Meet a Milton Keynes Worthy

Don't believe everything they tell you !  Website says that my nook MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS is to be published in seventeen days time, NO - the publication date has been moved to Monday 14th September which is actually twenty-eight years to the day since my very first book was published but that is another story.

Let me introduce you to a MILTON KEYNES WORTHY - Dame Cleo Laine from Wavendon.  Within my book I name Cleo and her late husband Milton Keynes Worthies and include both in the chapter Milton Keynes Iconic Music.

Almost a year ago Radio CRMK Chairman Paul Alexander gave me hundreds of music CD's to sell at Woodstock MK in support of The Milton Keynes Winter Night Shelter. What a day that was, raising almost £500 to support our homeless rough-sleeping friends. One of those CD's which we did not sell that day features the incredible voice of Milton Keynes Worthy and Music Icon Cleo Laine.

Cleo is now going to autograph this CD which within the promotion at the launch of my book next month I will auction in support of The Milton Keynes Winter Night Shelter.

Another Milton Keynes Worthy - Michael Crawford lived for a short time just down the road

from Cleo at Lower End in Wavendon.  I am juggling a few things but hoe very soon to have an autographed photo graph from  Michael who starred in Andrew Loyd Webber's musical The Phantom Of The Opera.

This too will be auctioned supporting Milton Keynes Winter Night Shelter.

Phantom Of The Opera is the longest ever running musical on Broadway.

Here he is, Milton Keynes Music Icon, Michael Crawford in Phantom Of The Opera.

Until Amazon set up my book I will not know what the royalties payable will be But during the time of the Milton Keynes Music Icon auction I will donate 50p from every book sale to the work of Milton Keynes Winter Night Shelter.

Many will know that The Peter Pan of Pop Music aka Cliff Richard filmed the video for Wired For Sound in Central Milton Keynes.

Last year I asked The Cliff Richard Foundation if Cliff would autograph a copy of Wired For Sound. My request fell on DEAF EARS. Once I have the CD from Cleo and photograph from Michael I plan to ask again. Cliff, watch out for I am about to twist your arm hard up your back !

Milton Keynes The City Than Never Was is a warts and all look at the good the bad and the ugly of MK.  Throughout the seventy off thousand words of text I try to inspire readers to celebrate the good, to bend the broken and to repaint the ugly.  The DREAM is that one day we will be awarded city status at which time I will publish a new work: MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT TRULY IS. Please help me make that dream come true, when these icons come up for auction.

Escape From Armageddon – The First 100 Days

Our Rebekah – A Story Of Love From The NHS

The Lonely Ghost

Fantasies Of A Geriatric DJ

The Lottery Of Evil

The Ramblings Of A Silly Old Man

A Trilogy Of Life

Random Memories

The Wild Adventures Of Di Central Eating

The Case Files Of Dave McDermott

Peter’s Magic Fountain Pen

Quantum Mechanics – A Time Travel Trilogy

The Bridge House

Two Short Stories From Max Robinson

Things Were Different In My Day

The Diary Of Billy Hardcastle

An Interview With Flight Sergeant Billy

The Story Of A Teenage Entrepreneur (Failed)

Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name

On Monday 14th September I will also be re-publishing my 1994 Milton Keynes book NOT THE CONCRETE COWS and a work of fiction I am still writing, GETTING TO KNOW MY GRANDDAD.

Today ? Roll on tomorrow !

4.45am and here I am in the studio of RADIO CRMK - 6am and I will hit the world with Tuesday Terrific Tunes.

If I make it through to the end of the day it will be great but trust me I will be knackered ! 

K - N - A - C - K E - R - E - D 

That could be a good title for a song couldn't it ? Could be a Terrific tune for me to play on a Tuesday.

Hey I had a fabulous day with my two grandson's yesterday - Adam and Oliver.

Oliver sat with me and surfed YouTube. I picked out a song with his name.

Oliver, better known as Ollie, is the younger. Adam is his big brother, Adam was not impressed when I played something for him from Adam And The Ants.

By the way I have set up a new e-mail address for my writing:

max@maxrobinsonwriter.com

Who is going to be the first to hit me with a message ?

