Isn't It Great To Be Alive

Good Morning World

Welcome to my blog for Tuesday 9th January 2017.  Isn't it great to be alive ?

To begin the day let's dip into my YouTube Channel and pick out my inspirational theme for today. Tuesday's are designed to be terrific you know. If you don't make your Tuesday TERRIFIC it will not work for you in quite the way it should.

Yesterday the blog achieved a readership of 213 - did you miss it ?

CLICK HERE

You naughty people who did read it, you very naughty people - I challenged you, I tried to inspire you to write your own blog but nobody has YET taken up the challenge. So anyway, let's have that Terrific Tuesday Theme.

Today's blog is all about The Mansion of Love aka Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham. I spoke yesterday with Libby, the house manager. We will be meeting up soon to sit down and plan the OurRebekah support for the first half of the year.  2017 ended on such a high with the delivery of gifts in our Secret Santa project we have a hard act to follow but have no fear some exciting things are on the drawing board.

Ronald McDonald House Birmingham, to give it the correct name or The House That Love Built to use the nick-name. Scrub both of those and use my description - THE MANSION OF LOVE.

Time now for the weather report. One of my LEONITE students, Andy, always gives his Facebook friends a personal weather report. Forget the Met Office, forget the invented and often wide of the mark fiction put out by the BBC - if you want to know what it is really like out there Andy's your man.

So what is it like today Andy ?

Thanks Andy.

At the top of the agenda for Libby and I  to talk about is Asda's Green Token Scheme which

was launched last Saturday for THREE good causes by Secklow Radio Roadshow. What a day that was, but I have already reported on that. We now have to build on the success of Saturday and develop the project for The Mansion of Love.

When you shop at ASDA in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, please ask for a GREEN TOKEN when you pay for your shopping at the checkout. It costs you nothing. Take your token then vote for OurRebekah at the Green Token Booth.  If you shop at Asda but not the Bletchley, Milton Keynes, branch you can still ask for a green token. Take it away with you then give it to either Libby or myself. We will post it in the Bletchley store's voting box. If OurRebekah wins the vote between now and the end of March The Mansion of Love gets £500. If we come in last it still gets £200.  THANK YOU ASDA

5.34am, pitch dark outside. Let's have some music to encourage the sun to get up and out of bed. This comes from my vinyl collection on YouTube.

Don't you just love that song ?

On Monday next week Tony Ingeldow and I will be playing music on Secklow 105.5 to celebrate the success of the Roadshow. We will be dedicating something special to

everyone who took part.

We put out collecting buckets at the roadshow where Asda customers threw in more than three hundred pounds. Yesterday I dumped the cash on Halfax Bank then divided the money between the three good causes represented on Saturday..

On Tuesday 16th Jabuary the boys at Sheffield Wednesday kick off at Hillsborough in an FA cup replay against Carlisle United. I, of course, support Sheffield Wednesday while Secklow Presenter Tony is a Carlisle fan. A bit of friendly rivalry there.

Every goal the boys score is sponsored within our BRUMMIE OWLS project for The Mansion Of Love. In November Tony came with me to Hillsborough to present the club with original vinyl singles of the club's two adopted anthems.

Complete change of subject...........................

What do you do with your empty ink cartridges from your printer ? Do you know that fluid ounce by fluid ounce printing ink costs more than the most expensive vintage champagne ?

What a con eh !

Can I have them please ?  For every cartridge recycled I can get a £1 donation for The Mansion of Love.

Yesterday I spent time writing more for my book The Bridge House. I woke up at half past one this morning with another thousand or so words for the story spinning round in my head.

When the book is published in May all royalties from sales will be given to Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.  I am now aiming to have the book finished by the time Libby and I meet. We have to discuss proof reading and making a plan to launch the book in the summer.

The ending of the book I hope will come as a surprise to readers. I will say no more than that, I do not want to spoil the story for you. 

This song appears in one of the early chapters and will reappear soon, I am writing towards it.

