Sunday, 11 February 2018

Then and Now

Then and Now ©

Michael Casey

Well we are having a proper Winter here in Birmingham, its nearly Pan Cake day and its as freezing as hell. Lent is upon us and it feels like Christmas with all the frost and snow. So I sneaked out to the Polish shop for snacks for the girls and it felt terrible. Barely able to breath because of the cold, it’s never been like this for me. But I’ve had my quadruple heart bypass, it was supposed to be a triple, but 6 months later at my heart health check I discovered it was a quadruple.

Now its 3 years since the Op and my BP is 140/80 which is very good. But going out in the cold really does stop me dead in my tracks so I cannot Linger outside, as The Cranberries sing the song to me now that I’m back in the warm. My scars can still tingle and offer pain, as as for my left nipple, I wouldn’t let anybody kiss or suck it, such is the pain. I thought I’d add a bit of gender equality there.

Which brings me to today’s topic, then and now. As children we had no fear, we’d dive out into the snow and have snowball fights and build snowmen. I still built snowmen till I was maybe 50, yes, because I am the man with the child in his eyes. Kate Bush was a neighbour, or was it the Ivy Bush pub, some bush anyway.

When I still lived at home, I’d have 2 gardens to play in, we had snow galore to share. I once even started a snowman, or rather giant snowball in one garden and rolled it over into he next garden, please don’t have any snow envy. We had loads of lodgers, and most were not the kind of people you would like to meet, hence the 2^nd garden full of snow. I can remember we have trench warfare, a wall of snow down one end of the garden and a carved out snowman offering shelter down the other.

Years later in my 20s our chimney fell down due to the heavy snow, luckily the snow on the kitchen roof prevented it from crashing down onto our kitchen table, a mahogany antique which now 70 years old we still have. So the fire brigade came to make our chimney safe. They improvised with my latest snowman, the used it to put their spotlight on. Just like in the movies, a spotlight shining from the top of my snowman to the chimney pots, or what was left of it. As it was so cold dad gave them tea with whisky in, this is 40 years ago now. They misplaced their lump hammer in the darkness and cold, so returned on the fire engine the next day to retrieve it. But at least or chimney was safe, with the help of my snowman.

So our attitude to snow changes as we get older. You can write messages in the frost, such as Dave loves Brenda as did my Police neighbours years ago. Valentines is a few days away too so you can all write I love you in the frost on your garden walls. Don’t forget the Valentine poem on my site, just scroll down to find it. You could even etch it on the frost on your windows. Though when we grew up we had frost on the inside of the windowpane. We did not have central heating till I was 12 or so. And with the sash windows in them days we even peed out the window, well we were young and it was the 60s after all, and the outside toilet was a long way to go in all the cold, and it was fun, not that we did it often. There are advantages to being a boy after all.

You tend to become boring as you grow older, though I do like to embarrass my girls, it’s a dad’s privilege. It makes my life more interesting, their friends like it, I wish he was my dad has even been said. So I must be doing something right. I was actually Uncool Dad of the Year in 2015, I won a photo competition to prove it. The photo of me in my orange Polo wagging a finger. Can any of you dads reading this beat that?

And on it goes, age attacks your body, even though some say my face still hides my age. IF I’ve had enough sleep and shaved and showered and been to the toilet, and I’ve brushed my hair and plucked my eyebrows, and I suck in my cheeks, and hold in my belly, and the sun is in the eyes of the viewer.

I know some people who look 10 or 20 years older than their Birth Certificate, too much hard work, or booze or fags will do that. I do have 2 things in common with Donald Trump, no smoking and lack of alcohol, there is only 12 or 13 years between us, and 3000,000,000 dollars. Which one of us looks more attractive? In your youth you care about your looks but as you grow older its having warm long johns that concerns you the most. I image Donald can afford Nasa long johns, and he can afford to keep the heating on all the time.

And on it goes, then and now. But what is the most important thing of all. Forming a family and getting a little peace in your life, despite the years of screaming and bawling, and tantrums, and that’s just me trying to get into the bathroom. Hopefully your family is just as happy as your childhood, memories last as do stories. The laughter I hope I share with you all is rooted in the love poured into me by my mum and the love of stories come from my dad.