Back from the studio, time to grab a bite of breakfast then it's time to take my best friend Jake to the vet to have his claws clipped.  He stood on my bare foot the other evening and I can tell you from personal pain his nails need big time clipping !

Let's play a song for Jake. What should I play ?  I know, how about this ?

I have changed the publication date for my three books: Milton Dreams The City That Never Was, Not The Concrete Cows and Getting To Know My Granddad.

These will now be published on Monday 14th September.

I have almost finished checking the final draft of Milton Dreams The City That Never Was.  62,736 words.

Not The Concrete Cows his is the second book in what I want to make my Milton Keynes Trilogy. The cows was originally published in 1994, I am busy working to re-publish it on Amazon on Monday 14th September.

I typed the original text using an early word processor, now all I have to do is to read it to my laptop where Microsoft types it up. On average there are five typo's to every four words. I have to read a couple more chapters today.

There's a lot of Milton Keynes iconic music in both Not The Concrete Cows and Milton Dreams The City That Never Was. Ahead of publication I want to put fourteen tracks on to my YouTube channel.

Fancy a bit of Milton Keynes iconic music ?

How about David Bowie at The Bowl ?

Yeh, let's play that shall we ?

2pm to 4pm I have an on-line training session preparing to one day take on chairing a council committee. I will need to be on my best behaviour !

I will try !

Oh, I forgot. Here's something from Getting To Know My Granddad. BTW it is in today's radio playlist.

Then I have to attend my blood donor session.  That means I have to drink loads all day. Ok

great but that council training session is two hours and at 7.30pm I have a full council meeting. You should see the agenda !  If it is over by ten I will be amazed. Amazed and totally knackered !

I am going to play something else from Getting To Know My Granddad.

I have written 41,324 words for this story so far.

So there you go ?  What are you up to today ?  Want to swap places ?

Speak again  tomorrow.  That is if I wake up after today.

Grades - how would you grade our government ?

My heart goes  out to the teenagers whose lives are now in chaos as a result of our government's failure to properly award A Level examination.

Politicians of all colours have engineered our justice system to be a national scandal of failure. Instead of crime prevention it is now actively a successful system of crime encouragement.

Government has turned our National Health system from a respected and proud institution into a farce of failure. It is so important to have nail bars and beauty salons open but the government thinks your local GP should shove his stethoscope down a telephone line to examine you.  Applaud our NHS ?  I don't think so !

Now attention turns towards wrecking our education system.  The lives our failing government is seeking to wreck are the lives we need in the coming decade to sort out, correct and mend the failings of Boris Cummings-Johnson and all his rotten crew. No, more than that not just the blithering idiot we have as prime minister but every single politician of every party and at every level. YOU CAN NOT TRUST ANY OF THEM ! We need our teenagers to sort everything and give us a better world to live in.

My heart goes out to these teenagers. Boris Cummings-Johnson thinks he will go down in history as the greatest prime minister since Winston Churchill. NO he will go down in history as the biggest failing politician EVER. The greatest prime minister since Winston Churchill is right now try to sort out his/her examination results !

No sex please - WE ARE BRITISH

I am being ambitious I know but I am planning to publish THREE books on Monday 7th September.

I have been working to update my website and start promoting the trio. Check it out !

My book MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS is in its final stage of draft checking. You can read four sample chapters:

Wartime Milton Keynes

Newporto Pagnellio

Education A Gift For Life

Iconic Music

on the website.

I am now trying to make a plan to promote and sell the book. Top selling writers on Amazon all make way in excess of a million pounds a year,  I need to buy myself a new car, quite fancy an Aston Martin so I had better get on and set up a major sales campaign.

Milton Dreams is the second in what I want to be a Milton Keynes Trilogy. The original work NOT THE CONCRETE COWS has been out of print for years. I am, therefore, working like crazy to bring it back on Amazon.

When the original was published in 1994 I typed up the text using an early word processor. To republish I am using a typically rubbish Microsoft product. I read the book to my laptop and a semi-literate algorithm turns it into words. Great but it takes hours and hours to eliminate  the typo's !

The Third book, and I am having great fun with this is GETTING TO KNOW MY GRANDDAD. That is where the No Sex We Are British comes in. 

