James Claire - The Scribe

JOHNNY ROCKETS - Burgers done right !

2013-10-21T01:24:00.001+03:00

Growing up in Australia we learnt of the heyday of Americana through comics, magazines and television, but living in a bastion of all things British we never experienced it.

Arriving in the USA in the 90’s and not travelling Route 66 or the famed ‘old guard’ areas, sticking mainly to the major cities, I still never experienced it. Washington DC and Chicago, New York, San Francisco and LA where all grown up when I arrived.

Flash forward to Bahrain twenty years later and I find Johnny Rockets a Burger restaurant which is truly iconic of all things Americana during the hey dey era.

First and foremost Johnny Rockets is a Burger restaurant. And you know what, they do it really well. At first, there is something kind of ‘kitsch’ about the smiley face in ketchup placed before you. But after a while you realize that you’re in a burger joint and troubles of life really should stay outside. This is Johnny Rockets, relax and enjoy your burger and let the troubles of the world permeate your soul after you’ve dined.

Bahrain now sports two Johnny Rocket stores, one in Al Ali Mall, in Seef area and the other at the Lagoon Park at Amwaj.

The menu at Johnny Rockets is lengthy and has every conceivable form of burger you could imagine. Fries come plain or loaded, with cheese and chilli and you can even have truffle fries, which are part of the new Wagyu experience.

Johnny Rockets is not just about the food though, it truly is a place to go and relax and chill, not momentarily, like say a café, but for an afternoon. Dining slow here is better than rushing, simply you can eat more if you go slow, and then you truly get the JR experience. It’s the décor, the white hats on their staff, the silver topped straw holders, the tabletop juke box selectors and the whole vibe and atmosphere which makes Johnny Rockets the amazing place that it is.

Don’t get me wrong, the food here is sensational.

While I can never understand why a place that serves burgers and fries and wants you to drop as much money as possible has their booths so tight and seating so close to the tables, making it tough for a big guy like me to sit at them, I did find at the Amwaj outlet the staff where kind enough to advise me to push the booth seating back a little for space, without scoffing at my requirement to need to do so. I appreciate that.

Seating otherwise is booth, tables or bar side. I’d love to sit at the bar sometime, but the concept requires that when the restaurant is busy that the staff do a quick song and dance routine (literally not figuratively) and for that reason I find the bar counter area too close to the action and too focal a position to be siting in. I hate being center of attention anywhere. I am not a fan of the whole show and song routine, I feel sorry for the staff in having to do that. It is embarrassing for me and must be for them, to one minute be your waiter trying to get your attention and respect and the next being reduced to show ponies for the management and concept sake. But it does make the kids smile and I guess that’s truly the demographic for the franchise, so I just prefer to sit further back within the restaurant for my own sake.

So if your in need of some cheering up and require a smiley face in ketchup to get your frown to turn upsidedown, or if your just in need of a great burger and fries, or for a drink that is a meal in itself (ask for the apple pie shake-it is exactly what it sounds like, a slice of perfect apple pie buzzed into a milkshake- Dear God I thought I’d gone to heaven), then Johnny Rockets is your place.

I may have grown up without experiencing Americana, but I did grow up watching Dallas, and any restaurant who’s initials are JR, is about as American as they get. And Johnny Rockets, fills my needs on multiple levels. It could only be more American if the servers where on roller skates, but I think that was a later era.

Fries done right !! Well Done Johnny Rockets !! Load those bad boys full of tasty ingredients.

They even do salads....just so that the burger and apple pie shake don't feel so guilt ridden I think !!

GO Wagyu for the ultimate burger experience....Heaven!!

SOIE..a Chinese delight

2013-10-17T23:21:00.005+03:00

I long for good Chinese food some times, actually often, yet I also find it difficult at times to think of where offers such cuisine especially in Bahrain. I am not in the habit of frequenting hotels, although you would think after nearly ten years in the Middle East I would realize that some of the best restaurants are in fact associated with hotels and not stand alone like other parts of the world.

A friend suggested I try SOIE CHINESE RESTAURANT at the Sheraton Hotel, Bahrain in early 2013. Despite that experience which I shall elude to in a moment, I tried again for a special birthday for a special someone and this time came away with the desire to return many times again.

SOIE is situated in the Sheraton Hotel Bahrain, hotel lobby, just to the left upon entry and it’s darkened ambience warms to a rich Chinese, Asian feel for restaurant décor. Few hotels make restaurants that can transport you out of the fact that you are stuck within the walls of a hotel, Soie, does the job well and time spent here is time well spent enjoying the company of others, with great food.

The first time I ate here, and a good warning to anyone within Bahrain with allergies for all restaurants, my guest had a severe intolerance to GLUTEN and we requested this fact to be made known to the chefs. Having ordered what we thought was a safe dish in Lobster cooked two ways, we had an early exit from the restaurant in order to rush my friend to the emergency room of the local hospital as the lobster indeed had been cooked in a flour thickened sauce. We of the natural English speaking world and those of us with intolerances based on Western Society need to truly ensure that our words are understood by those who do not speak English as a first language and secondly ensure that words such as GLUTEN INTOLERANT are understood also. I guess Peanut allergy is easier to understand than Gluten persae.

While I was saddened to cut the first dinner short, it saddened me more why anyone would cook lobster two ways and both those ways included cooking such a delicious and delicate meat with thickened sauces. Steamed and grilled would have been my more natural choice for cooking lobster two ways to ensure its flavor and freshness where exemplified, but then again perhaps that was the reason also.

My most recent dining experience at SOIE was without food drama. It included a delicious starter of prawn crackers and refreshing beverages of the fruity variety. Although we ate too much, SOIE and it’s chefs truly exceled on the second trip to dine here. Salt and pepper Calamari, duck and lobster where cooked perfectly, (if even still in sauces I would not cook myself.) The evening was about fine dining, enjoyment and relaxing with a friend who was enjoying a birthday. Soie and its staff ensured we enjoyed the evening and as such I highly recommend the experience to all.

Bahrain can be a difficult place to recommend restaurants as one good night does not always guarantee every trip will be the same. But the chefs at Soie, perfected the art of cooking the lobster the exact two ways twice, the staff were pleasant both trips and could not do enough to assist us and ensure the evening was pleasant. In this I feel assured that every trip by ever guests is the same.

There are cheaper establishments, but then there are lesser places also for ambience, quality and comfort. On all levels Soie met my aged and demanding needs and for a good Chinese Restaurant, and as such it rates highest in my books.

SOIE CHINESE RESTAURANT at the SHERATON HOTEL can be contacted on (+973) 17533533 · Email: soie.bahrain@sheraton.com open dinners Sunday - Friday 7:00 PM - 11:30 PM. Closed Saturday.

I was this week informed of an up and coming promotion at SOIE for the month of NOVEMBER 2013…so give it a try..

Seafood Promotion at Soie

Seafood lovers are invited during November, come along and enjoy special dishes of the month at Soie

Items include Daxia Wok - fried fillet of dory fish Manchurian at BD 3.900++; Kuye Sautéed Cuttle Fish with bamboo shoots, straw mushroom in spicy Szechwan sauce at BD 4.500++; Jiujiang Udong Noodles with hammour, shrimps, calamari & vegetables at BD 4.900++; Quingshui’s Spicy Minced Hammour Dumplings with chili garlic sauce at BD 5.900++; Pan Fried Dashi Scallops with snow peas in yellow beans sauce at BD 7.900++

Visit www.soiebahrain.com for more information or call +973 17533533

One Small Step For Mankind....

2013-02-17T21:10:00.000+03:00

Time may heal all wounds, but let me tell you that ‘Time’ does not repair a shattered heart.

23 years ago I lost my best friend to suicide and yet I cry more now for the guilt imparted in not having called him the day before he passed, than I think I have cried in any year over the past two decades. Of course having a father attempt the same and having lost near and dear ones of an intimate nature over the past few years has not helped my situation at all either.

In fact in recent years, this Humpty Dumpty has felt more like a jigsaw puzzle without many of it’s edge pieces. Barely holding things together.

Anyway, after a recent failed attempt toward happiness I decided and was informed by a few that I should seek professional help, in the form of Therapy.

I went to a “shrink” 20 years ago and we just did not see eye to eye.. He was an idiot and I was not, that simple!

Over the years my attitude toward professional help has declined along with my mental health. In my eyes, you just don’t grow a new heart, you need a transplant and I’m pretty sure Psychologists and Psychiatrists don’t do those in their office on the sofa.

I come form the old school of thinking also. JUST GET OVER IT! In fact I can hear my father saying those words all the time. PULL YOUR SELF TOGETHER SON he would say if any of us where ever depressed.

But after well over 106 relationships since the age of 21 and more than 30 of those in the past 5 years, I have to finally state that it’s not just me getting hurt by my dilemma now, but a lot of others as well. And that means that my problem has become others problem and thats just not fair.

In a relationship you have to have a heart to be able to give a heart and mine has been so long shattered that the rock that sits in it’s place is no place from which to begin any new relationship right now.

A relationship needs commitment of heart and mind and I realize now that I have been missing 50% of that equation for quite some time, two decades or more in fact.

Little wonder I’m 43 and single.

So will therapy change things?

Can it help to grow a new muscle where my heart once sat and will it make that muscle beat and feel again?

I doubt it personally. 23 years is a very long time to suffer anything and you come to live with it, be accustomed to it and deal with things in your own way. Hiding the truth mainly from everyone.

In a way my relationship all these years has been with “LOSS” and to lose “Loss” now after all this time might be hard to take.

Anyway, today is Sunday February 17^th 2013 and today was the first day with my new psychologist, Day one of therapy.

Lets just give it a try and see where this takes us shall we !

I’m off to buy a pack of tissues to give to the Dr., because I used a lot of hers this afternoon.

Wish me well folks!

Discovering Indonesia

2012-12-02T01:14:00.001+03:00

I love word association to test the capacity of thoughts of most people.

Ask them a word such as ‘Indonesia’ and see the results.

Indonesia – Bali

Indonesia – Earth-quake

Indonesia – Tsunami.

Most people THINK that they know Indonesia, but try the same word recognition test on a recently found group of friends of mine and this is what you’ll get

Indonesia – Jakarta

Indonesia - Waterfalls

Indonesia – Miss Padang 2012

Indonesia - Trip of a lifetime

The latter proves to me that not only have my new friends seen a different side to Indonesia the country but that they have experienced the country, not merely heard about it, not merely visiting it, and not just done the normal well trodden tourist destinations.

Indeed the “trip of a lifetime” as expressed by one of my friends, was an unplanned and unexpected event for us all. A request by the Indonesian Embassy in Bahrain and fully sponsored by The Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, to join them on a Familiarisation Trip to experience Indonesia and report on what we found, was out of the blue, a nice surprise but one that had expectations of seeing the usual government sponsored sites and events.

