Soul Cakes

Hallowe'en seems like the one day of the year when everything comes right. I'm not bothered about the consumer exploitation of All Hallows Eve; I simply feel like I've joined the consensus reality around me when the shops are full of plastic spiders, cobweb-themed outfits and fake blood. Or maybe the consensus reality has joined in with me.

But it bothers me that I keep hearing complaints that the UK is experiencing the Americanisation of Hallowe'en through the trick or treat phenomenon. The practice of children dressing up and going door to door is traditional in Scotland and Ireland, and some parts of the north of England too. In Scotland it was traditional for children to go guising, which means wearing a disguise and calling on your neighbours, doing a simple turn such a reciting a poem or performing a card trick or some small entertainment. In my day this had slightly degenerated, in some cases, into telling a joke - well at least it's a form of entertainment. These guisers were then rewarded with apples, nuts, a few sweets or a few coins. This tradition was completely unknown in most parts of England and Wales.

Now I understand that the objection to trick or treaters comes from good people questioning whether they should be held-up by small pirates on their own door steps, demanding "candy". Well, I recognise the individual right to a curmudgeonly "Humbug!" so I'll say nothing. How would it be instead if impoverished children appeared at your door saying prayers for the souls of your dead relatives? And in response you could give them a soul cake, the eating of which freed your loved-one's soul from purgatory, as was traditional in parts of Britain from Medieval times. No transatlantic invasion there.

For myself I'm happy to see kids dress as zombies and go round the neighbourhood in a state of sugar-fuelled intoxication. It's imaginative, it's outdoors and it's better than Nintendo Wii.

Pictured above is the maginficent Myrna Loy.

The Questing Vole

Am currently looking into the world of voles. I had a very timid encounter with a mousey type creatue in a shamanic journey the other evening, the evening of the 31st of December, in fact. A quick spot of nosing around the next day revealed that the mousey creature is one of the reddish-coloured voles. Having fun finding out more.... There's about 70 odd species of vole, apparently. What larks!

Venus Ascending

Another December death, this time the divine Bettie Page. She was aged 85 and passed away on the 11th December. Rave on, dark lady, dark star.

Thank you, Oliver and Peter

Sad days.  Smallfilms is such a creative and humane body of work. It's much cherished by three generations of my family and holds an intimate place in our lives and in the imagination of so many people I admire and respect. See Dharma Rascal's lovely tribute here:

http://www.facebook.com/not.php?note_id=50913789907

Here's some images of him and the  beautiful work he made with Peter Firmin.

Oliver Postgate, born 12 April 1925, died 8 December 2008

Fly Me To The Moon

I love Tony Bennett.  He's one of my Italiano sweethearts; further proof that I was a mobster in a past life.  And his renderings of Fly Me are among my faves.  But this post is not about T the B, or the mob or antipasti.  It's about long haul flights and tree planting.

www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=6708&uid=47596017802

I'm going from Glasgow to Delhi (via Dubai) in early February, making the same trip in reverse a month later.  How come?  

Well, I was on pilgrimage in India two years ago when my very good friend Padmolka had a serious spinal injury in Vaisali.  We'd only been in India for seven days.  Some of us from the group abandoned the pilgrimage itinerary to look after her, and (eventually) get her to hospital.  After that there was a week in Delhi trying to get her flown back to Glasgow.  Tarasiddhi and I were lucky enough to rejoin the pilgrimage two or three days before coming home.  So two years on I'm going to attempt to visit Nalanda, Vulture's Peak, Varanasi and Sarnath.  These four are the sites that I resolved to come back for when Tarasiddhi and I (happily) decided to stay with Padmolka.  So I'm combining this resolve with attending the Western Buddhist Order's International Convention in Bodhgaya.

So for those reasons I'm choosing to fly again,  quite a looooooong way.  And of course, if it's a long way there it's a long way back too.

So as I mentioned in the above linked page, I'm wanting to plant some trees in Scotland to address the impact of this trip. I suppose I could plant them to the soundtrack of T the B singing Fly Me, and then go for a plate of gnocchi and pesto with a nice glass of chianti, just to complete the circle.

I wonder what Tony would do?

A Case of Fraud - case closed.

Gentle Readers, after eight weeks of diligently scrutinizing the classified advertisements, taking shoe print impressions in plaster of Paris, signaling across the Grimpen Mire with a candle stub and taking discreet carriage rides in the freezing fog, Dr Watson is proud to proclaim the success of his colleague and affirm The Case of Fraud to be finally closed.  And with much relief he is pleased to forego the necessity of mentioning the usage of rare and poisonous spiders, snakes, pygmy blow pipes or fatalities adjacent to impressive natural features in the landscape.  (See below a communique from Saturday 20 September.)

Dr Watson was initially troubled by the protracted length of the affair. He had felt certain that the effects of such a minor, though highly inconvenient larceny, would be mitigated and soon remedied entirely.  Therefore he was much dismayed to witness the relentless caravan of foolery and inattentiveness that streamed unbroken from the institutions of finance.

No matter, dauntless and untiring his colleague proceeded in a gentlemanly pace, examining each mystery or obstacle as it appeared, employing a cunning and sensitive mind to the unravelling of the case.  Let it not be glossed over that in addition to the disappearance of the sum of £1,490 the bank was pleased to levy charges of £170 which in themselves were deep and mysterious to fathom.  Happily these excesses were voided by the gallant Mr John, who's good service at the local branch of the banking institution was a lamp of clarity and cheer at a time of obscuration.

In conclusion to the lengthy affair Dr Watson reflects upon and cautions the usage of credit arrangements that involve the relinquishing of personal credit tokens within emporia, coffee houses or hostelries, whereby the credit token in question  is temporarily relinquished from ones' side, however briefly, for the legitimate purposes of the scanning, lest illegitimate functions such as data copying are performed unnoticed.

Mr Holmes' client has no recall of this happening to her person, but since the obtaining of the relevant details could logically have been performed at any time within the last year and one half, she cannot, in all honesty be secure in her denial of this possibility.  For a fuller exposition of this Case of Fraud, be pleased to read Dr Watson's chilling, enlightening and, as ever, faithful narrative.

Just had to share this....

...incredible image, which is on my desktop just now.  I never tire of it.