Yesterday,I was given the sad news that an old friend had died.

Simon and I first met when I was 16.He was a couple of years older than me and showed me remarkable patience.
We spent many happy years drinking and playing football for the Plough Inn.

Though I hadnt seen him for 10 years,I still thought of him now and then.

I will miss him.

Fly high,Simon.

Is a criminal.

On Thursday,it transpires that the Leader of the Country,Tony Bl(ia)r was questioned by police investigating the cash for honours affair.

Bl(ia)r is the first Prime Minister to be investigated by police whilst in public office.It is reported that Bl(ia)r denied any knowledge of Peerages being offered for donations/loans to the Labour Party.

What he did do was time the police questioning to coincide with the release of the Steven's inquiry into Princess Diana's death.Thus diverting media interest away from the row that is causing considerable embarressment to himself and the Party.

While I have no axe to grind over this matter,believing that all Peerages offered by any Government is a 'Thank You' to their rich mates.It still leaves Tony Bl(ia)r isolated and deep in the shit concerning the legality of the Iraq war.

Tony Bl(ia)r began an illegal war.All the reasons he gave for going to war have proved to be false.

Why is he not being questioned for lying to the British people and the rest of the Government.

My Prime Minister-and yours-Tony Bl(ia)r is a WAR CRIMINAL.
Remove him from power so we can bring a quick end to the bloody chaos that we have created in Iraq.

These last few days have been spent analysing and remembering my past.

I have always done my own thing,happy in the knowledge that it is the 'right' thing to do.

Now,I feel I have let myself down.I have allowed myself to be dictated to by people with no feelings and/or no sense of right or wrong.

My blog was suspended because I posted pictures of what is happening to children in Palestine.I withdrew the pictures to save my blog.

I acted as cowardly as the site owners and I am ashamed.

I gave my word and I will not break it.But I was wrong-as are BLOGDRIVE.

Every year,I tell my self buy the presents early !

Why dont I just do it ?

Now time is getting short and the shops are so busy that I just sigh and walk out.
What good is that ?

So I am going to say it again.

Next year,Im going to do my Christmas shopping in January.

(hmmmm !)

Stephen Craig,of Denton,was driving his car in Manchester,when he drove into a cyclist.

Craig then drove off,leaving the female rider seriously injured.

He could have been jailed,but Manchester city JP's gave him a 6 month ban and community service instead !!

God,I despair.

Ive always loved the Honda CB 750.

Over the years Ive owned a few.

This is my latest 'iron horse'.
A K reg beast thats been around the planet about 4 times.

What a bike !

When your local supermarket/shop has a special offer,but slips in old stock so when you take it to the till you pay the old price.

I use Somerfield's on the Harrow road.
We give ourselves a budget of £3 each for lunch.That is a weekly spend of £45 and I have been happily shopping there for nearly five years.

That equates to £11,000.

This year,I have noticed underhand tactics being used by the store.
Offers,clearly shown and marked on the shelves,are charged full price at the tills.

When I have brought this to staffs attention,they apologise and refund the difference.Most of the time,I only notice after I have left the store and I cant be arsed to return.I have rang the store several times to complain.Yet it still happens all too often.

But,this new trick is too much.

I know about the underhand tricks companies such as Orange and Qualitel pull.Are all companies the same ?

I have just noticed adverts for Orange placed on my Blogdrive site.

What a kick in the teeth that is!

Not only do Blogdrive insist the pictures of the War in Palestine be deleted,they happily advertise a firm that lies and offers customer (dis)service to customers.

Shame on both Blogdrive and Orange.

What a begining to the week.

For some reason,all the people turning up at the workshop appear to be 'enlightened ones.'

Yes,issues with their motorcycles have given them cause to visit.But,the points of discussion are all spiritual matters.

I should be happy that we are attracting these people-and I am.
I am also on edge as I know that there is a message for me in all this.

What the message is,I have no idea as yet.All will be revealed soon,Im sure.

What pleases me is the knowledge that I am not alone in my beliefs.

These last few weeks,Ive noticed people telling me what to do.

My mother started the trend when I began to walk and both my parents continued until I was about 18.

Then they began 'advising' me.It was refreshing to discover that there were three or four 'choices' to situations.Why was I not made aware of this before,I thought. Though I never asked them because I was so happy with their new attitude towards me.

They had begun to treat me as an adult.An equal,even.Both knew I was intelligent,kind and thoughtful.(Good looking,too).

My father,bless him,taught me to look out for vunerable people;the elderly especially.I was often told to do our neighbours shopping or mow their lawn.In winter,i was expected to clear their paths of snow.

When I started work,I noticed a huge change !

There were people who liked the sound of their own voice and shouted at people.Some even shouted at me ! Manners were noticable by their abscence.It was horrible.

I thought long and hard about what to do.I didnt want to lose my job,nor did I want to work for rude people.One day,I took my manager to one side and explained how I felt.

He listened,then he told me the difficulties he had to deal with.Absenteeism,shoddy work etc.He continued to shout at my fellow workers,but not at me.Unless I deserved it and at times I did.

Later in life,I moved into the Care field.Again I faced similar issues.Made worse by the fact I was a man in a womans job !! That was said to me often.

By my getting on with things,peoples attitude changed.I introduced the word 'teamwork' into conversation and even the owners of Homes took notice.

Everything can be sorted as long as their is Communication.

Yet,few people truly communicate.They have the belief that only they are right and everyone else is wrong.Everything is black and white.Well,the major Issues that seperate people are actually many shades of gray.

We have become conditioned not to listen.We find it easy to say NO even when we havent heard the question.We need to change.

Opening our hearts and minds is the first step.The realisation that our neighbours are not enemies but possible friends is the first step.

We would benefit from remembering that WE are not always right.We do not have ALL the answers.But how are we to learn if we do not COMMUNICATE.