Library Books

Over 40 years ago one Summer my brother needed to go to the library, so he took all of us in toe. The library is a fine old building from the Victorian age when it was thought you could educate the working class masses. You can google and  find out more for yourself, or maybe there is an old English history book in your own local library. Anyways we got to the library and it was shut, so my brother said "at least you've seen the library." It was a hot summer's day and we had all just walked 2 miles and it would be 2 miles back. I can remember there was a little sweet shop right next door, but I don't remember if we had any money for sweets onthat occasion. It was before the tower blocks were built at Spring Hill, this was around the time that old houses were demolished and the brand new idea of tower blocks was invented. It makes me  realise just how much the passage of time has passed. I'm like Bill Clintonnow in that speech he gave, "I have seen more Summers than I will see." I've reached part two of my life, the part that leads to the end. Personally I feel my Life has not yet begun, does this make me a child or am I in denial? I still have dreams and you all know what they all, they are attached to my blogs. Back to the library, we have one at the bottom of my street, so we're getting our girls to use it. No need to walk to the Victorian one, which still stands, and they even diverted a new road to save the old library and now its a listed building, and still opens occasionally. So instead we walk to the bottom of our street, and to the right is the library, I think it was built in the 30s. Inside I get my girls to browse and pick up as many books as they can. Nowadays you are allowed to borrow 12 books at a time, when I was using a library  it used to be four. I read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes  books when I was 12 or so, I never became a detective, I was just hiding  from Mr Gallagher and his hit slipper, that started at the age of 8 and changed my life for the better. Corporal punishment hurts the butt but focuses the mind. Once hitten twice shy so to speak. I ended up as Head Boy too. And all because of not knowing my times tables, but I was never hit again, I made sure of that, There was the class library on the bookshelves besides me so I practically read everything, literally everything, mainly History. When I left Primary school I was given The Outline Of History by H.G.Wells by the headmaster. It sits on the bookshelf to my right, next to an enormous Chinese/English dictionary and a bigger English dictionary, and a little fairy next to a photo of my girls with just enough room for a clock, I do love a nice clock, and watch for that matter. Back to the library at the end of the road my girls browse and my smallest one chooses a few books with bears inside, anything remotely like Pooh Bear always interests her. She finally settles for 10 books and her big sister has five. Its still the Easter holidays so I want to keep their minds occupied. A bit of reading and then TV and cartoons, all things Roal Dahl on tv are always a bit hit. As we leave the library "Daddy when will your books be in the library." "Whenever I find a publisher." is my reply full of hope. We cross over the road so they can look at comics in the store, then its off home, later after they have done some reading there will be reward while we do some shopping. I can still  remember my mother teaching me to read by looking at the Phantom  cartoon in the local news paper, more than 45 years ago. Now my big daughter as I call her is on Library books and she's away, my little daughter who calls herself the qutest while her big sister is the prettiest she just needs a bit of encouragement and then she too will be flying. My little daughter says she wants to be a doctor, she has a plastic stethoscope already, so only time will tell. I tell both of them to try and remember everything so they can in turn tell their own kids. My big daughter wants to be a designer so if she's a designer and her sister is a doctor then I'd be so proud. Us, we the Parents are stepping stones for our children to stand on, our shoulders are there so they can stand on them, and books are food to feed their appetite.

