ABOUT THIS BLOG
Re-published after many years dormant March 25 2022:
It has been a long time since I posted here and it is a medium I should better use. To-date I have tended to use Facebook and twitter but it makes sense to revise my writing here
My hope is that [an] escalator over the hill will be that of an “In-former” or perhaps even a “share former” I thought that many blogs were narcissistic and “Me-former”. After blogging for a few weeks I can see that my harsh cynicism perhaps clouded my view of all the fantastic contributions out there in the “great unwashed” By its very nature I recognise now that I too ran the risk of writing “all about me”.
What I am trying to do in my blog is to tie anything I do write about the world, perhaps a daft recipe or write something that has happened in my life while putting it in to ‘a’ context of a wider event or issue.
I received some criticism about some of my writing. This was made in particular to my references to some personal experiences I have had recently that tied into comments I made in a couple of posts . The critique was fair and balanced.
I want this to blog is to be informative without being heavy. I intend to be provocative. There is no faint heart here and you notice I do not to write anonymously. So I will not hide within the safety of anonymity
Why [an] escalator over the hill?
About the MastHead picture the escalator is a metaphor of a life opening with greater ease to new ideas that nestle just over the hill. The trees are representative of shadows cast a dense over growth of an overhanging forest that may keep our minds from light and in perpetual darkness.
Its like Two people [you and me] are standing opposite sides of a hill It might be tall hill or it could be small it doesn’t matter. We can be of any origin looking skywards to see a cloud; the same cloud. Though it is the same cloud we see because of where we stand we see it differently. Yet it is the same.
The lesson is we all have our view and we have our truth but because we can see something that is the same it doesn’t follow we will not see it differently.
The hill can be an obstruction to seeing the other view and it maybe a ride one does not want to take. The density of the forest may stop us from seeing the light of other ideas. It is a tunnel. The escalator is intended to make the passage less challenging swifter and enjoyable
My hope is that [an] escalator over the hill will provide the ticket to quickly see another concept, another point of view and to be open to a richness of experience that may just lie over the other side.
I want [an] escalator over the hill to challenge and provoke thinking and I invite other views.
There is always more learning and unlearning to be done. There is much understanding and tolerance and compassion to be embraced if we are to indeed make the world a better place. I hope I am able to engage and not disengage and make my contribution to that better place.
Whether we aspire to alternative political thought or appreciate our music but not those of others, “like our stuff but not theirs” and believe we have all the answers we will find the tentacles of narcissism and self-importance slowly start to strangle all that can make this world a much better place.
I do not want write anything behind a veil of anonymity or anything that vilifies any individual unfairly or knowingly discredits because it is a lie
This last point is something that is very important to me and one I have suffered egregiously in the past Anything I write is open for critique.
Be sure you know your ground because I am known to return fire with interest’
I will not allow any racial or gender vilification.
What I want is:
to share the music from my journey including the earliest times when I have my first recollection of my introduction to music on a 78 disk Davy Crockett which must have been in 1956.”phew” Now that is one long time ago 🙂
To explore what music I like, what I don’t and why
I want to share contemporary thinking and reading
I want to give some political thought and some social commentary about those ills I see in our society and learn better of those I don’t even know of yet.
I am not an academic. I am just an ordinary working class bloke. So what I write will be tied to real life experiences and not hinged around some intellectual “mumbo jumbo” that no one really understands. I typically have in mind economists, political leaders, sociologists and wanker WOKEists
I will write [personally] about my stuff that I hope will make you smile from time to time. I will write about the things kept in my “happy box”
Happy Box you may ask? For some years and inspired by the ABC program Collectors I embarked on a project to locate items from my childhood. ebay has been fantastic for this Items that brought me much happiness which include books, boys annuals, comics, toy cars a picture of my first Bruin and until Zara my first Guide dog puppy, and much more.
Below are some pictures of my Children’s Home
The memorabilia including toys from the 50s and 60s. In this later part of the journey I am mindful of how it was inspired by Terry Bedford the recent Director of the BBC series Robin Hood for whom I often baby sat his daughter Katie.
