The time: 01.28am

The place: Cheshire, North West England.

<Clickerty Clack…Clackerty Click> (Imagine the sound of typewriters)
<OoOOOoooOoOOOOoooOOOh> (Imagine eerie sounding music)
(I’ve just realised those sound effects also look like a train, but never mind)

I was fast asleep in bed. I’d got to bed at around 11.30pm (or thereabouts) and was so tired, I think that I drifted off to the land of nod straight away. I wanted a good night’s sleep as I had to get up very early this morning as I had to run quite a few errands before starting work.

At 1.28 something woke me suddenly. I looked at the time – I have a clock beside by bed where I press a button, and the time is beamed across my ceiling in great big bold red figures. The date and the temperature is also there too, but I was only interested in the time at that time.

As soon as I knew the time, I realised what it was that woke me. A smell. A strong smell. A very strong smell. A very strong burning smell. A very strong burning metal smell. A close very strong burning metal smell. A very close very strong burning metal smell.

I have a radiator next to my bed – on the other side to where the clock is. I touched it, in case it was creating this strange odour that had aroused me from my slumber. It wasn’t.

I got up, and investigated all of the other rooms in the Mansion, and there was nothing to be found anywhere.

Someone earlier in the day had been doing some work with a circular saw in the grinds at the back of the Mansion (I know, everything seems to go on back there!), so I looked out of the window, to see if they were perhaps now soldering something (yes, I know it seems unlikely that someone would be soldering something at 1.30 in the morning, but I had to look. It’s like those movies where the person hears a noise in the middle of the night and they have to go out and investigate it – only I just looked out of the window). There was nobody there.

I returned to bed, and the strong burning metal smell had vanished.

My alarm woke me at 6am. I got up, and walked out of the bedroom, and across the vast hallway to the bathroom. I had an extremely itchy right ear, for some reason. I had a quick bath and washed my hair (which did not look like it had when I went to bed last night!) but the itch remained. In the end, I had to itch it with a piece of tissue, which did stop the itch. But, on the tissue, there was blood. A tiny speck of blood, from inside of my ear.

I grabbed another tissue, and there was another speck of blood, not as much as the first time. I continued to get dressed, and as the itch had now gone, I set about thinking of the possible things that could have happened to me during the night.

Thing One.
I have been kidnapped by aliens, and subjected to tiny microscopic ear examinations whilst hurtling at super-speed around Sirius at 1.30 in the morning. With me being woken by the strong burning smell – which could have been sulphur (which, incidentally, is associated with extra-terrestrial activity) rather than burning metal, I could have been hypnotised into thinking that I was looking around the Mansion and out of the window, when in fact I was in a large white room with miniature probes stuck here, there and everywhere.

Thing Two.
I was dreaming. Which is possible, but I have never bled from the ear from a dream before.

Thing Three.
I hadn’t been kidnapped by aliens, and someone had been soldering in the grinds, but they had been disturbed by the light from my clock when I checked the time, and put everything away before I looked out for them. They probably knew that I’d be checking the Mansion first.

Thing Four.
I hadn’t been kidnapped by aliens, or was dreaming, but had been bitten inside my ear by some miniscule insect with a venomous bite that causes hallucinations at 1.30 in the morning.

Thing Five.
A tiny fragment of the latest asteroid to come within a hair’s breadth of the Earth (named 2012 BX34, it passed within about 60,000km of Earth – less than a fifth of the distance to the Moon at 4pm UK time today. Experts weren’t expecting any damage) had shot ahead of the rest of the asteroid. Instead of being burned up by the Earth’s atmosphere, it was super-charged, and shot into my bedroom through one of the tiny gaps in the vents in the window. It then embedded itself inside my ear, where it did eventually burn up. And it was the smell of it burning that woke me up.