I have to go now Lech and Boris and Gregori are coming around, they are hiding from their wives. They have brought a barrel of beer with them, as they drink they will copy down that love poem of mine onto paper in their best Polish/Ukrainian and Russian handwriting. Then they will stagger home to be forgiven by their knife holding wives, the Valentine poem of mine will do the trick. Why? Because The Pen is Mightier than The Sword, or the wives’ knives at any rate.

*******************

You're Never Alone When You Are in Love ©

Michael Casey

Love is being together , Love is a smile , a Look , A Touch

Or Just A Sigh , Not really knowing why you chose one another .

Yet Together Till You Die

Love is a Kiss soft and gentle on the cheek which warms your

heart and makes you glad you chose one another .

A Kiss can lead to more but I'll leave Passion locked Safely

behind a bedroom door

Passion spent you'll not give up each not even for Lent .

You'll just lie in warm embrace and remember you forgot to say

grace .

Whispers and Promises are made , plans for the future and if

she put her hair this way , Do you think it would suit her ?

Then giggles and more embraces , Till the Night is over and with

a dig in the ribs you make him move over .

Then your oneness complete , you have to put up with his cold feet !

But when you are apart your hearts are still one ,

Thought half is absent you are still one .

His socks under the bed , and after what you said .

His "toys" scattered about , and the clout you'll give when he

returns and the warmth of your body he yearns .

His cold feet to chill you after he thrills you , are absent yet the

thought makes you smile , at least you have the comfort for a while.

His grins and leers , which makes you smile at least you'll have

peace for a while .

But his heart is still with you , the love is always there - as

bright as your fair hair .

Close your eyes and he is still there , Remember the embrace as

he played his fingers across your face .

Let your dreams go and remember the whispers in your ear, warm

kisses on your shoulder before he gets bolder . The warmth of love

that soars through your blood .

Dream long , Dream deep , your Man toils while you sleep, though

you are apart you are still together whatever the weather , for you

are never apart for he is locked in your heart .

Though sometimes he can be trying , there's Never any need of

crying for your love is Undying.

Always remember he fills your heart even when you are apart

End

Michael Casey에게 이메일 michaelgcasey@hotmail.com

당신은 사랑에있을 때 결코 혼자가 아닙니다 ©

으로

마이클 케이시

사랑은 함께하고, 사랑은 미소,보기, 터치

또는 한숨 쉬다, 왜 당신이 서로를 선택했는지 정말로 알지 못한다.

그럼에도 불구하고 당신이 죽을 때까지 함께

사랑은 당신의 몸을 따뜻하게하는 볼에 부드럽고 온화한 키스입니다.

마음을 쓰게되어 기쁘게 생각합니다.

키스는 더 많은 것을 이끌 수 있지만 나는 열정을 안전하게 잠그고 떠날거야.

침실 문 뒤에서

열정은 사순절을 위해서조차도 포기하지 않을 것입니다.

너는 따뜻한 포옹에 거짓말을하고, 잊어 버린 것을 기억할 것이다.

은혜.

속삭임과 약속이 만들어지고, 미래를위한 계획과

그녀는이 방법으로 그녀의 머리카락을 넣어, 당신은 그것이 그녀에게 어울릴 것이라고 생각하니?

그 다음 킥킥 웃음과 그 이상의 포옹, 밤이 끝날 때까지

갈빗대에서 발굴하면 그를 움직일 수 있습니다.

그럼 당신의 하나가 완성, 당신은 그의 차가운 발로 참아!

그러나 당신이 떨어져있을 때 당신의 마음은 여전히 하나입니다.

생각 반은 결석 한 당신은 여전히 하나입니다.

침대 밑에있는 양말과 네가 한 말대로.

그의 "장난감"은 흩어져 있었고,

그가 돌아 오는 몸의 보온과 따뜻함.

그가 당신을 흥분시킨 후에 당신을 차게하는 그의 차가운 발은 아직 결석하고 있습니다.

생각은 당신을 미소 짓게합니다, 적어도 당신은 잠시 동안 편안함을 느낍니다.

그의 미소와 leers, 적어도 당신은 미소 지을거야

잠시 동안 평화.

그러나 그의 마음은 여전히 당신과 함께합니다. 사랑은 항상 거기에 있습니다.

너의 공정한 머리카락처럼 밝은.

눈을 감고 그는 여전히 거기에있다.

그는 당신의 얼굴을 가로 질러 손가락을 연주했습니다.