I will write sometimes about my son, my passion for the World game (especially Millwall, Celtic and Scottish Football) Motorcycle racing, old toys I have been collecting, books I read, my Cats and “slow food 4 fast people”.
From time to time I will include Food and cooking which is something I have recently re discovered after almost 5 years of being discouraged from venturing near the stove. My simple approach to cooking was not encouraged in a household focused on appearances and “posh” food.
I may even post the odd pathetic picture of an attempted culinary (tongue in cheek) delight. While I am no Jamie Oliver, Maggie Bear or Rick Stein (whom I am told I sound quite like) I have re discovered I am quite good at cooking.
I am inspired to write by my son “my” old lads [on Facebook] in the UK from the Riverside Youth Club I ran in London over 30 years ago. One David Jefferies drove me forward to write. Many not all of these boys now well and truly men had a very different taste in music to that of mine and have different political views.
They would be surprised at my diversity of my music taste today.
However at 16 I recall the influence of a boy a couple of years older at Eltham Green who introduced me to Tamla Motown, Marvin Gaye The Temptations and Smokey Robinson. As such he was probably the biggest single influence on my contemporary taste in music.
The time also collided with James Browns first tour of the UK. I was indeed very fortunate to be taken to see James Brown in Sydney in 2006 by a significant friend at the time.
Today I am blessed with a great collection Contemporary and of Classical music and for the latter I have to thank my Father, his Father and my dear sister. I have a great passion for motorcycles and this is something given to me again by my real Father
Those who know me well will know of my keen interest in Motor Sport mainly in the 60s and this I believe stems from my first Motor Racing book received for my 8th birthday.
An “escalator over the hill” will be a vehicle to develop and maintain news contact with those children some of the “forgotten ones” who were brought up with me in the National Children’s Home Harpenden (NCH).
We are spread across the globe From New York to Australia. We range from lawyers to even one who went on to be the official historian of probably one of the worlds largest and notorious 1% Motorcycle clubs.
This experience gave me and us all a sense of comradeship, community and perhaps equipped me with the resilience to handle the challenges of life’s experiences to come..some time it was a close run thing
Key to my life was my house Mother Sister Eva Brooker of over almots 5 years who was a most lovely person and who’s picture (see about me) I have with me always and who sadly I was not able to find before she passed away
Me on the lawn at Harpenden
Having obtained my home records was an incredible part of my journey of discovery and though I was too late to find Sister Eva I thank David Hill for pointing me in the right direction to finding the first book end of my life as the other today 2020is closing a little fast
I am always reminded by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1 States..
” All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.
Article 12
“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy,family home or correspondence,nor attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attack.
At the time of creating this blog I learned of the death of my comrade friend and outstanding trombonist Paul Rutherford who had died a couple of years back. Paul had introduced me to ISKRA and the Mike Westbrook band exponents the Avant-garde “New Jazz”. The band recorded a 3 record box set of New Jazz. It was called Escalator over the Hill. I still have this in my collection today
From time to time in the annuls of this journal I will mention others who have inspired and continue to inspire me.
There will people from all walks of life include my boys from
the South East End of London, Riverside, Pepys Estate, The NCH, my Friends from Kings Cross Sydney. including Johnny Lewis and Tony Mundine, my Coffee mates at Toby’s Cafe in Wooloomooloo and some of my great friends in Canberra including Mark, Carolyne and Eva who were a tremendous help in my crisis of homelessness in August 2010.
Putting one on Tony Mundine 🙂
So this is a medium including Facebook and twitter where I hope to share my narrative and simple “laddish” stuff with you.
