Self-Isolate
I’m a prisoner in my own home
The other day I went for breakfast with my friend Pam, and I had to give my name and phone number to the cafe. I’ve been contacted Public Health England under track and trace, and told I have to stay in the garret for 14 days from last Saturday.
Luckily I have plenty of canned goods and medication. There is a £100 fine if I go out, terrible.
This really is the last straw.
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jack collier
jackcollie7@talktalk.net
a locked door
Scenes on Sunday ~ The Sea
a calm sea never made a good sailor
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
warm and pacific
Scenes on Sunday ~ Sara
a real man should build his own sports car
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
there’s always a woman involved somewhere
Songs on Saturday ~ Against the Wind
birds fly highest against the wind, not with it
There is a part of me that yearns for the better art of my youth ~ not that I ever owned a hog, or a switchblade, or a studded leather jacket. I was a little too prudish for that. For a while I rode a 400 x 4 to work, bought and sold cars that I shouldn’t have touched with a barge pole, and knew an older woman called Janet who owned a Bonneville T120. (MBL (Married but looking.)) And BTW, if I go over the Rockies it will not be on a bike.
Please listen with skepticism, or maybe cynicism.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
surprising ride for a married older woman
Complaisant
if you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody
Unless you are a sociopath or a narcissist you will tend to want to make other people happy. If you are in a romantic relationship you will tend to want to please your partner. If you are a child you will tend to want to please your parents, teachers, and just about every other adult you interact with. There are exceptions; we all have bad days when we couldn’t give a fuck, there are some people we don’t care about at all, and there are some other people we dislike so much that we are at the other end of the people-pleasing spectrum.
And then there are those of us to get sucked into the role of a people-pleaser, continually doing what other people want us to do, always saying yes when we should be saying no, and trying to find ways to ingratiate ourselves with people who take us for granted. We become the epitome of a people-pleasing fool because there is something in our past that made us eager to please someone in authority over us, (and / or someone we loved), for the sake of our own safety, sanity, or just because that was the only way we would ever get any attention or affection.
For a lot of my life I was trapped in the role of a people-pleaser, because my feelings of self-worth were so low as to be almost non-existent, and I was always looking to others to validate myself. My self-esteem was whatever other people told me it was, and that was doubly so for women I liked and / or was in a relationship with. I was a prisoner.
Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner. ~ Lao Tzu
Once someone consciously or subconsciously realises just how much they are being taken for a fool, then they have some chance of escaping that submissive, subservient, complaisant role. And, other people will not like that at all. I stopped being a people-pleasing serf a little while ago, and some said a lot of unpleasant things to and about me. Yet the people who truly cared for me were happy for me, and encouraged me to go on steadfastly walking the true warriors path of independence, courage, confidence, determination, and kindness.
Some say they exist to please their master / mistress. And that if they didn’t take care of everyone else in their life, then who else would? All I know is that you can’t please everyone, so you’ve got to please yourself.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
just because she enjoys being submissive doesn’t mean she is someone’s doormat
Songs on Saturday ~ Harry Chapin
you’ve never seen dark until you’ve seen dark in a coal mine
I come from a blue-collar, coal-mining, working-class background. My father worked down the pit. When I was old enough I got just as far away from that as I possibly could, and I never wanted to go back there. Hence, apart from this song I never wanted to go to Scranton Pennsylvania, the centre of what was an anthracite mining area. I think this is funny.
Scranton is on my bucket list ~ now that all the coal mines are closed. I suppose it doesn’t stink of mashed bananas any more.
Please listen with a GSOH.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
quite the old truck wreck
if not for her
cheating doesn’t come from a lack of love
it comes from a lack of respect
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I saw you with that whore
open dress public amore
that’s only the final coup
guess that we’re through
nobody to blame but you
you could never be true
got to find someone new
well baby it’s a fond adieu
so stew you faithless bore
you can’t hurt me anymore
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
did you have to choose someone older?
Food on Friday ~ Halloween I
believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see
Halloween is a little ways off yet, but I know that many of you will already have pulled your decorations out of the garage and started to put them about the place. Anyway, if you’re going to be ready for the fright fest night, you may as well start early.
When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers; ’tis near Halloween…..