Secklow Radio's presenter Frank Scarito, himself a Leoinite, is going to help with another book for Birmingham. In March children from Broughton Manor Prep School will be

illustrating the text from my book The Wild Adventures of Di Central Eating. We will then republish the book with royalties again going to the Mansion Of Love.

Within the story there is a lot of music. We are going to make a CD of the music, produced by Frank. then sell that to support the work of The Mansion of Love.

With the fantastic success of Secret Santa we will soon be launching an Easter version - EGGS FOR THE CHILDREN.

When Easter is over a group of us will be getting on a westbound 747 and heading for San Francisco where we have a fun run on The Golden Gate Bridge and a Hippie Party in Golden Gate Park. We will be linking up with Ronald McDonald House in San Francisco.

It has been too long since I was last in The City By The Bay. I am growing my hair ready for the party.

Returning from San Francisco we have in May a big - very big - mega big event happening in The National Trust's Stowe Gardens near Buckingham.  Both Secklow 105.5's presenters

Tony Ingeldow and Catherine Rose are helping me with a trilogy of events based at Stowe's Temple of Concord and Victory.

We will have an afternoon of Classics In The Park followed by a Doggie Treasure Hunt and ending up with a Retro Disco and BBQ. Nobody but nobody has ever held a disco in a location quite like this.

This is all happening on Sunday 13th May.

So Libby and I have quite an agenda for our meeting.

Libby loves having parties for families in The Mansion Of Love.  I am hoping to persuade her to let The Geriatric DJ hold a DISCO TOMBOLA for families.

What the heck is a Disco Tombola I hear you asking.

You will have ti wait and see.

Which picture do you think is best ?  The Geriatric DJ with or without the wig ?

Time to bring this blog to an end. Time to play us out. We do live in a beautiful world with beautiful people all around us. I am going to play us out with my favourite piece of music, you all know what it is. If we all lived our lives the way the words in this song suggest it would be an even more beautiful world.

Have a TERRIFIC TUESDAY.

It's all about INSPIRATION

The blog yesterday achieved 324 readers, not an all-time record but close. 145 people made comments or "liked" the content on Facebook. That is a record.

I feel a but chuffed at that.

I smile at myself when I think back to when I first started the blog a year ago, how I struggled to build an audience, I was for ever saying I am not of the right generation to use social media. Now my facebook is always in the top 2% for activity across the country, with days like yesterday I am secretly hoping for January it would be in the top 1% !

If only my book sales were the same not only would my publisher stop nagging me to promote the books a bit more but I would be significantly better off !

Do you recognise the lady in my lead picture ?

ENID BLYTON - writer of Noddy In Toyland, The Famous Five and The Secret Seven.

When her books were constantly at the top of the best selling lists she was despised and ridiculed bu teachers, academics and those who knew everything but understood nothing

. 

She was accused of being sexist, racist of including characters in her stories drawn only from the middle-class. Excuse me, what is wrong with being middle-class ?

RUBBISH spoken by narrow-minded fools !  That lady achieved more for children by way of her writing than any author before or after her. Roald Dahl can not match her. J K Rowling may be a multi-millionaire but Harry Potter has not done what the Secret Seven did and he never will.

As a child I had this Secret Seven book. It did for me what Enid Blyton did for so many, many children - it INSPIRED me to write my own stories.It that inspiration to write their own stories, the inspiration Enid gave to her readers, that makes her the best childrens' writer ever.

I write now under the name of Max Robinson but used to use the pen-name of Jonathan Flie. When my first book was published - Peter's Magic Fountain Pen - I said I wanted to be like Enid Blyton and inspire, in my case teenagers, to write their own stories.

Later, when I began publishing e-books I said I wanted to be regarded as the Enid Blyton of adult fiction, I wanted to inspire people to write their own stories.

Currently, this month, my top selling e-book is The Autobiography of Billy Hardcastle. Even if it continues at its current sales pace it will fall way, way short of the readership the blog achieved yesterday.

FORGET MY BOOKS, can The Enid Blyton of Adult Writing inspire you to launch you own blog ?  It's easy but not simple to do.

You have got to write on a regular basis if you want to build an audience, I write a blog every day.

