Marmaduke Monday
though soulmates aren’t looking for you, they will find you
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
home at last
Marmaduke is an adventurous bear
Vacation Hiatus
vacations are a break from our usual activities
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As you get to read this I will be preparing to get aboard an aluminium tube that’s going to take me a couple of thousand miles from Newcastle upon Tyne to Dalaman in Turkey.
The chances are I will be too busy doing nothing to write anything on this blog until my return to the garret.
I will be taking some cool photographs I’ll post later.
Have a great time while I’m away.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
in my absence Marmaduke will be looking after the garret
Scenes on Sunday ~ Free as a Bird
a bear, seeking freedom, the open air, and two tickets to adventure
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
on a day like today
he would blow his cares away
with the wind, the sun, and the sea
Scenes on Sunday ~ Marmaduke
he wandered lonely as a cloud
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Marmy never says much,
But, what’s he thinking about
Distressed and Depressed
you have to be at your strongest when you’re feeling your weakest
staring into nothingness
A few days ago I decided to stop following the news. It isn’t so much the hard news of current events which I find distressing and depressing, it’s the rather one-sided and left-liberal commentary, opinions, and spin that goes along with the news. I can form my own opinions concerning the facts and truths, I do not need to be told what to think.
The unvarnished news is bad enough; the economy has tanked, the coronavirus is still making people ill, routine heath care and dentistry has ceased for the duration, there is no formal education for most, people are rioting in the streets, restrictions on personal freedoms continue, and nobody can go anywhere. If I did take a train to somewhere there’s little to do when I get there, and certainly nowhere to eat or stay overnight.
This COVID-19 lockdown has cost unimaginable billions. It’s obvious that it’s going to take decades to pay off all the money the UK government has borrowed to support this country during the current medical crisis ~ some say as long as it took to repay all the borrowing that resulted from WWII. That took decades, in fact about a half a century. That means Great Britain is entering a new era of austerity. Most in this country are going to be financially much worth off for the foreseeable future.
Add to that the disgraceful riots and violence that has infected our town and cities, and you can see that this country has become a distressing, depressing, and unsafe place to live. The lawlessness is particularly distressing for the average ‘person in the street’ ~ there is a feeling that nobody and nothing is safe.
Perhaps it is time that the 1715 Riot Act, repealed in 1967, was brought back into English Law. Although, the Death Penalty for being part of a tumultuous, riotous assembly of 12 persons or more is a little harsh for this day and age. And transportation is out of the question, you don’t have to be a criminal to go to Australia any more.
Selfishly, the thing that is distressing and depressing me the most is that I first got sick just about 3 months ago, and I’m still suffering. Weariness, lassitude, lack of energy, shortness of breath, coughing, and confusion to name but a few symptoms. I’ll get over it and get better sometime ~ I hope it’s sooner rather than later.
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
doom, gloom, death, and depression
Scenes on Sunday ~ The Adventures of Marmaduke
there are a lot of adventures out there, waiting for us to live them
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j
ack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Marmaduke is upset about Mr. Trumps travel ban.
I’ve told him we will go to America soon.
Food on Friday ~ Healthy and Easy
the basis of all happiness is good health
It’s all very well my trying to eat a very healthy Paleo diet, but face it, if the recipes are too difficult or too time consuming I’m just not going to make them. There is a limit to how much time a chap living alone is prepared to spend in the kitchen.
All of these recipes are healthy and easy, so enjoy.
First up this week, from Ali at Gimme Some Oven we have chicken and wild rice soup. May as well face it, it this viral epidemic gets worse we may all be glad of some chicken soup. This is real comfort food.
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup.
Next, from Joy The Baker we have a roasted lemon chicken soup. This looks and sounds fabulous. I’ll bet this is a great pick-me-up too,
Roasted Lemon Chicken Soup
From Well Plated by Erin there this great looking but deceptively easy salmon wellington, (although I would have called it salmon en croute). I’d serve this with roasted asparagus. What a fabulous and fabulously easy meal to serve for dinner, or for a dinner party
Salmon Wellington
Another salmon dish, sheet pan chipotle salmon with cilantro lime special sauce, this one from Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest; . I like sheet pan cooking, a lot.
Sheet Pan Chipolte Salmon with Cilantro Lime Special Sauce
With St. Patricks day coming up what about trying this Irish Stout beef stew with herbed dumplings? This recipe is from Jessica Merchant at How Sweet Eats. (To be honest, St. Patricks day is a non-event in most of English England. And right now the last place I want to spend any time is in a crowded bar.)
