This not an April Fool

Having been stuck in doors for not very long, what is it eight days, I have been spending most of my time writing. Yesterday I published my book THE LOTTERY OF EVIL, I wrote it in time I have been in lock down.

I do not some how think it is going to make me an Amazon Millionaire but who knows.

Yesterday was the last day of the month from which Amazon kindly sent me details of my best sellers. I doubt you are remotely interested but can I tell you what  they  are ? Then I would like to share tow important things about these books.

My best seller for March was THE STORY OF A TEENAGE ENTREPRENEUR (FAILED) - my teenage autobiography.  Set in 1967 to 1969 I wish I was back there having the fun I did all over again. I originally published that book on 11th April 2017.

In second place is something I published five weeks ago. THE RAMBLINGS OF A SILLY OLD MAN.   I really  had a lot  of fun writing that, very pleased that in its first month it made it into my personal best selling list.

Next comes my war novel THE DIARY OF BILLY HARDCASTLE. That was originally published on 22nd February 2017.  It is set in and around Bletchley Park where I lived for three years in the early 1970's not as  a spy but as a student in a teacher training college which was located there.

In fourth place is THE WILD ADVENTURES OF DI CENTRAL EATING. I love this book. I am forever explaining that while this could be read by a child aged around 11 to 13 it is more an adult's view on a child's life. Every adventure while fiction is based on something from my own childhood. I originally wrote that book in 1993 with it first appearing on Amazon in March 2017.

Down to position five we have THE CASE FILES OF DAVE McDERMOTT. My first attempt at writing crime fiction.  My latest book THE LOTTERY OF EVIL is another case for Detective Chief Inspector David McDermott take on his most challenging case yet.

Finally, in last place is FANTASIES OF A GERIATRIC DJ. In last place yes but I only published that book on 22nd March !

I have fourteen books on Amazon. NO I am not writing this blog page simply to have an ego trip, if I was doing that then I would be telling you how many thousands of pounds I have made. I am too embarrassed to share with you how many decimal places I have had to use to get down to my earnings. I am sharing this information for TWO reasons.

FIRSTLY as we all go stir crazy in this lock down I have gone from working 12+ hours a day to zero. writing is all I can do. Can I encourage you to help maintain your sanity by writing your own blog.  If you do start writing tell me so I can read what you have to say.

When this nightmare is over I plan to edit my blog pages and publish it as ESCAPE FROM ARMAGEDDON.

All of my social care projects are on hold. I was spending around £100 a week from my own pocket to fund these. I am not needing to fund the projects right now but when normality returns and projects start coming on-line there will be significant costs. I have always funded things from my own pockets, selling books is my way of funding our activities.  These books can be purchased as e-books from between 99p and £1.99. Royalties are 70p

all of which will be spent helping others.

I am thinking how TWO projects can restart within the next few days, restart in the middle of this crisis. I will share my thinking within the next few days.

OK - I'll leave it there for today - HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY - speak again tomorrow,

Anti-social behaviour

TUESDAY 31st MARCH 2020

I do not drink myself, I used to but stopped when I learned to drive way back in 1977. As I write today I hope I am not showing prejudice.

Taking Jake for his early morning walk I have noticed a number of empty beer cans tossed along the way.  Who is responsible for these ?

Yesterday I went out to help support a friend who is vulnerable. Leaving home at around 3pm I thought there was far more traffic on the road than there should be. If we are in lock down then who are these people in their cars ?  Nearing Central Milton Keynes, however, the roads and the streets were deserted.

Having helped my friends I drove to my local post office to buy a book of stamps. There was a line of people waiting their turn to get into a Tesco Express. No matter how hungry, no matter how much I needed something to eat I would not have joined that small queue. There were two men who were obviously drunk. They were being loud and while not threatening it would not have been good to be near them.

Coming out of Tesco I saw one man with two white plastic bags, both were overflowing with cans and bottles of alcohol.  It has been a few days now since I was shopping myself in Morrisons but several of those I saw in the supermarket with me had an excess of beer and spirits in their trolleys.

Like I say, I do not drink so I may be displaying prejudice here but is alcohol classed as essential supplies ?