Many of my readers will pick up my blog first thing in the morning before they begin their day. I must, therefore, have it published no later than six o'clock.

A blog has to be positive even when times are not good. The writer must always find something good to draw out of a bad situation.

A blog must be wide in content and tell of more than one aspect in the writer's life. There must be something in every page that writers can regognise in their own lives.

The blog must be inspirational.

I have had, since I began the blog, 22,361 readers. In December I had 4,557. You can see my blog is developing. If I can achieve that number every month in 2018 I will have a total of 50,127, I would be well pleased with that number. If I could achieve yesterday's readership every day I would hit 118,260 readers.

Can David Enid-Blyton Ashford inspire you to start writing a blog ?  If today's blog inspires you to do that I would be proud to help you in any and every way I could.

Let's play some music, let's have something to inspire you this Monday morning. Something from my YouTube channel.

Yesterday I was putting together a playlist for my part on Secklow Radio's Time Tunnel next week when I report on Saturday's Roadshow. I have chosen this song for the lovely ladies from Jo's Hope. You ladies inspired me big time on Saturday.

I have had an e-mail from Amazon telling me the CD I ordered to play on Tony's Time Tunnel for Suzzana, Asda's Community Champion, will be delivered today.

Suzanna told me a few weeks ago that other supermarkets and shops were starting to copy Asda's green token community programme.

NO Suzanna they are NOT copying you, you have INSPIRED then to do what you do so well.

Freddie Mercury, by the way, appears in one of my books, a collection of short stories, in a chapter called The Great Pretender. You remember Freddie's choice of language, never a sentence without the F word included. That is just how he speaks in my book so this is not a

book for anything less than an adult to read.  

Freddie inspired me to write that story. If you read it you will see that Freddie is not actually dead.

If you did want to read any of my e-books you can find them listed - CLICK HERE

I want to spend a lot of my day today working on my latest book THE BRIDGE HOUSE. I want to finish the text, if I can, by the end of the month then move into the editing stage ready for publication in May.

The Bridge House has been inspired by my grandmother Lily who is the central character. 

Nan, you were the matriarch of our family and an inspiration to us all. I hope you like my book.

I used to write newspaper and magazine articles, made some good money from it in actual fact.  A number of my articles were gathered together in a book celebrating the developing NEW city of Milton Keynes.

I found a copy of Not The Concrete Cows, the title is meant to convey there is much more to the developing city than concrete cows, on e-bay. I got it as a gift for Secklow Radio's presenter Tony Ingeldow.  Inside the cover I had autographed it all those years ago it for a member of my class. The lad had then asked all of the class to autograph the book.  I am not going to say the student;s name as he is a friend on facebook and I would not want to embarrass him.  I will, however, ask him here WHY DID YOU SELL IT ?  Obviously it did not inspire you lol !

Yesterday Maureen and I took the dogs for a walk. We were not far from something that is included in NOT THE CONCRETE COWS. I insisted we divert our route so I could take a photograph of The Tattenhoe Oak, the oldest living thing in Milton Keynes.

As soon as I have finished writing The Bridge House I am going to write a squeal to NOT THE CONCRETE COWS, this book will be called LEGENDS OF A GREAT CITY and I will be asking my friends throughout Milton Keynes to help me write it.

The idea for the book has been inspired by Mayor David Hopkins, a man who has inspiration oozing from every pore of his body.   I have arranged for him to appear on Secklow Radio two weeks today. Listen to him and I know you will be inspired.

David has given me the inspiration to write this book. I am looking now to my LEONITE friends to put the pressure on me to finish it in as short a time as possible. I want, also, to include my Leonites in writing the book. I want you to inspire me with your thoughts, your ideas and your memories of the times when you grew up in our developing new city.

NO Leonite Rachel my shoes DO NOT qualify as a Milton Keynes Legend. And by the way The Gerriatric DJ is not older than The Tattenhoe Oak !

I am bringing this blog edition to an end. While I have been writing I have been debating in my mind if I should include this or not. I have decided I will.