Me and my Radio

I remember my first radio,it was a small blue plastic tranny. I can remember when we heard the news on it that RFK had been asasinated. I remember the white plastic family tranny we had. I remember the old Bush radio with the saucer dial, that is now called retro. Having that radio given to us by Frank Brown a lodger of ours changed my life. We used to listed to the world tonight with Douglas Stewart reporting followed by the book at bed time.I can remember listening to The Ghost and Mrs Muir, only I fell asleep so my brother had to tell me what happened. I always had a radio beside me, it was my company when me brother left home, company while I did my homework and studied for my O Levels.Listen to Radio 4 constantly for 20 years.Perhaps hearing 3 plays a week for all those years, enjoying words, enjoying knowledge and news. When I heard about DAB I just had to have one,though they do eat batteries big time. I even bought an adapter so I can hear DAB through my HiFi. Real radio was my favourite until it disappeared, stations with Music and less prattle and talking over songs were my joy of DAB. I even bought a personal DAB radio as a Birthday present to myself 5 years ago. My Ferguson is still going strong, though my daughter has stolen it these Easter holidays and wants one of her own, even though she has a Blick DAB in her bedroom. Yes I am in love with radio, and if anybody wants to give me their DABs because their love affair is over then just send them along. AND if there are any fancy Pure personal dabs to be had I'd love them too, that way all my family could have one and I wouldn't have to hide my personal Dabs from my two girls. Radio can change a life and radio really is company, in some ways it has been a best friend to me, 40 years a friend and I hope 40 more years of friendship, though I'd rather hear my own plays on the radio. I can spot a radio 4 play at 100 yards now........

General Election in UK coming soon

I have a dream we had honest politicians

 I had a dream only our elected representatives run the country

 I had a dream people got selected because of worth

 Not selected because of earth, how many acres they own 

Not selected because of their dad knowing somebody else's dad

I had a dream that Class Warfare was in the dustbin of history

 I had a dream where people voted for the best man or woman 

NOT a parachuted in friend of a friend

 Not a woman because she was a woman

 But a candidate who was the best person for the job

 Not a media savy nobody who was sucking up to a somebody

 I had a dream that we the voters gave two fingers to the Political Class

 I had a dream that we voted in somebody just like us, 

Somebody just like our mum and dad or our uncle or our best mate

Just Somebody we could trust, somebody who would push the car in Winter, somebody who'd buy us a drink in the pub and not expect any in return.

I had a dream that we all looked in the mirror and voted for somebody just like us

Well that's my take on the Election Campaign here in England, you can read the newspapers on the internet www.telegraph.co.uk is what I'd recommend.

But there's lots of choice, bbc.co.uk/news  and skynews.com are good .

As for me a long time ago I wrote a comedy version of an election. Its chapter8 and chapter9 in my comedy book The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker I'll attach those 2 chapters so you can read it for yourself, and if you like it the entire book is attached too.

me in my best politician look, 

or do I look like a doorman?

Good Friday Service with added Shona Singing

A few years ago at Easter Sunday Mass we had Shona singing, I think I put that blog on this site somewhere. Today its Good Friday, and in our Catholic tradition this means the passion Of Christ and the kissing of the cross. Followed by communion. Kissing of the cross is about thanking Christ for his humility in dying for us on the cross. Our priest also said a few words, he's been reading a Jewish scholar's book about faith and God and sharing it with us. Some of what he said I could understand other bits I could not. Its Philosophy and that takes a lot of thinking about. Though what I did understand I did agree with. Everybody goes up to kiss the feet of christ, so there are hymns while this is done. The final hymn was in Shona, very very good with a drum beat and shakers shaking while they sung and swung as the sung. This music really touched me. After kissing of the cross there was communion and more hymns, the final hymn was a Shona one, again with drum beats and shakers. This really was a great Good Friday for me. Normally the Shona Mass is at 1pm on a Sunday but for me it was really great to have them with us this Good Friday. 400 people may have been squeezed in.

 

Olympic Folly I name it Spagetti UFO

The new folly for the Olympics is a great idea.

I THINK IT SHOULD BE CALLED SPAGETTI UFO 

cos thats what it looks like in the drawing in todays Telegraph. Do I get a prize for naming it. Spagetti UFO it rolls off the tongue.

www.michaelgcasey.multiply.com

cheers from Birmingham the home of spagetti junction.

me and my girls 5 years ago, flu included

National Health Service In England/ UK

I've heard a lot of rubbish from USA explaining how the health service works in the UK. So here is a simple explanation from somebody who lives in England and uses the NHS from time to time. We all pay our taxes and national insurance levy when we get paid  every month, PAYE or pay as you earn its called, in total this  is roughly 25%. so if your earn 1200 a month 300 is taken away and you have 900 in your hand. Now if you are sick you make an appointment on the phone then you go to the doctors surgery. There you are examined and if medicine is needed then you get a perscription. The perscription you take to the pharmacy and the pharmacist gives you the medicine. The perscription costs 7.20 or so per item. If you need a few items on this occasion then you pay 7.20 or so for each one. However if you are on regular medication for say blood pressure and or high colestrol then you can get a prepayment card for 140 a year. So your medications may cost a lot BUT by buying the prepayment card you can save 100s of pounds.

