Sunday March 23rd
Arsenal V Chelsea - who'll win?
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It is 6.20am on Easter Sunday morning. The dawn chorus is now beginning at 5.10 for those of you who have been following my dawn chorus time checks.
Well here we go, another day and, who knows what it will bring. At the time of writing this blog, I haven't a clue what I am going to write about. We could be just about anywhere by the time I reach the end, from the law courts, the media or hopefully just you and me. Not everything that appears in these blogs is original. During the course of writing them I am guilty of plagiarism, foraging and theft. Some of the material arrives overnight through dreams or a restless brain unable to sleep and resorts to blogging before finally conking out. Most of the material will be true; however we will always find space for good quality lies. Like is says in the Lords Prayer "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us". So it is that I will forage and forgive those who forage against me.
So far the IOM newspapers have visited us and next month Manx Tails will forage and print bits of the blog from time to time.
I like to think I am bringing happiness through the blog. I'd like to bring happiness to those who read it and to those who don't. That was a bit of foraging from Oscar Wilde who said, "Everyone brings happiness. Some bring it with them; others leave it when they go".
One of Oscar Wilde's country men, George Bernard Shaw, once wrote to Churchill inviting him to the opening night of one of his plays in London. Shaw enclosed two tickets, and wrote "Please bring a friend if you have one!" Churchill replied. "Sorry, I can't come to the opening night. However, I will attend the second night, if there is one!"
Jim Callaghan the former British Prime Minister, once said. "A lie is halfway round the World before the truth has got its boot's on." In those days lies were not aided and abetted by the internet. Of course, neither was the truth. When I hit the send key on this computer, by the time I arrive downstairs and in my armchair, this blog could be anywhere from Langness point to Cape Horn. 2 years ago I wrote and read a eulogy at the funeral of my wonderful friend. Major Tommy Thirtle. By the time I arrived home, someone had taken the trouble to copy the Eulogy down and had it up and available for people to read on the internet. I am going to have to learn to be more careful. But of course I won't be. Just about anything you write these days can turn up anywhere, any place and travel any distance.
When working or at least being employed by the bank, during a quiet spell, I wrote a poem about the Ben My Chree. The Ben My Chree was new to the Steam Packet Company then and was getting a lot of stick for missing many of her sailings. Anyway, I took my poem down to the pub that night and gave it to the first person that asked for a copy. That person took the poem to work and printed off 100's of copies. By lunchtime the following day, folks were walking along Strand Street clutching a copy. By the day after the poem was being recited on Manx Radio. By the end of the week, it was everywhere. A cafe in Ramsey even tried to sell me a copy. The point is, it began life on a scrap piece of paper and was simply given to someone in a pub. Had that not happened, it would have ended up in my bin and never heard of again. A similar thing happened with a poem I wrote about a public toilet in Ballabeg. This time I shared my poem in Ballabeg church or was it Colby, I can't quite remember now. Anyway I was giving one of my after dinner talks there, only on this occasion it was about 6 hours after the dinner. I recited my new Ballabeg public toilet poem. I had lit the fuse. The poem took off and sped its way to the Lord only knows where. The poem turned up in various places and publications and last year I actually heard Walter Gilby reading the poem on Manx Radio from the Braide eisteddfod.
So it is with blogging. You simply never know where your blog is going to end up or, who might be reading it. You just write and light the fuse. The rest of it, I have absolutely no control over. It will fly and land wherever it chooses. On the other hand, it might sink like a stone at my feet.
Tom Glassey. News at 8.03 Blogging , on the banks of the Silverburn River.
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