Here I am at the edge

  Will there be a Summer? Here we are, June has arrived, we are at the mid-point of the year, will this mean the rain will stop, and the weather be warmer? If you beleive the ex-spurts - experts - we have had a heatwave , when? I don't call two days without rain a heatwave. I have never been a person who goes on a holiday , the last one I took was about 12 years ago when I visited Scarborough ; I would rather have days out.

 I have to laugh I am getting a "bad boy" rep online. A few years ago, i had posts reported on Facebook as they were pro-Israel , bit it is okay for the site to post about the killing of Jews   in Israel , and how to make bombs. Mark Z uckerberg was taken to court by over 25,000 Jews for promoting terrorism on his site that year. How did I breach their rules? I mentioned the "S" word, he says in whisperd tone "sex." If you mention that word, the site will not allow you to post to your page, not that anyone reads my posts. 

 Twitter is pro-Palestine It would be easy for me to be annoyed at what has happened to one of my Twitter posts, if the outcome was not so hilarious. Twitter sent me a mesaage that one of my posts violated their code of violent language, and has now got restricted visibility. That is hliarious, my posts get read by a maximum of 15 people, how can you restrict it more? What was the post about? Because I said death to Hama s and its supporters, I got restricted, yet supporters of terrorism can tell the world of the thousands of people they kill. I guess, as I mentioned the "D" word, this post will be restricted.

 The end of Bookrix This cover was designed for me when I was considering entering an adult, erotic , fairytale writing contest on the Bookrix site; the site was based in Munich , Germany , why didn't I enter the contest? I started the story, but never finished it as like other writers on the site, we saw no point in entering a contest you could not win, why? I was asked by the admin to enter, as I was a respected writer on the site, I pointed out there was no point as the contests were always won by the same group of people. They admin didn't believe me, so I said check the winners lists; the same group of names kept appearing for all major contests, and even the smaller ones. I entered a contest with a dozen entries, and three winners, all the winners came from the same group who had won everything before. A group of us did cause a minor change in the rules, no winner could enter another contest for three months; all this meant is the same people shuffled the winnings

  So I could please the client When I was on Upwork, I used to underestimate my ability to write for two reasons. One was to give the client more than they were expecting, and gain praise for my work, and more orders - selfish I know - the other reason was by knowing I could do more than I said, I could fullfil the order and not go beyond what I could do. Over the years, this tendency not to give myself praise has annoyed several people I knew, my view is self-praise is no praise. I would rather copy and paste praise from a client to boost my reputation, than praise myself.

 There are no rules A general guide I adhere to is pre-1950 Hindi films usually don't have any subtitles , that is mainly because they were  made for the market in India where the language is undertsood. This is a general rule, I asked a lady who supplies me with DVDs with subtitles that I cannot buy for a film this week, saying I doubted it had subtitles as it was from the mid-50's, and she replied saying she has a copy with subtitles. There are some films from the era which are subtitled, one of the things I like about the subtitling of the era is the subs relate to the movie, some modern subtitling I came across is more akin to people chatting online rather than linked to the movie. Other times, you will get a few words subtitles from two minutes spoken, so you need to be careful about subtitling.

 I always underestimate my ability I could not accept what little success I had as a writer . Whether that was because I am used to underestimating my ability, not believing it could happen to me, or some other reason is hard to determine. Even when I held the certificate of success, in 2012, for my ebook - The Chronicles of Mark Johnson - in my hand, it took weeks for me to accept it had happened. It was the same when my science fiction series - Forgestriker - sold well, I had difficulty believeing it was me. I think the problem is I read so many accounts from writers in the USA of going on courses, book tours, and contracts being signed, and all I got was no reply to my emails; I believed success would not be for me.

 The inability to get aroused in my dreams My condition fist came to my notice one night when I had a dream of being alone with an   archeology  curator in the tunnels under Bristol Museum . The lady in mind was Sue Giles , an attractive lady of my age, we got on well, and in the dream Sue was edgeing me on, all I could talk about was radio waves. This sitaurion for most of the men at the museum would have ideal, as she was thought of as being desirable. Another instance came a few years later, I had a dream of a freind of my wife who I considered very attractive, but my dream would allow me to go no further than seeing her panties. This condition could be the reason I find it hard to write a sex story , I can write stories with sex in, but as yet, I have not written one were sex is the theme.

