MK Today - Saturday 21st January 2023

THEY GAVE THEIR YOUNG LIVES SO WE CAN LIVE OUR OLD LIVES

I want to give Milton Keynes something no other town or city within the country has. The Great War to end all wars 1914 to 1918. World War Two 1939 to 1945. Milton Keynes born in the year 1967.

Across our City war memorials list those who died serving their King and Country. It is so important to remember that without those named on our war memorials, those while serving King and Country gave their young lives, there would be no City of Milton Keynes today for us all to live our lives, young and old, within.

I was born on Friday 3^rd November 1950 and grew up surrounded by memories within every family of the wars. Those who had lost family members talked about these young men but those who had served and survived seldom, if ever, spoke of their wartime experiences.

A celebrated war poet from The Great War spoke out in the 1920’s against the fallen being remembered by names carved in stone. He said they should be remembered in peoples’ hearts. HOW VERY TRUE but if those war memorials had not been built how could we today

remember the fallen ?

But how do we remember them ? They are names carved in stone. We need to lift those names off the memorials and make them real people, never forgetting if they had not given their young lives the City of Milton Keynes would never have been.

Researching the heritage given to us by the Leon Family and in particular the work done to give us Bletchley & Fenny Stratford War Memorial, I was inspired to research the real young men from The Great War there named. From this I moved on and complied a list with as much information as I could find for every name on every Milton Keynes memorial. I then began sharing on social medial every day those who lost their lives on that day in WWI and WWII. It has been deeply moving to see just how many people check this out ach day.

I am NOT taking credit for this work. Honour goes to those who gave their young lives so we can live our old lives and thanks goes to every Mkeneyan who checks the roll of honour each day.

The final chapter in my book MILTON KEYNESTHE CITY OF LEGEND lists by street every fallen serviceman whose home address I have been able to trace. I try to inspire those living today at these addresses and all who drive or walk along the streets to take the names off the stone memorials and place them in their hearts.

In the week before Armistice Sunday 2022 I sent a copy of this Map of Honour by e-mail to every single member of Milton Keynes Council. NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM E-MAILED BACK !  How sad.

However, attending Armistice Sunday 2022 at Bletchley Saint Mary’s I experiences such a beautiful time I added a special chapter to Milton Keynes The City Of Legend sharing how people from all areas of our city’s society, young and old, all races, creeds, colour and religion came together to lift names off the stone memorial and take them away in their hearts.

Moving on I am now placing names into  series of different listings:

By date.

By war memorial.

Alphabetical order

My place of burial and commemoration.

A special list for all who have no known graves.

By age.

By home address in Milton Keynes Map of Honour.

I am about 20% of the way through this extended project.

I am going to continue sharing on social media, as I have been doing for the past year, the fallen by date. By editing these different list I want to give Milton Keynes something no other city or town has, I want to lift the anonymous names off their stone memorials and place them into peoples’ hearts.

As I began this work I was not intending to physically publish the results. I have not yet decided but I think I may do so in hardback format on Amazon. As an accepted Amazon Author I currently have 125 different books, e-books, short stories and essays on my bookshelf. I do not make a lot of money from royalties and that I do make I spend on a variety of different projects I am involved in. IF I decide to publish this work, I have yet to make such a decision I would give all royalties to three different causes:

Roll-Of-Honour which has been of so much help and without such help I never could have undertaken the work.

Royal British Legion Milton Keynes

Help For Heroes

This will NOT be me giving but YOU who read the book.

Yes, I want Milton Keynes to have something which no other town or city in the country has BUT I want those of you taking names off our war memorials and placing them in your hearts to inspire other towns and cities to do the same.

They gave their young lives so we can live our old lives and without such sacrifice there would be no Milton Keynes.

YOUNG LIVES:  I was born on 3^rd November 1950. It was during the decade of the 1950’s that the word TEENAGER was invented. I lived my teenage years in the Swinging Sixties. Sadly I am no longer a teenager. How many teenagers live in the City of Milton Keynes today in the year 2023. How many teenagers are listed on our City’s war memorial who gave their very young lives so we can all live in Milton Keynes today ?

SIXTEEN YEAR OLDS: Three very young boys gave their lives so we can live in Milton Keynes.

SEVENTEEN YEAR OLDS: One young man gave his life so we can live in Milton Keynes.

EIGHTEEN YEAR OLDS: Twelve teenagers of this age gave their lives so we can live in Milton Keynes.