Our central character, Pip, and his slightly older brother, Alex, are in San Francisco. There they meet Donna, both fancy her. Across the past few chapters Alex has been teasing Pip that he is a virgin. Alex is as well if truth be known. They are with their grandfather who reminds them NO SEX PLEASE WE ARE BRITISH.

Have a look at my website.

Check out the writing of Max Robinson.

Arse About Face

So all the sad little people who scurried their way abroad for holidays because the arctic temperatures here in Britain were too cold for them are in dire panic and are trying to get home before they are obliged to self isolate.

Oh dear, what a shame, never mind !

Of course in this arse about face country if Dominic Cummings is among the lemmings I doubt he will isolate.

Other than the US of A Britain has to be the worst country in the world at managing the pandemic.

Last week my dog needed a vet appointment - NO PROBLEM. Brilliantly managed and all is well. But you try to get an appointment with your GP and the system requires the doctor to push his stethoscope down the phone line in order to examine you. 

No you can not get medical help as this arse about face government seeks to destroy out NHS.  The government will give you a £10 voucher to spend in a cafe so widening the size of your own arse but at the same time paying lip service to lowering levels of obesity.

This crazy weather we are experiencing, just the same as we experienced last year, is

climate change. Do not pretend it is not. Driving to the radio station early each morning I pass a vast tented area which has been set up as a covid 19 testing centre.  It is a blaze of lights. so bright these illuminations are visible from the international space station !  If the government can not give proper attention to the people it had better do all it can to destroy the planet we people live on.

But what difference should you expect from Balmy Boris Johnson's arse about face government ?

If that image of our prime minister causes you problems vomit bags are available on Amaon.

Milton Keynes - Soddom & Gomorrah

SODOM AND GOMORRAH

I am actually in the final editing stage of my book but have decided to slip this additional chapter into the text. My reason for doing so will, I hope, become apparent within the next few paragraphs.

As I drive to the radio station each morning to broadcast my show it is dark. Some mornings I am privileged to witness the most beautiful of sunrise as the car makes its way to Newport Pagnell along Childs Way. If there is a low cloud base I miss out on this start to my morning and it is on such days that I have seen small red lights low on the skyline. At first I thought I was seeing traffic lights at Junction 14 of the M1 but no, the contour of the land would make this impossible.

After broadcasting my show, driving home, the reason for the red lights became apparent. They are there to stop low, or should that be high, flying aircraft colliding with the latest Milton Keynes planning monstrosity, The Twin Towers of Soddom and Gomorrah !

I made a special journey in mid  August 2020 to try and locate these towers and found them adjacent to Marlborough Street in Central Milton Keynes. One larger than the other I assume these are lift shafts around which another carbuncle of Central Milton Keynes planning and design will soon  be wrapped.

Never mind the bit: NO BUILDING SHALL BE TALLER THAN THE SURROUNDING TREES, just because a building is tall does not mean it has to be ugly. Consider Coit Tower in San Francisco, The Empire State Building in New York, The Eifel Tower in Paris, The Gherkin and The Shard in London.

Coit Tower - built in 1933 in the shape of a fireman’s hose using Lillie Hitchcock Coit’s bequest to beautify the city of San Francisco.

The Empire State Building - at 102 floors high this icon of New York opened in 1931.

The Eifel Tower – constructed started in January 1887. Paris would not be Paris without the 1.062 feet tall Eifel Tower.

London’s Gherkin - comes in at a modest 590 feet and was opened in April 2004.

The Shard – the tallest building in Britain stands at 1,017 feet above ground. Quite a new addition to London’s skyline The Shard began its construction in March 2009.

I would suggest that London, Paris, New York and San Francisco would not be the cities we know were it not for these iconic TALL buildings.

Work began on Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London in June 1675. When finished Saint Paul’s reached 362 feet. A California Redwood is around 240 feet tall. Would you want to obscure Saint Paul’s by planning a forest of California Redwoods around it ? Certainly not.  Neither would any sane person wish to hide any of the buildings I have here shared with my readers.

If Central Milton Keynes is to have high rise buildings then why can it not have architectural design and quality the likes of these examples ?  Could you imagine Sir Christopher Wren inflicting the Xscape on London or Lilly Coit financing The Milton Keynes Hub in San Franciso ?

