Curious Ideas..... that can help you get ahead!

That of course, means that I’ve got to pass through the Airport Security Check.
I wonder what new indignities we’ll be subjected to this time.
I know the staff are only doing their job, but sometimes I wonder if the organisers of the system know what they are doing.

Normally I take two small purses full of change, one with English money for the journey to and from the aeroplane and one with European money for when I arrive in Germany.
Simple enough you’d think… but you’re be surprised how many security people seem to find this incomprehensible… my mind boggles!

The metal detector doorway is another hazard for the unwary… once on a trip to Israel, some 25 years ago; I forgot on the return journey, in Lod Airport, that I was wearing safety boots with concealed steel toe-caps. I got the shock of my life when, the damn thing went off like an air-raid siren and I was suddenly surrounded by armed men on instant alert.

Since then I’ve always tried to be careful… but the sensitivity of the screen seems to vary a lot from airport to airport… some are set so fine, they register the metal fillings in teeth, artificial joints and similar embarrassing situations…. A friend of mine with a metal plate in his skull, had to take his wig off, to convince the security guard.

Last time I was had to face yet another indignity… Once I’d gone through the X-ray machine and body search, re-threaded my belt through the loops of my trousers, replaced my waistcoat, coat and top-coat, and rescued by X-rayed items… I started to walk towards the Departure Lounge, only to find that my way was blocked by a special X-ray conveyor-belt for my shoes.
Unfortunately, when you get to my age, you find that your feet seem to be further away from fingertips than they used to be… So putting shoes on and off is a bit of a problem, without the aid of a chair and a shoe-horn… Nobody had thought to supply a few chairs and the floor around the machine was littered with lots of old folk struggling with their footwear.

And, while I think of it; don’t buy a bottle of water before you go through Security, as you’ll only have to throw it away and buy a replacement in the Departure Lounge for three times the price.


"Welcome to the British Airport Security System, have a Nice Day!"

"Thanks, I intend to!"

Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing the right things in life… should I go on trying to share my knowledge and experiences with world… or should I say, to hell with it all and just sit around and take it easy like most senior citizens.

This week it seems that everything is trying to keep me away from writing this Blog.

Last weekend was a bit hectic but somehow I survived it all; in spite of tiding up the house and laying in a lot of organic vegetarian food for foreign visitors who unfortunately went sick at the last minute and couldn’t come.

Over the weekend, I suddenly discovered an old friend of mine, ( who is my age, although, for various reasons, I haven’t seen him for nearly 20 years ), is now dying of Cancer.
For nearly half a century, Reg Griffiths, working with his wife and Magickal Partner, Dot; has been one of the oldest, best loved and most highly respected Witches in the United Kingdom.
Tirelessly working as an un-paid ambassador for Wicca both on and off, television and it the press.
He is a great guy and will be hard act for anyone to follow, when he is finally forced to kick the bucket.
Thank you Reg, for being an inspiration to us all!

Which reminds me, my computer, at three years of age, is starting to play up on a regular basis. It seems that I’ve overloaded my RAM and my MotherBoard is well past it’s ‘sell by date’ so that it can’t cope with an updated memory chip.
It mumbles rude words at me like a rebellious teenager, every time I put it under pressure… so I’m having to treat it with kid gloves, and hope it doesn’t breakdown before I can raise the money for a replacement. Oh well, such is life.

I’ve solved some of the problem, by installing a new more streamlined Fire Wall… but now the damn printer is giving me hassle.

To add to my problems, the crown on one of my eye-teeth, has come off and cannot be replaced… so now I feel silly every time I laugh; which unfortunately is very often… so I guess you’ll have to get used to a ‘gappy-gob’.

Today, the sun shone for the first time in over a week, in spite of the temperature dropping 10 degrees, with a very cold east wind.
You know, the anti-social kind, that can’t be bother to go around you, it just cut straight through you, no matter what you are wearing.

So to celebrate, my wife and I made the short trip to the next town, Gravesend, to walk by their river, the Thames, as a change from our river Medway.
Off course, it was low tide… and being an estuary like our river… the sea makes it back-up, raising the level by 15 feet, ( 3 metres ), up and down every day, covering and exposing huge areas of mud-bank.

It was too cold to spend long gawping at the mud, so we went into the waterfront café. There is a very nice notice on the door, indicating that … in the winter, the staff will attempt to keep this café open every day, but that sometimes the weather will have other ideas.