Thing Six.
I hadn’t been kidnapped or hit by a passing asteroid shard or bitten by a venomous insect. No-one was soldering at 1.30 in the morning, and I wasn’t dreaming. I simply woke up because I couldn’t sleep, and then went back to sleep, thinking that I was investigating the Mansion. And, my terrible hair this morning was due to the tossing and turning as I tried to sleep, knowing that I had to get up early.

And, Thing Six-A.
The red speck on the tissue wasn’t blood, but a red speck on the tissue. However, as the tissues are plain white, this seems unlikely.

Whatever happened at 1.28 this morning is certainly a mystery. And, it looks as though I have been thinking maybe a little too deeply into things as well…

Did you notice anything unusual at 01.28 on 27/01/12? Or maybe a strange itch somewhere later in the morning? Maybe you too have experienced the same thing as I.

An update will follow… I’m almost certain.

Venus is very bright this evening, shining brightly just below the Moon. I always thought this was a satellite, until my trusty mobile phone with added Google Sky Map told me otherwise.

The ‘painting’ above is the view from Aqua Mansion, if I could view the Moon from the window, and the outside looked a little like this. It’s an interpretation. A random one at that!

A sudden gust of wind
Causes a stir in the trees
It’s strange what you notice
With a slow connection speed

I tune in to the window,
Rather, the sounds from beyond,
As I sit here waiting
For my PC to respond

A night creature howls
There’s a tap on the glass
I can see half my webpage
- Well, a quarter – at last…

Like nails down a chalkboard
Comes a scratching on the pane
Oh, I don’t believe it! It’s gone!
The page is loading again!

A voice whispers chillingly
From outside of the room
Ah, now things are much quicker
No – I spoke far too soon…

The vampires are asking
That I let them in
I turn back to my computer
Hoping my browser begins

Now the werewolves have gathered
They growl and they play
But I sit and wonder
For what do I pay?

I open the window
And leap out to the pack
But will things be quicker
When I eventually get back?

…But not doing such a great job of it!

I’m waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind with my blog visiting and reading, and I have even more blogs to visit now as well. I will get there, I’m pleased to say, only when is the greatest question of all time right now. Shortly followed by why? And then how? Apologies to those I visit, I am still here, but a few days ago, that’s all.

So, that means I’d better get flexing my time travelling muscles, and get myself right up-to-date again. But, oh, that means exercise. I’ve just been reminded of a post I wrote back in March last year, which I’ll repost today. It’s a time thing (and a repeat – sorry about that!). It’s about exercise and me…

I’m not what you would call an ideal candidate to appear on a TV show, if there actually is one, called ‘The World’s Greatest Exercise Role Model’. When you think of such a show you would imagine it featuring perfectly toned people with fantastic bodies, clothes, hair and smiles, together with a collection of ‘before’ photos.

I have plenty of ‘before’ photos. I think some of my recent photos are now ‘before’ photos too. In fact, every photo is a before photo if it makes you want to change something about yourself.

My body is constantly changing. I’m constantly changing for that matter. Every day is a new day, and I think I’d get pretty bored trying to keep myself in the WGERM body state to ensure that I stay on the show. And to be honest, I couldn’t do it. I may have the body of a Greek God, but my hair has a mind all of it’s own, and it decides on how good it wants me to look.

And some days, I don’t have the body of a Greek God.

Being part of the super-hero community, you’d think that a toned, muscular physique with a rippling six-pack and bulging sinews would be easy to maintain, but believe you me, it is hard work. As I’m not of the exercising mind-set, it is very easy to notice the odd stone or two creep on you when you least expect it. And once the extra weight is on, it takes a while to lose it without exercise.

I may not be of the exercising mind-set, but, when needs must, I have to do it. I visualise my body looking better for the exercise I am doing. I imagine my clothes fitting as they should, and not looking as though everything has shrunk in the wash. And I see people in my mind’s eye congratulating me on how great I look once I have lost that couple of pounds (…).

However, me and exercise are like arch-enemies. I try not to ‘do’ arch-enemies, and I try not to do exercise either. So already I’m competing with myself before I even begin. Do I want to stay the same, or do I want to look good?