  The witchhunt Ten years ago, I faced one of my demons; they say the best way to beat your demon is to face it head on. This was not the case for me when I read from Book 2 of my Forgestriker series. My demon is public speaking , which is why I don't do webinar meetings; that night went well, the following weeks were nothing short of a witchhunt , and a kangaroo court . I did nothing wrong, the leader of the group who invited me to read misread a post I reposted from Facebook, and accused me, an animal lover, of supporting dog fights. I never had the opportunity to defend myself. Another reason could have been he was annoyed that a newcomer got a great reception.

  Something I had to do in the end I tried to avoid writing blog posts related to the trend set on Twitter , but with fewer readers each month I was desperate to keep the blog going. I don't enjoy writing about the number of scam agents I get, no more than I like to write about Labour , Diane Abbott , or Angela Rayner ; but if the readers want the filth on the upcoming election what can I do?

 The Twins of Evil Two of the Labour Party ladies(?) should stand by the adage - People in glasshouses should not throw stones - if you start slinging mud, you had better be clean yourself. We shall begin with Angela Rayner ; though she has a 10% lead in the polls, her consrituency of Ashton-under-Lyne is fickle,  I did a little research today and found that though she had a 10% lead at the last election the voting in her area could drop to a 12%  drop at the next election; that is the trend in the area. The other person , Diane Abbott , forgets that in 2018 she reported her son to the police for chasing her around the house with a knife. He served a 6-month sentence, and is on the mental health register as a permament hospital case.

 Missing players I can understand why some of the older Bollywood actors, and actresses have no online intel, but it would appear the missing people are selective. While actresses such as L eela Chitnis , Dina Pathak , and L eela Mishra could be read upon, there are several others of equal ability who fell between the cracks. I suppose we could put it down to the didn't appear in films with the bigger named stars.

 Diminished Income Until a few years ago, this time of the year was when Ice Cream vendors stocked up for the Summer, recent years have had nothing bu cold, and rain, so their income must have been hit. Ice Cream vebdors defend their patch as aggrsively as any robin defends its area, if they hear another tune they think is on their turf, they will become offensive, sometimes resulting in police action to part the combatants.

 Does a cold June approach? Usually, by now I am opening windows, and drinking cool drinks to reamain cool, not this year (again); the last good Summer I recall was the Summer we moved to Hartcliffe , the summer of 2017; for us a summer of heartache as we'd survived a fire, but lost two of our cats . If as the experts would have us believe there is global warming , all I can say is it has brought the Arctic winds to the UK .

 Cotswold Dogs and Cats Home This week's Breaking News is that I bought this set of Giles cartoons for my wife, not only is she delighted with purchase from eBay , but we are pleased as the money goes to help dogs and cats who need help in the Cotswold area with a sale from the Cotswolds Dogs and Cats Home .

 The Draft2Digital scam expands again You would think reading the ebook distibutor Kobo has expanded into Switzerland would excite me, but it does not, why? Readers of the blog are aware that I have been scammed by the site Draft2Digital for over a decade, and Kobo are part of the scam .

The film is Biradari not Bibhas  I knew I had seen a film with Lalita Pawar in about a housing issue; I was looking for the wrong film. The film is called  Biradari , and was made in 1966, not Bibhas as I thought.

A severe blow for Diane Abbott It must have come as a shock for both Diane Abbott , and the Labour Party , when her area voted 80% for Brexit; that seat is considered a Labour stronghold since it was formed back in the 50's.

The life of a writer  Years ago, readers used to love my ghost stories - not that they sold - I even had a few writing sites invite me to contribute stories ; now I am so cynical of the world of writing I wouldn't believe it, even if it was true.

  On the short list I rarely blow my trumpet, several years ago, this short story was put on the short list be read on the radio ; in a way I could call that a high point of my time as a writer .

