Way back in 2003 on a beautiful Halloween evening, I made friends with a Coven of Witches who invited me to the Circle of Hearts at Willen Lake, Milton Keynes.
It was a very good evening, lots of laughter and music.
I was invited by the high priestess to set fire to the ritual bonfire, I was very honoured by this.
I made friends with a few people that evening and there was a few adventures that night that I shall post another time.
Bright Blessings to Willowhawk, Trinitii, Moonraven, and Ed (RIP). Wherever you all are, I hope you will be having a good Samhain. 💀
Candy The day you replied to my pen pal advert, I became the luckiest man in the world! Little did I know, you would take my heart into yours, and help it blossom the way I never thought it could!
You saved me in so many ways, you have always been my bestfriend and soulmate!
I am truly blessed to have you, to love you and to be loved by you! You are my world!
❤ ❤ ❤ XXX
Bobby Ball was a very sweet and funny gentleman, and I am gutted that he has passed away.
When I was a wee lad, I went to Bletchley Leisure Center to watch a live performance of Cannon and Ball, which was funny.
I even got a signed autograph photo of the duo.
Rest in Peace Bobby and Rock On!
Tomb of the week department.
Back in the earliest days of Forbidden Planet’s first London store we brought over Philip Jose Farmer and his wife, Bette, for a signing.
During their stay Farmer was keen to visit the resting place of Victorian explorer and protagonist of his Riverworld series Sir Richard Burton.
We located Burton’s tomb in the churchyard of St Mary’s Roman Catholic church in Mortlake, near Richmond Upon Thames.
The tomb, designed by Burton’s wife, Lady Isabel Burton, is extraordinary - a marble and stone depiction of an Arabian tent.
There’s an iron ladder that takes you to a window on the roof, where you can look down into the tomb and make out the lead coffins of Burton and his wife lying side by side, with a small ornate table between bearing an Arabic coffee pot and cups.
The cemetery was neglected and very overgrown, and the tomb was in disrepair.
We managed to arrange an interview with Farmer for The Times, in which he mentioned the sorry state of the tomb, and a campaign by Burton enthusiasts eventually led to its renovation.
Here’s how the tomb looks today.
There’s also a stained glass window in the church commemorating Burton.
Well that was a piss poor visit from the district nurses.
Did not clean my stumps properly, over wrapped my stump with way too many bandages and put too many dressing pads on my wound.
After they left, Candy and I looked at each other, and she said that she will do a better job later.
Plus they used our personal stock and did not bring anything with them.
Excavation of the Roman Villa at Bancroft around 1984.
My BP is a tad high this morning.
182/90.
But I've not been on all my BP meds since coming out of the hospital. as I got told to just monitor it for the time being.
Herne the Hunter is a sinister, antler-headed demon who haunts Windsor Forest.
Said to be the ghost of a disgraced forest keeper.
To see Herne or hear his horn or hounds is an evil omen.
They received the name Fly Agaric for their traditional use as an insecticide, where bits of the cap were placed in milk to attract and kill flies.
The Vikings used to eat these toxic mushrooms for their hallucinatory effects in order to “go berserker” before battle
The story and imagery of our modern day Santa Claus was inspired by the traditions of the indigenous Siberian shaman, who on the night of the winter solstice, would gather and consume the fly agaric to launch himself into a spiritual journey and solve the village’s problems.
He wore a red and white suit to honor the color of the mushrooms, and would enter villagers’ yurts through the chimney (since heavy snowfall would block the doorway) to hand out the mushrooms
Even the story of Santa’s flying reindeer was inspired by this mushroom, as real life reindeer apparently have a bit of a drug problem and will eat the amanita just to get high!
While Amanita muscaria are toxic if eaten raw, there are ways to prepare this mushroom for consumption by removing the water soluble toxins (ibotenic acid and muscimol).
I’d only recommend you try this if you do your research, know the risks, and are very confident in what you’re attempting.
Medicine can also be made from the dried mushrooms, either tinctured or infused in oil to relieve pain (especially back and sciatic nerve pain), but should only be attempted by experienced herbalists.
25 years ago today, This awesome Kevin Smith movie came out at the cinema.
This was actually my first Kevin Smith movie I ever watched,
I saw Clerks a lot later.
Catastrophic cataclysms shook Britain in 1627 as the bewhiskered armoured armies of Cuddlykin Fflufibum, who ruled Catford with a velvet paw inside an iron fist, conquered Windsor Castle via the drawbridge catflap & slaughtered 8-out-of-10 cat owners who failed to provide catnip.
The Park of the Monsters
is a dark, forested, and moss-covered expanse of land in Bomarzo, Italy,
That is visually haunting. Here, Orcus, a god of the underworld, beckons visitors to enter into its gaping maw.
Well they can just fuck right off!
Candy has just changed my WET bandages as we have been waiting for the drisatrict nurses to turn up all day so far, and they still have not turned up.
We are going to eat lunch, watch something on Netflix and if/when they do turn up, Candy is going to give them a mouthful.
Btw it only took Candy 20 minutes to clean and redress my stumps with fresh and clean bandages.
She knows what she is doing, we just need the supplies.
Well the fuckers rang our doorbell once at 15:20.
By the time Candy got to the door, they had already buggered off.
So what was the fucking point?
Are they going to come round tmrw? They did not even phone us or texted us to let us know that they are coming around nor that they had been to our home.
Motherfuckers!
You only see in them what you already have inside you.
