Blogs

Well hes now entered in a big race at Sandown on Saturday. However, I will be in Norway! But the lads will be there cheering him on. He's up against much more experienced horses and the best I can hope for is a place. But you never know! I will try to listen to the commentary whilst away. I'll be on some kind of glacier somewhere in the middle of bloody nowhere trying to get a signal! But thats okay, looking forward to the trip. Come on Rio!

The stories we tell ourselves tell us who we are. ‘I got George Bush elected…it wasn’t strictly legal, so I don’t want to talk about it.’ ‘I don’t want to kiss some old hag.’ David Seigal aged around 74, says of his wife Jackie 43. ‘She’s like another child.’ Jackie: ‘Seven [kids] by birth and one inherited.’ ‘My husband told me he was going to trade me in for two twenty year olds when I got to 40.’ ‘When I grew up I never knew you could have a...

The snooker was on TV and this kept getting put back until the session was finished. And at one point I doubted it ever would. My partner couldn’t stay awake to watch the film. She asked me the next day what it was about, and in a classical Freudian slip, I said , ‘trust’. Trust is the Janus face of doubt. Fling in the fairy dust of a little Catholic faith and, trust me, we have combustion. The best storylines are often reducible to a single...

Glen Campbell is the Doris Day of Country and Western, or indeed American Music. He’s the ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ who came from a humble background, musically a child prodigy that could make a guitar and most other instruments sing and his voice was good too. He’d the hunky wholesome good looks that spoke of apple pie and living the good life for Jesus. Sure he got lucky. It’s not enough to be talented. Even Doris Day before she was a virgin got...

Sir Trev tell us in voice over that Indiana State Prison is about an hour’s drive from Chicago and had around 1900 inmates. The average sentence is 52 years, so none of the prisoners are in for dropping bubble-wrap in the street. It’s advertised as he meets 12 prisoners on death row, but by my calculations 1900 prisoners are on death row. Tom Harrison is a case in point. He’s already spent 18 years on death row. He killed three people and...

Rio is running in his second race at Chepstow this Friday ( 18th). I will be there ( of course) along with a few pals. We are hoping for a good run from him, but a lot depends on the weather. Won't know if its on or not until Thursday. Can't wait!

Deceiving and conceiving, what’s the difference? I thought about this as I watched this slow moving chain of destruction, called The War Against Drugs by Nixon, wreaking havoc across America. Ginsberg’s Howl does not do it justice, because there is none, not for poor people. At first viewing this looks about race, the demonization of the non-white population. This was graphically shown, time and again, by a mandatory sentencing policy that even...

I'm new to this site. Yes, I am starting out like this. I have always loved writing, but never found a site to share. Thanks ABC tales, for letting me take a chemical waste-dump of my technicolor and intricately broken yarn-ball of a mind into your welcoming arms. I guess I hope to gain some sort of weird feeling of gratuity when I look to see how many people have "read" my stories, although most probably stop and go. It's ok, that's why I have...

I am glad the holidays are over. They certainly didn't live up to my expectations but I did get to drink some cheap champagne( it was really only bubbly wine I think) NYE and saw the fireworks- I still remember them. The dog was so calm and we were right in the middle of them. The dog has now been given to a nice man who is a hunter and has several hunting grounds. Oskar said that with his baby on the way he wouldn't be able to cope with the dog...

I didn’t go out expecting to meet Jimmy Reid, after all he’s been dead for over a year, maybe longer. It was a cold but sunny day and I walked down the canal path into Dalmuir. My mind was on the next thing that I’d write and I’d already decided on a title ‘God Made Me Ugly for a Reason,’ an autobiographical look at my early upbringing. I’d already begun jotting down memories. I went into William Hills to put a football line on. I’m still not...