Now we have the twin towers of Soddom and Gomorrah assaulting our eyes.

I have a solution !  When whatever is to be wrapped around these under construction towers is completed, every single person within the system that gave planning permission should be forced to abseil down their height, preferably using only an extending dog lead !. A video could be made and posted on YouTube, I am sure that would go viral. Viral and help protect Milton Keynes from all future planning misadventures !

What the heck !

Tuesday 4th August 2020 - What the heck is going on ?

So I can go out and eat somewhere then claim a £10 discount on the food I buy ?  £10 which the taxpayer, you and I, will have to pick up !

Not just from a local business but the government is expecting the taxpayers to subsidise eating a multi-billion pound chains the likes of: BURGER KING !   COSTA COFFEE !  SUBWAY !  CAFFE NERO !  KFC !  McDONALD'S !  NANDO'S  PIZZA EXPRESS  PIZZA HUT  PRET A MANGER  TGI FRIDAYS

From where I am looking this is a MAD MAD WORLD. I may be forced to pay towards the subsidy in my taxes but I most certainly will not be ripping off you via you tax bill as I eat out.

Madness

Monday 3rd August 2020 - Madness

No, I am not referring to this Mad, Mad World we are living in but to the pop group Madness and in particular to their hit record Baggy Trousers.

Madness had a hit record with Baggy Trousers forty years ago in 1980. Yesterday walking back to the car park after a lovely day at Stowe National Trust Landscape Gardens there was a family socially distanced behind us. Within the family was a young girl, she would have been about ten, singing Baggy Trousers. Madness had a hit with that before even her mum and dad were born yet she knew all of the words and could sing them.

A couple of pre-lock down experiences from when I was going into schools to work with teenagers. 

One lad, he would have been about fourteen years of age, said to me: "Do you know who The Bee Gees are ? Do I know who The Bee Gees are ?  Of course I do but how incredible that a lad who was born in 2006 knows and loves their music.  

Another teenager. He asked me what my favourite piece of music is. It is, of course, Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel. Immediately I had explained the lad started to sing the words.

Next time you are in the supermarket stop and listen to the music playing in the background. It is all retro pop from the 1960's and 1970's. 

Take something from today, something from The Ginger Niger - what's his name ? Ed Sheeran. Fast forward forty years to 2060, do you think a ten year old will sing anything of his as the young lady from yesterday sang Baggy Trousers ?  Of course not.

While sitting in the sunshine at Stowe yesterday I wrote another 3,026 words for my story featuring teenager Pip Diamond who is now in October 2017 The Prince of Rock and Roll. Another 627 words written this morning I have Pip in San Francisco playing the music of Donovan.

When vinyl was replaced by other forms of recording the quality of the songs began to slide. Now with downloads, YouTube, smart phones and all the rest it has been destroyed.

MADNESS !  But then we are living in a Mad Mad World !

Beauty And The Geek

Sunday 2nd August 2020 - Jewel In The Crown

That was supposed to be the title of Sunday's page. I sat in the sunshine in the park of The National Trust at Stowe near Buckingham. I wrote over the day what I hope was a beautiful account of my time in The National Trust's JEWEL IN THE CROWN.

I talked about the trees, the calm sir, the birds singing and the butterflies dancing. In these horrible times compounded by our shambolic, failing government writing the page lifted my spirits so much.  I hoped that it would help my readers.

Sitting in Stowe Landscape Gardens there obviously was no internet but I carefully put the page together ready to publish it when I got home. I have worked like this before with Google Blogger BUT the geeks have changed things haven't they ?  The new "improved" Google Blogger has just been rolled out.  Within it there is obviously something which deletes the text if the auto save can not function as there is no internet.

It tell you that there is more beauty in just one of the butterflies at Stow yesterday than there is in all of the sad Google Geeks put together.

The Swinging Sixties

Saturday 1st August 2020 - The Swinging Sixties

It is said that if you can remember The Swinging Sixties then you were not there !  I was there and I do remember the decade but how much of my memory has been formed in later years I can not say. Not a day in 2020 goes by without my listening to music from the 1960's. Yesterday, I drove through the centre of Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, as I passed places from my early youth the memories flooded back.