Not so long ago  If I hadn't known, I would have said it was a fantasy story worthy of my writing , what am I talking about? It is hard to think that only a few months ago, the blog was getting over 1,500 posts read a day, now it is fortunate to get a quarter of that in four weeks.

A film which many not exist  I think I have spent the afternoon chasing a Hindi movie which does not exist. The film I was after features one of my favourite Bollywood actresses of the Golden Age of Bollywood , Lalita Pawar . As I recall, the movie is about a group of tenants who fight the landlord over poor  accommodation  . I have two films close, one is Mem-Didi  produced in 1961which I have seen, this could be why I thought she was in the film. The other is Bibhas which was made in Bengal in 1964, Lalita isn't in this film as she was based in Bombay ( Mumbai ). The plot to Bibhas doesn't fit with the plot I thought of, that is why I think the film I had in mind does not exist.

 Check the subtitles During the year I have downloaded some Hindi movies onto DVD , now I shall have to check the subtitles correspond to the story; many of the new subtitles don't, some are not at all linked to the film . This will be a long, and hopefully enjoyable task.

 How long will the peace last? For now, all is calm on  Whatsapp scam lines; I don't expect this peace to last as the young girls doing the scam , and the people behind them are not in one circuit. The result is a mesage passed to one person isn't spread.

 The holiday season It is hard to imagine that June is a few days away. I went to bed last night I was so cold I had to wrap myself in a thick blanket, and my last thoughts were of an arctic fox . and a polar bear .  I am sure the global warming threat is a scam from Sweden to give Greta Thurlberg free holidays. You could argue the amount of rain the UK has had this year is a result of global warming, but that is streching for a valid reason. I can say without question, I have known warmer September days than those we've had this May .

 That has to be a lie There is a section of the Labour Party who "claim" to Friends of Israel ," this has to be lie, as the party is known for its support of terrorism , its support of Palestine , and its anti-semetic views. Labour are at the head of the groups who constantly call Israel terrorists for defending themselves from attack based in Gaza from Hamas , and funded by Palestine.

 Who will be next? The Labour Party know how to throw an election before it has started. Their latest tactic is to turn on Diane Abbott , as much as I don't like her, I have to admire her for sticking to the party for 37 years. I would put heavy money on short odds, most Labour MPs are thinking, if they can turn on Dianne, who is safe? Being honest, I did see this was on the cards at the last election, for many reasons they kept Dianne off the streets, she "supposedly" had diabetis, but Theresa May had a more severe case of the illness and still did the rounds. It didn't help her case when she asked a question on the radio, she spent 10 minutes shuffling papers, then talked about something which was not related to the question. She was asked how she would fund the Police , and really "let the cat out of the bag" when she showed she lacked the basic allegbra to do simple sums.

  Closed within three days of opening The Thorpe Park Liesure Centre created a record which will probably remain for all time this week, it is a record they did NOT want, but I had my worries this day would arrive. The new ride which was to open for the Bank Holiday this week, has been closed for safety concerns within three days of its opening.  I have never enjoyed the big rides, I have read of so many accidents over the years they scare me. One young lady, a few years ago, lost her legs when a safety car hit the carriage she was in, and trapped her.

  I did give a warning I did give a warning that anyone I suspected of trying to scam me would be blocked on Twitter , I also made it clear I am suspicious of young, attractive ladies who contact me.

 Several options are available If I could find the motivation to write, there are several unfinished stories I'd like to enlarge on; and some ideas I wish I could write, as usual I get the question who would read it? As my friend, Julia, in Seattle would say "If you don't write it, nobody can read your story ." She is right, if I don't write the story nobody can read it, but that is the dilemna, if I did write it would anyone read it?

 Buying Trend Some shopping sites attempt to predict their future sales from your purchases; good luck trying that with me.  In recent years, I have bought DVDs from Spain , to Mexico , and about subjects as varied as history to the supernatural , and mysteries .  If I have no idea what I will be buying, how can you predict what I will buy? I'd have more luck telling what I wouldn't be buying.