꿈을 꾸고 귀에 속삭이는 것을 기억하고 따뜻하게 해주세요.

그가 과감하기 전에 어깨에 키스. 사랑의 온기

당신의 피로 솟아 오릅니다.

꿈을 길게, 깊은 꿈을, 당신의 남자는 수면 중에 수고를합니다.

너는 별거 다. 너는 아직도 날씨가 무엇이든간에 너와 함께있어. 너를 위해서.

그가 당신의 마음에 갇혀 있기 때문에 결코 분리되어 있지 않습니다.

때로는 그가 시도 할 수도 있지만, 절대로

당신의 사랑을 위해 우는 것은 언ying은 것입니다.

그가 항상 떨어져 있어도 마음을 채운다는 것을 항상 기억하십시오.

종료

feel free to tell all your friends in Korea and Japan and China and anyplace else.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-Casey/e/B00571G0YC/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

my books are only 3USD or less on Amazon so buy all 13 of them plus Translations.

And yes I'd love a spot on the radio, reading my stuff between records, any form of music you like,
Or you could get a KPop star to read my stuff out in Korean.
Perhaps I could become a cult, just like Gangham Style but far far fatter and older with silver hair, I have my own shades, I love Ray Bans by the way.

Donald Loves me Best and NOT you

Donald Loves Me Best NOT you (c)
By
Michael Casey

I'm sitting there not you, Donald said I could have the window seat.
I hope you catch a cold that window never closes properly.
I bet you broke it just so I'd catch a cold.
I hope you get double pneumonia or better still triple.
Animal.
Pig.
Hairy animal with pooh stuck to your bum.
I'm telling Donald what you said to me.
Don't care its true, Donald always holds his nose when he talks to you.
You are just jealous I have the window seat.
Don't care I'm near the heater and the toilets.
You didn't tell me you were near the toilets, you know my problem.
Let's swap back again.
No.
I'll give you my nice chair with the six wheels on and the back rest.
And your Yankees baseball cap.
You know I love my baseball cap.
Is it a trade or is it a trade?
Ok lets swap back, you can be near the window and I can be near the toilets.
Did I tell you the heater was broken, and the toilets are for transgender only.
You are a sneaky little D.
Don't you dare finish that word or I'll tell Donald you used it.
What sandwiches did you bring?
I'm not sharing with you, you are just a pig, you'll eat everything.
Go on, I thought you wanted to bury the hatchet.
I do, right in your skull.
I'm not going to talk to you any more.
I bet you do.
No I won't.
Don't you want to know where the non transgender toilets are?
Where are they then?
I cannot remember, but if you give me your sandwiches I might be able to remember.
So the sandwiches were handed over.
Where are they then I cannot keep my legs crossed forever.
There are no non transgender toilets.
What am I supposed to do?
If you were sitting by the window you could pee out the window.
Let's swap back again then.
What will you give me if I swap back with you.
I'll tell Donald if you don't.
Stop Donald is here.
The guy by the window was about to pee but its too late, he messes on the floor.

Now I'm talking about Donald Duck and Pluto and Minnie Mouse, who did you think I was talking about? Things can become foul if an office has too much Politics in it.

******

from april 2017 just to keep you going, I may write something new in the next 14 hours so check back.

Saturday, 10 February 2018

Explaining Things

Explaining Things ©

Michael Casey

I put a link on my site earlier in the day for a piece I had stumbled over in the Guardian, it’s a newspaper not a Security Guard’s trade magazine. Which ties in with what I want to talk about today, explaining things. The piece in the Guardian which I stumbled over was about a film, it was interesting and I may have even seen a piece of the film in one of my past lives. I am very eclectic, or nosey so I like finding out things, maybe I should have been a gossip, or Dickens or Shakespeare.

Some Americans have written a new book about plagiarism and Shakespeare and by using modern software they claim Shakespeare stole from some other guy, North I think his name was. You can find out more yourselves. As for Dickens I have him as a screensaver with him sat in his chair in his study, one day I hope to have such a study, though maybe only in the Afterlife, not unless Rupert Murdoch is reading this.

You have to realise Shakespeare’s background, growing up as possibly a secret Catholic, being in the family wool trade. I mentioned this in a restored piece on my site and 259 people or so mainly from Poland read it in just a few days. It was only when I Googled that I discovered Poland’s love of Shakespeare going back as far as Shakespeare’s own time. They even have their own new Globe theatre in Gdansk, so go and visit.