Get on board. I do hope you will enjoy “an escalator over the hill”
For you to readily recognise a post that might be of interest to you I am going to use a system of logos to represent various topics. Lets see how it works?
 |
politics |
 |
in search of stupidity |
|
reading, books and poetry |
 |
music |
 |
food and cooking |
 |
cars and motorcycles |
 |
sport |
 |
more sport – especially cricket |
 |
things from my childhood, illustrated by my dog Bruin |
 |
community and social comment |
 |
my cats |
 |
travel |
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escalator over the hill 
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Re-published after many years dormant March 25 2022:
It has been a long time since I posted here and it is a medium I should better use. To-date I have tended to use Facebook and twitter but it makes sense to revise my writing here
My hope is that [an] escalator over the hill will be that of an “In-former” or perhaps even a “share former” I thought that many blogs were narcissistic and “Me-former”. After blogging for a few weeks I can see that my harsh cynicism perhaps clouded my view of all the fantastic contributions out there in the “great unwashed” By its very nature I recognise now that I too ran the risk of writing “all about me”.
What I am trying to do in my blog is to tie anything I do write about the world, perhaps a daft recipe or write something that has happened in my life while putting it in to ‘a’ context of a wider event or issue.
I received some criticism about some of my writing. This was made in particular to my references to some personal experiences I have had recently that tied into comments I made in a couple of posts . The critique was fair and balanced.
I want this to blog is to be informative without being heavy. I intend to be provocative. There is no faint heart here and you notice I do not to write anonymously. So I will not hide within the safety of anonymity
Why [an] escalator over the hill?
About the MastHead picture the escalator is a metaphor of a life opening with greater ease to new ideas that nestle just over the hill. The trees are representative of shadows cast a dense over growth of an overhanging forest that may keep our minds from light and in perpetual darkness.
Its like Two people [you and me] are standing opposite sides of a hill It might be tall hill or it could be small it doesn’t matter. We can be of any origin looking skywards to see a cloud; the same cloud. Though it is the same cloud we see because of where we stand we see it differently. Yet it is the same.
The lesson is we all have our view and we have our truth but because we can see something that is the same it doesn’t follow we will not see it differently.
The hill can be an obstruction to seeing the other view and it maybe a ride one does not want to take. The density of the forest may stop us from seeing the light of other ideas. It is a tunnel. The escalator is intended to make the passage less challenging swifter and enjoyable
My hope is that [an] escalator over the hill will provide the ticket to quickly see another concept, another point of view and to be open to a richness of experience that may just lie over the other side.
I want [an] escalator over the hill to challenge and provoke thinking and I invite other views.
There is always more learning and unlearning to be done. There is much understanding and tolerance and compassion to be embraced if we are to indeed make the world a better place. I hope I am able to engage and not disengage and make my contribution to that better place.
Whether we aspire to alternative political thought or appreciate our music but not those of others, “like our stuff but not theirs” and believe we have all the answers we will find the tentacles of narcissism and self-importance slowly start to strangle all that can make this world a much better place.
I do not want write anything behind a veil of anonymity or anything that vilifies any individual unfairly or knowingly discredits because it is a lie
This last point is something that is very important to me and one I have suffered egregiously in the past Anything I write is open for critique.
Be sure you know your ground because I am known to return fire with interest’
I will not allow any racial or gender vilification.
What I want is:
to share the music from my journey including the earliest times when I have my first recollection of my introduction to music on a 78 disk Davy Crockett which must have been in 1956.”phew” Now that is one long time ago 🙂
To explore what music I like, what I don’t and why
I want to share contemporary thinking and reading
I want to give some political thought and some social commentary about those ills I see in our society and learn better of those I don’t even know of yet.
I am not an academic. I am just an ordinary working class bloke. So what I write will be tied to real life experiences and not hinged around some intellectual “mumbo jumbo” that no one really understands. I typically have in mind economists, political leaders, sociologists and wanker WOKEists
I will write [personally] about my stuff that I hope will make you smile from time to time. I will write about the things kept in my “happy box”
Happy Box you may ask? For some years and inspired by the ABC program Collectors I embarked on a project to locate items from my childhood. ebay has been fantastic for this Items that brought me much happiness which include books, boys annuals, comics, toy cars a picture of my first Bruin and until Zara my first Guide dog puppy, and much more.
Below are some pictures of my Children’s Home
The memorabilia including toys from the 50s and 60s. In this later part of the journey I am mindful of how it was inspired by Terry Bedford the recent Director of the BBC series Robin Hood for whom I often baby sat his daughter Katie.