Something this lock down is going to increase is domestic violence. That is obvious isn't it. But behind closed doors will we be aware of what is going on ? Will alcohol have a role in this ?

The drug trade in Milton Keynes is still operating, I can tell you that for sure. It is now a case of home delivery rather than cash and collect.

I may be chairman of our local police community forum but right now I am chairman in name only.  All the grand ideas I had are on hold, I hope they can be brought back towards the end of the year.  The forum has identified its three major areas of concern to the police. I do not fully agree with them but they are:

• Drug crime
• Knife crime
• Ant-social behaviour

They are related but I am not sure they are the three priorities for the community to offer to our police.

I am told that alcohol is a greater issue than Class A Drugs. It is more difficult to control and harder for an alcoholic to recover than for a drug addict to get clean.

It is clear that both lead to anti-social behaviour. Those beer cans on the street, those men standing outside Tesco. There have been reports of people abusing, spitting at essential workers. Anti-social behaviour in my book and I suspect alcohol induced.

At the last meeting of the community forum we discussed how cars on driveways were being targeted in the small hours of the morning with their contents being stolen.  No evidence but I suspect stolen to fund drug addiction.  Could  it also be to help pay for alcohol ?

Cigarettes. Yes, I tried smoking when I was a teenager and am so grateful that I did not like it. My friends all smoked. At college my friends smoked. In work my friends all smoked. Now many of my friends smoke. With the present emergency this may not happen but the government was planning later this year to ban rolling tobacco. If that is going to happen would we not be simply adding another product to the portfolio of a drug dealer ?

A couple of months ago I was talking to a very heavy drug user. What he said made so much sense. Within our conversation he said people get into drugs because they perceive it to be cool.  If society could remove this element from drug addiction then new addicts would not sign up.

Could the same be said, could the same be applied to alcohol ?  I was drinking alcohol by the age of fifteen, by the age of sixteen I was to be found many evenings a week in the pub. It was cool.  It was also cool to smoke but I did not like the taste. My mates definitely thought I was un-cool because I did not smoke.

Drugs and alcohol lead to anti-social behaviour and petty crime.

I do not understand alcoholism but I do understand the drug trade and addiction. A drug addict begins as a victim, he/she is not a bad person.  As the addiction takes hold petty crime enters the addiction, call it anti-social behaviour if you like. To my way of thinking the perpetrator of this petty-crime/anti-social behaviour is still a victim.  When does he stop being a victim and become a hardened criminal ?  I have been quoted so many times saying that until there is a far better understanding within society when it comes to the victim the drug problem will never be solved. Same in other areas ?

I am not here really talking about drugs and I confess I do not understand alcohol but yesterday and when I take Jake for his daily walk I witnessed things we really do not want in society. My fear is this lock down will not be good for those who use alcohol. I hope I am proved to be wrong.

Stay Safe - Stay Sane

MONDAY 30th MARCH 2020

I have been looking at the various news websites trying to find the death toll for yesterday but have been unable to locate anything.  I have decided to stop looking !  Every figure is a real person, every figure has a grieving family, every figure will not be afforded the dignity of a proper funeral.

Speaking with my Dad on the phone yesterday he asked me if I knew anyone with the virus, I do not. For how long will that situation remain the same ?

The government is talking about some form of lock down continuing until October !

Each morning Maureen and I have been taking Little Doggie Jake out for an early walk. Yesterday we did not see another person, we did not see a single car moving on the road. Beyond that we have all been staying indoors.

YES, I do feel safe and now and I do not want to go outside. I do not want to go to the shops. I do not want to see anyone. I am adapting to this new way of life. Staying safe, I believe, is sorted. However, staying sane is possibly different.

I have been trying to post a few things on Facebook to help people smile and to help their sanity be firmly on the right side of normal. We had a good bit of fun yesterday as people responded to my posting pictures from when I was a small boy, inviting them to post images of their childhood. That was fun.  Today I am going to publish the first ever picture taken of me, I am about a week old and being held by my grandmother.