  Under observation Another area of concern f, for some people with little kowledge, is the use of CCTV ; there is a tiny possibility upu may be noticed on closed circuit television , that is only if you do something which draws attention to yourself. LIke drones, the images available from CCTV are so indistinct as to be of no use,

 Next to useless There is always a heated debate about the use of drones, take it from someone who spent years working in the photography section of the Royal Air Force; they are next to useless. Advantage - you have a limited visiblity from above. Disadvantages - Limited range, poor image recognition, the main disadvantage is they need to be in line of sight to pick a signal up. I recall two instances of seeing radio-controlled aircaft - that is what a drone is - a radio controlled flying machine. One was of a Lancaster model flying over some children in Elgin , Morayshire , Scotland ; when the bomb doors opened the chidren were showered with sweets. The other was not such a happy ending for the model; again a Lancater bomber. It was being flown at an air show, the controller kept taking it higher, until he lost control; it was painful watching this face as he tried in vain to regain control before the model smashed to he ground. Once you lose control, you have an unsupported wei

Subtitles on a DVD  A guideline for buying foreign films is if there are three films on the DVD , the disc will not have the space for subtitles ; I found it out the hard way.

  For the ladies In modern parlance, eye candy usually refers to an attractive young lady, often added to a film for her looks, or to give a bad film some opportunity to gain finance. There is no reason why the term cannot be applied to actors.

 Attractive men on my blog I need to think outside the box to attract more readers for my blog . As a man, I tend to add attractive ladies to get the attention of the reader to the blog; however, I may attract the ladies if I add some male images.

 Tierra de Lobos This is a long story with many turns. Three years ago, when I was watching films, and series from Spain on Netflix ; I came across the series  Tierra de Lobos . The title translated to Land of the Wolves; this can be take one of two ways from the storyling. A) - a pair of failed bank robbers take refuge in a deserted area of Spain close to the border with Portugal . an area inhabitted by wolves. The land is owned by the Wolf family, hence the double meaning. After I bought the DVD box set, I realised I didn't check if it had subtitles. A quick check online said - no - I did find a site which had the series subtitles, this created an issue; I would need to add the title to the discs, and the series has over 50 episodes, a big task. At this time, I didn't know who was in the series other than Alex Garcia . Recently, I ame to the conclusion that with the space available on a DVD , if the subtitles are not on the disc, you cannot add them if the disc has nore th

The Others I have windered for a while, which countries/stated are featured in the section marked Others on my blog reader chart. Ones that come to mind quickly are New Zealand , Norway , Finland , an d urkey . I appear to be unread in most of the world of Islam . From the UAE to Greece , the only contry marked down is Israel . Most of South America is included too.

 South America welcome The Breaking News this morning for have blog will travel is my writing is being read in Argentina now. As yet, there are no registerd readers in New Zealand , there are again there are many regions not listed but could be in the section marked Other.

  I don't expect it to last For some reason, the latest yong lady to contact, and attempt a SCAM has not been in contact for over a day, did she read the warning I put on Twitter that anyone I suspected of scamming me would be reported, and blocked? I ended the post by saying I am dubious of any young lady who contacts me.

Slowly slowly catchy monkey  The most important aspect of war, according to 5th Century China , is to know your enemy. In the book - The Art of War - the basic tenets of war are laid out, since then little has changed.  The war I am staging now is a war against the SCAM ; what the young ladies involved don't realise is that as soon as I am contacted, they have lost the battle. No matter how sweet, and charming they try to appear, this old fox has them beat before the contest of wits gets off the ground. Another aspect of the war is to put yourself in an advantageous position; in my case, knowing the only reason a young, attractive lady would contact me is to try and coax me to invest in Crypto . Usually, if you stalk your victim, like a tiger, you may catch them off guard, but these girls don't have time on hand for a long war.

  The oddity of public opinion Public opinion guided by the media can be two-faced; on one hand Labour support Palestine , yet call Israel terrorists for attacking Gaza ; which they aren't doing. By this reason I don't know which side they back, I don't think they do either.