I will write sometimes about my son, my passion for the World game (especially Millwall, Celtic and Scottish Football) Motorcycle racing, old toys I have been collecting, books I read, my Cats and “slow food 4 fast people”.
From time to time I will include Food and cooking which is something I have recently re discovered after almost 5 years of being discouraged from venturing near the stove. My simple approach to cooking was not encouraged in a household focused on appearances and “posh” food.
I may even post the odd pathetic picture of an attempted culinary (tongue in cheek) delight. While I am no Jamie Oliver, Maggie Bear or Rick Stein (whom I am told I sound quite like) I have re discovered I am quite good at cooking.
I am inspired to write by my son “my” old lads [on Facebook] in the UK from the Riverside Youth Club I ran in London over 30 years ago. One David Jefferies drove me forward to write. Many not all of these boys now well and truly men had a very different taste in music to that of mine and have different political views.
They would be surprised at my diversity of my music taste today.
However at 16 I recall the influence of a boy a couple of years older at Eltham Green who introduced me to Tamla Motown, Marvin Gaye The Temptations and Smokey Robinson. As such he was probably the biggest single influence on my contemporary taste in music.
The time also collided with James Browns first tour of the UK. I was indeed very fortunate to be taken to see James Brown in Sydney in 2006 by a significant friend at the time.
Today I am blessed with a great collection Contemporary and of Classical music and for the latter I have to thank my Father, his Father and my dear sister. I have a great passion for motorcycles and this is something given to me again by my real Father
Those who know me well will know of my keen interest in Motor Sport mainly in the 60s and this I believe stems from my first Motor Racing book received for my 8th birthday.
An “escalator over the hill” will be a vehicle to develop and maintain news contact with those children some of the “forgotten ones” who were brought up with me in the National Children’s Home Harpenden (NCH).
We are spread across the globe From New York to Australia. We range from lawyers to even one who went on to be the official historian of probably one of the worlds largest and notorious 1% Motorcycle clubs.
This experience gave me and us all a sense of comradeship, community and perhaps equipped me with the resilience to handle the challenges of life’s experiences to come..some time it was a close run thing
Key to my life was my house Mother Sister Eva Brooker of over almots 5 years who was a most lovely person and who’s picture (see about me) I have with me always and who sadly I was not able to find before she passed away
Me on the lawn at Harpenden
Having obtained my home records was an incredible part of my journey of discovery and though I was too late to find Sister Eva I thank David Hill for pointing me in the right direction to finding the first book end of my life as the other today 2020is closing a little fast
I am always reminded by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1 States..
” All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.
Article 12
“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy,family home or correspondence,nor attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attack.
At the time of creating this blog I learned of the death of my comrade friend and outstanding trombonist Paul Rutherford who had died a couple of years back. Paul had introduced me to ISKRA and the Mike Westbrook band exponents the Avant-garde “New Jazz”. The band recorded a 3 record box set of New Jazz. It was called Escalator over the Hill. I still have this in my collection today
From time to time in the annuls of this journal I will mention others who have inspired and continue to inspire me.
There will people from all walks of life include my boys from
the South East End of London, Riverside, Pepys Estate, The NCH, my Friends from Kings Cross Sydney. including Johnny Lewis and Tony Mundine, my Coffee mates at Toby’s Cafe in Wooloomooloo and some of my great friends in Canberra including Mark, Carolyne and Eva who were a tremendous help in my crisis of homelessness in August 2010.
Putting one on Tony Mundine 🙂
So this is a medium including Facebook and twitter where I hope to share my narrative and simple “laddish” stuff with you.
Get on board. I do hope you will enjoy “an escalator over the hill”
For you to readily recognise a post that might be of interest to you I am going to use a system of logos to represent various topics. Lets see how it works?
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Like this:
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Posted in Blogging, Books and Reading, Family & Property Law, Philosophy, Politics, Social comment, Uncategorized | Tags: Child Abuse, Children in Care, defacto, Family Law, Human Rights, Jonny Lang, NCH, property rights