After this tennis match has gone on for a while, I win and start exercising. I lose the weight. I look good. I get congratulated. My clothes fit perfectly. My hair behaves (it always does when you know you look good). And my muscles do their muscly thing.

It can be done if you put in the work; however this post isn’t about the exercises needed to look good, it is about the downfalls to avoid when exercising. They don’t tell you about these things when you see that ‘must buy’ product on the shopping channels to help you lose pounds in five days, or whatever. Oh no. And I’ve tried a few things over the years.

I don’t know if these items are still available, but they probably are. I call them ‘electrocution pads’ and that really is what they are. Little pads that you strap on to certain parts of your body, and you then run an electrical current through them. This current stimulates the muscles in your stomach, chest, arms, legs or wherever else you use them, so that they contract and relax. It feels as though they are doing something, especially if you have the power on too strong, but be careful using them. I had placed them too close together on my stomach and the contracting muscles caused my skin to pinch, and I was in agony. Also, I think the pads burned me because the power was too high. And I fell asleep wearing them. Needless to say I could hardly move the next day. Luckily they come with an automatic switch off after an hour or so, otherwise I don’t know how I’d have looked the next day. Use them if you must, but be warned… I don’t think I lost weight using these. The only pounds I lost were of the spending kind.

I bought myself one of those high-tension bending bars to build up my arms, shoulders and chest, because I thought that if they looked bigger, my stomach and waist would look smaller. No, that isn’t true. I thought that I would look like the man in the shorts in the photos on the poorly translated A4 exercise manual that came with the bendy bar. I followed the instructions to the letter. I was determined that by bending this bar, my waist size would be reduced by half of it’s size by the following week (Well, I’m a dreamer!). I finished work at 2.30 in the morning, dashed home, and started a-bending. Everyone else in the house were asleep, so I had to keep all of my breathing and grunting to an absolute minimum. I also had to stifle my scream as the bar slipped out of my left hand, whacked me under the chin as it careered across the room and smashed into my wardrobe. In my numbed state, I fell backwards, and knocked my TV set off it’s stand – but luckily, I managed to catch it before it fell – just as the bendy bar came back at me like a boomerang and clobbered me in the leg. Nobody heard a thing. I never used the bendy bar again afterwards. Well, never without wearing a pair of woollen gloves… nobody was ever going to see me doing that particular exercise.

I went to a gym a few times. I couldn’t use the equipment properly as I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but tried my best. I went to this gym with my cousin, so we could encourage each other along. Usually we just laughed at each other. You pull some funny faces when weight training! One day, I was using a device for strengthening the legs. I knew the position I had to get into for this exercise. I lay on my back, and brought my feet up onto a bar above me. I had to hold the weight with my feet, and then push the weight upwards again, and repeat for three lots of twenty pushes. I couldn’t do one push. The weight was too heavy, which resulted in my knees resting on either side of my head. Luckily, the weight machine was supported, so it wouldn’t have come completely down on me, but I was still stuck. Eventually I was helped out of the machine. I used it without weights after that. Well, once more anyway…

I joined a boxing gym as well when I was younger. I was too old to actually start boxing, but the exercise is good to help with losing weight. Only I was a bit overweight for the circuit training that was involved. And being in a hot, steamy gym with a whole host of boxers all running around the place, I was soon out of breath. I couldn’t keep up. In order to continue with that exercise, I needed to lose weight before I actually began! Still, I persevered, and felt some benefits.

The best exercise I find that helps me to lose weight is swimming. I love swimming, I love water. The weight literally drops off me as I really push myself when I go. I think that if you really enjoy doing something it isn’t a chore, and you can do it all the more.

It’s a pity that I don’t find losing weight as enjoyable during the process. The end result is fantastic. The compliments are a great boost to the ego. And the money you have to spend on thin clothes isn’t going to be mentioned. Not in this post anyway. But feeling good after it all is well worth it.