Leonite Dianne has nominated me in the 2018 Milton Keynes Inspirational Awards. When I found out I shed a tear and tears are pricking my eyes now. I am sure there are many far more deserving nominees than I but your loving kindness in making that nomination has inspired me so much. THANK YOU - THANK YOU. 

When I appeared on Secklow Radio's My Inspiration programe presenter Frabk Scarito, himself a Leonite, asked me for my most inspirational song.  I did not hesitate in saying BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER.  Let me end today;s blog by playing it. I hope it inspires you as it does me.

Success is not a strong enough word

Success is nowhere near big enough a word to describe Secklow Radio Roadshow at Asda Supermarket on Saturday 6th January.

Success ?  The editors of The Oxford English Dictionary are going to have to come up with a new definition for the word.

WHAT AN AMAZING DAY !

Before I report on all that happened I am going to allow myself an ego trip.  Is that OK ?

There I was, The Geriatric DJ playing music when a lad, a teenager - perhaps 15 or 16 years old, approached the decks and asked if he could have a selfie with me. WOW.....

The Geriatric DJ's fame is spreading.  He he he.....

We were there in Asda, the biggest supermarket in the region, taking community radio into

the community to support the store's green token community programme. Between 1st  January and 31st March customers are invited to take green voting tokens and pick out their favourite good cause from the three Asda has chosen for the next three months.

I  have to say that I was worried having the three good causes represented at the Roadshow could set  up competition between the three with rivalry to upstage one another.

What a silly, silly thought.

Jo's Hope, Medical Detection Dogs, OurRebekah and Secklow Radio came together to form one powerful team.

Oh we did have fun.

We gave out sweets, took requests to play on the radio, handed out music quiz sheets and and balloons.

Heading up this area of the day was Secklow's presenter Stuart Moore.  Stuart has his own unique and special sense of humour which is best savoured with a pinch of salt.

At one point he took some balloon sticks minus the balloons and said - WATCH THIS......

Would you like an invisible balloon young man ?

OH YES PLEASE.

Only  Stuart could have pulled that off !

Stuart you are a star. THANK YOU for bringing your special blend of fun, humour and excitement to make this a happy day and ensure its success.

I have no idea how many balloons the TEAM inflated - A LOT - as they worked hard to keep up with Stuart's enthusiasm.

Seen here are Roadshow team members from Jo's Hope blowing up the balloons.

Jo's Hope brought along an extra special person to the team.  This young lady is only ten years old but worked with the ability of someone much older to engage the shoppers, hand out tokens and direct them to the booth to cast their vote. She is an incredible young lady.

Thank you for all you brought to the day.

We put out cash collecting buckets for people to throw some odd coins into. The plan was/is to divide the money three ways between OurRebekah, Jo's Hope and Mudical Detection Dogs.

There were times I am sure when coins tossed into our buckets were flowing faster than they were into Asda's tills.

When Secklow presenter Catherine Rose took over the decks cash flowed into the buckets at a faster rate than at any other time during the day.

When I got home, shattered, hungry and exhausted my wife insisted we count the money. Those wonderful shoppers in Asda had thrown in £319.32 + a few foreign coins and old

pound coins.  That means OurRebekah, Jo's Hope and Medical Detection Dogs each receive £106.44. I will bag the coins up and persuade Halfax Bank to take them from me then send you all your share of the Asda customers' generosity.

Catherine presents the classical music show on Secklow 105.5 but yesterday changed genre to play John Denver, The Village People and ABBA.  I did smile when I saw an older shopper walk past doing the actions to YMCA !

This was not a Secklow outside broadcast

but I did play the music into facebook where several hundred people were listening.

At one point a rather suspicious character was seen lurking about, he had all of the team worried. Asda security staff found out he was from Radio One sent to find out why its audience figures were plummeting !

The lovely little doggies from Medical Detection were stars for most of the day. It was impossible not to fall

in love with them.

However, even the doggies were upstaged when one particular family came by. The children danced to Catherine's choice of music.  

Mum and Dad gave me permission to film their trio.

