The Sober Life

      ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ Hamlet (Act 1 Scene 5) “It is not animals who are blind. Man, blinded by conscience is incapable of seeing the world” (Jean-Luc Goddard Goodbye to Love)     Have you ever thought of something then saw it soon after? Did someone mention something to you and then you saw it? Have you ever been introduced to something for the first time and then experienced it again and again?  Ever thought of a friend and then they called?   Things like this seem to happen to me all the time. So much so that even I don’t believe it myself sometimes. It used to be I would think of something I needed and it would appear in Aldi's central aisle soon after. It got to the point where I was starting to think Aldi had tapped my phone, my Alexa and possibly my cerebral cortex.  I think my sensitivity to it developed soon after giving up alcohol. I cannot explain why. Maybe you...

I am a spider trapped in the bath The sides designed by non-spiders To generate cheap laughs I miss my family and some of my friends This loneliness can send a spider around the bend I wish I was a fly, a wasp or bee  I wish I was anything but a spider like me Outside this place I did not see a spider like me Just thousands of spiders I didn't want to be So I went on a search and found myself here A lost and lonely eight legged sightseer So I sit and I think, but I can’t do the math It seems like forever I’ve been in this bath Spiders before me have struggled to get out Most don't live past the big shout   Shall I create a Great Spider God  And praise him for saving me from the bog? Maybe if I repent and give him amends  He will send for help and my other spider friends Or shall I clean and polish up my soul So it glides with grace through the distant plug hole? Outside, the webs I have spun will soon dissolve in the noonday sun I’m out of ideas and too tired to run ...

  The noise of the self isolation sirens are dying away. The seriousness that greeted us at the start of the original lockdown has been replaced by a numb mundanity as we await the start of the endgame. We will disembark the Corona-coaster dazed and confused, the shutters will go up again on the high street, but what will the world be like and more importantly what will we be like? We have been through war style shortages and the good old blitz spirit on our doorsteps. We had false restarts, double standards, corruption, errors and good old human nature which is now bringing us back around nicely to get ready for… for a new age?....a new enlightenment?...a new awareness of the fragility of life?...Or just the pubs to reopen again so we can get slaughtered with our mates and pretend like this was all a bad dream? The government has given us a road map out of lockdown, a road map that reopens everything back to normal three days before Boris Johnson's birthday. As with all road maps...