However, I’d really like to try to avoid the bruises and things… should I ever do it again, that is…

So, ‘new’ blogger… why not just give it a go?

For some, the reasons for not starting blogging may be:

• I can’t spell
• I have nothing to write about
• Nobody will read what I have written
• I don’t have the time
• I’m not a writer
• I don’t trust the internet

Apart from the first one (most of the time, anyway!) all of the above apply to me.

I’m a private person, so use my online character of Aquatom1968 to write behind. My name is Tom, but don’t feel too comfortable with my full identity being broadcast all over the world 24 hours a day. This was one of the reasons why I closed my Facebook account, but writing behind an assumed name (even a rather strange superhero name as mine) makes it a little more comfortable. Apart from my name, I write a lot about my life in general anyway, and if anyone I know happens to read one of these posts, they’ll probably think that it could be me anyway. Besides, authors use noms de plume all the time, and they do OK with it. So, if you don’t feel comfortable sharing your identity, you don’t have to. Create your own online personality!

I’m not a writer. I enjoy writing my thoughts down – no, I enjoy typing my thoughts. Before I started blogging, I kept a little journal where I would write any ideas or thoughts that came to me, but that didn’t feel enough for me. I wanted people to see what I had written; maybe to provide some possible kind of inspiration, or maybe receive an answer of sorts. This wasn’t possible from within the pages of the book. I don’t know if all of my posts have this same effect now that I publish them online, but I like to think that some of them do.

I’m not a writer, but I am a writer at the same time. I’m a paradox. I’m a traveller, a dreamer, a magician, a tourist, a teacher and also a student. I’m always learning. I’m an Englishman with a strange imagination who loves to write about impossible journeys to faraway planets, long forgotten memories and events of days gone by that may or may not have happened. I like to write about mundane events that happen to me in a way that isn’t mundane. I like to try and spread a little of that ‘feel good’ feeling in what I write. I like to play with words. I add colour, create rhymes, mix things up a bit. Sometimes, I think I do it well. Sometimes, not as well. But I do it because I like it. You don’t have to be a writer to write about what you like.

I always have a problem with time. Not enough time to work, eat, sleep and write (and read!). I always manage to find some time, however, even if it is just five or ten minutes in the evening. Weekends are usually better for me at this moment in time, so I try to start a couple of posts then, to add in the week if I am short of time. I use Windows Live Writer for my drafts, and publish them from there when I need to. What’s handy with Live Writer is that you can format the messages in ways that (for me!) are easier than doing it through the post editor. When I have more time, I may have a look into formatting through there, but for now, I’ll carry on as I am. You may prefer the in-built editor that comes with whichever blogging service you choose to use, the Live Writer is merely an option. So, there’s one way to save a little time on writing posts anyway.

When I first started my blog, I felt as though I was writing in my journal. I wrote what I thought, and sent it out to the wide world, and nobody came. For months, I was writing like this, but I persevered. Eventually, other bloggers found me, and have been finding me ever since. This also has an upside because I too was being introduced to other bloggers all around the planet. Each one offers something different. There is always room for one more! And not every blog will have a start as slow as mine.

Very often, I have nothing to write about. So, I do just that… and write about nothing! Occasionally, I don’t post (we don’t have to post every day), and on the odd occasion I repost an old post, slightly edited for the modern audiences! Not starting a blog because there is nothing to write about is similar to staying asleep all day as there is nothing to do (well, they’re nothing alike, actually, but I couldn’t think of a better metaphor to use!). And, if you have read this far, you must be interested in starting a blog, so there must be some kind of idea lurking in the subconscious somewhere, even if you don’t know what it is yet. That subconscious is a great realm when you get to know it better. Start writing and see what happens! When you get going, you just can’t stop, and you’ll want to go on and on and on and on. And on.