The decade began on Friday 1st January 1960, I was only nine years old and ended on Wednesday 31st December 1969. It began with rock and roll then ended with flower power. I am too old now but if younger I would love to write a thesis for a Phd debating how music reflects the society it is contained within.

On my tenth birthday in 1960 Elvis Presley was at number one with It's Now or Never. Fast forward to my nineteenth birthday on 3rd November 1969 at number one was Sugar by The Archies. Sugar a piece of music preparing us for the Disco 1970's.

Since lock down I have filled much of my time writing. I am now in the final editing stages of my book Milton Dreams The City That Never Was. Editing is the hardest stage in any writing, dead boring I can assure you. Milton Dreams is 60,324 words long. At 28,033 so far is the story I am writing Getting to Know my Granddad. 

I am loving writing this story. At the centre of this is Philip Johnson, a disaffected and underachieving fifteen year old who under his grandfather's influence becomes Pip Diamond the biggest rock and roll star there ever has been. He even eclipses Elvis Presley.

On my own 15th birthday Ken Dodd was at number one with Tears. Fifteen years old and I

just could not wait to escape school.

I have been worrying about my next writing project. What to do when I bring Pip's story to an end, that will probably at the end of this month. I now have it, THE SWINGING SIXTIES. This will be my own fun semi-Phd thesis of my life in the greatest decade history has ever seen.

I am trying hard to resist writing that entire Phd as this single diary entry. 

Do you recognise the picture I have selected for the cover. Woodstock August 1969. No, I was not there but on yes I do remember it, remember it so well. Half a million people celebrating the greatest decade history has ever seen

It's a Mad Mad World

It's a MAD MAD WORLD - Friday 31st July 2020

I began writing a diary on Google Blogger on 15th December 2016. This is my 1,188th edition. If you do the maths you will see that I have not been writing every day !

It was my intention when I started to write one hundred or so ages then publish them on Amazon under the title The Diary Of A Silly Old Man but that did not happen.

In March of this year I started to write a diary telling of my personal feelings during the corona virus pandemic. I deliberately wrote for one hundred days then published that on Amazon as ESCAPE FROM ARMAGEDDON - THE FIRST ONE HUNDRED DAYS.

Yes, I did write for one hundred days, never missed. Since I stopped I have missed the self-discipline needed to write every day. So here I am kicking off a new diary, one I will try to write an entry for every day. Every day until publication. I intend that to happen on Friday 21st January 2021. That is if this mad world is still here then !

It's A Mad Mad World - that is the title of a comedy film released in 1963. This mad world will not be a comedy I can assure you. In 1963 MAD was used in the film title to mean FUNNY. In 2020 I am using it to mean STUPID. I am going to write as I feel, I am going to tell you what happens in my day. I am not going to be politically correct, I am not going to tip toe around anyone's feelings. Ours is a stupid world and I intend to tell it as I see it !  If you don't like that then you should not be reading this should you !

I went shopping this morning to Morissons Supermarket to buy a few plants for the garden and as my wife and I had been blackberry picking I went to buy the ingredients for her to turn it into jam.  Morrissons is brilliant at organising social distancing, the staff are friends and go the extra mile to keep customers safe during this pandemic. Social distancing, yes that's fine (or is it) but what we need is a sanitiser to wipe out social ineptitude.

The government has been banging on about obesity ! Go to the sweet isle in Morrissons and you will see the fat bottoms stocking up on chocolate to make their fat bottoms even fatter. I do not drink alcohol but I am not against it as a matter of fact, what I am against is the alcoholic droves to be found in the booze isles. It's not the odd can here and there but crates of the stuff !

Social ineptitude.

But today there was an even greater social ineptitude than  an alcoholic with a seventy-five inch waist !

Anyone who reads anything I write will know that I despise so called smart phones. One of my very early blog entries in 2016 was entitled Zombie Phones. Just in case you are not familiar with my philosophy on this subject let me explain that a Smart Phone is a compensatory aid. If you break a leg you are given a crutch to help you walk. If you lose your hearing you can have a hearing aid to help compensate. Less than twenty-twenty vision and a pair of glasses is your compensatory aid. A smart phone is a compensatory aid for this and stupid people.