So by explaining things light and life is given to ideas. It’s the explanation that makes the difference. Or as Frank Carson the comedian used to say, “you have heard them all before it’s the way I tell them”. And that is so true, he visited CPNEC Birmingham hotel when I was there and when Roger drove him to the airport Roger nearly crashed the van as he was laughing so much, crying with laughter. Because of the way Frank Carson told them.

Which all brings me to my point, communication matters and style too. You may not be clever enough to understand some things in the news or at school or University, but if they are explained in another way the penny drops and you have a “whoosh” of knowledge. In grammar school in Geography I could never understand contour maps. If Mr Hughes my Geography teacher had brought in an orange or a potato or a football, and then drew on it in felt tip he could have explained contour maps to me. In 5 minutes I would have understood.

Visual aids do aid, and you can be very creative, an Art teacher might draw a contour map on a naked bottom, and then shade it in ready for Mardi Gras, which is only a week away now. So hello to all my readers in South America, but you would not have enough paint to paint my bottom.

I hope by using laughter I can reach the parts others may not reach, and now I’m talking about your brain not your bottom. Women know this too, the quickest way to a man’s heart is via his stomach. Or as Gabrielle once joked, with a carving knife straight through the jugular. Boris, Lech and Gregorgi know this too, as their wives have great knife skills that’s how they fell in love, the Trio were so very impressed by their future wives butchery skills. Which brings dual benefits, the lads are always well fed, and they never never never upset their wives, they just love them. If ever they did upset their wives then they would wake up as women, need I say any more?

So now by using humour I have spread the message of fidelity in marriage. Don Camillo would approve I think. In For Your Penance which is Chapter7 of The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker I have Patrick organising a Fete for the children’s home. Why because he got his girlfriend pregnant, and the priest gave him it as a penance. There is also a little blackmail thrown in, the priest blackmails the local Police Inspector, we don’t have statute of limitations in UK.

Now if I was clever I’d use long words and over elaborate explanations to explain matters. But I’m not clever enough to do that, and I hope you all prefer my way of explaining things. If you just think I’m too facile then perhaps you should just stick to your own newspapers and kindly leave my page. Now where was I, all alone in my study, ok my front room with the vacuum cleaner noising above my head in one of the bedrooms. If you make things understandable then you can reach and touch more people, either as a singer or a priest or as a politician.

This is where Style comes in, and yes sometimes its all style and no substance. Like Reality TV, you can think of your own examples. I thought of the Kardasians immediately, then I remembered what I said about contour maps earlier on. If you drone on as a teacher then the battle is lost, or as a Dr of something, the benches are banged and nobody pays attention. And yes I witnessed that once. The reverse is true if you know your subject or if you hold an audience spellbound. And then other Drs of something come and listen, they flock even, and I’ve witnessed that too.

You can do more good with a quiet word or a joke than by screaming at people. If somebody screams at me I walk away, why should I listen? But if you seduce me with words and laughter I’ll draw up a chair, comedy clubs are there to help sell more beer after all. I even see posters for stand up comedy in my local Polish store. Which reminds me I need to pop out to the local Polish shop before the rains starts again.

I hope I’ve explained things simply just as Star Trek used to do back in the 1960s, there was always a moral in the story too. You enjoyed the show and there was a fable too which got you thinking, in my case only after I’d enjoyed the show. That’s the best form of entertainment, you really enjoy it and the message, if any is sugar coated. None of us wants North Korean Propaganda, which is dull and boring. Though after the revolution which will come we wouldn’t want K Pop non stop. Though I could teach all of North Korea how to speak English with my posh Birmingham accent. And maybe Irish dancing too, as they seem to all have got so much rhythm already, they just need to change the piper.

Should we rage against death, or enjoy the charmed spaces of life?

Just trawling through all the newspapers. Stumbled over this

well worth a read. It's from the Guardian newspaper.

I doubt if they will ever feature me but this is good so have a read

Should we rage against death, or enjoy the charmed spaces of life?

Ian Jack

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/10/death-life-ingmar-bergman-seventh-seal-happiness

Friday, 9 February 2018

YSL Yves Saint Laurent docu-drama

YSL Yves Saint Laurent docu-drama

Just watched Docu-drama in French with English subtitles about YSL

I watched a documentary about Karl Lagerfeld a few years ago and wrote about that, so tonight I decided to watch this about YSL.