Were Nan still alive she would be 130 years old. Yesterday a man by the name of Tom celebrated his 112th birthday. Before the studio shut down the last show I broadcast was two hours of music to celebrate Vera Lynn's 103rd birthday.

Yesterday I wrote more and more for my latest book THE LOTTERY OF EVIL. I have another 500 or so words to type up today.  I really want to finish the story today. Then comes the boring bit !  Checking the draft, trying to eliminate the typo's and doing a bit of a rewrite.

Yesterday I sold 11 of my books on Amazon. I wonder what today will bring. As well as writing to preserve my own sanity in these strange times I want to encourage others to keep their own diaries, to write stories and occupy themselves. Writing this daily blog, yes it is for my own sanity but I am hoping others will pick up on the idea to write themselves. I am not getting the biggest readership !

FRIDAY 27^th March – 9 readers

SATURDAY 28^th March - 7 readers

SUNDAY 29th March - 8 readers

Hardly a best seller.

I want today, as well as finishing my current book to publish a new website. The Geriatric DJ site is till there but with all of The Sunshine Smile Crew projects on hold and my no longer playing music on the radio it really is not doing anything ! I am working on a new website Max Robinson Writer. If it sells some of my books then great but what would be very, very special is if my writing inspires others to write.

Yesterday my granddaughters telephoned me. I have decided when this current book is published I am going to work on a book written for them.  I am going to pick up on the idea to write THE LONELY GHOST and to build Katherine and Frances into the story.  I will e-mail them pictures, ask them to illustrate my words, e-mail the pictures to me and then together write the book.

The community writing project DOWN AND OUT IN MILTON DREAMS is on hold but I have ideas to bring it back and make it something positive in the crisis.  Let me think about that today then I will share it tomorrow.

STAY SAFE - STAY SANE

 

It isn't good being old !

SUNDAY 29th March 2020:

How old are you ?  How old am I ?

I fantasise that I am nineteen, I would be happy if I were somewhere between the ages of thirty and forty. People flatter me saying that I look to be around forty-five. The truth is I will be seventy years old in November. Right now it is not good to be old !

In the present pandemic I am considered vulnerable because I am older !

The Beatles released When I'm Sixty-Four on the album Sergeant Pepper in 1967. I was sixteen back then and could not possibly imagine what it would be like to be sixty-four. No way !  Now I would give anything to be sixty-four again.

The death toll has rocketed in Britain over the past twenty-four hours, seven people have now died in Milton Keynes Hospital. During the course of the coming week the Prime Minister is going to write to every home in the country outlining a tougher lock down.  I don't think I am going to catch Corona Virus even if I am in the "older" category. If I do then I do not think my age will automatically  send me off to shake hands with The Angel Of Death but I do not like being old.

As a kid I hated the dentist. I went from 1960 to 2016 without visiting the dentist !  You can calculate how long that is. In 2016 I embarked upon having a set of false upper teeth. My dentist messed it up !  The dentures do not fit properly, they are too small meaning my upper lip completely hides them and I can not smile. They are the wrong colour and a total mess !  When that failing dentist retired I went back to try and have things put right. Another failing dentist extracted my bottom teeth, that was last August.  MESS !  Here in late March my jaw is still not right. I have no teeth, it is difficult to eat, I can not smile and the whole thing makes me look old !

It is probably three years now, well almost, since I saw my GP.  I just have not been ill, Not bad for an old boy !

So I do not see how being old has anything to do with my present situation.

Old people are supposed to retire. Until this lock down came into force I was working a 12 to 14 hour day. OK, yes there were times when it got a bit on top of me but now I am just sitting about the house watching rubbish on television and writing. I am coping well with that but what is frightening me is that when this pandemic is over I will have slipped into a lifestyle where inactivity is normal and I will not want to return to my previous action packed days.

I am not old but I am scared I will soon be so.

When I was a child I used to have panic attacks, I never told anyone and nobody save myself knew about the attacks. My whole body was consumed with fear and panic as I contemplated death. I knew I was going to die, we all do at some time or but other the prospect of that event threw me youthful into panic. Now the prospect of that day does not bring any fear to me, none at all. When it happens it happens. The fear, the panic is not of the last day I have on Earth but spending however many days, weeks, months and years I have left being old.