But, Aquatom (I hear you say – and you can call me Tom, by the way!) my spelling is atroshus. I’ll be a laughing stock if my words, that I really want to write about, are published in that state. Don’t worry (I reply), most words that are spelled incorrectly are highlighted with a red squiggly line – right click, and look for the suggested correct spelling (You’ll be howling with laughter at some of the suggestions!). Also, you can check online dictionaries and thesauruses (should that be thesauri? – no squiggly line so it may be both!) for alternative words. I think that the more you write, the more your spelling will improve. You start to remember words, and phrases, and use them again and again. Don’t be put off by spelling. Have a go. Create your own part of cyberspace. And have fun doing it!

Also, part of the fun of the blogosphere is reading other people’s posts. Not everyone writes. Some display photographs or paintings and artwork. Some publish poems. Some write their own web log as a daily diary, and others just write about what they want to write about. Everyone’s different.

On the menu bar at the top of this page, there is a link called ‘Blogs I Visit’. Click it, and there is a selection of the blogs I visit (funnily enough!). Have a look at any of them, and be inspired. ‘The Blogging Collective’ also contains other links, but if that isn’t there when you look, it is because I have combined them into one page (when I had the time!)

I hope you enjoyed this little post about the reasons why you should start blogging but didn’t feel that you could. You can do anything when you put your mind to it!

He was surprised that the job agency had provided him so quickly with this job, considering he’d only walked into their offices that morning on the off-chance something was available. He hadn’t even provided his qualifications and had been told this position was ideal. All he needed was some basic people skills, they said.

Obligingly, he followed the scribbled directions to this red door, in a squalid-looking side street in a part of town he wouldn’t normally visit. In fact, the brightness of the door made it look a little out of place to the dustbins, litter and other scattered ‘articles’ that lay in the road. He pressed the buzzer, and, eventually, a muffled voice was heard.

“Yes”

“I’m from the agency,” Mervin spoke in a very quiet voice. After a few very loud crackles from the intercom, another voice was heard.

“Enter”

The door clicked, and Mervin pushed it inwards as he entered a long, dark corridor. He walked to another door at the end, which was fully open. He could see a woman in a tweed jacket sitting at a desk inside this room, which was lit better than the corridor.

He entered the room, and simply said “Hello”

The woman behind the desk quickly removed from her mouth the piece of chewing gum she was carelessly chewing as he entered, and threw it into a waste paper basket beside her desk.

“Oh. Hello. I’m Marsha. We’ve been expecting you. This way, sir.” She gushed, buttoning up her jacket as she stood up. She placed a pair of dark rimmed glasses on her face, and quickly touched up her lipstick, which was as bright as the front door.

She led Mervin through another door, which was at the side of the desk and he hadn’t noticed it before. The light from the room was glaring off a highly polished plaque that was on this door, and Mervin couldn’t make out the name that was on it.

“This is your office” Marsha ushered Mervin into the very large room. She gestured to a desk at the front of the room. “I’ll let the department know that you are here.”

Mervin sat behind the large, impressive looking wooden desk, so large in fact, that it must have been brought into the room as the building was being built. It would never have fit through the door or the window. In front of the desk were rows of empty chairs. He looked at a thick folder that was on his desk.

His heart missed a beat as he read the words that were on the front of this folder. ‘For the eyes of the First International Minister only’.

He heard Marsha speaking on her phone. “Prime Minister, your new internal and international improvement commissioners are here, as are the leaders from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. And his Most High Excellency, the First International Minister of the Global Improvement Agency and Worldwide Assembly, is in his office, with his instructions for all of the countries of the world.”

Mervin slumped behind his desk.

“Basic people skills…” He mumbled, as one by one all of the world’s leaders filed into the room and started taking seats in front of the desk.

Xxx xxxxx x xxxxxxx x xxx… xxx x x “Xxxx!!!”

Xxxx x xxxxxx x xxx x xxxx x xx xxxxx x xxx x xxx xx x xxxxxx x xxxx xxx:

Xxxxx x xxxxx x xxx xxxxxx x xxxxx xxx xxxxx x xxxxxxxxx

Xxxxxxxxx x xxxxxxxxx x xxxxxxxxxxxx x x xxxxx

Xxxx x xxxxxxx xxxx x xxxxxxxxxx xxxx x xxxxxx

Xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxx xxxxx xx xxxxxxx x xxxxx

Xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx: xxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxx. Xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx. Xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxx xxx xx. Xxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxx.