So here you go - Strictly Come Dancing Secklow Radio Roadshow style.

Even the great Freddie Mercury could not have upstaged those children.

I promoted the Roadshow here on the blog in the days running up to Saturday. Seven Hundred and Sixty people read the pages. When the music was played into Facebook we

had friends listening in Egypt, Albania and The United States Of America.  SUCCESS IS NOT A BIG ENOUGH WORD !

During the day messages were pouring into Facebook, too many to count. Returning home I popped a few pics onto my page. In all way more than one hundred likes, comments and more were posted.  My Facebook is always in the top 2% across the country, perhaps for January it may get into the top 1% !

It is twenty years since I was Head of Year at Leon School but I am still in contact with many of my former students, I call them my Leonites. The roadshow had only just started when two Leonites came by to wish me well. The flow of these lovely people just kept

coming all day long.  Tears formed in my eyes.  We got something right at that school didn't we ?  I am so proud of my Leonites - THANK YOU for your wonderful support.

Modesty will not allow me to share many of the lovely messages these special people posted on-line but I have to tell you that Alexa, right, came up from the South Coast for the week-end so she could pop into Asda and say HI.

I am actually going to set modesty aside to share a pic Rachel posted on Facebook.

Just look at how many likes and comments Rachel pulled for that pic. She was responsible for my wearing those 1970's stacked heels as part of my Geriatric DJ costume.

Another Leonite PAUL gave me much of the vinyl we played yesterday. Another Leonite

Dianne is giving me a very special vinyl collection from her family.  Dianne I promise playing it will bring a lot of joy to many people. THANK YOU.

Do you know a customer asked me if I would play music at her parents' 50th wedding anniversary party.  WHAT AN HONOUR !  Secklow Radio Roadshow taking community radio into the community.

I arrived at Asda at five in the morning. Introducing myself to the security man he said Nobody has told me you are coming but it's all over the store so welcome.

Asda staff were wonderful. Those on the checkouts loved the music. We even had a Leonite on the tills who sent a message when she was kn her break.  Adsa's Community Champion

Suzanna did a fantastic job making the roadshow happen in the store and was a tower of strength throughout the day.

See this man on the left.......

That's Sean Clarke CEO of Asda. I am sending a copy of this blog to him. Sean you can be proud of your team in the Bletchley store. Here's a challenge for you !  Next time The Secklow Radio Roadshow is in the store why don't you come along and spin some discs ?

So what's next ?

Monday 15th January I will be on Tony's Time Tunnel at Secklow 105.5 telling everyone about the Asda Roadshow and playing music from the day. Tony, a couple of things you

need to note !

Watch out for Catherine Rose, none of us knew she was a Retro Popper as well as a classical music lady.

Your show has a duration of two hours, it may take three for you and I to tell everyone about yesterday.

Only joking.........

OR AM I !

Then on Monday 22nd January Mayor David Hopkins will be on Tony's Time Tunnel to present his personal top ten hits from the 1970's.

Here's Mayor David spinning discs with Tony at an earlier roadshow.

In April Bletchley Youth Centre is celebrating its 50th anniversary.  Leonite Rachel asked me to help and engineered me on to the sub committee organising the birthday party.  I was asked to fix the music and VIP gusts.

I have it sorted !

There will be three DJ's that evening Tony, Mayor David and The Geriatric DJ.

The following week I will be in San Francisco playing music with families at Ronald McDonald House in the City By The Bay.

Tony and I have one or two ideas to work out.  Catherine Rose and I are working on something a bit special.

I came away  from Asda having made new friends in both Jo's Hope and Medical Detection Dogs.  I am looking forward so much to building strength into those friendships, playing music together and having fun. Did we or did we not make a great team yesterday ?

SUCCESS does not even begin to scratch the surface of what we all achieved together on Saturday.

3.10am and the Geriatric DJ has everything prepared for the biggest music event of the day to hit Milton Keynes in just a few hours time.

Everything is ready and prepared save for my Zimmer Frame, I think I will leave that at home - just for today !