When does a person become old ?

I remember on my 10th birthday my granddad telling me that I was now grown up as I was in double figures. These days adulthood comes at the age of 18, it used to be 21 years. I passed my 18th birthday without it being special but by the time I reached the all-important year of 21 the government had reduced the age of majority so that rite of passage in my life came and went without notice.  Thirty ?  I was too busy living life to notice.  Forty ?  My Dad said I would not enjoy my 40th birthday as it meant my youth was in the past. My 40th birthday came and went without notice. So did my 50th. We had a bit of a party for my 60th. 65 meant I could claim my pension - wow that was good so being an old age pensions was cool. Now I approach 70 OMG !

The number 7 has been a lucky number for me. I remember my 7th birthday, yes I can remember my party. 17 and I had escaped school, was in the world of work and having great fun as a teenager. 27 I got married. 27 - 47 - 57 - 67 good times.  70 and I have to apply for a new driving licence, I am not sure which I dread the most - being old or having to jump through the red tape hoops to apply.

Perhaps I should just skip being 70 and look forward to my 77th birthday !Please John, Paul, George and Ringo can you change your hit record to WHEN I'M SIXTY SEVEN !

Escape From Armageddon - Saturday 28th March 2020

SATURDAY 28th MARCH 2020

I first started writing an on-line blog in December 1996, this my 1,000th page. Over the years the blog has changed direction and style of content. Here as the entire world fights a global pandemic the like of which has never been seen in the history of mankind my 1,000th page becomes the second page of Escape From Armageddon.

ARMAGEDDON - the biblical end of the world. Are we facing the end of the world ?  Is the human species about to go the same way as the dinosaurs ?

As a young man, I may even still have been a teenager, I had an idea to write a book with the title Escape From Armageddon. It never happened but now I am writing this daily blog where Armageddon is not an overstatement, I just hope that Escape is the right way to describe how thing in our present situation will end.

My grandparent's generation was devastated by World War One - The Great War to end all wars.  What folly is contained in that statement !

My Mum's granddad served in the war to end all wars where he became hard of hearing as the constant explosions around him damaged his ears. He did escape from Armageddon. One of the few who did escape.

My paternal grandfather, my Dad's Dad, only partially escaped Armageddon. He contracted tuberculosis in the trenches of World War One so was discharged with honour from the army, he served in the South Staffordshire Regiment.

William married a munitions worker, Lily Bedson, who was billeted on his family in Aston Birmingham. Together they had three sons, when his illness overtook him and William died Lily was left to bring up three small children alone.

But Lily, though widowed, did have a husband. Many young women of her age were destined never to find love, there were just not enough men to go round. We used to call them maiden aunts, or for my generation - maiden great-aunts. Every family had them. They were born virgins and they died virgins. Twenty million people died in World War One, The Great War, the war to end all wars. Twenty million lives given to Escape Armageddon.

The escape was short lived. Twenty-five years later the world was at war again. In that war seventy-five million died in an attempt to Escape Armageddon. One of those was my Uncle Billy, the uncle I never knew. Twenty-one years into his life it came to an end on the night of 8th March 1945 when his Lancaster Bomber was shot down during a raid over Bremen in Germany.

My generation did not face the situation my father's and grandfather's did. My Dad and his friends went to school to prepare for fighting, and giving their lives for their country. We were not going to war but the threat of Armageddon was always with us. One day either The Soviet Union of Russia or The United States Of America would push the nuclear button and we would all enter Armageddon in a giant explosion.

At school I had a clear career path in my head and followed study towards examinations which would make that career path happen. If I had lived in America that would not have been the same, I would have gone to school simply to bide my time before serving my country in the folly of The Vietnam War. Figures for that Escape From Armageddon are not clear but are somewhere in the region of three million.

The fear of a nuclear holocaust my generation had to face never happened, we Escaped Armageddon. Add up all of these figures and we are talking NINETY EIGHT MILLION deaths. One and a half times the current UK population.  How many will die in this current global pandemic ?

