The days flow past. Johnson is still in intensive care. The death toll rises. The doctors and nurses risk their lives and suffer the stress.
We remain locked down in isolation. I play music, write and read. It is not so bad at all even though I miss the contact.
We go for walks.
The weather is brilliant. Today we walked along the beck from Nafferton to Wansford. It was beautiful. I forgot to take the camera. I will do that on the next fine day and show you the beauty of the sparkling water, hedgerows and fields.
Today we ambled for two hours and hardly saw anyone. The few we did see kept their distance and we passed warm greetings. It has opened up warmer relationships between people.
We stopped at the end for a sandwich. This isolation is no great hardship. We feel guilty.
Today I am working on the cover for my new book. I like what is coming together. I’m waiting for permission to use the chose photo. I might have to select another.
My chosen artist today is Jimi Hendrix – I’m playing him loud. It brings back great memories from those days of possibility of my uncompromising youth. They feel a long time ago.
I’m reading Michelle Obama’s book ‘Becoming’ and enjoying it greatly.
One phrase struck me – I shall paraphrase – ‘We either accept the world as it is or try to make it what it should be.’
I’ve spent my life trying to make it what it should be.
I’m not sure how one judges a life or success. I guess it is usually limited. All I know is that if people don’t continue to strive to make it better it gets worse. So I’ll keep on trying.
The post arrived this afternoon and I received the album that I’d ordered – Jackson C Frank – American Troubadour. So this afternoon I stopped playing Jimi to give Jackson a listen. Such a sad story.
The cover for the book was a great public domain photo I found on the web. I thought it captured the feel of the overpopulated world I was describing in the book.
I am now toying with the idea of redoing it as it doesn’t really fit in with the style of my other Ron Forsythe books. They have a black finish.
What do you think?
In the UK:
In the USA:
While I was away on board the Magellan in the Amazon I wrote first drafts of two Sci-fi novels. When I arrived home I started work rewriting and editing those two books.
The first – Schizoid – was a sequel to Quantum Fever. I rewrote it four times. It is now published and available on Amazon in both digital and paperback (thank you to all those of you who have bought a copy – please leave a review!)
The second is called Farm 703 – The Human Project. I have been rewriting and editing that in recent weeks. This isolation has proved very useful. It enabled me to focus and really absorb myself in the writing.
I have now completed it and am in the process of publishing it. Right now I am designing the cover. I am trying to gain permission to use a colourful photograph of a bacillus bacteria with flagella for use on that cover. If you have one that I could use I would be very grateful.
I’ll keep you posted.
If you would like to read one of my books they are all available on Amazon. Below are some links to a selection:
In the UK:
Nick Harper – The Wilderness Years
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Nick+Harper&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss
The Blues Muse
In Search of Captain Beefheart
Sci-fi as Ron Forsythe
Neanderthal
God’s Bolt
Reawakening
Education as Christopher Goodwin
A passion for education – The story of a Headteacher
In the USA:
Nick Harper – The Wilderness Years
The Blues Muse
In Search of Captain Beefheart
Sci-fi as Ron Forsythe
Neanderthal
God’s Bolt
Reawakening
Education as Christopher Goodwin
A passion for education – The story of a Headteacher
If you live in other parts of the world please check on your local Amazon where you will find my books!
Thank you for looking!
All the best
Opher
Day Whatever, (Yes – I’m losing track! – somewhere around 12 I reckon!)
We’ve arrived in Brazil
Brazil, land of colours, flair and samba, Pele, football and edginess. Brazil land of the nut and the Amazon.
We arrived at our pilot station at Fazendina in the early morning. We anchored off-shore while the pilot and Brazilian passport control came on board.
We rose at dawn to catch the sunrise and first sight of land. We ate our breakfast on the open deck. Six a.m. and it was warm.
The ship was festooned with insects – big moths, beetles, grasshoppers, bugs, water-beetles, strange insects with fossorial legs, dragon flies, butterflies. It seemed that the Amazon had come to us.
Later that day the temperature was about 30 degrees. We sat on deck and watched the lush tropical rainforest drift by as we headed up river. All day long the vegetation slid past. Excitement was in the air. It felt like the trip had really just begun.
The Amazon itself seemed to be made up of holy water – a rich brown – so thick that you could probably walk on it.
By the end of the day the light was golden honey making the lush vegetation glow.
Then the sun started to set! We sat and watched in the sultry heat of Brazil. Peered out at the thick jungle and imagined the teeming life living in that tropical paradise.
The sunset was wonderful.
Jimi was certainly one of the most exciting acts that I ever saw live. It seems incredible to me that all three of them are dead. I guess that’s what happens.
I have endless hours of Jimi playing. I think he only actually released four albums while he was alive but I actually have hundreds.
I can still remember hearing Hey Joe on the radio (probably Luxembourg) when I was about sixteen years old and being blown away by it. It was such a different sound to anything I’d heard before. I was smitten. Then that first album blew me away!!
Anyway, today I will revisit my youth and play Jimi real LOUD, just like he should be played. I shall play all the early stuff in the day and in the evening I shall listen to him noodling and jamming in the studio. I never get tired of that.
He was a genius. Still miss the man.
After this is over the world will be different. We have seen how socialist policies are effective. Cooperation is better than competition. A nationalised policy is better than fragmented policy. Caring is better than exploiting.
Hopefully lessons will be learnt. Instead of going back to the unfair elitist way of doing things where a small bunch of capitalist profiteers exploit everybody and take the vast bulk of the spoils we might try for a fairer distribution of wealth.
After this the world can go in one of two ways.
I know which one I prefer.
Do we really want to be lied to and controlled by billionaires?
Life goes on much the same in this isolated world. We make contact over the phone and internet with friends and family. Our lives have fallen into a pattern.
Last night Boris Johnson was taken into intensive care and his mate Trump sent a planeload of pharmaceuticals over. We’ll see.
So now we have Dominic Raab looking like a rabbit in the headlights – but nothing changes. Not enough testing. Not enough ventilators and not enough protective gear.
Today I did a bit of painting. I did a third coat over the walls in Dylan’s room.
I then finished the fifth edit of my new novel – ‘Farm 703 -The Human Project’ and decided there was little more I can do for it. I had a look on the web for public domain pictures of bacteria that I can use for the cover and found a few. I will check to ensure they are free to use. It seems hard to ascertain.
So I will publish and be damned!
My eager readership will be waiting expectantly!! It is a very apt story. Humans are being farmed by bacteria. There is debate whether to terminate the human project as we are being far too destructive.
It is a beautiful day so I went for a long two hour walk. There wasn’t a soul around. The countryside was blooming; the houses were shut up. I felt like I was a character in some post-apocalyptic story – Stephen King’s ‘The Standing’. It was almost eerie.
It is so great to see nature at play. I do hope that after this is all over we will cherish it more. We have abused it so much.
I am now off to begin the process of publishing! Stay safe and wish me luck!
Gosh – I remember singing out – WE WANT THE WORLD AND WE WANT IT NOW!! at the top of my voice as Jim sang. We did want the world. We wanted it to change. We wanted an end to this whole capitalist nighmare. We wanted fairness, equality, respect for the planet. We wanted to wrest it from the power-mad loonies, the exploiters and profiteers.
What have they done to our fair sister – ravaged and torn her, bit her and ripped her, stabbed her with fences in the side of the dawn.
We wanted a better more caring world.
I was very idealistic and naïve. Fortunately I still am.
This was from an age when music actually meant something – something social, political, deep and meaningful. It moved people. It joined them together. It woke people up.