NINETEEN YEAR OLDS: Forty-six nineteen year olds would never see their twentieth birthday. They gave their young lives so we can all live our lives, whatever the age, in Milton Keynes.

Please do not skip the list which is now about to follow. I am going to share today the names and more of sixteen and seventeen year olds who lost their lives in the service of King and Country. Tomorrow I will share the eighteen year olds and on Monday I will share the nineteen year olds. PLEASE take these young men and place them in your heart:

SIXTEEN:

1915 Private 10828 Ernest Parrott (Real name Ernest William Farrow) 6^th Battalion Border Regiment. Killed in action Saturday 21^st August 1915 at the age of sixteen years. Named on Olney War Memorial. Private Parrott is buried in Green Hill Cemetery Gallipoli Turkey Plot I Row D Grave 18.

1916 Boy J/38258 1^st Class Reginald Thomas Varney HMS Black Prince Royal Navy. Died Wednesday 31^st May 1916 at the age of sixteen years. Son of Alfred and Annie Varney 135 Tickford Street Newport Pagnell. Named on Newport Pagnell War Memorial. Reginald Varney has no known grave. He is commemorated Portsmouth Naval Memorial Hampshire Panel 14.

1916 Rifleman C/7295 Edward Albert French 1^st Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps. Killed in action Thursday 15^th June 1916 at the age of sixteen years. Resident Wolverton. Named on Wolverton and Old Wolverton War Memorial and Stony Stratford War Memorial. Rifleman French is buried in Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) Cemetery Comines-Warneton Hainult Belgium Grave B 2.

SEVENTEEN:

1915 Private 3/7689 Percy Reginald James Ward 3^rd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment. Died Tuesday 4^th May 1915 at the age of seventeen years. Son of James and Elizabeth Ward of Olney Road Lavendon. Named on Lavendon War Memorial. Private Ward is buried in Felixstowe New Cemetery Suffolk Grave J 3.

Tomorrow I will share the names of all EIGHTEEN YEAR OLDS named on our war memorials.

MK Today - Saturday 14th January 2023

Trees are the fingerprints of nature – no two are exactly alike.

Here in Milton Keynes we have twenty-two million trees, every one of them different.

Trees are the history book of nature – if only they could speak what stories would they tell ?

Twenty-two million trees in Milton Keynes which was built as a City of Trees. Twenty-two million with more being added every week.

Which is your favourite tree ? Here is a picture of mine. Where is it to be found ?  I could say you out and look but you’d have a lot of looking to do ! It can be found in Ouzel Valley Park, Woughton. For me this is a very special place.

Trees are the history book of nature – if only they could speak what stories would they tell ?

My friend has lots of stories to tell. In MILTONKEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND I speak of how in days gone by many different ghosts used to roam the open fields of Woughton. This tree, however, is not old enough to remember any encounters. It is located not far from the home during the reign of King James I local witchfinder Rev Henry Turpyn !

Also in MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND I say how we built an arboretum then placed a city beneath its branches.

If we take our city’s population at quarter of a million (There are actually a few more than that but let’s keep the maths simple) that means each and every single one of we Mkeneyans have EIGHTY-EIGHT trees dedicated to us.

What is the population of London ? Nine million.  So how many trees are there in  London ? It would appear that nobody has counted them but for certain it is not one hundred and ninety eight  million.

Birmingham ? Sheffield ? Glasgow ? Cardiff ?

When it comes to trees Milton Keynes is The City of Trees. Twenty-two million beautiful specimens in our arboretum, twenty-two million but not enough. Milton Keynes was planned from its birth in 1967 as a city of trees. Not for environmental reasons but for beauty. Drive around our road system, avoiding Central Milton Keynes, and you will see just how that  beauty has grown. Grown since this document from over fifty years ago.

Here's something from 1970 published by Milton Keynes Development Corporation.

 NO BUILDING SHALL BE TALLER THAN THE TALLEST TREE

How terribly sad that the cowboy planners within Milton Keynes Council have trashed this

foundation stone of our city. Central Milton Keynes or City Centre, I wonder if a forest of giant California Redwoods could obscure that architectural monstrosity !

Where in our beautiful city is your favourite tree ? You won’t find it in Central Milton Keynes, that’s for certain, but as you go about the arboretum seek it out and celebrate the twenty-two million fingerprints to be found in Milton Keynes The City of Trees.