I am now a granddad myself, I have four lovely young people in my family. I have feared in recent times that Adam, Ollie, Katherine and Frances would not live to see a world where they could themselves become grandparents, simply because my generation is working flat out to destroy it. Only a blind and deaf and totally stupid person could ignore climate change but ignore it the vast majority have been doing. It was as if they did not want to Escape from Armageddon but were saying BRING IT ON.  I understand that global warming has slowed down as the world faces the invisible enemy in the current war.

In these wars not a single family was untouched. That is not the situation here and now but will it be ?  When ?  Yesterday an addition 185 people died in Britain bringing the death toll to 769 and these are early days. Scientists predict a doubling of figures every two days. 14,543 people have now tested positive for the virus, that is up by 2,885 on the day. The Prime Minister has tested positive, The Health Secretary has tested positive. Their symptoms are mild and both are expected to recover but what about those who do not recover ?  Who in my family will enter this list of statistics ?  Who in your family will enter the list of statistics ?  Will I ?  Will you ?

Today is Saturday, Saturday means the lunch of love with Dreamsai for our homeless and rough-sleeping friends. It is not taking place. I am told that Milton Keynes Council has scooped up all of the rough-sleepers, including my friends, and isolated them in hotel rooms. A BBC News report yesterday explained that isolated means no food, no means to prepare food even if such was available. Among those self-isolated with hunger are my friends. 

Let's see what the next twenty-four hours bring.

How Are You Coping ?

FRIDAY 27th March 2020

How are you coping in this present situation ?  How many days is it since Britain went into the present lock down ? You know I am not sure: two, three, four days ? Are you coping ? I am not sure if I am.

I have gone from working 12+ hours a day to nothing. Last night I slept for eleven hours, when was the last time I slept for that long ?  Probably when I was a small baby.

I am a councillor but the council is closed down. I am chairman of the local police community forum but the police as too busy with operations to be concerned with meetings.  All of my community projects have closed. Music is at the centre of my life but now the studio is closed for the duration so The Geriatric DJ is on a sabbatical.  All I have left is my writing, writing to help maintain my sanity.

I boast that I am not a wimp so David aka The Geriatric DJ aka Max Robinson stop being a wimp ! Stop feeling sorry for yourself !  It was in December 2016 that I first started writing a blog, this is my 999th edition. Originally my intention was to collect something like 100 editions then publish it as The Diary Of A Silly Old Man. That never happened. Perhaps when we come out of this global crisis I may publish my current blog writing under the title ESCAPE FROM ARMAGEDDON. Perhaps. The important thing is that by writing a page each day it will help preserve my sanity. Perhaps as I publish it each day it will help others to preserve their sanity. It may even inspire some to write their own blogs.

So........................

The UK death toll now stands at 578, it went up from 475 yesterday. Within that number is the first person to die in prison. He was an 84 year old. For goodness sake what is an 84 year old doing in prison ?  OK, his identity has not been released so he could be a major criminal serving an extended sentence or could he be someone who has popped in and out of gaol all his life. Of all the broken systems in pre-virus society the justice system with a 85% re-offending rate this has to be the biggest failure.

Our Saturday lunch for the homeless rough-sleepers has been forced to close I keep wondering about my friends: Richard, Barry and so many others who had nothing more than a sleeping bag on the floor for their homes. Where are they now ?  How are they coping ?  Milton Keynes Council could not help them in normal times so what chance do they have  now ?  The more vulnerable you were the less help was available. The council's homeless prevention team should be re-named homeless encouragement and adult social care renamed adult social couldn't care less.

We used to live in a society where FAILURE was the norm.  I trust we do not return to that when this is all over, wouldn't it be great if society adopted the motto FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. 

I don't do religion, god and all that stuff, but I do believe in Destiny, I have had Madam Destiny tap me on my shoulder so many times in my life. Several of my books feature destiny steering the reader through the plot. What do you think ?  Has Destiny put Boris Johnson in charge of our nation ?  Isn't he doing a great job ?  Just imagine where we would be if Jeremy Corbyn had won last November's general election or that gobby cow who was the short-lived leader of the Liberal Democratic Party !  Rishi Sunak, isn't he doing a good job ?  He was only thrown into the job a few weeks ago, Did you know he is an Amazon Author ?  yes, he is.