Ten people joined the tour. Ten unknown, unrelated strangers who just ‘clicked’ from the outset, made this trip easy from the start. Travel can be laborious at times, but accompanied by like minds, friends and enjoyable companions the journey is made easier.

Indonesia 1.01 is this;

-population 240 million people,

-currency Rupiah,

-capital Jakarta with 12 million people and traffic which can congest quickly.

Indeed as per the original word association Indonesia has seen its share of trouble, earthquakes, tsunamis and yes Bali is a popular destination. But to relegate this country to just these issues is not knowing anything about Indonesia at all.

After a week in Indonesia I can tell you honestly and from experience the following ;

Indonesia is amazing, fun and diverse in more ways than I think I have experienced in many countries.

I have now visited 82 countries on this rock we call Earth and Indonesia amazed me like few others. It has everything; ancient temples dating back millennia, provincial traditions retained and honored, modern metropolises and sensational rarely explored wilderness. Whether you are looking for a fast paced stop off, quiet vacation, shopping trip, business trip or eco friendly exploration, you will find it in this country of 17,000 islands.

Our tour visited Jakarta, West Java and Western Sumatra, and given more time we could have spent a week in each and still not seen enough. From the emerald green of rice paddy’s in the low lying sea level belts to the rich lushness of tea and coffee plantations 2000 feet above sea level, craters of still active volcanoes, warm lakes where fish nibble at your feet and walks through the native village areas where villagers allow you to pick cocoa pods from their front yard and share tea with you in their home …this is a country of diversity and unbelievable friendliness.

Like any country it has its areas of improvement but also remember that it does indeed have a hard past from which it is working hard to overcome. Few of us could face earthquakes, tsunamis and everything else mother nature can throw at us, and still be so accommodating, friendly and filled with wonderlust as Indonesia.

If you think you know Indonesia, then think again!

Give this amazing country an opportunity to prove itself to each and everyone of you and in return our tourism dollars will help propel this land of amazing natural and traditional cultural amazements into a new stratosphere of recognition.

Bali may be fun, but the rest of Indonesia is truly magnificent.

Garuda Airlines is set to begin direct services from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta in December 2012 with flights already being available from Jeddah to Jakarta, other countries and for connectors from Bahrain, consult your local travel agents.

A traditional fisherman on lake Singkarak...From the hectic world of jakarta Indonesia still allows the opportunity to be by yourself, even in a country of 242 million, you can still be the sole person on the lake...Amazing !

Peace and Serenity in the Rice fields of Indonesias Harau valley

With vast beauty the islands of Indonesia also have awe with 150 Volcanoes to visit 75 of which are still active.

Harau Valley will amaze those seeking Eco-Tourism and the chance to get lost in the wilderness and serenity of nature.

Pagaruyun Palace with its traditional shape and design is dedication to the traditions of old. Despite the massive population and the need to push forward Indonesians are proud of their heritage. And rightfully so.

James Claire - The Scribe: MID LIFE - Is no Crisis !!!

2012-11-02T02:46:00.001+03:00

James Claire - The Scribe: MID LIFE - Is no Crisis !!!: It’s astonishing sometimes that the clearest things in life elude you for so long. I mean I have heard the famed saying...

MID LIFE - Is no Crisis !!!

2012-11-02T02:43:00.001+03:00

It’s astonishing sometimes that the clearest things in life elude you for so long. I mean I have heard the famed sayings, such as “the only thing to fear is fear itself”, spoken by Franklin Roosevelt…But what did that really mean and what have I had to fear ? Seems plenty, as do us all. But that’s changing.

That thing that sends the hair on the back of your neck standing upright.

The cause for the butterflies in your stomach, anticipation and anxiety both cousins of fear.

Fear , the cause of adrenalin which makes us do remarkable feats we otherwise could never achieve and which boosts us into almost super human potential.

But what if we had no fear.

Well I think I just solved a life long question for many.

I think fear is what life is suppose to be all about, to keep us all in line.

It’s what keeps us going.

Fear of tomorrow, fear of being left behind, fear of conformity, fear of non-conformity, fear of acceptance, fear of not living up to our potential. Fear of debt, of banks, death, fear of not providing enough or our families, and fear , well, you name it, fear of almost everything.

I’m heading at supersonic speed to a little thing called mid life crisis, but on the cusp of my arrival I believe I may have cracked this nut wide open.

There’s no crisis at all.

And there is nothing to fear.

In fact I believe that’s been the crisis for so many for so long.…

Mid life is when everything starts to spiral, seemingly out of control and we start to question things. Question our purpose, question our role in life, question our choices?

But what if we turned all this on it’s head and looked at it in reverse.

Instead of fearing mid-life, what if mid-life is simply the time of absolute freedom.

A center point in life where you can see the winning post and see the starting line and make your life choice to either go forward and run the normal race, or take another route and get off the rat race.

What if it’s not us, the mid lifers, who question all around us, but that all around us becomes clearer and that others begin to see us differently, question us because we have suddenly differed from the norm. What if what they see is just pure envy and jealousy!

You see it came to me over something quite simple, a car’s travel log that I was supposed to fill out on a daily basis.

You see I’m a stickler for the rules. I’m also pragmatic about doing the right thing.

To cut a long story short, someone else drove my car, moved the log book and both they and I forgot to fill it out.

I saw the log book today after a week. And I looked at it thinking , whateva!!

And that’s when it struck me, this feeling of being unsettled lately.

I agree it is borderline mid-life crisis. But not for the reasons one might imagine.

You see I think mid-life crisis is the period of time when you realize that you fear nothing.

It makes you see the world differently, so differently that you start to act and be different to the norm and thus others call you egotistical, arrogant, strange, weird, rude even or eccentric. But I am really none of these.

I simply have a lack of fear.

What if this is our freedom,

What if this is a higher power setting us free.

You see I’ve seen much, I’ve travelled often, I’ve worked hard and yes along with it there have been financial gains and rewards , as well as pain, loss and tragedy.

I’ve done so much. I’ve written books, been published in dozens of countries, I’ve starred on TV, I’ve done radio, I’ve made incredible sums of money and I’ve spent like there’s no tomorrow, I’ve also felt the phenomenon called love, and known callous stinging pain caused by loss.

I’ve rewarded for my skills and awarded for my contributions and have been questioned by specialists on my sanity.

And today, looking at that log book, I realized, this unsettled feeling I have is the freedom which comes from having lived a full life and coming out the others side intact.

There is nothing left for me to fear.

I have enough money now, why do I want to fight for more.

On the other hand if I lost everything tomorrow I know that I enough knowledge , skills and common sense to get it again.

I don’t fear aging, for I have lead an amazing youth and look forward to the lessons of age.

I don’t fear love or lack of it. I have loved and been loved and I know there are those who love me too.

Death the ultimate fear is nothing but a portal to the future. So many have died, so many will and at this age one has finally conquered the ultimate fear by realizing that inevitability is exactly that, inevitable!

There is literally nothing left to fear but to accept and embrace.

Mid life crisis, lay not with the person going through it, but with the others looking on in envy and who have not yet conquered all that they must .

People looking on are disgusted at those with mid-life crisis because we are the anarchists. We just don’t care what others think of our actions because we don’t fear being judged, we don’t fear your callous tongues and we don’t fear gossip any longer.

Do what you want, do what you will and say what ever, the fact is I don’t care if you fire me, incarcerate me, kick me out of a country, take my money, take my home, I don’t mind.

I am comfortable with who and where I am and I have no fear. ‘Whateva’ happens will always happen and I have 189 other countries in which to live, choices of thousands of types of jobs, and a brain which makes me both sexy and smart enough to continue on life’s path uninhibited.

In the words of Jim Morrison,” Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free”.

Mid life is not a crisis, it is a freedom from the norm.

I’ve reached the point in my life where life can truly begin. I don’t have to listen to petty threats for I have enough to fall back on, personally, professionally and emotionally to go through just about anything without fear of the results.

Of course this cant be the norm for all of us, or the world would turn to anarchy. Mid life crisis will come and go.

Eventually you hit and older age I guess and fear the future once more, the longevity of it all and the solo existence as others depart before you.

Right here , right now. I’m just happy to be center stage on the act of life.

Throw at me what you will.

Today starts a new and so does the way in which I live it.

One Regret ....

2012-08-22T05:59:00.001+03:00

If there is one regret I have in life, it is not that my parents could have been richer, could have been better or could have been nicer…they were all that they could have been…no…the only regret I will carry to my grave is that I could have been a better son.....

To my parents.

Time gives us eyes for the truth and a sense for reality.

I love you both

THINGS IN WHICH I NO LONGER BELIEVE

2012-08-16T04:35:00.000+03:00

We have all heard of “Happily ever after!”…but was it ?

No body ever wrote the trilogy to Snow White, the Three Little Pigs or Red Riding hood.

Back in those days they were all just one hit wonders, in a time when audience naivety was strong.

They believed the story line and they believed what they were told. If the wolf ate grandmother then so be it, if seven dwarfs lived with a gorgeous blonde, no one asked who paid the rent or how ?

But do any of us believe in fairy tales anymore?

What else do you not believe in as we approach the 22^nd century at a blistering speed.

Author JM Barrie stated…”The moment you don’t believe you can fly, you cease to ever be able to do it”.. perhaps that’s true , as I know I can’t fly anymore already.

I’m not riding on cynicism this month, I purely want to relate those things in which I truly just do no longer believe to be good for us or to be fact any longer, and remember these are just my personal view points, I don’t expect others to agree with me, but I am putting my thoughts out there so if you feel you wish to berate me for my personal views, then go ahead. That’s what life is all about. Freedom to think and to say what we want.

Happily Ever After…it’s a fairy tale ending and doesn’t exist. “Ever after” is a long time just ask Kim Kardashian she could last 72 days with husband Kris Humphrey’s and these days there is just so much that can happen. Perhaps centuries ago when people travelled no further than the edge of their village, before big government stepped in to help us all, before technology and globalization began, the world seemed to be able to live “Happily Ever After” between wars and faction fighting. I think out of seven billion people on this tiny planet there would be few remaining who believe that this is true or a plausible eventuality any more. And if they do then they probably still believe they can fly also!

Big Government.

Government was a force to be reckoned with, when countries where smaller. Today Government employees realize what we all do, that there are so many billions running through the coffers that no one will miss a few million. Senators and politicians worry about themselves first and the general public second. Government will not protect us , they will not care about our pensions , medi-care or welfare systems until after they have given themselves a healthy dose of life long retirement packages, great after government positions and free flights.