I am a treeaholic. Yes I am a self-confessed treeaholic – where better a place to live than Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes complete with its incredible TWENTY MILLION TREES.

Wouldn’t it be nice if all cities had trees like Milton Keynes.

Read more about our treesand the arboretum beneath which we built our city in MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND

NEXT WEEK I am going to talk about the real people behind the names on our City's war memorials.

MK Today - Saturday 7th January 2023

This photograph shows Sir John Leon – 4^th Baronet of Bletchley Park being presented with his family’s coat of arms by two Leon School students.

Thw photograph was taken in 1990 as part of my project IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS which I ran with students from Leon School.

Sir John wrote the introduction to the published text.

I am utterly charmed that anybody would want to find out about the Leons, and fascinated and grateful that they have.

I feel strangely detached, being mainly brought up in a theatrical family, on my mother’s side. My parents were divorced and my brother and I were made wards of court, so the Leon side was hideously neglected. I only use my title at 35,000 feet, as that is what is on my passport !

I remember my father telling me that the family came from Spain in 1790 and were seriously rich even then. Apparently they haunted the court of the Prince Regent at Brighton, presumably the Pavilion, and hobnobbed with a pretty dodgy Royal group. I do know they lived at Brighton at the beginning of the nineteenth century and were very early members of the London Stock Exchange. The fact that my great-grandfather was an enormously caring Liberal, is more than heartening, and I am much of that persuasion to this day.

So the next time I am sent a “Who’s Who Form”, Re Sir John Leon Bart.,see John Standing , it will be a double whammy as previously I had really never known who they were, and as I have recently produced three more children , the family name will now go spinning into the next century.

Thank you very much at LEON SCHOOL, I am very honoured to be associated with you in any way. Great, great good luck to you all.

John Leon

IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS now has its own chapter in MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF

LEGEND.

It is impossible in the year of 2023 to go anywhere in the City of Milton Keynes without being in sight of a legend. The Leons gave more heritage to our City than any other person or persons. I call Samuel Leon Mr Bletchley but his influence extended way beyond Bletchley Park. Among other things he was a director of Wolverton Tram Company an was for a time our Member of Parliament.

The Leons, Samuel and Fanny Leon, came to Bletchley Park in 1883, one hundred and forty years ago. They were a duo, together giving so much heritage we walk through today. With the death of Lady Leon in 1936 their time with us ended. A short period within the history of Milton Keynes but across those years they gave us so much.

Some words now from Leon School Headmaster Bruce Abbott who added this to the IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS TEXT.

I am an historian as well as a headmaster, I am especially pleased with all the hard work that our young people have put into this book. Some of us probably have memories of history as a rather dull subject, not in any way connected with real life. All the young people in this project, however, have shown tremendous interest and enthusiasm for the research that have undertaken into the Leon Family.

Sir Herbert and Lady Leon, in the early decades of the twentieth century, contributed to the life of Bletchley immeasurably. They were particularly interested in education and it is right that our school should commemorate their service.

Congratulations to all those who have helped to produce this book. It is a task well done and furthermore it is fascinating to read.

Bruce Abbott

Headmaster Leon School

Bletchley Park can be traced all the way back to the Doomsday Book, today it really does not exist any more having become a museum and a housing estate. If you undertake an on-line search for Sir Herbert Leon you will find  lot of inaccurate and incomplete information.

IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS was written with the help of those who in their younger days had known and some who had worked for the family. We trawled the school’s record books and newspaper archives. The former editor of The Bletchley Gazette who knew Lady Leon offered his help. As did the archivist at Eton School where the Leon Children were educated.

Herbert Leon received his knighthood as part of King George V’s Coronation Honours on Thursday 2^nd June 1911. In 2021 I made my own presentation to Buckingham Palace supporting Milton Keynes bid for a city charter. The opening chapter in MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND details this presentation and how I included all the Leons did for their community. I just know how proud Sir Herbert and Lady Leon would be that Her Late Majesty awarded Milton Keynes its city charter within her Platinum Jubilee.

Writing now this week’s edition of MK Today, I want to lift high and celebrate all the Leons gave during their short time at Bletchley Park, to celebrate how this heritage became in 1967 part of the New City of Milton Keynes and in 2022 became part of the City of Milton Keynes.