He is in good company, I am an Amazon Author. I have fifteen titles currently available.  I write for pleasure, not to make money although before this crisis I was trying hard to promote my books in order to fund our projects working with vulnerable people. Promoting my books is also on hold for the duration of the crisis. That said I sold 17 yesterday, my best day this year was 19th March with 124. 

Primarily I write for personal pleasure, if someone reads what I have written then that is a bonus, if they enjoy what I have written then that is a double bonus. I have been writing since I was a teenager. In recent years there has been a motive within my writing, to encourage others to write. If what I write could inspire one person to write then that would be a bigger achievement than selling one thousand of my own books.

During World War II so many soldiers serving in the trenches wrote diaries and poems. You rereading this 999th edition of my blog, could I invite you to write a diary or blog and share how you are coping in this global pandemic, something the like of which the world has never before experienced ?  World War One ended one hundred and two years ago yet those writings from the trenches are still read today. Go on, start writing today. I am looking to my writing to help preserve my sanity and who knows, what I have written here and what you write today may be read in one hundred and two years time as history tries to imagine what we are all living through.

Time to start writing a new book

At the start of 2017 I put out a survey on social media asking people what their favourite style of reading was.  The overwhelming response was crime fiction.

I had never attempted that style of writing before but decided to give it a try. Within a few thousand words I found that I loved what my open was doing as it created the fictional character of Dave McDermott.

The first case I gave Detective McDermott to investigate was a serial killer in a story I titled ANGELS OF THE ANTICHRIST. I took my readers through the unique and at times enigmatic way of working which I planned to turn our hero into a modern-day Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot combined.

The second case I have to newly promoted Detective Sergeant McDermott was a kidnapping and simply titled it McDERMOTT'S NEXT CASE.

Deciding to make my book a trilogy so gave Dave McDermott his third case KRATH THE PORN STAR.

When I had finished writing the book THE CASE FILES OF DAVE McDERMOTT was

published in early March 2017 as an e-book on Amazon. Check it out, it will cost you the vast sum of 99p !

I was quite excited and waited for a production company to come along and snap up TV and film rights. Three years later I am still waiting.

In the years that followed, all three of them, I thought several times to challenge Dave McDermott, now promoted to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector, with a new case. This will be a strange, unique and baffling case which I am

now working on. I am going to call this case THE LOTTERY OF EVIL. I hope you will enjoy my new book and wonder who will solve the mystery first, you or Detective Chief Inspector Dave McDermott.

Go on - splash out 99p and read those first three cases of Decterive Dave. Remember, the royalties of 75% will be used within our help for homeless rough-sleepers. This is particularly important at this time.

Today I formally launched my latest book THE FANTASIES OF A GERIATRIC DJ and on my radio show this morning I gave listeners a quick run through the story as I played the music. The PODCAST is available if you want to CHECK IT OUT.

With the country in lock down I am filling my time, preventing boredom by writing. Why don't you give it a try ?

My Music = Your Music = Our Music

The Silly Old aka The Geriatric DJ will be hitting the world with an adapted style of radio show while we navigate our way through this global emergency.

Monday to Friday 6am to 8am on the fabulous INTERNATIONAL INTERNET MUSIC STATION CRMK I will be playing music right round the world to help people smile then for them to help others smile. Each morning I will get the podcast on-line as quickly as possible then invite you to share the music. 

Take my music, make it your music then share it and make it OUR music. Use our music to help others have something positive in their lives at this difficult times.

I am not sure what I am going to do on Friday but have written playlists for Monday to Thursday.

My latest e-book is going through the publication process with Amazon. It tells a semi-fictional story from the Rock and Roll years to modern day. The story is full of music, obviously. ON MONDAY I will tell the outline story as I play the music for all enjoy.

Last week was the Forces Sweetheart Vera Lynn's 103rd

birthday. She was a source of inspiration in Britain in the dark days of World War Two. ON TUESDAY I will be playing two hours of Vera's music to wish her a Happy Birthday and to take inspiration from her life and music to apply it into today's situation.