Countries, populations and the greed of humanity has changed politicians to be like most of everyone else who look out for themselves first and worry about the others second. They are supposed to be public servants, but their service to the public runs pretty short much of the time.

A Pot of Gold At the End Of The Rainbow…Up their with “Happily Ever After” and “Once Upon a Time”, and about as cliché as wicked witches, evil step sisters and princes who are charming. The fact is , gold or any fortune comes from hard labor. Chests of the stuff can not be found on idyllic beaches hidden by ancient Carribean pirates, and it certainly has not been left at the end of a rainbow by a leprechaun or any other pint sized creature. It’s a nice thought, but first year out of high school this one was lost to the fairies.

Drinking Water From A Tap; As a child we did and thankfully so. In our town they heavily fluorided the water and gave our generation amazing teeth. Today the thought that others can put things in the water without my knowledge, scares me.

I no longer believe in drinking water from a tap, pipes below ground where once the modernizing revolution of a new era, today it disgusts me to think about drinking tap water from pipes laying below ground for 20 or 30 years that can not be accessed or cleaned or checked for whatever else is down there. I barely enjoy showering in water from taps with water from underground, I much prefer tanks from rain water. We are worried about food contamination in an era when most people are well informed about hand washing and food handling, yet we considering drinking water from whence it comes we have no idea. I like to see my water in a brand name container and not in a four gallon tub filled from the back of a dirty truck in the middle of the street.

The United Nations; I no longer believe in the United Nations….a group of overpaid beaurocrats who stand by and watch millions killed and the only thing they do is to impose sanctions ( oh my goodness another sanction) against the governments who are killing their own people… Waste of money at the highest level. Use the money for mercenaries. I say.

Voting System…Pretty much up their with Big Government but the votes of numerous countries have proven what we all thought for many years, that it is rigged. Even if it’s not, is it worth the while. The American presidential candidates spend billions of dollars of campaign funding to get elected, for what, to end up being led themselves by the party hard liners behind the scene. Let the fictional do-gooders elect who they want to lead, none of us really care any more anyway. Use the billions spent on marketing the candidates to us, for real things like infrastructure, medical and educational services or just give us good roads on which to drive and the basic necessities and stop taxing us to death and we’ll be fine. Government is like any big business these days, worried about themselves and not the customers.

The Weather Forecast… Like going to the astrologer , palm reader, crystal ball see-er or reading Nostrodamus and buying lottery tickets based upon any of their findings, the weather forecast is about as reliable as well.. the weather forecast.

Unless the weather man is telling you in real time what is happening outside the window in which he is standing in front of, you be assured he is going to get it wrong or only partially correct. If weather were predictable , if storms could be foretold the planet would be a much safer place, but sadly the information never gets to millions of us until it is too late. Give the weather forecast funding to those who seek Extra Terrestrials in outer space, I think there is a far greater chance of finding the truth out there than here on earth. Mother Nature is a woman of unpredictable tolerances and rage and is not letting the Weatherman know her secrets for a long time yet.

Churches…. Don’t confuse the word church with religion. I believe everyone has the right to pray and believe in what ever it is they desire. We all need to have faith in something after all in hard times. But faith is within us, not only within the towers of expensive real estate we call cathedrals.

What I no longer believe is that a church is required for it. Sure keep a few, but is the goal of a church not merely to give faith, hope and to console, to distribute food, care, faith and finances to the needy. Then in this case why do we need so many churches of any faith in which to do it. In medieval times and before that we had no manner of transportation, and so one church was required to be in every village or town and city. Today we can travel if we must visit a church. Would it not be wiser to sell the majority of the churches which in most cases reside on prime real estate and distribute the wealth to the those who are homeless, penniless and truly of need. I see many churches empty except for a Sunday , is this realization then of a resource being put to best use on prime realty territory !! Today we have cars, trains, buses, car pooling, one church per 2-3 million people is enough and if they truly believe the words they are speaking then surely a covered car park, a tin shed or a basketball court would suffice. God does not judge us by where we pray to him, the importance is just that we do ! I have travelled the poorer areas of Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, South America and other poorer countries and I see the faithful praying in the open air, under canvas shelters, in rooms supported by timber and corrugated iron. Does the faith and prays of these folk, have lesser weight because of where they pray and in which ramshackle building they show their faith ! I think not. They still believe in the religion even though the church has not found it good enough to build them a cathedral wrought with marble and other beauty in which to pray. It is us who need to have faith 24 hours a day and seven days a week, 365 days a year, not only when and while we are on hallowed turf. Faith is within us as individuals, not only present in the cathedrals of cash that dot the thousands of cities of this planet, while the homeless sleep on the warm air vents outside them try to stay warm and begging for scraps.

The Justice System

Innocent until proven guilty unless of course you are tried in the public court or tried by media in which case you don’t stand a chance. Of course as much as you might be innocent and yet still proven guilty by the media or public vote you can also be guilty these days and get off completely free depending on how much money you have and can pay for the right representation. If you are a little man fighting a big company in the legal system forget it. Loopholes, court dates moving and trickery will have you bound up for years until you go broke and you wont even appear as a blot on the financial sheets of the company that wronged you. No my friends the Justice system is most definitely “blind” but those scales of justice are tipped in the direction against you…unless you are rich or powerful.

Equity.. Is there fairness in the world or are we just all too jealous and greedy to see true equity in the things of others. Is equity only in the thoughts of dreamers?

A cup made from a potter, his masterpiece, something he has labored over for countless hours or days, a magnificent production by a time honored craftsman. But does anyone pay for that anymore. The labor of love, devotion and craftsmanship or have we been so beaten down with junk from china and third world countries that we fail to see the intrinsic value in such items any longer, too savvy to pay the real value, just wanting the next bargain?

People might hope for Equity but are we honest enough any more to give it.

In relationships too, every so often feelings fade, a mere “I love you too”, just does not suffice any longer for one who’s heart believes they have given more to the relationship than to be replied to by a throw away line.

If you give 100%, someone always wants 110%, and a heart break is soon to follow.

Is it greed or is it that social networks, internet and globalization has made everything so close at hand, that more caring person across the miles seem closer than they truly are, that if we aren’t happy , then people seem as disposable as a razor. Once was a case people married for life. Once was, marriage certificates and marriage vows actually meant something. Today fariness and equality inside a relationship is a daily struggle to maintain and someone always feels they suffer on behalf of the other to get it.

The Words “Trust Me…..At face value I doubt these words if they are even spoken. To me they seem to be the warning signal that someone is truly NOT trustworthy. A trustworthy person is trustworthy by their actions, they don’t need to tell you so. They answer the phone, they call you back if and when they say they will, they reply to text messages and they are on time to meetings and functions, they are where they say they will be on time and perhaps earlier. A trust worthy person makes an effort for others, wary that others time and life is just as valued as his/her own. A conversation is exactly that, a conversing of facts and things that happened, not a fictional apparition which occurred only in the mind of the speaker and with which facts do not check out.

Trust is a value I respect highly, the truth may hurt, but there are no doubts remaining after ward if everything is based upon hard factual truth….Trust Me !

Cynic in life perhaps, but I just think some things have outlived their believability within my lifetimes. WC Fields perhaps put it best…”You have to believe in something, so I believe I”ll have another drink !”

Some things , therefore are believable !

Two words rarely spoken - "MY FATHER"

2012-08-13T04:42:00.001+03:00

I don’t write often about my father.

Millions of words written and yet so few of the man who made me what I am today.

Unfair , perhaps.
Sometimes it makes me sad, other times I realize there just is not that much to say.

He was a deep, silent complex man.

Typical really of his era.

The men don’t cry type.

Ask him how his day was, he’d say “fine” and wander off.

Ask him what happened at work and the answer was always, “nothing”.

He worked hard, and my sister and I needed for nothing, so I’m not about to slam the man.

Truth is he and my mother both suffered terrible childhoods.

Both were abused physically and mentally and both were not raised by their own parents due to the times, the era , deaths or separations and the stigma in those days surrounding children without parentage was not a kind one.

That they grew up wanting to have children , did, and raised us, is testimony to them both.

For many years now I’ve actually tried to understand my father.

To forgive him his negligence of love and sympathies and to forgive me my disrespect of not understanding what made him the man he became.

Of those things I remember the most are these.

He was fixated on the Second World War, Vietnam and Korean wars. It was like he wished he’d fought in them, just a year or two shy of being able to, he never made it past the Reservist Army.

He loved the movie Apocolypse Now. He loved hard cover books and especially first editions and I don’t think I ever saw him cry. Not one tear.

He retired at 40. He had worked hard for 25 years at that stage. Within a decade he attempted suicide and following that decades of psychosis, mental anguish and truly troubled times lay ahead.

When he was just my dad and before all his troubles, he lost him self within books, he wrote like the wind and was a perfectionist in everything he did. Doctors say it was this self-imposed stress that made him so troubled later on.

For many years I tried to tell myself I would never be the man he was.

He never showed love or gave hugs, so I loved and hugged everyone.

He read books, so I refused to.

I worried that it was what lead to his troubled mind, and so for decades I never touched a book .

He wrote, I refused.

He was the quiet silent type who found no fun in anything, I became loud, riotous and laughed always making light of everything.

He married , I did not.

I tried so hard to not be him and all I ended up doing was missing out on so much.

I wish daily now that I had married; someone, anyone, I really want children but find at 43 I’m alone, fearful of being him so much that I am now worse off for it.

But the light of my plight truly dawned upon me a few days back in Mall whilst shopping for a gift for a special friend.

I found myself in a bookstore looking at all the titles and feeling in awe of the opportunities, the stories in which to get lost and to imagine other worlds and adventures. It was a candy store for the brain. I bought my friend two books and could have emptied the shop had I had the time. I can’t wait to return and to buy a few more.

Was it this escapism my father adored so much of books. I feel it was.

And the similarities did not stop there. The love of books made me think.

Of writing, well, lets just say what lay within me for many years waiting to be let out, finally has. Today I write like the wind as he did. I use a laptop thankfully, he used pen and paper and I still remember the pages under which he wrote. His penmanship so hard and firm and tight that he left an imprint three pages deep of everything he hand wrote, but so too does mine.

You see what strikes me as funny is that I have spent 40 years trying not to be my father and yet still I have turned out very much in his shadow..

I still have a better sense of humor I think, but I’m a perfectionist and can’t stand things that are not right. I’d prefer to walk away than to suffer something not as it should be.

He wrote, I write.

Fifteen books and counting actually in addition to millions of words in blogs and magazines articles every year.

He read. I read today like there’s no tomorrow.

He was the silent type, I love nothing more than being by myself and just watching life go by.

