble?
What if ..it just stopped working?


30th July 645 am Sunday. oh what a beautiful morning! What should I do? If I had chickens I would give them a nice chlorine bath in the sun and sell them to a gullible country! Things to do on a Sunday morn!

Visiting Grenfell. No Photos

Although I live near, less than 2miles from Grenfell Tower and though I remember hearing about it at 4.30am when I awoke, while it was happening, I have never had an inclination to go there. I remember that morning wondering whether to go down and help, and deciding not to when I heard they were swamped with helpers. I had no idea of the enormity of the event, but knew there was going to be big reverberations about it. Today, 28th July, was the first time I had wanted to go near Grenfell. I had seen enough images of the burnt out tower. It was in the news again today -the police reckon they now have enough evidence to sue Kensington and Chelsea Council for ‘corporate manslaughter.' Today,for the first time I felt the urge to go there. 

I caught the tube from Edgware Road and travelled the 4stops to Latimer Road station. It only took a few minutes and I thought of my few encounters with out of control fire and fear.

I remember when I was 15 the church a few doors up caught fire in the early morning  and although I couldn’t see the window there was a red glow on the wall and my father shouting get up and get out the house!

I remember when I was a young boy being near a heathfire at Blackbushe Aerodrome  watching these wild flames consuming land and I remember being scared whether to watch or move as the wind blew the wild flames unpredictably.

I remember sitting by the warm fireside and hearth at home, staring into the flames of burning logs and learning  from my father how to build fires.

I remember  as an 11 year-old as schoolboy prank starting a small fire that got out of hand, setting fire to about 100 yards of railway embankment.

I remembered the last time of being in NYC in July 2001 and from the roof of our place on 2nd Avenue between 4th and 5th and seeing the top of the Empire StateBuilding  in midtown round to the two towers of the World Trade Centre and couldn’t imagine that those towers has less than 2 months left.

And now heading to Grenfell I had that same sick feeling only fire and tragedy can arouse. 

Coming out of the tube station at Latimer Road and looking up at the burnt out block, a familiar image but its always small in a newspaper or on a screen and it does not prepare you for the enormity of the looming dark presence towering above you and I couldn’t look without imagining the hell what was now such a still shel. That area will not beging to recover until it is demolished

The eerie quiet in the streets around, a lot of flowers, (some old, some fresh) yellow ribands tied round trees, railings, candles and lanterns in pavement corners knitted tributes everywhere, shop windows had hurriedlly printed pictures of people missing. the area had obviously been inundated with visitors who trampled and gawped - a sign saying ‘Please keep off- we’re growing a garden here’ the residents resigned sad and resentful with that tired knowing slow look. A couple of police officers walking slowly around. On a deserted street corner with the burnt out block behind them a tv crew and besuited reporter stuck out like an inevitable sore thumb. A man came up to me and complained that he couldn’t get close enough to get a good picture ‘I bet there were many good pics on the night’ he said not realising how gross he sounded  he used to work in the area he said. The sadness of the place was bigger than his sickness. I couldn't judge him. What was I doing there?I didn’t want to stay long, but I needed to witness this, I needed to  be there. I was glad to leave the area. It's sad and suffocating. I  returned to the tube to get out and directed a woman with a big bunch of flowers to where other had laid theirs.