MILTON KEYNES THE CITY OF LEGEND

Wouldn't it be nice if all cities were like Milton Keynes

The Diary Of A Nobody - 5th January 2023

Thursday 5^th January 2023:

Amazon, I am a great fan of Amazon, has delivered the draft copy of my poetry collection. It’s great so on my doings list this morning is to make it available as an e-book. I am concentrating on real, paperback books but while I was in hospital the other day in the waiting room was a lady reading a Kindle e-book on a tablet.

5.24am watching the news on TV Amazon is reportedly cutting its workforce. Oh dear, I need to write more and I need to promote my books to help Amazon.

I’ve switched the TV off. That horrible little man, Kier Whateverhisnameis, is going to give labour’s view on the prime minister’s speech from yesterday. I need a good day today so I am not going to let him spoil its start.

Went for a walk with Doggie Jake, this time at Saint Giles Tattenhoe. Another mega place of legend. Thomas Becket preached there, that was before he became Archbishop of Canterbury and was murdered in his own cathedral.

I’ve posted copies of Milton Keynes The City Of Legend to both Milton Keynes Members of Parliament, I hope they read the 200,000 words and celebrate our City.

Why am I writing this diary ?  Why did Queen Victoria write a diary ? Samuel Pepys ?

Never mind them. I am writing partly to add positivity to my present situation. These last four weeks since my accident have not been easy. I am also and primarily writing hoping what I am scribbling will encourage others to write for themselves.

Sharing my daily diary on Google Blogger reader statistics are firmly in single figures:

Introduction –

Sunday 1^st January – 5

Monday 2^nd January – 3

Tuesday 3^rd January – 3

Wednesday 3th January – 3

My first edition of MK Today published on 31^st December hit 77. This week’s article for Saturday is ready. Fingers crossed it will pull more than seventy-seven. Ah ! Problem, I cannot cross my fingers wearing this post-operative splint.

I thought to end today’s diary I would dip into that I wrote one year ago. I found I had written rather a lot, rather than edit the words I have decided to add them all.

Wednesday 5^th January 2022 218,724 new cases+ 48 deaths+ 1,924+ hospitalisations

There was a length Downing Street briefing last night on TV. In my mind I am adding this to the three AMAZING Royal Institute lectures given over Christmas by Professor JVT. With one or two slight reservations I find myself agreeing with what The Prime Minister said.

Politics the vomit of society. I coined that phrase. I also coined the phrase: If politics is the vomit of society then the media is bucket used to catch the spew !

The nation lost faith in politicians over the way they so dishonourably behaved with BREXIT. The conservative party does not understand that there are real people at the end of its policies. The labour party fully understands who and what real people are but firmly believes they are only there to play politics with !  The liberal democratic party ? Surly all members should be prosecuted under The Trades Description Act, the only democracy this political insignificance believes in is if it suits its own purpose.

When it came to this pandemic Boris Johnson’s government proved itself to be a government of too little, too late. Boris Johnson failed totally to give the leadership our country needed. However, where would we be had Jeremy Corbyn been resident in Downing Street.

What has angered me every day is the flippant way the statistics are announced and the failure of government to show love and support through its words for the REAL people behind those figures. Families and loved ones going through terrible times of agony and heartbreak. But compare that alongside the way in which the media disrespects these real people and Boris’s Gang become tiny.

The conservative party fails to comprehend the fact that  there are real people behind its policies. Don’t any blue politician dare to lie in the face of the evidence. How many tory vomit producers rebelled within the vote as the government tried to bring in measures recently to protect real people ?  If would be interesting to know how many of these also played politics and disregard to democracy over BREXIT. Would the media set aside its vomit bucket and undertake a bit of research into this topic ? I doubt it !

But in spite of all the vomit give praise where praise is due. Praise is needed here in a very large quantity. Britain has shown leadership to the world with the vaccination programme. Boris has shown leadership inspiring volunteers to support vaccinations. What he said last night and what Professor JVT said in the lectures was right. I  wonder how many politicians watched those three utterly brilliant lectures ? I wonder how many who did watch them understood them as did the teenage audience !

The government had made the wearing of masks mandatory in certain places. Professor JVT fully explained the reasoning behind this. But why in my  local supermarket do so many staff members ignore this rule ? Why is it members of the public think it is acceptable to wear a mask with their nose poking out ? In my experience offenders tend to be older people.

Why does the government not think social distancing should be brought back ?  My local branch of Poundland has decided to use its own common sense and reintroduce the measure.