Irish Stout Beef Stew
And finally for this week, from In Dianes Kitchen we have a really simple recipe idea for sugar snap peas and bacon. What a smashing side dish, or with rice it would make a good light lunch to take to work, perhaps.
Sugar Snap Peas and Bacon
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
even on his little boat, Marmaduke is quite the chef
It seems that I am still very unwell
the infinite elation, pain, and terror of a psychological illness
friendless and nowhere to go but here
About a month ago I was in hospital, and so ill that the nurse said that I looked like a bad advertisement for death. I had lots of scans, tests, and examinations, some treatment, and after a few days I was discharged, supposedly fit and healthy. I believed I was cured of my ills ~ I don’t believe that anymore. I think I’m still very unwell.
Whatever ails me does not seem like a physical illness ~ I’m still meeting my 10,000 steps a day meditative walking target, I’m not sitting in the armchair all day, too knackered to do anything but watch TV, I haven’t taken myself to bed, and I’m not on any medication at all. I don’t think my body is sick, I think it’s my mind.
(I take some of that back, when I comes right down to it I’m physically not that strong.)
I have a very strange set of unmatched symptoms. To begin with there is the red V shaped mark on my forehead. It’s prominent, angry looking, and if you met me it’d be the very first thing you noticed. I’ve had that red V shape appear on my forehead ever since I was a young boy, and it has always been a certain sign that I was pretty poorly.
It’s like having the mark of Cain, and it tells me that in one way or another I’m fucked.
The headache I’ve got now I’ve had for three or four days. Everything I eat tastes like cardboard, (apart from chocolate). And I’m dropping things; keys, books, a full mug of coffee, (that makes a hell of a mess), and this morning while I was doing the laundry I dropped the electric iron. That thing was plugged-in and hot, but I didn’t want it hitting the tiled floor in my kitchen pointy end first, so I caught it before it hit the tiles. How the fuck I had the presence of mind to catch the iron by its power-chord I have no idea, but I did and I didn’t get burned.
Oh, and another thing, I am saying and writing the F word a lot, (and a few other choice cuss words), and that is just not the polite English Gentleman I am usually.
Generally I feel like a young boy who has been sent to see the school headmaster for a dressing-down and some corporal punishment, and that young boy hasn’t a clue what he’s done wrong, or why he’s being punished.
You know what? I think I haven’t been so well lately.
Some say that the sick never truly lose the chaos within. And that a sick thought can devour your being more thoroughly than a fever. All I know is the bravest thing I ever did was continue to live when I wanted to die.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
feeling like that lost little boy today
2020
Happy New Year
All the very best of health, wealth, and happiness to you and yours in 2020
From all here, Marmaduke and me.
Please listen responsibly.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
we’re both alone and lonely
I still have nothing at Christmas
for it is in giving that we receive the most
Marmaduke relaxing in the garret.
During this festive season I have nothing arranged, and expect to see nobody at all on Christmas Day. I’d rather not be spending another festive season alone in the garret, but a little while ago my plans for Christmas were thrown into disarray. I had arranged to take a trip to visit a friend, however my friend is now spending Christmas with their family, rather than with me.
I suppose I can’t complain about that, after all Christmas is the one time of year that you should really spend time with your family. Sadly, for me there is only my sister, and she has her own husband and children to spend Christmas with. I’d I be like the ghost at the feast if I went there. I guess I can count Marmaduke as my family, so I won’t be totally alone here.
Some kind people have invited me to visit over the holidays….. I don’t know if I can do that. Finding a flight just before Christmas, returning just after is very difficult this late in the day, actually it’s a’most impossible. Any flight I’ve been able to find carries a hefty premium ~ like 50% above the normal fare, (or much more) for a really crappy set of connecting flights. So, anyone travelling for Christmas will have had to have booked their flights some time ago.
Also, spending Christmas with someone I don’t know so well seems uncomfortable somehow ~ as though I would be intruding. (My strong sense of ethics always stop me from having real fun.)
Whatever Hollywood might say, making last minute arrangements for Christmas Day is somewhere between difficult and impossible. If you want to travel over the Holidays you have to book your journey well in advance ~ unless you are willing to pay double the normal fare for bad seats on flights that are the most difficult and inconvenient as possible.
Some say that their Christmas visit to the family was a last-minute idea. And that the whole thing was quite spontaneous. All I know is that flights over the Christmas Holiday have to be booked well in advance.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Marmaduke still thinks we’re going away over the holidays