I have worked so hard to try and understand the man all these years that I have in fact had quite the learning experience myself. I have watched Apocolypse Now on DVD almost fifty times. Ten of those in French. to find what it was he needed to see. I think i get it now.

I have read much and watched much on the Second World War and I have learnt to read and write for my own living.

In the end , by learning about my father, I have learnt to be a better person. A better educated one and a more tolerant human being, one that sees both sides to many issues and writes about them.

I am not the man he was, but extremely close in many ways.

These are different times and thanks to him and my mother I had a happy child hood, not perhaps with him, but because of him.

He may not have been the teacher of all my lessons but through him and because of him I have learnt much. It has taken forty years to understand much of that , but I am glad now that I have and do.

If I could change the world and shift time and space and right the wrongs done to others I would clear history’s record and give my father and mother enjoyable childhoods, much like mine and my sisters.

We knew nothing but love and happiness from people who knew neither.

If evolution of happiness is to continue and the world become a better place, then it is I who must forward on this knowledge and gift it to a son or daughter of my own so that they lead a better more fulfilled life, leaving their legacy to the next generation and so on.

Parenting can not be easy.

My father certainly seemed to make it very hard, but in the end despite his silence, his emotionless manner and his lack of hugs, his psychosis , paranoia and rage , he created a child who found the answer to everything needed in life to make it a success.

I have been blessed with lessons good and bad and those I’ve had to seek to find.

And for that my father must be thanked.

To my father ,who’s life was never easy; you did good Dad and I love you so much for it.

Quote this !!!

2012-03-13T22:52:00.000+03:00

In my first career it was always better to share a recipe than to hang on to it. There were chefs before me and after my brief time in the kitchens, galleys and commissaries of the earth there will be others.

I rent the recipes for the decades I cook, I do not own them.

I also have no need for a thousand recipes for chocolate mousse when one perfect recipe does the job.

So SHARE and we all get to eat good mousse !!

As a writer I believe the same. Some times my words are eloquent, sometimes funny, sometimes thought provoking so why not share the best bits. I don't really know where they come from , the words just enter my head. The quote of yesterday which entered my head as I walked the boundaries of my pool, exercising was so true that I wanted to give it to the world for it is how I felt and do feel so often. Crying frees the mind and the fingers merely tap the thoughts onto paper, “Words flow on the back of tears.”, is just so true. So may times when the heart opens and the tears release , words flow like never before.

Here then as a way to share to all future writers are some of the best quotes from the blogs so far. Just like a good recipe all I ask is that you give me the credit of being the originator of the writing,

…quote James Claire (1969- ) thank you

“As humans we tend to overdo things; over work, over eat, over achieve, over act, over react, over think and over talk.

Sometimes we need to make others and even our children for their betterment in the future, understand that LESS IS MORE…

Sometimes if we do less….we achieve more!

If we speak less – we have less problems!

If we thought less – we’d have less stress and less paranoia !

If we decorated a plate less – we’d have food that was far more attractive !”

“You see those who joke that I’m going grey, do not realize that as a child I was a pure blonde haired cutie…I’m not going grey, I’m aging backwards and about to enter my second youth…”

“One planet, so many cultures and so many borders and I really would love to see them all, shake the hands of some one from every race and talk to someone from every country that inhabits the singular entity on which we all live..

Big task, small ask I feel.”

“Instead of running away, instead of considering my self as a nomad, a close friend actually put it all into perspective for me in a recent email

I keep saying that I’m running away …but he proposes that I’m not .

I’m coming home……..one country at a time.”

“True citizens of the planet, not of a country with borders. Our borders are the limits to which flight can take us off this rock and the limits of gravity and the atmosphere, not man made borders on its lands.

We have no need for a passport of a singular nationality, we detest being branded within the borders of any nation and we see no sense of multiple currencies.

In my country, Earth, we are all one.”

“What if… what we want is really the one thing we should never have desired at all ?

What if its all a con? Or a test ?”

“Is love a need or a want. Do we need love for survival or do we want it, only for our own self gratification, our selfishness of not wanting to live alone or do we need it for survival.”

“The two and three day weekend…. Life’s little orgasm for hard workers!”

“Our philosophy was, that in life what we “need” is not always what we “want”, and the same goes vice versa, what we “want” is not always what we “need”.”

“There was once, about 100 girlfriends ago, when I felt that I wanted to settle down and have a house for the future. I bought it, filled it with furniture and regretted it every day thereafter. For almost ten years all that furniture sat in storage. I eventually owned one of the most expensive sofas in the world thanks to that decade of wasted storage expenditure.”

“You see, there is more than “Needs” and “Wants”; there is also “Challenge”, the unstated human element .

You see , ask yourself the following questions;

Do you want to fall in love…not really !!

Do you need to fall in love…who says ..right ?

So why do we?

Partly it’s because of the challenge of it all. To see if we can in fact woo another party into our lives? To see IF we can live together? To see if we really make a couple or just two people cohabitating with each other?”

“Complacency is an easy evil to befriend. “Challenge” on the other hand, is a friend we should all seek out and find, to remind ourselves that we are infact “ALIVE”. Challenge in life heightens our senses and reminds us that we can indeed do anything that we desire.”

“A + X = Y

A equals Perfection plus X equalling flaws equate to Reality Y

whilst

A (Perfection) – X (Flaws) = Z (Fantasy)”

“One day..... you may desire to come back, when you finally feel that "bump" in your own highway of life, when the cosmos vibrates upon your soul disturbing the equilibrium of your previously placid existence.”

“All friendships have some benefits, secrets kept, things borrowed, others loaned and shoulders on which to cry.”

“You see, we are all the same!! No matter what we have, we all seem to want something else.”

“If you do not love yourself, if you are not comfortable in your own skin, if you can not look in the mirror and be proud and content, then how are you ever suppose to love another or be loved.”

“True love is to look past someone’s pitfalls and to see the beauty inside of the soul. That’s why perfect partners are often called “soul mates.”

“Stuck in the center of my own imploding universe until yesterday I was unable to see all of this.”

“I suffer now from what you might call, “Humpty Dumpty Syndrome”, no-one can ever put me back together again , after her.”

“Perhaps inside us all, we have only a certain number of words to express, once we have penned them, then we are done”.

“to have never fulfilled ones own desires of self , is to hate the self which is unfulfilled.”

“Perfection was this angels name. But as a friend wrote today on Facebook, "if you are not on the same page, perhaps its time to shut the book."

Well the Angels book has been closed and stored on the growing library of my life.”

“You can not make people love you. You can not make people believe you and it is pointless asking some one to stay when they have doubt.”

“Me… is sitting in an apartment 26 floors above reality looking out on a vision of blurry dreams.”

“Whoever made us, decides our fates.

It’s the days in between that are up to us.”

“All that I write about, actually happens or happened to me at one time or another.

The emotions are real, the tears are salted and the grief forlorn.”

“..Just because you love someone and are injected with a passion of a thousand suns for them, just because you can not breathe when they are not with you, just because when you are with them the world feels whole, complete and at peace, unless the other person feels the same, it means nothing toward the chance of a relationship.”

“I feel love, I feel loved therefore I say I love you.”

“You who question me, have never stood in the shoes from whence I see!”

“Music is not just entertainment value, it truly transcends our souls and the music we love, (it differs to us all) can elevate our lives, calm us, transport us to happiness or nirvana or chill us out when we need it the most.”

“Good music fills our ears with joy, great music sets our souls free among the clouds.”

“I know how fast a love can be gone, life extinguished, hearts broken. In these instances love can be taken within seconds. A blink of an eye can change your universe for a eternity.”

“Some times in life, when we meet the right person, the planets align, the sun shines brighter and our hearts open up and engulf our brains.”

“Words used correctly can leave a far deeper cut than any sharp edged blade.”

“When did I start understanding, “Quantitative Easing”?

Oh my god, How old am I ?”

“A healthy imagination is the basis for a life of achievements.”

“Success can be many things to many people. For me, it is to be able to write and be read. Full Stop.”

“What you feel is really what you are.......I feel happy, I feel strong and I feel satisfied, I feel love and adore to be loved and I do not feel scared to shed a tear in happiness or loss. In essence I simply feel comfortable about who I am.”

“What I am.....WHO I AM.....Is what I feel!

My cover may look like many other books, but the content is uniquely me.”

Quote of the day

2012-03-13T11:50:00.003+03:00

"WORDS FLOW ON THE BACK OF TEARS"

James Claire (March 13th 2012)

Its Funny How Things Affect US

2012-03-12T21:47:00.000+03:00

For weeks now I have met with friends and spoken to writing colleagues about my writers block.
I always have something to say but I had not been able to scribe recently. No, putting mind into gigabytes , the new version of pen to paper, I guess.
I even tried to motivate myself and others after a meeting with close friend and literary success Robin Barratt, and wrote on the BWC Facebook wall his suggestion, " that just 500 word a day written in my current novel would add 3500 words to the novel per week"... words, words words, I heard them but they did nothing, I could not even motivate myself.

So weeks have gone by and there have been no postings to blogs, no additions to books, all 3 non-fiction and all 6 fiction novels have all sat in the "man cave" just waiting...so have I.
I look at them every day, move them around the desk, flip through the printed pages, even occasionally open the laptop and click on the file...but then coffee needs to be made, MTV is playing something good on cable or a flicker of light outside the penthouse windows takes my attraction. Papers, books and files all get forgotten for another day.

Yesterday, I went to the monthly meeting of the Bahrain Writers Circle. For a hermit and nomad like me, it was the outing of the week. I hoped I'd get motivation for words, at worst I wanted to try to Gluten Free Muffins at the cafe we were meeting at .
The muffins were awesome.
During the evening we where given a piece of paper, it was a "motivational tool" they stated.
Internally I rolled my eyes,"thinking silently, it won't work-nothing does anymore"
I looked at it, the photo on the page, I folded it and tucked it away. The evening went on with speeches and talks and I came home and sat in front of the laptop. No words again.
Epic failure, except for the muffins.
Then of course I tried to go to sleep and all I could think of was the photo on the piece of paper we had been given, and old park bench, weather beaten and empty.
It looked so sad, it looked full of promise, it looked intriguing and slightly dangerous in a spy kind of way.
So at 3am this morning I went to the "Man cave"- (my office for the uninitiated), found the piece of paper from jeans pocket and finally read the words upon it
"this is a Writing Prompt"( 30 minutes of writing to get you in the mood) or story starter, for when you sit staring at the computer with nothing to write."
Under neath the photo of the forlorn bench it asked,

" Two people meet here every day. Who are they and why do they meet?"

The following are the words that filled my head for thirty minutes and were saved to the laptop at 3.35am this morning;

My wife and I once heard that it took twenty eight days for something to become a habit.