The French would call him a pieds noires as his family was in Algeria. He also had a breakdown and had a bad time. the story tonight really was a Love Story, how his partner loved him and tried to protect him.

Drugs did enter his life and in the docu-drama, there was a line when his partner threaten one bad influence, along the lines of I'll kill you if you ever lead YSL astray with the drugs again.

Creatively YSL was probably a genius, 50 years in the game. In the film all the stuff they bought together was sold off as it had too many memories for his gay partner when YSL died.

My wife and me watched with interest as the film told YSL's story and showed the Fashion too.

My wife as you know is a Shanghai girl, and she will look good in a 5 dollar top, making it look 500.
Though she does also have very fancy clothes.
So Watching the Fashion together was very interesting.

I did look at my best today as I had showered and shaved and trimmed the side of my hair above the ears, so much so that my doctor said I looked young, when I saw her today. If she had seen me the day before she would have thought I was a tramp. I was wearing my blue fleece with white polar bears on. We still are having our cold winter here in Birmingham.

So talk to your wife about fashion and try and see the creativity behind it, or just watch The Devil Wears Prada on video.

It was the loyal boyfriend/lover/business partner who helped YSL reach his dreams.
I just hope all of us straight or gay or any which way finds somebody to support us like that.

I haven't got any YSL or any fashionable clothes really, I let my wife and 2 daughters do that.

But we should thank YSL and all Fashion people for making the ones we love look even better.
Which reminds me the comedy The Seamstress was on tv last night and that was good too.

Now look at the photos of oh so fashionable me.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-Casey/e/B00571G0YC

https://www.blogger.com/profile/08360300604946924721

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-Casey/e/B00571G0YC

Stand Up Writing from my book More Shorts 2014 ( i got it wrong before)

Michael Casey

I read a few minutes ago on Linkedin that there would be a writing competition, a kind of XFactor for writers, you read for 2 mins, then you are judged. So what do you think of that? Me, I think writing is more than bubble gum that you spit out when the flavour goes. However I do think that writing can be like chocolate, something almost as good as sex, that you enjoy and then you get back to day to day reality.

So how would the show go? Would it really be the writer with the best blurb who’d win? Would it just be battle of the blurbs? Writing is so subjective. I bought Shadow of the Wind and I really wanted to read it, because of the blurb. Sadly I did not like it at all and then I stopped reading it ½ way through, and there are not many books I’ve dropped in my life. Then there is The Book Thief, which I regard as one of the best books I’ve read in my life, it’s so poetic, so touching, I cried as I read it, I even think it should be on schools’ book lists.

My own first novel is a slow starter as there is a large cast, however it is a rattling good read once the cast is introduced. So at Book X Factor should I read a blurb, or should I stumble as I flick to the climax. We have starters and soups, then the main, and finally dessert, with a coffee and mint we finish the meal. Then arm in arm we leave the restaurant and head home for play, only we are so full of food we both fall asleep on the sofa. So much promise but no fulfilment.

Books are such fun, it’s really great when we discover a new writer. I can remember being introduced to Tom Sharp maybe 25years ago, before he was on tv. Then 5 years ago I can remember the IT guy at the Law Firm saying how he’d just discovered Tom Sharpe. Books and Writers are candy for the mind, they do open our mind to laughter and tears and hope. The Book Thief is one such book, but would it win on XFactor for Books?

I can remember my History teacher, Mr Trout, he said try Don Camillo. I did and I loved Don Camillo, I have an omnibus edition in the bookcase behind me, next to the piano. Would Don Camillo win the XFactor for books, probably not, but it is a book you can reread over and over. The spirit in Don Camillo is the thing. Don Camillo may argue and fight with the Mayor, but they are still brothers.

Sorry you won’t be going through to the next stage of the competition. Not enough sex, nor violence. Great description of a sledge called “Rosebud” but it’s just not commercial. 500 or 600 pages for a first novel, 160,000 words, I think we’ll run out of ink if we try and publish it. No could you just take a few characters out, could you miss the bit where somebody saved the undertaker’s son’s life. And you know the bit where……

It would be like being asked to save only one member of your family when the ship sinks. Words have meaning, words have power, and if you remove your false teeth your words have no bite.

***********

https://www.blogger.com/profile/08360300604946924721