WEDNESDAY I am going play two hours of Chill Out Music

calling it THANK YOU MUSIC for all who are working flat out to keep our country operational.Our NHS, police, emergency services, supermarkets, and everyone who doing their bit help others.

That brings us to THURSDAY.  That will be two hours of music to SPARK A SMILE and make people happy.

I am still thinking about Friday and will let you know what's what in a bit but right please TAKE MY MUSIC and make it YOUR MUSIC then share the podcast to make it OUR MUSIC.

YESTERDAY - A SPECIAL DAY

Well here we on Sunday 22nd March 2020. As the world entered this third decade of the twenty-first century who could possibly have predicted the roaring twenties would face a global lock down ? Talking of predictions, we are being told this situation could last for a year. Scary BIG TIME !  Or is it ?

Amidst all of the chaos, amidst all the fears and the panic buying just stop for a moment and look at the LOVE so many

people are showing for others.

Yesterday - DREDAMSAI - we had prepared our usual 32 packed teas but would anyone turn up ?  New government restrictions meant that we could not run our lunch inside The Buzzy, instead we had to run a an outdoor take away.

YES - people did turn up and took away the food we had prepared. But this part of the day was not so much a TAKE AWAY as a BRING IN. People brought in things to add to our  Freebie Box, someone added jackets and one man pulled up

in a car from where he unloaded bag after bag of bedding. 

MAGGIE all of the lovely things you made, made with LOVE. were so popular. Most now have new homes. 

But the BRING IN was not a case of only material things but also FRIENDSHIP and LOVE.  He came last week as a guest, this week he was back as a volunteer.

Yes, we were running the take away but inside The Buzzy an

army of volunteers were packing dozens and dozens and dozens of gifts which were then taken round to the homes of elderly, vulnerable and lonely people.

These were not simple bags of food but vast hampers of food and other items, every single item wrapped in a thick layer of love. I must pay tribute to Laxman for the amazing job you did in pulling this all together.

Julie, our Queen Of The Kettle was kept busy making drinks

for the volunteers.

Yesterday was a very special day. What is going to happen next week ? It is impossible to say. What new circumstances will face us over the next seven days ?  What legislation will the government have to bring in. There is one thing Boris and his mates will not have to legislate for and that is LOVE.

We have agreed to plan next Saturday at the end of the

coming week. I have in mind that we should aim for another outdoor take away of food and other goodies but some of the things we used to do in the lunch of love we could adapt as a way of supporting the volunteers packing food hampers.  Playing a disco podcast from one of my radio shows would not work but some gentle background music may work.  All of this can be decided towards the end of the week.

I want to wrap up today's blog with something outside

Dreamsai but so beautiful and full of love.  I am not religious so do not go to church, churches have been closed for services during the emergency anyway.

The ancient church of Saint Giles in Tattenhoe is inviting people to tie

RIBBONS OF HOPE on its fence for friends during this current emergency. After Dreamsai I went and tied my ribbon of hope, of love, on the fence. Here it is the yellow ribbon.

Yesterday, Sunday 21st March 2020, was a very special day.

Escape From Armageddon

ARMAGEDDON - the biblical end of the world.

As a young man, I may even still have been a teenager, I had an idea to write a book with the title Escape From Armageddon. It never happened. 

My grandparent's generation was devastated by World War One - The Great War to end all wars.  What folly is contained in that statement !

Here's a photograph which is a bit celebrated in my family, it shows four generations - I'm the one on the left, then my Mum now aged 92, my Nan who died a few weeks short of her 100th birthday and on the right, the gentleman with the white stick, is my great-grandfather. He served in the war to end all wars where he became hard of hearing as the constant explosions around him damaged his ears. He did escape from Armageddon. One of the few.

My paternal grandfather, my Dad's Dad, only partially escaped Armageddon. He contracted tuberculosis in the trenches of World War One so was discharged with honour from the army, he served in the South Staffordshire Regiment.

William married a munitions worker, Lily Bedson, who was billeted on his family in Aston Birmingham. Together they had three sons, when his illness overtook him and William died Lily was left to bring up three small children alone.

