I might have goofed. I might not have thought ahead. Oh the pain the pain. Let me explain. A long time ago I bought a bungalow in which to let my Mother live and to take away the need for her to worry about all the niggly things that put stress onto [...] → Continue Reading Capital Gains Tax
Just a few days after my Mother died in January, I had the awful task of writing her eulogy. Sometimes terrible jobs come along in life and you just have to get on with it. Believe me, this was a toughie. I do not know how relatives can speak at the funeral [...] → Continue Reading My Mother
I had this sent to me today. It is so frustrating… Subject: Really wild excusesWhat do voles, beetles, mussels, trout and the golden plover have in common? Believe it or not, they have all been used as excuses by the Environment Agency not to improve flood defences.Travelling around the worst of the flooded areas last [...] → Continue Reading More about flooding
In recent times there has been much ado in all the forms of media about flooding, and rightly so. I feel so sorry for those who have had their homes and livelihoods destroyed, having been through serious flooding inside our home about 10 years ago. Like the vast majority, if not all, of those [...] → Continue Reading Flooding
I don’t think that many people will read this blog because I confess I deserted the blog for the video camera and my regular readers will have drifted off. Thoughts and tricks now turn up on my channel on YouTube rather than on here. That is a terrible confession from someone [...] → Continue Reading The Beginning of Magic
The big political chat for the last couple of weeks is all about the Prime Minister’s in and out of the European Union speech. Of course the Opposition said it was a terrible thing to talk about in that way. Of course we all know that no matter what he had said the Opposition would [...] → Continue Reading EU or not EU
It has now been a couple of days since the horrors of adults and children being gunned down in a school in the USA. Rational people, not just in the USA, but around the world, have been begging and discussing the need to change the gun laws of that nation and I have been listening [...] → Continue Reading Newtown and the Gun Laws
It’s the 6th December 2012 and I am putting off going out into the frost to clear the driveway of mud and debris left behind by it being covered when the river water came over the garden. That, by the way, is no big deal, it happens every few years and lasted less than [...] → Continue Reading The Coldest Journey on Earth
Even though the vast majority of the country couldn’t care less about the Leveson Inquiry, the media is full of it, probably because they are the subject of the inquiry. Politicians are bending over backwards to avoid any suggestion that they are trying to interfere with the press, but we all know that they pander [...] → Continue Reading The Leveson Report
Right across the UK there are flood warnings and the like. The government speakers prattle on about how many houses are now protected and how flood barriers are now coming into place whilst at the same time reducing the amount of investment in flood protection. Actually, I do feel sorry for them because [...] → Continue Reading Floods
It has taken someone on Twitter to make me realise that I forgot about blogging. Sometimes my life is so full that I don’t think about time whizzing by. This past month has been such a time. I’ve done a few shows, been to a few parties, and added a few videos onto [...] → Continue Reading France and Flooding
Hey… how heavy a title is that? On the other hand it is something that has been bothering me for quite a while. I know, of course, that I come from a different time; I come from a time when you saved up to buy something that you wanted and if you couldn’t afford [...] → Continue Reading The World Economy
I have called this blog (and yes I do know it is way overdue) ‘Magic Days’ because that is what I have been focussing on for the past few weeks. I have been doing other stuff of course, like the props for ‘Scared to Death’ at the Sonning Mill Theatre, and also props for ‘Jack [...] → Continue Reading Magic Days
I really cannot believe what happened today, but as every day those around me and those I meet socially all ponder upon why there’s nothing much worth watching on TV, perhaps it is more surprising that I am surprised. The email message, at first glance, seemed to be a proposition to do a magic show. [...] → Continue Reading Unbelievable, simply unbelievable
It has been busy busy busy round here, the way I like it. I have started to work to a sort of schedule to prevent me getting bored with any one particular job. So, the average day has changed somewhat… I get up and the first job is the emails and I check [...] → Continue Reading Decisions Decisions