From Joy the Baker here’s a dish that you can take to the couch while you watch your favourite scary movie and wait for scary kids to come to the door. Homemade Chili Cheese Fry Bake, sounds deliciously easy to make.
Homemade Chili Cheese Fry Bake
Quick and easy sandwiches are a good idea at All Hallows Eve, and from Damn Delicious we have these Instant Pot BBQ Pulled Pork buns. Actually, these would be fabulous any time you are out of doors.
Instant Pot BBQ Pulled Pork
Something seasonal from Ali at Gimmie Somme Oven; Healthy Pumpkin Muffins, sweetened with maple syrup, vegan, and gluten free, great with spiced rum.
Healthy Pumpkin Muffins
To drink at Halloween, what could be better than Hot Pomegranate Cider, following this recipe from Jessica Merchant at How Sweet Eats; (How Scary Eats?). If you really want to blow your mind, then get a bottle of Calvados and add a slug of that to each cup.
Hot Pomegranate Cider
A fabulous looking and powerful sounding drink from Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest; Voldemort’s Dark Serum. There are two quite dangerous ingredients in this concoction; tequila, and sage ~ and if you don’t think sage has an incredibly powerful effect on women, then you ain’t no herbalist.
Voldemort’s Dark Serum
Here’s a collection and a half for you, from Delish Magazine Scary-Good Halloween, which has more than 100 differently scary recipes. (Actually it’s 3 different collections including 45 Spooky Eats for a Grown-Up Halloween Party.) From there I’ve chosen this Black Bean Pumpkin Soup from A Foodcentric Life.
Black Bean Pumpkin Soup
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
darkness falls across the land
the midnight hour is close at hand
last night’s loves
be patient, the best things happen at night
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last night she realised that he never looked into her eyes
but she was happy he was staring at her deep cleavage instead
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I love you…..’ she said softly, ‘please take your clothes off for me…..’
‘these aren’t clothes…..’ he replied
‘you’re a werewolf at night, are’t you?’ she asked excitedly
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she came, and then
she came to the conclusion that car sex was much safer late at night
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at midnight all she had left were half-remembered thoughts of love
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last night, when he said he wanted to sleep with her
she expected him to stay awake for a while first
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last night she wanted him
she wanted him to leave her alone
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
in a bar, very close to midnight
the black widow searched for her next victim
Admitting to Being Wrong
failure consists of redoubling your efforts when you have completely forgotten your goal
The most pernicious word in modern English is denier ~ as in climate change denier, coronavirus denier, BAME denier, God denier, and worst of all Holocaust denier. I know all about denial, having lied to myself for years about being socially inadequate and denied having a drinking problem. But I could never have accused anyone of being an alcoholism denier. That does just not make sense. Calling someone else a denier is merely to show up the fact that you yourself are closed-minded, have no logical basis for whatever opinions you have, and are totally unwilling to listen to arguments that run counter to your own dogma.
Basically, you are not prepared to ever admit that there is the slightest possibility that you could ever be wrong. In that case, who the fuck do you think you are? God?
Everybody human is wrong some of the time. Sometimes we are mistaken, sometimes we are ill-informed or misinformed, sometimes our own inner programming is flawed, and sometimes we believe in something just because we want to. Notice that I said believe in and not believe. Those who use the word denier believe in things rather than believe the arguments and proofs that support a given position. They will never, ever admit that they are wrong.
Surely it’s time for climate-change deniers to have their opinions forcibly tattooed on their bodies. ~ Richard Glover
I learned that really listening to other people was an essential part of being a better man ~ sometimes other people’s opinions and beliefs are better than my own. I learned that there is probably no such thing as absolute truth. I learned that when I was wrong, promptly admitting it was essential for my mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
There is no better test of a man’s integrity than his behavior when he is wrong. ~ Marvin Williams
There is a principle in 12 step recovery programmes; ‘Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it…..’ Really that does not go far enough, perhaps it should go on to say; ‘…..and changed our behaviour accordingly…..’
No person who ever calls another man a denier will ever admit that it is they who are wrong.
Some say that to deny that total lockdown is the only way to deal with the coronavirus is to risk the disease running rampant, causing megadeaths. And that any opinion other than their own is emphatically false. All I know is that I have been wrong in the past, and no doubt I will be wrong again in the future.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
so busy fighting off the alligators you’ve forgotten you are supposed to be draining the swamp