It was in relation to a diet she was hoping to start, I think. Perhaps one she desired me to start, I’m not sure now.

In any case we thought we’d test the limits to the theory before being so fool hardy as to start something as short term as a diet, and so after work for twenty eight evenings we met in the local park to discuss our day, to muse on life and to enjoy the early breathes of dusk and the deepening sighs of a day concluded. Talking and day discussed we would then walk home together hand in hand.

Over grown with reeds, weathered and in need of love; just like the two of us, our meeting place in the park was a pair of old weathered park benches.

The daily meeting ignited new life into our love for one another and after a while we forgot keeping track of the number of days that had passed, it indeed just became habitual.

We looked forward to meeting there, before walking home together. It gave us a meeting place free of the worlds trivialities.

It was neither home nor work, this was freedom and freedom ruled.

Rain, hail, shine; we met there.

No cell phones, no friends, just my wife and I and our thoughts.

If one was late the other would wait. No one would leave without the other, we always held the faith that the other would arrive, and we always did.

The benches were ours. A place to sit and talk freely, about life, our work, our fears, our hopes, our continued dreams.

On those park benches we found a freedom few couples ever have. At work we were professionals, at home we were husband and wife, on cell phones we were short and words were emotionless, but on those park benches we were friends, lovers, two people who adored one another; we told each other everything.

My wife has been gone now for more than ten years, and as they say, habits are hard to kick.

I still meet my wife on that park bench every afternoon after work. We laugh, we reminisce, we dream and she chastises me for things I have not lived up to and more often than not; I just cry.

Over grown with reeds, weathered and in need of love those park benches may be, but they hold so much beauty and to my wife and I, they are where love blooms eternal.

THE END

Sometimes, being a hermit is amazing. And then there are days I meet other people and learn things, like "writing prompts".
As you can tell words are flowing again, and for that I thank everyone.
I love the world of words, I love losing myself inside of a good story wether reading one or writing one and "I truly feel lost in life if I can't escape into unreality"... that last sentence is just begging me to take it and write a novel based upon it, and with that thought flowing through my brain, I know the words are back..
Thank you BWC and the creative juices that flow through you, your inspiration is appreciated.
See you again soon

WAIKIKI- I Love You

2012-02-13T04:39:00.000+03:00

I have been to Hawaii, well Honolulu , more than 7 times, I’m just not sure how many more. In the 90’s I spent time here marlin fishing, vacationing and just pure relaxing. Waikiki became my preferred place of rest.

But then something happened, like “LIFE” and I moved even further around the globe making Hawaii not the easiest of destinations for me to get to.

The magic of this place has never been lost upon me though and I have for years told friends that rather than going to Thailand they should venture to this island paradise of the South Pacific…for it has nicer beaches, clearer water, more English and a better family ambience and definitely less seedier characters.

Yesterday after a delay of fifteen years I returned to Waikiki.

I have stated before that in the chronology of one’s life there are date markers. Usually stamped upon our brains by tragedy, it is those afterall that usually leave the biggest impact and are remembered anyway. You know the kind of dates…where were you as 9/11 unfolded, where were you when MJ passed , Challenger disaster , Lady Di etc etc.

My life is full of them. My mother; a literal encyclopedia of them.

But all too often good and great times are rarely as impactful and remembered. A pity really as if you struggle there are some that you can remember, few so clear .

My return to Waikiki was different. It will be remembered for ever. It was one of those events you could just feel was a memory in the making. Perfect day, perfect company, perfect food, perfect beverages and an atmosphere of fun….it helped too that we chose prime real estate and parked ourselves their from lunch through dinner.

As the photos prove, our real estate was a viewing paradise and an imbibers dream. Waikiki has never been forgotten by my mind and now it sits firmly within my heart. I shall return, for longer vacations and partake of the sun, perfect white sand and crystal clear surf , the pools and long beaches and the ambience of this little stretch of heaven.

Perhaps next time I go for lunch though I’ll remember not to drink too much Sangria in the sun, especially 7 hours of it.

PERFECT NIGHTS

The dreaded Sangria in the sun....cant wait to have more!!

Waikiki…

"I LOVE YOU"

Perfection at every angle

Keeping it out of the Bedroom......

2012-01-26T06:11:00.001+03:00

There are some 530 phobias in the world and generalized fears are an individual thing and count in their infinity.

I fear very little in life. Phobias I have none. That’s not bravado speaking, just the simple truth. I have over the course of my life faced many scary moments, I even enjoyed a near death experience, bright lights and all. I’ve faced fears of the body, financial fears, emotional fears and fears for others. But none have had a lasting effect. I got over it all.

So its safe to say, that the only things left that truly can make me quake are the words “I’m Late”, and I don’t mean to dinner, or the words “we need to talk”, whether the latter comes from a girlfriend or a boss it does not need to matter.

Oh yeh and black ice on the streets of Toronto or Montreal. Everyone should always be scared of that stuff, it hurts like a real.. “$%^&^” when your butt hits the pavement thanks to that slippery devil.

Mr Twenty Something that works along side me , is tough, fit , uber-masculine and uber-fit . He is almost model material, so good looking is he. Girls can just not get enough of him and his gravity defying hair. He should be fearless.

I have long know that Mr Twenty Something fears love. Actually just those three little words. He is what most men believe that they ought to be. He is what most women think they want. Yet for some reason, Mr Twenty Something can not see that within himself.

When push comes to shove and the three words need to be spoken, he freezes. And yet another relationship slides away from Mr Perfect.

But hey, we are all allowed at least one foible aren’t we. A fear , a phobia.

So prior to the last Halloween I was sitting having a conversation with Mr Twenty and joking about how his costume for the coming Halloween party should be a love heart, due to his phobia of not being able to say “I love you”.

His face went dark and I was about to be shocked myself.

“That’s not a phobia, not like the others I have.”

“Others”

He continued,” Aren’t you afraid of the paranormal”, he asked with true fear in his eyes, “and what about needles at the hospital, they make me pass out”

I wasn’t sure for a moment if he was playing with me, so I had to ask with great concern ,”Are you f**&^ serious?”

“God yeh, this stuff is all out of our control.”

Now I grew up with Steven Speilbergs’, Poltergeist movie and I think it bothered me for a whole ten minutes out side of the movie theatre. But hey I was 10 years old, so cut me some slack.

Mr Twenty Something is close to a name change, that close to the big three zero is he. How could he be scared of ghosts and goblins.

Then I remembered, in my day, we actually had to go to the theatre to watch a movie, scary or otherwise. Mr T and his flat mate just bought large flat screen tv’s for their tiny apartment bed rooms. He now watches cinema standard movies from the comfort of his bed, and just prior to sleeping. Or trying to sleep, in his case.

In my day when we journeyed to the theatre, when it ended, we had to battle crowds to get out, we battled them again to find our cars, driving home, get changed, ready for bed and then go to sleep. Sometimes we had a meal in the middle.

So even though the movie freaked us out and we probably discussed it a few times over dinner or on the way home, fact was we got over it, before bed time.

Mr Twenty Something on the other hand, as masculine as he is, watches the flat screen at the end of his bed, turns off the scary movie when it gets too much for him to handle, rolls over ,and tries to sleep.

That in itself scares the hell out of me, on his behalf.

I read once that if you are having trouble sleeping then one thing you shouldn’t do, is to check your email before bed time. Seems most emails make your blood boil and thus keeps you awake after logging off the computer.

It is less the experience of ghostly and paranormal activity that scares Mr Twenty Something and others , as it is the fact that we bring it all too close to home. In this case, too close to our bedroom.

Most kids , have feared what lay under the darkened bed at night. Active or over active imaginations. Imagine then having cinema size flat screen Tv’s in your bedroom telling you something is under the bed, then trying to sleep?

That scares me to think about it.

As much as technology has advanced our lives, I am starting to see my parents words were smart, “No TV before bed-time”, seems a wise move now.

Imagine if we made children read a book before bedtime. Scary or not the active minds of children might actually do some good.

Keep the technology out the bedrooms and leave it in the living room where the living are.

Bed is for resting. Nothing should be less scary to us all.

CLOUD BUSTING

2011-11-21T07:44:00.000+03:00

Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.

Christopher Morley (US author 1890-1957)

I love my life at 35,000 feet, I now know why…it’s perhaps the closest I’ll ever get to the life of Jean luc Picard and James Tiberius Kirk et al.

Here in the stone cold silence of my home above the clouds I have lost the shackles that bind me, the ties that keep us emotionally bound…otherwise known as gravity.

Here in my space ship above the earth I am finally free…I’d live here forever if I could. I have never felt “at home” on earth and have travelled far and wide trying to find somewhere to settle down….perhaps the reason why is that instead of settling down…I should have always been looking to settle–up!

Up here!
Floating as we do in these amazing cigar tubes of the air, gives life some perspective as we drift in and out and between clouds.

Pretty, gorgeous, and just out of reach…puffy..magnficent, intangible and unable to be tamed or grasped, turbulent , rocky, full of destruction, floating, calming cooling….

Sounds like many of our relationships yet I discuss only clouds….and I think we could all name someone in our lives that has many of these characteristics…a cloudy person !!…

And that’s a little why clouds scare me..

You see, I’ve finally found the second most amazing person on the planet…after me that is!

And she really does “complete me”…..she dot’s all my “I’s” and she crosses all of life’s “t’s”, she truly is my north, my south my east my west….my morning sun and my midday rest !! ( borrowed words!)

But just like a cloud…I’m not sure how to hold her down?

To catch her and to entrap her within the confines of a relationship, will her perfection discipate as fast as the moist humid air that creates a cloud, if captured.

So many of my friends have relationships like that, many have divorced because the magic has dissolved faster than a cloud in the morning sun.

A reason I have remained single for so very long.

Fear of cloud busting!!!

But what if this is my cloud…Do I catch it or do I let it go?

I guess just like the creation of clouds I see at 35,000 feet, only God knows the answer to all these questions !!

Wouldn’t it be nice if he shared this little bud of information with me, with all of us really !

Just this one time before my head which is currently stuck in the clouds, descends back down to earth.

Life up here seems so justified, so right, so much ability is possible , I have freedom and emotions which just are never there on the surface of the planet. Up here, I have so much possibility in life, so many dreams seem real and achievable. Relationships up here don’t scare me, for we would both be free, both have no worries……

I guess that’s why life is so perfect on the Battle Star Gallactica, deep into outer space, gone for decades or with simply no home to return to…you are free… there is no need for banks accounts, mortgages, cars or insurances. You live for the team and the survival of it all… If you don’t succeed then either you won’t be going home or their will be nothing to go home to…. A simplistic existence.