Gravesend, famous as the burial ground of Pocahontas, is a very cosmopolitan town, and we spent a pleasant hour enjoying a nice meal and listening to conversations in many languages, such as Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali, and Gujarati, going on all around us.
It is always so good to see people of many different races, and backgrounds, smiling and having fun with their children, in this simple homely café.

It made us both feel good and when we got home again… I was in a better more to cope with all the dozens of e-mails that resulted from my mention of Amber Pebbles in a previous post.

More to follow soon....

Today, as the sun was shining… I took a walk in one of the less dense, of our many local woods.

Although this wood is on the head or top of a chalk downland, it does have a special feature… it contains an outcrop of water-worn pebbles… that is in fact, a bank of shingle from a prehistoric sea.
A shallow Sea that sea existed some 200 million years ago, in the Jurassic Period, when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

So when you walk on this pebble bank, you are in fact walking on a beach that existed before Europe was dry land… when the chalk that forms our lovely hills, was still silt at the bottom of a shallow sea, with numerous, Pine-tree clad islands.

How can we be so sure of this? And what made me think about it enough to write this posting?

If you look at the photo above, you will see my attempt at a close-up of the shingle on this beach… the roundish, yellowish pebble, slightly lower and to the left of centre, is a prehistoric Amber nugget or Bernstein… showing that it was once sap from a Pine tree that fell into sea and was turned to Amber.

By picking up, yet another nugget of Amber on this beach reminded me to a healing secret that we Elves have known for many centuries.

Did you know that prehistoric or sea-formed Amber; i.e. the type that sinks in water; can be used to enhance the curative qualities of pure water and give it an Ångström Energy Level that is often higher than water from famous Holy Wells, such as Lourdes, and the Glastonbury Chalice Well, etc.

In our family, we use this sort of Amber to produce the Healing Elixir that has kept me looking much the same over the last 20 or 30 years… much to the astonishment of the people who haven’t seen me for a few years, and have grown old themselves, in the meantime.

If you find this interesting… and would like to make your own Healing Elixir… I do have a few spare Amber Pebbles…
click here to e-mail me….
And tell me your postal address, and why I should send you one.

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You’ll be pleased to hear that I have been invited to give two special talks at the Lebensfreude-Messen in Hamburg at the end of this month.

This prestigious event will be taking place in Hamburg, in North Germany, from Friday 30th March to Sunday 1st April.
Please click here for more Info.

I’ll be speaking with an instant translation into German, at 18:00 hrs on both Friday and Saturday.

Martin, my ‘German Son’ will be translating for me, so we’ll be having a great time, as he is a marvellous guy.

We have been working together for some sixteen years now, and he is brilliant at turning my rambling English into very presentable German.
In fact, he knows my work so well that I’m sure he could talk about my work in his sleep.

We also have a display table at the show, where you can come and examine our work and get all your questions answered.

By popular request, we will have LiveWood Swords and Knives, on display as well as a few of our famous Elfin Guides.

These Elfin Guides are miniature knives that can be worn as pendants or solo ear-rings, and have such a marvellous ability to bring out the very best in their owner.

As usual, we’ll also be displaying the biggest collection of fully guaranteed, real magick items to be found anywhere.

We do hope you can make it, and are looking forward to meeting you....

When I had completed fifty years as a LiveWood Craftsman, ‘The Folks Upstairs’ (our Elfin name for ‘the Gods before the Gods’) gave me a very special present.

They arranged for an ancient Yew Tree, over 5,000 years old and one of the oldest in Europe, to donate a piece of LiveWood to me, for me to make into a very special Magick Wand, for my own use.

As far as I know, it is the oldest magick wand to be found anywhere in the world.

I will have it with me when I speak at Leicester on the 17th of this month… but, for the benefit of all those of you, who are unable to be there… you can see it in the picture above.

It is unusual in the fact that it bears a face with long hair sweeping up to form the point.
I didn’t carve this face… It is a natural formation in the wood, that makes it so loveable.

Unfortunately, the ancient energy in this tool is so powerful that I can’t allow anybody to handle it for safety’s sake; and I have to handle it with care myself.
But most people find it a joy to behold.

Unlike, the other wands I will have on display, it will not be for sale, as it’s price would be prohibitive for most people, and I wouldn’t want to part with it anyway.