There is NO charge to see the doctor. If you need to see the nurse at the doctor's surgery for any reason, say for checks of any kind then that too is FREE of charge. If you have a problem and the Dr refers you to the hospital for an Xray or Catscan or Physio then that is FREE too. You may need to see a specialist too for whatever reason. That is FREE too. When my dad nearly died and was given 1 week to live back in 96, my dad stayed in hospital for 12 weeks or so. There was NO charge for that either. So if any US politician says otherwise then they are just plain STUPID and a LIAR. You may think that paying 25% of your wage in tax/insurance is high, maybe it is I don't know what the USA figure is. BUT in return you get a good health service that looks after you from cradle to grave. Before my mother died she slipped on ice and broke her elbow. The medical care she got was FREE, she also had a slight stroke 6 months before she died, the medical care for that was free, as was the ambulance ride to hospital. My dad had a few heart attacks before he died, all of the medical care he got was FREE. As was his medicines, when you are old all medicines are free and you don't need to buy a prepayment card. If you are on a low wage then medinices come free too, I think under 16k income then its free medicine.  If you read Padre Pio and Me attached to this blog then you'll  have your eyes opened in another way.

Over here you don't need a mortgage to pay for your medicines nor a mortgage to pay  for doctor's visits. That's what makes this society a great place to live in, YES its not perfect but there is a Health Safety Net for all. If you have money you can pay for things IF you want, but remember the line "WE the People" that should mean something in any society.

Attachment: Padre Pio and Me.doc

Let Them Eat Cake or how the wife tried to poison me

 

 

me with the flu in 2005

My wife loves cake. She always brings home some really nice cake and  if I'm lucky I get the crumbs, and I mean crumbs. But we end up laughing so that's fine, the kids love cake too. So I'll see the wrapper and be told that it was the kids fault and there was none left. I'm too big already I'm told, so I get none. You can get some really nice cake in Sainsbury's or you can get some cake and coffee in Drucker's cafe in the city centre by House of Fraser. My mum used to buy glazed ring donuts when I was a child, somehow I always ended up with 2 or sometimes 3. That's a long time ago now. As for the wife and her cake, she loves eating it and there is Chinese cake which is different to western cake. So the wife decided to make cake and I was the crash test dummy so to speak.  The first attempt was ok but the filling was not totally baked. I still ate it anyway. The crust was a little burnt too, but didn't King Alfred burn the cakes too, so she is in very good company. Next she contacted the good and the great in the Chinese community, even the Dr wife of the Dr who had given me acupuncture last week. No it wasn't a medical problem, just what was the methodology for making the best cakes. Chinese people are totally focused on anything they do, whether its science, industry, building Shanghai, or as I've discovered making cakes. There is good news though, the one think Chinese people are bad at, is, drinking beer. They fall over after just a few pints. So my wife armed with fresh insight and the correct gas setting for the oven tried again. The second attempt was even better, I was scolded for eating all her hard work. She even left a trail of flour dust all over the computer after she'd checked a Chines site which had a cookery section. Today she was practicing making beef, so obviously I had to try it, and it was very good. The 3rd attempt at baking was also today. And it was perfection, her Chemist training no doubt had helped, even if she joked she was a Chemist and she could kill me if she wanted. The cakes were good and I reluctantly had to leave some for the kids for when they got home from school. Tomorrow another lot of baking will happen.I will pretend to be a porcupine as I have more acupuncture while downstairs my wife will be dressed in her bright red cook's bib with the Korean writing on as she cooks. Masterchef in our house.