Adventures in Everyday Madness Continuing
“Are you a communist?”“No I am an anti-fascist”“For a long time?”“Since I have understood fascism.” ― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls It’s becoming evident that the right to be ‘ultra-right’ has become embedded in our everyday culture and conversations. The pendulum has swung the other way. Being a Fascist is now fashionable; it marks you out... Continue Reading →
The arrow belonged to somebody. That somebody was neither claiming it nor the moment. I surveyed the surroundings and saw nothing. My eyes travelled up to the empty windows in the buildings that stared down at us. Emptiness looked back and my search continued. Who had fired it? Why had they done so? Were they... Continue Reading →
I think that I had stopped talking. It wasn’t a conscious decision, not one logically worked out, but something that just arrived one morning and then stayed for the rest of the day, and the day after and the day after that – you get it? It was before the world went quiet. Before I... Continue Reading →
I held my hefty torch before me, a broadsword against the dreaded shadows. The light danced across the room, hitting books, glancing off the impressive fireplace and illuminating the stained glass windows which told various bible stories that I was not familiar with. On two of the three windows was a man holding a staff... Continue Reading →
This was the last food that I remember from Sandham: Potato waffles Scrambled eggs and beans YoghurtsFruit juice Red lentil, chickpea and chilli (v) Roast lamb, roast potatoes, carrots, peas and mint sauce Sweet potato curry (v) Apple shortcakes Southern fried chicken, wedges and corn on the cob Orange Pavlova Toast and drinks. It’s strange,... Continue Reading →
I remember the strangest of things, stuff that neuros don’t tend to notice. Faces are my best. I can tell if a neuro is masking, but not if they are wearing a mask. There’s all that ‘old saying’ nonsense about eyes being the gateways to the soul, but obviously I don’t think that way. Eyes... Continue Reading →
Something had nudged me from sleep. The night was still with us. I imagined that I could hear the other boys sleeping deeply in their rooms as I had been doing before a noise had crept into my sleeping space and encouraged me to sleep no more. My curtains had been open as I don’t... Continue Reading →
Silence has many different levels of meaning. To some it means just what it says, a complete absence of sound. In that type of silence you can hear absolutely nothing and I would have a major problem with such a unresponsive definition because it is just so plainly not true. When we think that we... Continue Reading →
I don’t believe in things that go bump in the night. There is always an explanation, for everything. Take the universe. It just did not happen because some strange deity, who had not even thought of a name for itself, deemed it so. The universe began because all the energy that was ever around was gathered... Continue Reading →
We started to line up for our food. One meter apart was the rule, and no touching anyone else. For the younger boys this was as impossible as understanding poetry or those things called themes in Shakespeare. It was the same for me when I was younger. I would smash pens, turn over desks and... Continue Reading →
Read After Burnout 