A few last minute jobs to do, a bite of breakfast then I'll head off to the biggest supermarket in the region and begin setting up.

I've just ripped a John Denver CD into the playlist. I am setting up a back-up laptop just in case this overworked machine fails me during the twelve hour marathon, either that or the inward looking geeks at Microsoft try to hijack the system with their downgrading updates.

E-bay, bless them, delivered my 7" vinyl copy of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, I will most definitely be playing that later today.

Thank you to those who sent in requests and dedications for the Roadshow, I have to download your tunes ready to play.

Then I will print off a play schedule and all will be ready.

The audience, of course, is guaranteed but that does not guarantee success for The Secklow Radio Roadshow. If people just pass by and listen to a bit of music that will mean all my efforts will have been a failure. If they stop and dance it will be a resounding success. My life maxim will today be put to the test.

It had been my intention, it had been my plan to have everything sorted and packed into the car by ten o'clock yesterday morning.  That finally came about at half past four in the afternoon !

We have one thousand balloons to give out to the children today. Asda staff are going to inflate them so yesterday I took the balloons and a pile of sticks I got from a local garden

centre to the store for this to happen.

I am not having a go at Asda but I am having a pop at the silly society we live in. Asda could not use those little sticks in case a child stabbed someone  with  one ! Health and Safety gone mad !  The only way the balloons could be given out was by fixing them to purpose designed balloon sticks. So you tell me where I could find one thousand of them in the city ahead of the Roadshow ?

I never previously knew it was there but I found a warehouse in the north of the city that runs an on-line party website. The lovely, lovely people at Partyrama helped me out so everything for the balloons is now in the office at Asda.  I can not thank you PARTYRAMA enough. I will be playing something special for you later today.

Probably this !

I have twisted the arm of Secklow Radio's presenter Tony Ingeldow to take me on to his Time Tunnel show on Monday 15th January.

I will give a report on today's extravaganza and  play music for different people who will be at the Roadshow. PARTYRAMA I will play Black Lace and The Music Man again for you all.

THANKS TONY.

Catherine Rose who had me as her guest on Classics From Scratch last week is a great supporter of The Secklow Radio Roadshow. She will be taking over the microphone at two o'clock to change the disco dancing in the isles of Asda to a slightly more sedate waltz.  However, when Catherine is not looking I plan to slip this on to the turntable.

Well I like it !

Catherine will also be playing a request - PETER AND THE WOLF for Leonite Nigel Sholl.

Another Leonite Alexa reminded me of a school visit I organised to take a group of students to the BBC to watch a recording of the 1980's pop group KING.

Alexa, I remember that visit to the BBC so well. I recall the audience did not like the group that much but I did.  I also remember the stacked heel shoes they all wore. Those shoes are NOTHING to the costume I will be wearing for the Roadshow today. I will play the song you requested.

If you don't believe me about the shoes come along and see for yourself !

Oh it's going to be a laugh today.

Handing out those balloons, sweets and a special Vinyl Music Quiz will be Secklow Presenter Stuart Moore.  Stuart is another great supporter of Secklow Radio Roadshow and taking community radio into the community.

Thanks Stuart - you are a great guy and a fellow Jaguar Driver. 

I won't be wearing my Jaguar tee shirt today, it does not fit in with my costume. Stuart does not have a shirt like this, he does not qualify to own one. Yes, he does own a Jag but unlike me he is NOT and old man. However, with the two of us together today DO NOT underestimate the success we will being to the Roadshow.

Ten thousand people are expected to shop at Asda today. They will have to enter the biggest supermarket in the region, and leave for that matter, passing the Secklow Radio Roadshow. It is not an empty boast to say this will be the biggest music event in the city today.

Every day this week I have played the next piece of music on the blog.  It comes from my favourite ride in Disneyland California aka The Happiest Place On Earth.

Between 8am and 8pm today Disneyland in Southern California is going to have to give up its title and claim to fame, THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH today will be The Secklow Radio Roadshow in Asda Milton Keynes !

See you there - BE THERE OR BE SQUARE !

David aka The Geriatric DJ