I am taking lateral flow tests. JVT again gave a brilliant explanation as to why we need these tests and how they work. I have had no issues at all obtaining tests. Why is it an option to file test results ? Surely this should be mandatory.

We are now seeing areas within society being overwhelmed by staff absence due to positive testing. We are on the edge of society collapsing due to staff absence in a wide area of employment. Yet there is a significant number of people who have not been vaccinated !

No vaccination = no engagement outside the offender’s home !  Why not ?  Don’t give me all that human rights rubbish. The REAL people behind the numbers reported each day have rights do they not !

It used to be socially acceptable to smoke. It is not now and laws are in place protecting society from smokers. Nobody complains about human rights there do they !

It used to be the norm to drive a car without wearing a seatbelt. Not now. The fine for failing to observe this law is accepted, people wear seatbelts. Human rights ?

Does human rights not include common sense ?  Does human rights not include love and respect for other people ?  Does human rights include politics and all the vomit it produces ?

Was I right or AM I right !

The Diary Of A Nobody - 4th January 2023

 

Wednesday 4^th January 2023:

For the first time since my accident on 8^th December I slept in my own bed. A lovely night’s sleep but one punctuated too many times by my need for the loo ! 3.30am Doggie Jake wanted the loo so I had to get up. He’s gone back to sleep but I couldn’t so here I am at the laptop – 5am. Let’s see what the TV news is.

Main item is the fact that the USA has failed to elect a speaker for its house of congress. Do I look as if I am remotely interested ! Droned on for seven minutes.

Russia says soldiers using smart-phones enabled Ukraine to target attacks picking up their signals. Excellent ! For once dumbo smart-phones have achieved something of worth.

China gave the world the pandemic in 2000 so why are people getting excited about 2013 travel restrictions ?  Have we not learned anything ?

China Virus, that’s what I always called it during the pandemic, had figures one year ago of: Tuesday 4^th January 2022: 157,758 new cases  42 deaths and 1,1915 hospitalisations. Have we learned nothing ?

Also on the news the prime minister says that everyone should study Maths to the age of 18 years. I can think of a lot better things than that to study as a teenager.

7.45am I had a bath, fist since my accident. Lovely. Not easy getting in and out but feeling so much better.

I do not want this this diary to turn into a record of my writing but:

WEALTH BEHIND BARS: 1,179 words written today bringing the total to 31,952. Rapidly coming towards the story’s conclusion.

THE ADVENTURE OF MY KA IN A BRAVE NEW WORLD: I started today to check the draft text I began working on way back on 5^th September then set aside when Microcrap updated my pc, hacking in overnight and causing me to lose a day’s work. Now I am picking up from that date, 28^th September, ready to continue writing once Wealth Behind Bars is finished.

Trees are the fingerprints of nature – no two are the same. We went to Woughton again for walk. Next time I am going to take my camera and photograph some of the beautiful trees to be found in this special place.

Amazon will later be delivering copies of Milton Keynes The City Of Legend. I have typed and printed letters to send copies to our two Milton Keynes Members of Parliament.

 

The Diary Of A Nobody - 3rd January 2023

Tuesday 3rd January 2023:

           What will today bring ?

O have to5.55am: I slept on the settee last night. My legs are less swollen. With the NHS in crisis I feel guilty but today I am going to have to call the hospital and ask if the cast can be taken off my right hand.

I am waiting for the 6am news on TV.  

6am: BBC News. Now the Bullshit Broadcasting Corporation has finished its self-congratulatory adverts FINALLY the news headlines !  Rail strikes, the government says that  passengers have had enough ! But who have they had enough with ? The striking rail staff or the government ?  I don’t use the trains myself, I find this to be a user unfriendly form of transport.  People are being told to wear a face masks again as flu is spreading like crazy and adding yet more pressure to the NHS. Businesses are complaining about the cost of energy. (Again)

The topic that caught my attention was an alert that there are not enough volunteers to train dogs for the blind. So many people without sight and in need of a canine friend are able to be supported. As a kid at school the aluminium tops from breaktime milk bottles were always collected to be melted down and sold in aluminium bars for dogs for the blind.

Sleeping last night I hoed for a 4am moment to help me with the next part of Wealth Behind Bars. I would like to finish the draft story by the end of the week, The dawn did not oblige but when I was awake these words came to me:

When you dream your activities are not confined to merely three dimensions. When that dream turns into a nightmare dimensions flow from one to infinity. That night Jake’s dream saw him flow through dimensions of beautiful rainbow colours, when his nightmare came the only colour was black and a total absence of any rainbow.