Morrissons was busy this morning, the queue down the social distancing system was long and slow moving. It was long because there were a lot of customers. It was slow moving because all the thick and stupid people were playing on  their phones oblivious to the fact that the person had moved forward and they needed to follow on.

When people can not live without a zombie phone it is indeed a mad world !

Leaving the supermarket I looked for someone I had seen there yesterday. he was nowhere to be seen.

Yes, I am starting IT'S A MAD MAD WORLD on Friday 31st July 2020 but here is my blog page for yesterday, Thursday 30th July 2020.

Speak again tomorrow. For those who need to open their smart phones and check the date let me tell you that will be Saturday 1st August 2020 !

Today I Met A Man In A Terrible Situation - Thursday 30th July 2020
Today I went to Morrissons to do a bit of shopping - just a little bit - I spent £120.

Coming outside I found a man begging. He was obviously homeless and rough-sleeping. I found two one pound coins in my pocket and gave them to him. He thanked me with a smile and a with genuine gratitude.

Last year, speaking with teenagers in Oakgrove School I said I had never met a homeless person who was not genuine and polite. This fifteen year old replied saying: When you are homeless you do not have to hide your feelings or pretend to be something you are not, your real thoughts just come out. THAT FROM A FIFTEEN YEAR OLD.

Was this man a drug addict ?  Most certainly he was. He looked really ill. His face was so haggard I could not attempt to guess how old he was. This guy is a victim, a victim who nobody loves and nobody cares about. Metaphorically he does not have a life ahead of him. Physically and medically I suspect his life expectancy is short.

Pre lock down I was working with who I call my Pavement Buddies, working with a lunch of love every Saturday. That is all gone. It is said that our pavement buddies are safely being cared for in hotel accommodation. RUBBISH !  Some have accommodation but many, like my friend from yesterday do not.

Several times since lock down I have e-mailed the two organisations running the hotel accommodation asking: How is Richard ?  How is Barry ? Neither organisation answered any of my e-mails ! Please do not tell me they care. 

What chance of getting help does my new friend and so many others like him have of finding help ?  You can measure that in a minus number !

Today I will spend £20 on printing ink to print off the draft of my new book MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS. I have to check every word and phrase ahead of publication by the end of August. The book finished with these words.

A CITY OF LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING: During the 2020 pandemic I was interviewed on a radio programme about the work I had been doing supporting homeless-rough sleepers, The Food Bank, vulnerable adults and families with a child sick in hospital. Much of the work I had been doing was at that time on hold due to government regulations. I replied to the radio host’s question saying: The more vulnerable a person is the harder it is for that person to access the help needed.

No matter how long I live I will never forget some words shared with me by former Mayoress of Milton Keynes. She said: It does not matter which good cause you support providing you do support one.

Every town and every city in every country of the world has issues with its government over the care it provides for vulnerable people. It is too easy to blame local government, but I would suggest blame should not be placed at the door of Milton Keynes Civic Offices. It should be placed at my front door and at your front door.

A successful young man, a businessman once told me about his childhood as a runaway, rough-sleeper and juvenile offender. The authorities took him into foster care. He said to me: My foster family loved me out of my situation and made me what I am today. Where would he have been without his adopted family ?

I have said that Milton Keynes Council should be void of politics.  What are my own politics ?  I am a Utopian. I believe that while it is impossible to be everything to everyone that should not stop you trying. I also believe that if we were to live in Utopia it would be Hell On Earth, Hell on earth as there would be nothing to do, no challenges to engage with.

If we could some how lift things in Milton Keynes, give more love and understanding, not by throwing money at charity shops and the like but on an individual basis just how much we could achieve towards becoming Milton Keynes The City That Truly Is.

Talking about trees and road signs, talking about raising the profile of our ley lines, even trying to remove politics from Milton Keynes Council, these are all practical things which we could write into a plan. To make Milton Keynes a city of love and understanding is nebulous. How many people live in Milton Keynes right now today in 2020 ? Two hundred and seventy odd thousand. If everyone from cradle to care home showed love and understanding during their everyday life we would not need a plan, it would just be natural.

A CITY OF LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING ?  That's a dream too far