G. Michael Vasey's Blog: The Wacky World of Dr. Vasey, page 66

A Year Has Gone

A year seems like along time but looking back to this time last year, it seems to have passed in a flash. This time last year, I was living in Prague and I was worried about my weight gain having quit smoking months earlier. I remember buying the indoor bike and with good intentions, starting a weight loss and exercise program. Today, I weighed myself and blast it, I weigh exactly the same as I did a year ago! The bike has been well used and still is and if anything, my diet is better than ever yet I have not shed a pound. I suppose looking on the bright side, I haven’t gained any weight either!

Of course, we are now back in Brno too. I packed all of those trousers and shirts that didn’t fit me but would soon and they now have been unworn for a year. I even bought a shirt saying that I would slim into it! Well, I won’t give up. If anything, my waistline seems more rotund even though I am the same weight.

Feeling rather cheated that despite increasing exercise, decreasing food intake and so on, I went to the doctors recently. Blood tests came back all normal so there is no glandular excuse for my larger girth unfortunately. She recommended liposuction! I challenged her on that and she backed off and said to keep trying. Liposuction? I’m guessing she has a paid relationship with a plastic surgeon somewhere in town.

Despite this weight issue, I am alive and I think well. I have not gone back to smoking. The company we founded is thriving. Hell, even my books are selling (slowly). This time last year, perhaps 2-6 books sold a month and recently its been in excess of a book a day….if I can keep this up, I will be a best selling author in what – 50 years?

It is thanksgiving. I have a lot to give thanks for and I do. It’s been a good year overall and if my only complaint is that I don’t like my waistline then I am probably doing fine.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and family and indeed to you all.

Tagged: thanksgiving, Time, weight, year

Tall Story

Afloat and at sea

Bobbing like a cork

On the widest of widest ocean

Comedy in perpetual motion

White tips go surfing by

Water, lots of bloody water and

Yet not a drop to drink

Only time to sit and think

A rocky shore lies off to the west

Fiery dragons reside to the north

Things are going south though

Thats not a place I want to go

Tall ships passing me by

Rowing now faster and ever faster

Tidal currents are hard to beat

Especially where pressures meet

Directionless, I move onwards east

I am following a lonely star

Shining brightly in the night sky

All I can do now is sit and sigh

As we drift on inner currents

Mapping the inner tides

Charting uncharted territory

Writing Act 2 of this sorry sordid story

To be read shortly on Jackanory

Another very very tall story

Lost in the Sea by O-Maryo-O

Tagged: all me, Poetry, sea, tall stories

Cosmic Dancer

On Friday I will be going to see Slade. Yes – Slade. Without Noddy Holder but the rest of them including slimy Dave Hill will be playing.

I didn’t much like Slade back in the 1970’s. I was into the more gentle magic of Marc Bolan and T.Rex and Slade seemed raucous and too down to earth. There was no magic, no white swans or Wizards with Slade – just poor spelling and loud music. I moved from T.Rex to Status Quo. Corkscrew hair and spandex was replaced by greasy hair and denim. Fantasy was replaced with a gritty, monotonous reality of life in the north.

Of course, now I look back and enjoy a lot of the music of that era. Even stuff I detested at the time now has a certain nostalgia about it. I’m not sure the music has got better just that it takes me back to a simpler time, a more innocent time for me. I shall enjoy Slade on Friday night and I may try to take in Suzi Quattro next year when she visits Brno too.

I have said before how for me music can evoke memory, mood and magic. The opening bars of Hotel California always send me back to an outdoor bar in the south of France and a wonderful holiday, and The Jean Genie always puts me in a schoolroom for some reason.

Even as I type this I am listening to music – Blackfield. The whole of their first CD reminds me of a day in Austin, TX. The whole of their second album makes me want to write poetry and every single line of every poem in Moon Whispers was written listening to that CD. I use music for mood. I can relax or energize with music and everything in between.