Lack of inspiration, and feeling very tired (from possibly too much sleep as opposed to too little) don’t make for a very good combination. I haven’t even got any inspiration to write a post about nothing, which is what I usually fall back on when I’ve got nothing to write about (funny that!). And my hair has been very well behaved today as well, so there’s no point going there either!

So? What do I do?

Enjoy the silence! That’s what!

Writing these posts for my blog usually means that my mind is always on the go, always trying to come up with something different or unusual to write about.

Maybe this silence is my mind’s way of having a little holiday.

You never know… this little ‘inspired rest’ may just be preparation for my mind to get ready for the floodgates to open. For inspiration to flow in. For posts to pour out!

I’ll have a few hours sleep and see what happens.

Inspiration… I’m ready for you! See you tomorrow!

Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be. Karen Ravn.

Lately, I’ve been looking south, towards the Southern Polar Region of the galaxy, and have been noticing the constellation Phoenix, and it’s brightest star Alpha Phoenicis, otherwise known as Ankaa. This constellation first appeared in a star atlas called the Uranometria, produced by Johann Bayer in 1603.

Ankaa is the star that is situated in the neck of the Phoenix. In Arabic, its name is Al-’Anqa’, which simply means ‘the phoenix’, but it also has another name, Na’ir al Zaurak, which means ‘bright one in the boat’. To me, whenever I see the name Ankaa, I instantly think of the Egyptian Ankh, which represents the key of life. Whether these two are connected or not will need some further looking into on my part, but as I’m finding out lately, everything is connected in one way or another.

The phrase ‘bright one in the boat’ seems to be a strange one, considering the phoenix is a legendary bird associated with fire, but not when you realise that the word phoenix comes from an ancient civilisation, Phoenicia. The Phoenicians were great sea traders of the Mediterranean, who invented the Bireme, a galley with two levels. The galley was a ship that was widely used for centuries, until the introduction of the Broadside sailing ship into the Mediterranean in the early Seventeenth Century.

In my previous post, I mentioned, half-heartedly, that I have the body of the Greek god Adonis, which may or may not be true (that isn’t really important at this time). In Phoenician, Adonis means ‘lord’. Adonis himself has a lot of mystery surrounding his birth, but it seems he has a link to Paphos on Cyprus. He is the son of Phoenix and Alphesiboea. Alphesiboea now has links to the Jovian Moon, Europa, which was discovered by Galileo and independently, but at the same time, by Simon Marius in 1610. Galileo died in 1642, which is the year I am inexplicably drawn to as a result of a dream featuring a ship.

The reason I mentioned Paphos is also partly due to another thing I haven’t been able to explain, but ties in with the above in a random way. I went on holiday – it was a cruise actually – and we called off in Cyprus for one of the day stops. We went to Paphos, a very gorgeous place to visit, I must add, and I knew my way around. I had never been there before, but I knew where everything was. It was quite a surprise for me, as well as the people I was travelling with. I’ve experienced quite a few things throughout my current existence which can only be classed as strange, and visiting Paphos is among the top five of strange experiences. In a good way, of course!

Oh, and in my research for this post, I found a link between the Ankh and the Phoenix. The Ankh was featured on coins in ancient Cyprus, which, by itself doesn’t sound very impressive. The Ankh is also the symbol for the planet Venus. The goddess Venus is also named Aphrodite, and Aphrodite fell in love with Adonis.

Like I said earlier, everything is connected. Joining the dots is a fascinating way of looking at the world without the normal constraints of time. I’ve found myself travelling far back into history and back to the present day for connections to 1642. I’m still a long way to finding THE connection that I am looking for, but the other connections I am finding are making my quest all the more worthwhile. Well, I think so, anyway… !