11.31am:  I have just returned from hospital. Had the plaster taken off my arm, the operation was a huge success. Such loving care. Starting physiotherapy, got an appointment next week. I LOVE OUR NHS.

Returning from the hospital my tiger adoption from WWF has arrived. Welcome Tigger.

1.16pm I’ve just done my physio therapy exercised for my hand. NOT easy, I’ve still hot a long way to go. My whole arm is aching.

BBC News. First item was the rail strikes which are not relevant to me. Then the NHS crisis which is so relevant. Crisis yes but love and care continue. Then the situation regarding training dogs for blind people again touched my heart. What can I do ?

Maureen and I have been watching Detectorists on BBC I Player.  A couple of months ago she lost an ear ring in the garden. We have searched and searched for it without success. Suddenly there it was staring up at me.

I ended my day watching Yesterday – the film centred on music from The Beatles. It’s a great tale. Time travel is my favourite genre of writing.

What will tomorrow bring ?

Speak again then.

The Diary Of A Nobody - 2nd January 2023

Monday 2nd January 2023:

I LOVE OUR NHS

5am and I am watching television news. My right arm aches, I need to have the plaster cast removed. I need it to happen but I do not want it to happen.

Yesterday the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke out about failures within the care system. I usually don not listen to pontificating vicars and do not support them but right now I am one hundred and one percent behind Archbishop Justin Welby.

Right now the news is reporting five hundred people a week are dying because the NHS is not equipped to care for them. Five hundred people are dying when they would live if the NHS was properly resourced to care for them.

Nurses and paramedics going on strike is not about pay, it is far deeper than that. Public support is close to universal. I have always said that the conservative party does not understand the fact that there are  real people at the end of its policies, this situation is a perfect example of this. The labour party, of course, knows very well there are real people but think we only exist for its members to play politics with ! His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, where has that disappeared to !

In the 1980’s I ran an extended essay project with students at Leon School debating the restoration of the death penalty. Forty years ago bringing back hanging was a possibility. I have written extensively about hanging, books such as BEHIND THE NOOSE OR NOT and THE HANGMAN’S GRANDSON. Why has the death penalty been restored by failing to support our NHS in saving lives ?

Forty-three thousand civilians were killed during the Blitz in World War Two, one thousand and seventy-five a week. At the beginning of December last year around 250 people a week were losing their lives to Covid.

We went again for a little walk at Woughton, it knackered me but I need to get the swelling down on my feet. Woughton is a beautiful place, sheep were grazing in the field which are ridge and furrow pre-dating the enclosures. I can’t drive, obviously and being a passenger is uncomfortable so I can only manage short distances. On the way home along Grove Way, one of the oldest roads in Milton Keynes, a beautiful fox ran across the road. We were just by the Open University, the beauty of nature and learning from the world’s largest university met.

Looking back to what I wrote one year ago, I recorded the Covid figures: Sunday 2^nd January 2022  162,572 new cases  154 deaths 1,915 hospitalisations

Going back two years I scribbled these words within a larger document. I do not feel safe right now, I do not trust the government and never have as it fails to act quickly enough. Remember Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ?  Remember her words: You turn if you want to, the lady’s not for turning !  This could be re-written: You turn if you want to but you’ll never turn as many times as Boris does !

I do hope we will see another U turn. Keep all schools closed until pupils and staff can be vaccinated. With this new strain of China Virus it is essential we lock down all gatherings where the virus can put two fingers up to mankind.  Yes, my heart bleeds for the teenagers who are having their lives ripped apart right now, important formative times destroyed by the China Virus. However, better that than their lives ended ! 

Boris wake up and U turn !

Now two years later I am begging within my heart for everything to U turn for our NHS. Two years ago I apparently was not a fan of Boris. Today I am saying: Bring back Boris !

To end today’s diary I have checked out a few things that happened in days gone by:

2^nd January 1963 in The Vietnam War the Viet Cong won its first major victory. On this day I was 12 years of age.

2^nd January 1974 former Hollywood actor Ronald Regan was sworn in as Governor of California. On this day I was twenty-three years of age.

2^nd January 1981 one of the largest British police investigations ended with the arrest of Peter Sutcliffe, The Yorkshire Ripper. He died last November, a truly evil man. On this day I was forty years of age.