So anyway… our plane decends yet again, the clouds once light and freeing, beautiful and resplendent have enshrouded us and toss us around to shake us up before the reality of life on earth begins again….

Again a relationship in the making…wondrous and romantic, before the shaking and enshrouding in fear and the final jolt back down to earth.

I’m off to email the second most amazing person on the planet and tell her how she makes me feel…she deserves to know before either of us decide to be a cloud ….and disappear !!

and May the God of your choice answer your prayers too.

FLYING MIDDLE CLASS !!!!

2011-10-31T12:49:00.000+03:00

This is a missed Blog entry folks, so please forgive the bounce back in time to early September and mentions of flights to Alaska.

O.M.G.I.C !!!!!!

Oh My God It’s Cold!!!

Today I flew from California to Alaska.

Two weeks back I flew from the Middle East where it was hot and humid.

I’ve hung out much of my time since in Los Angeles where it is warm and gorgeous.

This morning I touched down in Seattle where it was overcast and cool.

I have just ended my day arriving in Juneau, Alaska where it is HELL ALMIGHTY FREEZING.

My father used to say of temperatures warmer than this, that the cold goes though you to the bone!! Well my bones are close to brittle today ! !!

Making the impact of the cold weather tougher was my mode of transport to this den of frozen climactic conditions.

Decades of business and first class even Private jet travel ended today.

For today I flew….Middle Class !

What is that you ask?

Well , It’s when you’re on a plane so small that there is no designations such as first, business and cattle and the only way to describe the class that you find yourself in, on the aircraft is to take a good look at those seated on this tiny air bound cigar and summise their earning potential.

Today there were just eleven of us poor souls aboard this tiny tube with wings, and a rough guess at each person’s salary put their earning capabilities at around 120k per person before tax.

So you see. I flew Middle Class.

No Stars, no politicians, no excessively wealthy people just bumming it for the day. Just a group of eleven who make a menial, not major difference to anything in the world.

Had the plane gone down today in the Alaskan wilderness we would probably made page one of the Juneau Daily Herald, but I doubt that any of the rest of you would have been any the wiser to our fate. Our facebook pages would go un-updated, our emails unanswered and you would have thought us snobbish, but have no clue as to what had truly happened to us. The Alsakan eleven that is.

Anyway !!

Adventuring around the earth again I want to explain some of my global travels and the shift in priorities it has brought James Claire -new age tourist and middle age “tripulante”…

As I travel I am noticing differences in pilots and the teams they command in regards to air safety….

Middle East to LA the pilots are so assured of your safety..They barely speak English and so their messages are brief. Flight crew mumble a few words but the majority of talking is left to smart modern digital screens which inform you via animated cartoons of how to survive an “event”.

Flying from LA to Seattle , real people show real concern about the safety demonstration, they even put on real life jackets to show you what to do, in the case of an “Emergency” and treat us all like morons by actually clipping a belt and buckle together like we are 3 years olds who have never sat in a car seat.

From Seattle to Juneau sitting in the cramped cigar tube with eleven others, the pilot, whom we can actually see, turns and gives us all a smile and a wave.

Friendly character, his name is Roger (not that I really want to know the man who has my life in his hands, because by seeing him I can sum him up and it’s not a good thing for Roger. I suddenly wish I was back in the Middle East watching animated cartoon characters)

Instead of a smart digital presentation or scripted announcement Roger merely yells at us.

”It’s 2 degrees in Juneau, Buckle up folks, it’s a bit windy today.”

And then I believe he mumbled a “Hail Mary” and signed the cross.

And the stewardess, where was she???

Well she was outside kicking a couple of rocks from the tires and cranking the propellers for Roger and a little too busy to be bothered with something as mundane as a safety presentation.

After all, she could see what I could tell.

There were no notables on board today, no famous stars, no elite or massively wealthy travelers on her little plane who would make headlines and nothing but trees and mountain tops that we would barely clear.

On a day like today, what was the point with safety speeches.

Just buckle Up, sit back and pray like a crazed man.

2 degrees on arrival might not be desirable, but arrival right now, was the only thing any of us in Middle Class, where hoping for.

29.10.2011

As an addendum to this Blog entry, which was written at the beginning of a hellish few weeks of massive amounts of travel, I have to say that I am not so scared any more about air travel. It has its pains, such as customs, immigration and security issues but within the confines of an airport there is always a Starbucks somewhere and usually somewhere warm to sleep. In just three months of my new life, these are about the most important things in my day, coffee to stay awake, or sleep at any cost.

Besides, there is a bigger game at play these days.

It’s not so much about survival as much as it is about the accumulation of miles…..yes my friends…James Claire has the bug.,. Just like George Clooney’s character on Up In The Air, I too have found the modern world of Privilege Clubs, Frequent Flyer Mileage and Hotel Priority Membership.

IF IT DOES NOT GAIN YOU POINTS, THEN IT IS IRRELEVANT….

If only my editors paid me in mileage points by the word…mmmmh, now there’s a thought !!!

Till next time Adieu !!!

‘Gotta Love Working out of LA…..

2011-10-31T12:39:00.000+03:00

Had to suddenly fly from Thailand to Bahamas, but the master plan had a mission for me....

For those of you who do not enjoy or believe in the world of science fiction and the classics of Star Trek, Lost in space and BattleStar Gallactica, well my friends you are denying the inevitable to yourselves.

I just want you all to know that today, 30^th October 2011, I sat beside Admiral Adama of the Battle Star Gallactica. He was flying under his earth name of Edward James Almos, and I am not certain as to his earth bound mission , perhaps he is reviewing us for Caprican purposes? Anway just being in his presence is nothing short of amazing.

I’m not vain enough to ask someone for their autograph and I don’t own an IPod so photos are not possible, but you’ll just have to trust me. Adama was bumming it in Business class on an American Airlines flight to Miami this morning at 6am, and James Claire felt like a little kid for once, sitting beside his hero.

Now if I could just get a reason to fly to Hawaii and try to meet Grace Park filming Hawaii 5-0, then you may never hear from me again …..

James Claire Out….

Pattay Beach the day I left to fly to Bahamas

Anyone heading to Pattay should check out this thrid floor oasis of amazing food and clean environment called FOODWAVE...had a fantastic time and the food delicious.

Downtown Pattaya

LESS-ons !!

2011-10-28T17:54:00.000+03:00

A lady on a plane sitting in the wrong seat explaining herself….

An aged pastry chef over decorating a plate….

A man with hair that is prematurely greying…..

A passenger entering Korea with the incorrect paperwork….

What do all of these situations have in common…?????

Well………..LESS IS MORE !!!!!!!!!!!

The lady trying to explain her way out of being in the wrong seat should have spoken less, for the more she talked, the bigger hole of lies she dug for herself…

The pastry chef, had a basic and pleasant dessert, yet in over garnishing of the plate, made minutia of the basic dish and it was lost among the periphery of decoration….

The man with greying hair….was better off bald…less hair made him look modern and cutting edge and not old at all…

And the passenger entering Korea with the incorrect paperwork, realized that claiming ignorance and staying silent was a better way of getting through the situation than fighting a paper trail he did not possess…..

As humans we tend to overdo things, overwork, over eat, over achieve, over act, over react, over think and over talk.

Sometimes we need to make others and even our children for their betterment in the future, that LESS IS INDEED MORE…

Sometimes if we do less….we achieve more!

If we speak less – we have less problems!

If we thought less – we’d have less stress and less paranoia !

If we decorated a plate less – we’d have food that was far more attractive !

In no way am I purporting to laziness, or not doing a job at all, merely considering the consequences of our actions and realizing that the more one does in certain situations does not mean better things will come of it.

Consideration of ones actions before talking, acting, speaking rather than acting first and thinking later.

And as far as LESS-ons go….that’s all I’m going to say….

LESS IS MORE….think about it.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Street cooking,.....delicious

The amazing people of Vietnam with whom I spent some time this week....Less they have....happiness many of them had far more than my friends in more developed lands...proof yet again that Less CAN LEAD TO MORE....

Fishermen on a jetty north of the city of Phu My

A family make their income...cooking crispy pancakes

Young but entreprenerial and friendly to a bothersome western journalist

Break time ....and a coffee for us all

Stopping the Unstoppable.

2011-10-28T16:56:00.000+03:00

My life’s journey has held many spectacular moments on which I pull for literary material, but today held a first. Something that in forty-two years I have never done, never considered doing and until recently would have never really had the audacity to do.

I am comfortable in life. I have realized recently that I do not need to work as hard as before, for I have that which we all seek- Financial freedom.

Life has indeed been good to me. That and the fact that over 40, I really don’t possess the desire for financial gain as I once did in my teens. Then money meant everything. Today, money means little. I need no material objects, I do not need the flashiest car and I do not desire ornaments for the house, the body or life in general. I eat well when I dine out. I rarely drink to excess unless I’m at Trader Vics, and I invest wisely.

So comfortable I am, not just financially, but comfortable in mind and life as well.

So what was it that I did today that I had never done before in 42 years on Earth……….well……….…I stopped a Jumbo jet and got off after all where seated and the doors where closed…………..but that was not all……..and certainly not the pride of my month………………

The day got much better !!

Read on to find out the pinnacle of the day’s success..

Now those who have read a few of these blog entries will know that I am of no particular religious denomination….I am a modernist. I believe in a higher power. I do not believe in names, figures or statues….simply that some entity wiser than us - created all that we are and see.

The following joke offers a semblance of insight into my personal belief…and is one of my favorites…a flooding village, a man’s house is at risk and so he finds higher ground and stands upon a rock as the waters get higher. Another man on a mule passes by on even higher ground and offers the man assistance to safety, but he says,” I have always believed in God, God will save me, I do not need your assistance.”

The flood waters rise higher and the man stands upon his roof. A man in a canoe floats by and offers his assistance. The flood victim repeats his belief. ,” I have always believed in God, God will save me, I do not need your assistance.”

The floods grow higher. The man now stands waist deep upon his roof and a helicopter hovers overhead, offering help. The man waves them away and repeats his belief.

In the end the man drowned. Upon entering heaven he states to God at the Pearly Gates. “I have believed in you all my life and yet you let me drown”. What did I do wrong?”

God replies, “but my son, I sent you a man on a mule, a canoe and a helicopter, what more did you want from me?”

With that joke in mind, I bring you to today……

3am in Auckland New Zealand I enter the airport and am told upon check in that I do not have the correct paper work for entry into my destination, Korea.

There is not much one can do in the world at 3am, but I made a few phone calls, pleaded some more and called others again. Eventually albeit late for the flight, I got the paperwork required

Still one further hurdle to jump when they decided my luggage was too heavy and excess baggage charges would apply. A further delay while I pay the fee and finally head to the gate.