  No sleep tonight I usually like tto be in bed around midnight, otherwise unless I am whacked out, I won't get any sleep; the problem at this time of year is once I get up to go to the toilet, usually about 0500, it is almost impossible for me to get back to sleep for the daylight has arrived. I can sleep thorugh this time, if I am asleep the sunlight doesn't bother me. Do I believe in witches, yes I do, we used to know a white witch. A witch to me is a lady who knows how to use nature to cure certain minor ailments; I am in favour of natural medicine rather than the drugs the pharma companies thurst at us. Because you live on the fringe of society, you shouldn't be castigated. I can't imagine living in a city, Las Vegas would be a living hell for me.

 Readers in Europe Today, we welcome readers from Poland to the blog; I would have liked to have visited Poland; the country has a fascinating history . One enduring mystery involving Poland is what happened to the Nazi gold which disappeared at the of WW2 ? Many searches centering on Poland where undertaken, none had success; I never thought it was there as sending the gold to Poland meant you were sending it to the people you were trying to hide it from, the Russians. The people saw wht they were meant to see, a heavily armoured, and guarded train heading into a tunnel, from there it was natural to think they were hiding something valuable. In my opinion, the gold is either in a castle close to the border with Austria , or in a casle somewhere in Germany as many of the reich leaders had connections to the  teutonic order. I watch a series on Netflix which centred on the Plagues of Brezlau  - now  Wrocław - I learnt something from the series, in the early 13th century there was

 Benelux readers Today, with readers of the blog in Luxenbourg , I have readers in the three countries which comprise the Union of Benelux , I doubt many people have heard of Benelux; it is a financial union set up after WW2 between Belgium , the Netherlands , and Luxembourg; like the Levant the union still stands but the titles is not in general parlance. I did have a day out in Luxembourg on my way back from Austria two years before I got married; it has a nice castlem other than that I can't recall anything. I did watch begin to watch a series on Netflix from Luxemboutg, but with the language being a mix of German, and French it was not pleasant to listen to.

 Alain Proust Most F1  ans would recall the battles between Alain Proust , and Ayrton Senna , I recall an incident which to me defines the difference between reckless driving, and dangerous driving. I can't recall when, or where it happened, only the incident. Proust' s Renault team-mate, Rene Arnoux was leading the race, so, Proust should have followed team orders, protect Rene from being overtaken. However, Proust was NOT a team player. In FI, as in most team sports there are two championships, team, and individual. Proust never agreed to the team concept, he wanted to be top man all the time. and this incident almost cost him not only his life, but the life of the other driver. Arnoux was on the outside of a sharp left-handed bend accelerating to traverse the camber - the correct position - when from out-of-nowhere - he was blind-sided by Proust taking the inside line. This meant Proust needed to be lot slower, and Arnoux had nowhere to go as his team-mate died under his c

 I am a motorcycle fan I had watched motorcycle racing since before the BSB races began in the late 80's, so why did I stop watching in 2002? There are several reasons, most men who watched the BBC series would list the loss of Suzy Perry as a commentator as one of the reasons, I won't deny her loss was a factor, but there were other matters to. The series charm for me was it was a series for British riders  which was held in the UK . While FI gets all the publicity, and money, motorcycle racing was always the poor man's sport . Other reasons include the change of the commentators, Barry Nuttley, though never a racer was knowledge about racing, and passed this to his reporting. Both Steve Parrish , and Roger Marshall were British championship winners in their days as racers, and raced for factories in the Isle of Man TT. After 2003, the young boys who were doing the talking carried no experience, and were just doing a passionless task. Also, the format changed radically,

 Before you approach me A note of warning to any young lady thinking of trying to SCAM me; if I suspect your intentions I WILL report you to Twitter , then block you - you have been warned.

 Journey into the Unknown I may have grossly underestimated the popularity of the blog in the UK , how? Years ago, I ammended the reader chart to delete my visits to the blog, but I didn't trust the software ; so, I halved the figures shown from the UK as readers, to give me a closer to the truth figure - I thought - I could be wrong in my theory . I logged in a few minutes ago, to find that at the time, there were no UK readers.