But Lily, though widowed, did have a husband. Many young women of her age were destined never to find love, there were just not enough men to go round. We used to call them maiden aunts, or for my generation - maiden great-aunts. Every family had them.  twenty million people died in World War One, The Great War, the war to end all wars. Twenty million lives given to Escape Armageddon.

The escape was short lived. Twenty-five

years later the world was at war again. In that war seventy-five million died in an attempt to Escape Armageddon. One of those was my Uncle Billy, the uncle I never knew. Twenty-one years into his life it came to an end on the night of 8th March 1945 when his Lancaster Bomber was shot down during a raid over Bremen in Germany.

My generation did not face the situation my father's and grandfather's did. My Dad and his friends went to school to prepare for fighting, and giving their lives for their country. We were not going to war but the threat of Armageddon was always with us. One day either The Soviet Union of Russia or The United States Of America would push the nuclear button and we would all enter Armageddon in a giant explosion.

At school I had a clear career path in my head and followed study towards examinations which would make that career path happen. If I had lived in America that would not have been the same, I would have gone to school simply to bide my time before serving my country in the folly of The Vietnam War. Figures for that Escape From Armageddon are not clear but are somewhere in the region of three million.

The fear of a nuclear holocaust my generation had to face

never happened, we Escaped Armageddon. Add up all of these figures and we are talking NINETY EIGHT MILLION deaths. One and a half times the current UK population. I get so angry when self-appointed important people fail to recognise a REAL PERSON. All of those people are REAL PEOPLE. You are a REAL person and I am a REAL person.

I am now a granddad myself, I have four lovely young people in my family. I have feared in recent times that Adam, Ollie, Katherine and Frances would not live to see a world where they could themselves become grandparents, simply because my generation is working flat out to destroy it. Only a blind and deaf and totally stupid person could ignore climate change but ignore it the vast majority have been doing. It was as if they did not want to Escape from Armageddon but were saying BRING IT ON.

Now in March 2020 the entire world has to pull together in order to Escape Armageddon yet again ! About a week ago my writing idea from all those years ago suggested that I should write the book but focus on this current global pandemic. I decided not to do that. Perhaps one day I will use the title to write about my family's experiences from 1914 through to the end of The Cold War. Perhaps.

Right now my wife, Maureen, and I will be staying at home for the foreseeable future. We will not remain exclusively inside our home but plan only small excursions as we do our bit to help this world yet again Escape Armageddon.

Let me now turn to THE SUNSHINE SMILE CREW and suggest how we can help the world to Escape from Armageddon. 

Right now we have 86 members in our Facebook Group. OK if we have to work

with 86 we will work with 86 but the more members we can find the better. So you 86 get out there and invite as many people as you can to join our on-line group. THE MISSION  OF EVERY MEMBER OF THE SUNSHINE SMILE CREW IS EVERY DAY TO MAKE SOMEONE SMILE. Let's do it !

I will be posting a lot on the page to help people SMILE but do not leave this to me - EVERYONE POST.

I have not done my radio shows for the past three days but on Monday I will be back. I will be making some changes,

every day will be DAVE'S DISCO. Tune in, share the podcast and use the music I play to help people SMILE.

Every day from the studio I will post pictures.

Our various projects are closed down for the moment although we will be with Dreamsai tomorrow handing out lunches of love. The format will be a little different but we will be there. We will play everything week by week.

It would be great if we could do our Walk of Love a couple of times during the week but this depends on a number of things.

* Firstly what ever lock down system we enter it would have to allow this to take place.

* Then we need the people to offer practical help.

* It depends on there being things on the supermarket shelves to buy.

* Then it depends on the generosity of people helping to fund the work. With the current employment situation this may not

be practical for many people.

Spend between 99p and £1,99pm on one of my books - CLICK HERE and the 75% royalties will help fund what we are doing and would like to do.

You can make a direct DONATION via our Go Fund Me page.

YES, we do need funds but it costs NOTHING - NOTHING AT ALL to help make someone SMILE though this time.

So help as many people as you can to SMILE and together we can all Escape Armageddon.