Hours later, I arrive in Sydney an hour late. The only hour I had between flights. Flight from Sydney to Seoul, had already boarded. I am rushed by buggy the miles it takes to get from one end of the airport to the other. Checked in and seated I am then informed that luggage will not join me. They inform me that once in Korea, I can launch an investigation and possibly have my luggage join me a few days from now. Current airline will not wait for the luggage as it is the first airline from New Zealand’s fault for the delay not thier’s.

And so I decide to get off the flight.

WHY?

It was not for the shirts and the shoes in my luggage. Anything of importance I always carry in hand luggage anyway. No, it was that joke I told before that made me get off the flight.

How many hints from God, must it take to learn I thought.

If today had been hassle free, then fine. I probably would have stayed seated. But I do not want to enter the Pearly Gates and have God say, “Come on, I refused you for the wrong Korean Visas, but you insisted. I charged you for excess luggage but you still flew. I delayed your flight so you missed your connection but you made it, and so I delayed your luggage, yet you still flew !!”

And that was why I got off the flight !!!!

And it felt amazing. To be the passenger on a full flight, to get up, grab your bags and watch the confusion on the faces of the air stewardesses and all others as I walked toward the door yelling for it to be opened so that I could get off!!

What was better though was the fact that as I walked to the top of the gangway, feeling it being retracted as I walked, and watching the plane pull back from its park. The airline staff found my luggage and confirmed that although it could not make the current flight, they would promise me that it would be on another carriers flight within 2 hours. Sadly I would not be, as this was the last flight for today to Seoul.

And so, thus began one of life’s most amazing experiences.

Despite the joke being the reason I got off the flight.

With luggage found and on its way, the joke would now be on me when I tried explaining to my bosses the double payment for a single ticket to Korea.

And so I though…..I had to fly.

In no uncertain words, I demanded the return of the aircraft to take me to Korea. Anxious moments ensued as a half dozen people made phone calls , and spoke on walkie talkies. Eventually I felt the gangway being deployed once again and could see the Jumbo 767 returning to the gate. When the doors opened, the faces of the flight staff was one of total shock. They could not believe what they saw, neither could I believe what I had seen.

Today I had stopped a Jumbo and made it return to pick me up.

Life just gets more amazing and proves that there is a higher power and who ever or what ever the entity, it cares for us.

Sometimes it is us who misunderstand the signals, sometimes we fail to see them and other times we fail to even look.

Anyway, I’m happy to state that both myself and my luggage arrived within an hour and half of each other in Seoul Korea and both of us made the connecting flight to Busan, Korea.

Right now. I am succumbing to the hellish 24 hours of travel and am putting head to pillow to finalize another piece of this most amazing adventure.

Today I stopped a jumbo jet and made it return to pick me up.

Tomorrow is Nagasaki Japan. By the end of the week I’ll be in Shanghai China and by weeks end I’ll be in Hong Kong having had a week of laughter and fun with some new friends.

Sleep well my friends. !! Anything is possible….tommorrow we’ll try again !!!

Entering Hong Kong harbour

The amazing Light show at night time along the Harbour front of Hong Kong

Amazing Hong Kong

Bora Bora, Pago Pago, Sunburn Sunburn

2011-10-05T13:34:00.000+03:00

Today was Pago Pago, US Samoan islands on our continued trek around the Pacific islands. Oh what heaven are we having as far as weather goes. Gorgeous sunshine, scintillating atmospheres and amazing people…oh yeh…and today…McDonalds Island Style…Oh hold me down !!!

Seriously, Pago Pago may be small, but as an island formed by a sunken volcano and with a port which is one of the deepest in the world due to it, it is truly an amazing place to sail in and out of.

Tonight is one hour set back due to our ever continued travelling against the time line….soon we will enter a totally new dimension…We have a 5^th October but then we enter the 7^th October some where in the world we miss the 6^th October as we jump the International Date Line.

I tried to work out how many times this has happened to me in the course of a 30 year travelling existence and I believe I have lost about 10 days in total…and not please do not try to explain that I get then back somewhere else…the fact is, the reason I look so devilishly youthful at the age of 42 is because I continue to travel and skip days.

Now if I could just be sailing in this region on the 26^th March every year and jump instantly to the 28^th March, I would have in effect jumped an entire birthday and hence skipped a full year, plummeting me back into my youth even further than I seem to be heading now.

You see those who joke that im going grey, do not realize that as a child I was a pure blonde haired cutie…Im not going grey, im aging backwards and about to enter my second youth…

I have finally found the fountain of eternal youth and it’s not a place but a system…of travelling in only one direction around our planet and not the other.

I’m off to settle down my Pago Pago, Sunburn Sunburn before my skin ages prematurely . Last thing this great hulking boyish body needs is a patch of sundried leather.

Good Night Good Night to all, to all from Pago Pago

Next stop Suva, Fiji …does life get any better folks !!!!

View from McDonalds, Pago Pago 2011

Mode of transport

A house of prayer for the lucky life we lead

ONE WORLD…No More Running !!

2011-10-02T03:22:00.000+03:00

Part of what gives me the words that I so lovingly adore to scribe onto these pages for all to read, is that I have traveled.

Traveled more than most in fact. Even a close friend who is a stewardess for a major airline, would have a hard time counting as many countries into her life diary as myself.

Yesterday as I touched down on Tahitian shores, I hit my 80^th country on which my feet have stood.

And as with the seventy-nine before her, Tahiti filled my heart with peace.

A feeling that I was home.

I was born in Australia, many many years ago.

I left school at 13, left home at 17 and left my country of birth at 18.

Since that day and perhaps even before, I never felt like I belonged anywhere.

I had amazing parents, I had a wonderful loving childhood and have been blessed with a sensational career, simply put, I never felt like I was born to the right country and there are times I feel I was even born before or perhaps after the period in which I was destined to have lived.

Wrong time, wrong place has lead me to run away, constantly as I have put it to many of my friends.

I try to settle, to find a permanent base, and yet after a very short period of time, I up and run… one more time.

One planet, so many cultures and so many borders and I really would love to see them all, shake the hands of some one from every race and talk to someone from every country that inhabits the singular entity on which we all live..

Big task, but small ask I feel.

We never ask to be born here, so why not make the absolute most of it once you realize that your career has succeeded enough to give you both the finances and the wings on which to travel.

Hitting mile markers in age make it a requirement to try and re-adjust my thinking. That and the soft sands of Bora Bora today…No this is not country 81… I have been here twice before.

But I’m aging, fast…and this continued travel makes me wonder if I will ever settle down, find a family to adopt me or even have one of my own.

But here’s the paradox in which today I find myself…I sit on the sands of Bora Bora, swim in her seas and relate to the people today , shop in her stores like I have been here for years and chat to the locals as if they are friends…

It is as if I have lived here forever…

I’m comfortable here, in fact everywhere I go I am comfortable.

I interact with every culture with ease. From Peru to Papeete, Russia, Japan, the Middle East- wherever I don’t mind war zones or fighting, I don’t take sides, but actually can see both sides of the coin in most arguments.

Instead of running away, instead of considering my self as a nomad, a close friend actually put it all into perspective for me in a recent email

I keep saying that I’m running away …but he proposes that I’m not .

I’m not running away.

I’m coming home……..one country at a time.

As industry has generated the need for globalization, as the Eurozone pulled down its borders, as the world shrank due to air travel for all of us….

So perhaps this has all given birth to a newer era of humanity. Once we discussed the Baby Boomers , Generation X and the Y Generation, well perhaps this is the first of the Earth Generation . True citizens of the planet, not of a country with borders. Our borders are the limits to which flight can take us off this rock and the limits of gravity and the atmophere, not man made borders on its lands.

We have no need for a passport of a singular nationality, we detest being branded within the borders of any nation and we see no sense of multiple currencies.

In my country, Earth, we are all one.

I wish we could all live with the same thoughts.

I love you all and you all return that love no matter where I travel. When I visit or come to stay , I feel like I am welcomed home.

And so, no more running.
I’m simply coming to visit everyone, one family at a time…my family, everyone of you.

Love you all , see you all soon…or eventually.

James Claire arriving in BORA BORA by tender...1.10.2011

If I ever have a honeymoon, this is the sanctuary I will reside in...Absolute heaven with soft golden sands !!

SILENCE IS GOLDEN

2011-10-01T03:50:00.000+03:00

Hello my friends…James returns today with a vengeance. Look forward to several postings very quickly…

Today I am in Tahiti…Yep..in the South Pacific…

AHHH Heaven !!..Warm breezes, golden sands and crystal clear waters.

I have been silent for some time now…too long actually..I have traveled far and wide and silence..so they say “is Golden”.. but for me it is also a demon I do not sleep well with.

Silence my friends. Makes my mind work in overdrive and I when that happens every speck of life is shown to me in absolute clarity.

Good and bad. Things we miss in day to day life as we rush through our normal everyday existence without a momentary silence for ourselves, come down the pipe line to me in screaming visions, whereby a single word can be plucked from the air and lead to a thousand more within the silence spaces between my ears.

World of silence is a noisy world inside my mind.

Yesterday it was an eight and half hour flight to Papeete, Tahiti and too many movies on the inflight entertainment which I had already watched that brought about this accumulation of silence. I had also slept during the hours leading up to my departure from LA , something I rarely do prior to flights, this time.. relaxation won the fight, sleep the prize, a long flight of silence and solitude the reward.

So what has this silence brought about…

Well !! the ultimate current question…something that really never dawned upon me before on a global scale.. and here it is.

And it comes off the back of the last column on needs , wants and challenges..

but I have thought more about it and in the context of my own life and some of human history….here is that question!

What if… what we want is really the one thing we should never have desired at all ?

What if its all a con? Or a test ?

You see I’m a lover.. A lover of Science Fiction for one…I and many millions of people on the planet would love to see our attempts for alien communication come to fruition. We want to find ET and know that we are not alone in this universe. But what if ET is not friendly? What if there are multiple species also looking for us only to wipe us out upon their success? What if a single microbe from another planet wipes us out through disease or infection?

I am also a lover of women…so far they have all broken my heart. Some more than others. One in particular, written about at length truly shattered it with her heartlessness and self importance?.I wanted the relationship so bad I let her into the depths of my soul, she trod on my dignity and my self respect and taught me many lessons that will stay with me for the remainder of my days!

I love food too…but that has lead to pounds and kilos I could well do without.

What if we want a new job as we have staled in the last, only to find that the new job offers the same boredoms or complications. The grass is NOT always greener on the other side of the fence.