Today I am seventy-two years of age. I wish I wasn’t !

The Diary Of A Nobody - 1st Janary 2023

Sunday 1^st January 2023:

Happy New Year !

In medieval times 25^th December was the date of religious importance with church leaders belittling New Year Day and 1^st January. Pope Gregory XIII re-established January 1^st as New Year's Day in 1582. Who was on the throne of England on 1^st January 1582 ? King James I. As old as I am I cannot remember that far back. I can, however, recall1974 when January 1^st became a bank holiday. Today the banks may be closed but shops are open ready to empty our bank accounts.

Monday 1^st January 1968 and Wednesday 1^st January 1969 (We had a leap year in 1968)    I was working as a management trainee in the giant Birmingham city centre department store Lewis’s Limited. The New Year Sale really did begin on 1^st January. Not sure about the customers but for we staff members the January Sale was a fun time.

I am guessing it was 1^st January 1970, I had left the department store by then, that a group of mates and I went to the foot of Dovedale in Derbyshire then scrambled up to the top of Thorpe Cloud hill to see in the New Year and the start of a new decade. Still a teenager, I was part of a group of kids who were pressganged into being part of a BBC TV Songs of Praise with the theme Living In The 1970’s.

1971 saw we gang of mates, sadly I was no longer teenager having in November hit the terrible age of twenty, become a bit more ambitious and see the New Year in on the summit of Kinder Scout in the Peak District.

1972 and we went for the ultimate challenge, no not Everest but Snowdon which became the last time Yours Truly invited a mountain to celebrate a New Year. Two years later in 1974, who was Prime Minister that far back in history, the government declared 1^st January to be a public holiday. Prime Minister ? It was Edward Heath. Did he keep a diary ? If he did I bet it would have been one dead boring read.

The average age of someone living in the UK is forty years so to the majority of those I am here wishing a Happy New Year you have been reading history. You don’t need to be four decades of age but you’ll need to be thirty or so to remember the Millennium New Year. The last time we had a millennium here in England it was the Anglo Saxons who were wishing you Happy New Year.

It will be another nine hundred and seventy-seven years before we again celebrate a new millennium. Were you around at the end of the last millennium ? How did you see in this one ?

I was actually in America, in Detroit Michigan. The adjacent state of Illinois is in a different time zone, one hour behind Michigan.  I saw the Millennium New Year in twice. Firstly in a layby in Michigan the home of the motor industry and the beautiful Great Lakes before crossing into Prairie State of Illinois and pulling up in a garage forecourt.  

But all that is history, what about this year of 2023 ?

Well I didn’t sit up to see the New Year in but I was sitting in my chair when the celebratory fireworks woke me up ! Since I fell and injures myself on 8^th December I have not been able to lay down to sleep. Three weeks ago today I had an operation on my right arm and the cast is too uncomfortable. With our NHS in crisis having that cast removed is of the lowest priority. I love our NHS and the discomfort, pain is too strong a word, is  24/7 reminder of the dedication staff within the service give to caring for their patients. Perhaps the prime minister and every member of government should have a broken arm and  plaster cast to remind them of the real people caring within our National Health Service.

Sitting down all day and sleeping in the same chair at night has caused my feet to swell so this morning we went for a walk at Woughton. Within Milton Keynes there are more ghosts per square yard than anywhere else in our City. I saw where Whitchfinder Turpyn lived but did not bump into any ghosts. Perhaps they were all sleeping it off after last night’s celebrations.

While we were out Maureen went to a garden centre and loaded up with a load of spring bulbs at 50p a packet. She planted them in the garden. When in three months time they bloom I will remember today. I don’t have green fingers so even if they were not in a plaster cast I would have not been able to help.

I do not want this diary to turn into a record of my writing but today Amazon accepted my book Poetry The Melody Of Words. I then picked up on my story Wealth Behind Bars and sitting here in my chair with my laptop on my knee I knocked out another seven hundred and fifty words. But NO, I do not want this diary to become a record of my writing. With the writing I want to use the books to support matters which are close to my heart and to encourage other people to write for themselves. If you are reading this entry would you like to write diary ? I bet you could make it more interesting than this scribble.

Am I making a New Year Resolution ?

After 2022 being such a bad year medically and the two years before that being full of pandemic, I never caught Covid by the way, 2023 needs to be a positive year and so my resolution is to do my best to make it so.