When was the last time you printed the photos on your camera? How about the last time you took a picture without thinking of social media? These questions have been in my mind for a while and today I would like to share my views on it.

Social media is taking over us and we need to stop this. Sometimes letting go is just the healthiest option. Letting go for your good. A lot of us are not realising but social media is becoming an obsession, something dangerous, something it really isn’t worthy of.

Next time you go to a restaurant, try and enjoy your food without feeling the need to take a picture. Next time you go on a journey, enjoy every moment without needing to snapchat it, without needing to view your surroundings through a lens. Look at it nakedly, barely.

We need to stop distancing ourselves from reality,wake…

Thank you Sue for this wonderful opportunity to talk about Mum’s recently published book ‘My Vibrating Vertebrae: and other poems’.

Before I do though, I’d also like to thank two other special people:

My little sister, Lorna, for finding, compiling and typing all Mum’s poems she could find before sending them to me for further action. I know this was a true labour of love for her.

My lovely author friend and editor, Jo Robinson, for doing such a great job of arranging, editing and formatting Mum’s poems while maintaining Mum’s ‘Voice’ – Not the easiest of things to do, especially when not familiar with some of the Ulster / Scots terminology used by everyone in Mum’s home town, even I struggle with it sometimes and I lived there for 27 years before leaving for other lands and climes.

See details of what Author Support Services Jo offers in…

Ode of the Dying Snowflake
I am a dying snowflake.
Smiling;
at oblivion’s laugh;
as my time goes past.
(C)BJG(Blair Gaulton)July 2016

Anyone who has read Edgar Allan Poe can attest to his use of the English language to convey beauty as poignant and surreal to whatever situation life may reveal. His sense of the macabre is elegant and alluring, so much so that we see ourselves as the very target of ethereal forces at work.

The story of ‘Ligeia’ represents Poe’s fascination with love and the occult, the hidden side of life not often visited but which can unexpectedly manifest itself into the realm of the living. Love is enchanting at first and then assembles a castle of obsession. This theme is well represented in the very name of ‘Ligeia’, which borrows heavily from its origins as one of the Sirens in Greek mythology enticing sailors with alluring melodies and enchanted singing, causing blind obsession for the hypnotic sounds as the victims sail closer and closer, only to fall off the…

A Roman writing tablet found in the mud. Photo: MOLA / Atlas Obscura

On January 8, 57 AD, Tibullus, a freed slave in London, promised to repay 105 denarii, a hefty sum, to another freed slave named Gratus. Meanwhile, one friend admonished another that he’s lent too much money and is being gossiped about. And a merchant was making a desperate plea for repayment of debts owed to him.

We know all this, thanks to an archeological treasure recently unearthed, as reported by Atlas Obscura: over 400 writing tablets that document financial transactions that are the oldest handwritten documents discovered in England.

Notekeeping, the Roman Way

Image: Erik Kwakkel / British Museum: Wooden shaft with nib excavated at Vindolanda (late Antique)

As befits a business people, Romans founded London around 40 AD in order to facilitate commerce. And commerce means records. When recording something for posterity, the Romans used

A book of poems upon his grave

Could not the poet save.

The few his words touched

Failed to keep him from the dust.

Let me tell you a story happened  20 years ago which changed my life. Me and my friends were living peacefully. Cool breeze, birds singing on our branches, children playing around us. Everything was going well, except the monsoons which are hard due to the river beside… 

Well one day everything changed.. The land owner decided to make a house. He needed wood for making doors. We came to know about this from the conversation between land owner and the woodcutter.
Well,we were all afraid… The woodcutter said he will come after four days to kill us….All of us started crying except the one next to me…The Oak. He was smiling. I asked him,
“Why are you smiling? We all are going to die in four days and you are smiling. What’s wrong with you?”

The Oak was two years  elder than me. He wasn’t so strong in physique but …