I love the stock market and I recently got insatiably caught up on a sure bet. I wanted to prove the market wrong on something I was certain, as where others . It was going to change our futures from tomorrow onward.. Yesterday there was an announcement of an SEC investigation into our stock and as they say..that was the end of that.. A sure thing, simply became a sure loss!

So perhaps “wants” are the desires of the devil.

What we want…is really what we should turn quickly away from and run as fast as we can. Perhaps the “needs” are the only things we should cherish.

Love comes in numerous forms, I have highlighted a few above.

But is love a need or a want. Do we need love for survival or do we want it, only for our own self gratification, our selfishness of not wanting to live alone or do we need it for survival.

Seems to me, that with such an explosive overpopulation on our tiny planet, troubles feeding the masses, wars, corruption and the survival of our own species is going to soon bring everything into question for us all on this subject.

Perhaps the only thing I should love from now on is the silence…it brings clarity and questions and silence means being far from the madding crowds…a bit like right now…sitting on the soft white sands of Papeete, Tahiti, with the crystal clear waters lapping my toes as I write this.

Silence abounds, well except for a few gulls and an albatross or two.

Anyway silence may not be golden, but these beaches sure are, I’m off the swim in this idyllic paradise and contemplate some more.

What Happened to Moving Forward !

2011-09-13T07:16:00.000+03:00

Some days it feels like this planet is moving one step forward and five steps backward.

As a youth we watched such forward thinking series as Logans Run, Buck Rogers and Battlestar Gallactica, Star Trek, Star Wars and Lost In Space (all the original series).

Along with those there were the original reality shows such as Beyond 2000 and the science shows of the time. They were amazing and pretty much said that the USA was ahead of the curve in everything on earth.

Back then in the early 80’s the United States of America truly was the Super Power of the planet.

We looked up to them in all things motor vehicle, all things hotel and all things modern and futuristic.

W.T.F.!!!

And W.H.P.?

What Happened People?

Is it me or is the USA now several decades behind everyone else. I mean we know that their dollar has slipped back in to the 1970’s compared to other currencies but seriously, why does it have to be the only country on the planet that still uses miles instead of kilometres, pound s and ounces instead of kilograms and grams and why can’t they accept that we all use Celsius as a measurement for temperature instead of the antiquated Fahrenheit scale.

Come on…

Get with the game people.

We live on ONE planet, yet some of us call a spade a spade but the USA has to call it a shovel…!

Why can’t we just agree on a singular temperature scale, a solitary unit system for measurement and so on.

I don’t care about your currency systems, keep them. The US Dollar isn’t worth that much these days anyway.

The EU and the Euro have proven the flaws in that ideal of going to singular currency units for groups of countriess. The fact is Euros may become more valuable one day because they simply may not exist very shortly if any more of the EU countries file bankruptcy.

Sadly though it’s more than weights, more than temperature scales that are missing in the modern USA

I grew up working in the antipodean isles for a US based Hotel chain. We strictly had to observe a code of conduct as designated to us from the corporates in Head Office a billion miles away from our own country. And we were scared to change anything. Five Star hotels worked hard to maintain their ratings and we had such policies as never letting a phone ring more than 3 times, anywhere, anytime, any department. We were even told the words to say upon picking up that phone and the way to handle all customers, via phone, on the fly and face to face from front desk to back of house.

I have just stayed in “Wysteria Lane” at a top rated and not inexpensive 5 star hotel chain and let me tell you, they certainly did not have the same rating system we had down under.

Upon arrival, room key cards did not work, they did not work the following day either, or the day after that. Bed sheets had been left by the housemaid on the television, not on the bed? I’m not even sure in the end of she changed them or not.

I tried calling my colleagues in another room, the system put me through to the front desk, the front desk operator who did not answer the first four times, eventually told me it’s not their job to take messages and put me through to the in room message system which, you guessed it, put me back through to front desk.

After 25 minutes I gave up and did not care if my colleagues met me or not.

Perhaps I had a bad week and the hotel had a worse one. But something tells me not. Laundry returned to me was first sent to the wrong room, hotel charges included movies I had never watched and on check out everyone lined up waiting for tips.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME PEOPLE !!!

Tips in my country are for service !!!

Not for your existence only on my point of exit, as I load the bags into the car myself!!!

What happened to the super power who had all the answers and possessed all the standards which everybody else aimed for.

Perhaps with call centers and manufacturing they also sent Common Sense and Professionalism off shore years ago as well.

It’s a real pity .
I guess Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica now have to be made in China with Chinese actors, they seem to be the smartest people of our time and maybe that’s where our future lay.

Instead of Cisco, Janeway and Captain James Tiberius Kirk at the helm of the Enterprise it should have been Juan Hung Lo and his Chinese counterparts.

Let’s get back to the quality standards we set our selves before and let’s get the planet on one line of thinking for all things.

And please don’t think that I’m bashing America, I just don’t see the sense in double standards for one tiny planet. None of us can agree on religion or politics that I understand, but seriously why can’t we just agree on grams, kilometres and Celsius.
We are one people , on a singular planet, why must their be multiple answers for the same questions to confuse matters.

It’s bad enough I keep driving on the wrong side of the road.

Live long and prosper folks.

Life’s Little Orgasm for Hard Workers

2011-09-11T20:42:00.000+03:00

O.M.G.

OH MY GOD !!…

I’ve been missing out on something for so long ......and not one of my friends has explained the realities of life to me…Not one of them !

We jokingly referred to it over lunches among the Musketeers but none of us had really experienced it for a long time as we all lived within the confines of the life Bahrain had given us. Few of my local friends could have ever explained it either, many of them had relegated their lives to the Middle East and had lived in the same manner as we did.

But now I’m living a different life for a period of time and these past few days I experienced something more enjoyable than an orgasm….

A two and three day weekend!

If you live in the Western World….right now you have NO IDEA of the joy I’m experiencing.

But for those friends who I left behind in the dessert oasis we call home, let me explain my joy.

First of all the Corporate culture has kidded themselves into believing that they should do something for the environment, being such good people that we are here in Wysteria Lane.

So despite the fact they all drive oversized behemoths of vehicles that chug back gas(petrol) like a thirsty camel, they decided a while back to introduce what is known as a 9/80.

This refers to a 9 day working fortnight (two weeks) whereby you work one hour extra a day and thus by working SO HARD.. and doing 80 hours faster, you do not need to transit in your vehicle on the tenth day…and of course this saves the environment so much carbon emissions that you have not only gained a 3 day weekend but also saved the planet.

What amazing people.!! (despite the fact everyone this weekend is driving to Santa Monica for the beach which is actually 30 minutes further than work and then the same trip back- the cynic in me fails to see the environment enjoying the difference?)

And does this additional time make everyone more work conscious and more productive? Hell no…!

You see obviously everyone can not take their 9/80 or additional day off on the same day, otherwise the office would be unmanned. So there are heavy days of absences and light ones. I enjoyed the heavy one yesterday when the majority where off and the skeleton crew worked. Well let me use that term lightly.

You see there where so few people there, we could not get the answers to anything we needed , emails went unanswered and unsent and we eventually left early because there was no-one left to worry if we stayed longer or not.

So the fact is, the people on the light days are enjoying an 8 ½ day fortnight.

Many of you in the outside world may enjoy similar lives.

But my closest friends and I have worked ten days out of twelve fortnight for so long and many of us where even lucky then to even get a singular day off some months. Our particular industry is unrelenting. I have not myself had a two day weekend since the early nineties let alone a three day one.

The two and three day weekend…. Life’s little orgasm for hard workers!

I love corporations and am glad I finally found this existence.

I am a new man. A happy man, and today I am busier….Seriously… I gotta get ready to go to Santa Monica beach, go swimming, have a dinner party tonight at the Vice President of Marketing’s house and tomorrow, well I’ll just kick back and have a long sleep in ……..then contemplate more fun things to do.

I can’t wait to go back to work on Monday and tell everyone how amazing this is…

Needs Versus Wants Versus Everything else !!

2011-09-10T18:04:00.000+03:00

Among my previous life with the Four Musketeers, we had one of the team who “wanted” things… all the time !!! But he did not particularly “need” them.

Part of the problem was his new found singular status after a decade of marriage the other was well, we guessed an early onset of mid life crisis !!

My brother, “Porthos” the red haired Musketeer, and I, Aramis (the chubby debonaire Musketeer) would often discuss the subject of needs versus wants, as we watch our friend, D’Artagnan’s life unravel with every dollar spent.

It gets complicated to discuss but pretty much our philosophy was, that in life what we “need” is not always what we “want”, and the same goes vice versa, what we “want” is not always what we “need”.

Okay so that’s simplistic and understated and I’m not just talking about materialistic objects such as laptops and motor bikes and expensive holidays etc. Each of us could definitely put a strong case forward that we really “wanted” something, but the truth is we rarely do truly “need” it.

I have traveled far and wide myself. There was once, about 100 girlfriends ago, when I felt that I wanted to settle down and have a house for the future. I bought it, filled it with furniture and regretted it every day thereafter. For almost ten years all that furniture sat in storage. I eventually owned one of the most expensive sofas in the world thanks to that decade of wasted storage expenditure.

What I realized then was I “need” very little in my transient lifestyle. I have no “need” or “want” really for expensive furnishings or lavish lifestyles, because I’ll be the first to tell you…I won’t be here long enough to enjoy any of it.

But it’s not even about travel or eventual demise, its really just that I don’t desire to spend hard earnt salary on materialistic objects. You just can not take this stuff with you so why collect it all.

Unless of course you are Tutekhamun !! Now that was quite the collection.

Anyway, I digress yet again.

My reference here is about more than furnishings.

It’s about love, jobs and everything in between.

You see, there is more than “Needs” and “Wants”; there is also “Challenge”, the unstated human element .

You see , ask yourself the following questions;

Do you want to fall in love…not really !!

Do you need to fall in love…who says ..right ?

So why do we?

And then there’s work ?

Did we ever want to change jobs…. not really!

Did we ever need to change jobs…. Not at all!!

So why!

It was because of the challenge.

The challenge inside of us to prove to self that we still have it ,within us , to do it. To seek a higher plane of understanding and to prove that we’re not that old yet and still can mix it with the young guns of our industry.

Complacency is an easy evil to befriend. “Challenge” on the other hand, is a friend we should all seek out and find, to remind ourselves that we are infact “ALIVE”. Challenge in life heightens our senses and reminds us that we can indeed do anything that we desire.

You may not “Need” to be out of your depth, you may feel that you do not “want” it either.

But let me tell you from experience; to “challenge” yourself, is to find yourself. To awaken that fire that burns within, that flickered close to going out for sometime, and it reminds you, who is truly important to you in the world……….YOU ARE !!!

Live long my friends, Prosper and go get ‘em …

I challenge you !!

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