Kerid Crater Lake in Iceland, known as "The eye of the world."
Just had two community nurses visit me to assess my left stump that has been leaking and to change my bandages.
They will be coming around every day to clean and change my dressings.
Remember when Prime Day use to be all about the fabled leader of the Autobots, who fell in battle against Megatron?
Now people have forgotten all about this and are obsessed with buying great deals on something called an Amazon.
Sounds like a Decepticon trap to me.
In 1921, Watkins coined the term ‘leylines’ after noticing how ancient sites seemed to lie across the landscape in straight lines.
So I;ve just spoken to my GP in regards to my stay and discharge at the hospital. It turns out that the blood cultures were contaminated in lab and the second test came back negative. my bugs in my left stump are nothing to worry about as it's quite common for an open wound. My high BP was normal for someone who was very stressed being stuck in hospital and since coming home has reduced itself so I don't need any more BP medication. My GP admitted I should not have been on that ward nor receive the terrible treatment that I did. So I had no blockage in my stomach, I actually had constipation. I was expected to stay in hospital for an extra week taking more laxatives that I did not even need. I don't even need antibiotics! Fucking useless hospital. I was even told by my GP that the hospital staff thought I had a minor heart attack, so why was I stuck on the orthopedic ward? Beggers Belief.
We used to live near York, (Old York!), there's loads of street performers there and one guy is the Reaper, he stands about 7ft tall as he uses stilts, one time we saw these two older ladies, obviously visitors, one of them turned around, unaware he was right behind them, the look on her face was utterly priceless as she grabbed her chest in horror! 😂😂 Totally made our dark little hearts chuckle!! 😂😂😂
Well as you all know, I was admitted into A&E on Friday 25th Sept. as my blood pressure had dropped to dangerous low levels.
I had various tests including a CT scan. Candy was told different reasons of what was wrong with me. Including – Having a minor heart attack, TIA (mini-stroke), sepsis, and the best one, having a blockage in my stomach.
I was transferred into ward 37 for the night and I was given anti-biotics and had some bloods taken. Saturday I was transferred again to another ward (34) where they placed me out of the way and at the end of the corridor in a corner room, at this point I had no idea what ward I was actually on. I had 3 canula’s put in my arms, and I met my Consultant, Dr. Miranda Tay.
The stupid bitch turned around and said that I was morbidly obese and I have a blockage in my stomach from the results of my CT scan. I explained that the size of my tummy is due to my lymphedema which what also caused my legs to be amputated, she scoffed at that and said it was down to my weight and my diabetes. She then gave me three laxatives to take, twice a day.
And then that is when the shitstorm of 2020 started!
For the next 5 days, I was given 3 laxatives, twice a day and my bowels opened up everywhere on my bed, dozens of times a day, the nurses came in eventually and roughly cleaned me up, but I was also getting fecal matter on my exposed stumps. I demanded them to be cleaned and wrapped up.
I hardly ate any food or drank anything as it was all hurting me. I did have 2 hypos, 2.7 and 3.4 on my blood sugar scale. Which was scary for me.
The nurses had trouble getting blood out of me, both my arms are covered in bruises and track marks. They only succeeded twice in getting blood but my veins were too thin.
I was getting fed up having to wait to be cleaned, and we are talking up to an hour laying in my own diarrhea! But the last straw for me was Wednesday morning at 4 am. My assblaster went off and I buzzed for help and buzzed. I ended up stewing in my own filth for THREE AND A HALF HOURS, laying on my back and I could not move. I was pissed off and very tired.
I did discharge myself later that day but I had to stay another day as they had some results back in. They told me that I was going to have another X-Ray, ICU was supposed to be putting in another canula in and I was also going to be getting more antibiotics.
Nothing happened, nothing was done.
Thursday I just thought I would be better off at home and safer, I spoke to my Doctor and she said that I would be putting my life at risk and she would wash her hands of me and refuse to give me any help or antibiotics. I asked about being an out-patient, which “they do not do” and I said I don’t think I was blocked anymore due to all of the pooping, she touched my tummy and said that I still had a blockage and need to stay another 7 days taking the laxatives. I said no, as I was not getting any care for my stumps and I hated laying in my crap.
She did say that she could get some bloods out of me but failed, I said to her that I thought you were an expert. Her reply back to me was that she’s only Human, for which I replied that’s weird as I thought you were a doctor. She then threatened to cut open my veins with a knife to bleed me and she walked out.
Fuck it, that’s it. I needed to go home, Candy came up to rescue me and we will work all of this out ourselves.
It also turns out that the ward I was in were short staffed, and I was actually on the Orthapedic ward full of old people and the doctor’s specialist area is in elderly care. No one knew how to wrap up my stumps and I was not getting cared for. Most of the nurses were very wonderful but stressed out, one nurse I made friends with, quit her job as she was fed up. And told me how bad the ward is and does not know why I was dumped there as it’s the wrong place for me to be on.
I had no faith in the Doctor there, one moment they said I had an infection, then they said all of my blood markers were normal, then they dropped the “it may have been a contaminated sample and a false positive”, so that wasn’t very reassuring either! I’ve been told about 6 different things that are wrong with me but nothing has been confirmed, and they refused to do any more tests.
I'm not out of the woods yet. I'm still ill but I had to discharge myself against medical advice for my own safety and menta/physical wellbeing. I was in hell for a week. I'm strong but not that strong. Candy will chase up my GP on Monday for my results of my blood cultures. And help from the community nurses, etc.