Marc Bolan captured a bit of how music works for me in Cosmic Dancer….So here he is to explain…

I was dancing when I was twelve

I was dancing when I was aah

I danced myself right out the womb

Is it strange to dance so soon

I danced myself right out the womb

I was dancing when I was eight

Is it strange to dance so late

I danced myself into the tomb

Is it strange to dance so soon

I danced myself into the tomb

Marc Bolan.

Tagged: Blackfield, Bolan, Dance, Music

The Art

In the silence I can hear

As I watch my heartfelt prayer

In the stillness of the inner

I ask forgiveness and renewal

The Sea is still and deep

Reflections there to keep

Aqua fluidly accepts ideas

Smoothes and refines, purifies

And throws them on the Fire

Flaming through intense desire

To work the Art of magic

The inner to the outer flows

Water steams as ember glows

I see, I hope, I know

That from my uttered words will grow

The qualities that I seek

I am, stillness, eternal

A presence in the space

A fluctuating lighted face

Flickering half-formed in the first light

I imagine that it will grow so very bright

Consuming, boiling, generating

Between the darkness and the light

And everything is simply just right

As it is meant to be

An eternal uttered prayer

The Word is spoken

The speaker is content

The magic is now spent

A Tale of Two Cities

I was born in the city of Kingston Upon Hull known by all and sundry as just plain Hull (‘Ull). In 2011, the population of Hull was 256,000 although the Hull area must be significantly more. Today, I live in the city of Brno in the Czech Republic. It too is a working-class city with a heavily industrialized past and it is a bit bigger coming in at 371,000.

I like both cities in terms of their location, attractions and so on. Brno is a bit more attractive but likely that is simply because it is a bit more varied in its architectural styles and it has many more green spaces and parks. What utterly amazes me is the difference in an aspect of city life and that is personal safety.

One of my abiding memories of growing up and even visiting England and Hull in particular, is how easy it is to attract physical violence. The number of times I have been asked to explain who I am looking at are countless and the number of times I have observed all out drunkenness and violence in Hull cannot be counted. I actually get the Hull Daily Mail feed on Facebook and it is a constant stream of murder, violence, street gangs, assaults, robberies and so on.

Meanwhile, I have lived in Brno 6-years and 8-years in the Czech Republic. Public intoxication is rare despite the fact beer is preferred to water as a drink and slivovice, a distilled spirit, is knocked back with every beer. I have never seen any violence here. No fights, no stabbings – nothing. Perhaps it is the Communist background where their was no state tolerance for such activities or maybe it is just in the Czech character I do not know but I feel safe walking home with a skinful at 4am here. Hell, I don’t worry about my partner walking home a bit typsy at 4am either and that isn’t something I would feel good about in the UK.

This contrast and comparison isn’t something just I have noticed either. Other British exPats say the same.

Yes, there are homeless people, there are drunks on the street. Yes, there is poverty and low incomes. Yes, the political system here is no better at producing results than that in the UK. But, there is no culture of violence nor of binge drinking. It would not be tolerated by the people. There is a culture of drinking and being happy. There are more pubs and bars in Brno per capita than I have seen anywhere in the UK. There is a much healthier attitude to sex here too….. but thats another article.

It’s a sad reflection really but it’s true. The question is why?

Confusion Ends

Sleepless

Lying prone

And quite alone

Breathless

Images forming

Arising, slinking

I hear the words

I see the signs

I know it all means something

I watch the faces

I travel afar

In my astral car

Still seeking, looking

Restless

So tired

Really wired

Listless

Images rise

Under indigo skies

I listen to the sounds

I explore the horizon

I know it all means something

I follow leads

And look for clues

In my astral shoes

Still seeking, searching

Questless

Did I arrive?

A story to contrive

Lifeless

Did it just end?

A permanent ascend

Best Laid Plans – Review

It’s not often I get a review for one of my poetry collections but this one for Best Laid Plans is one I really very much appreciate and so I am reproducing it here. It is on the Barnes & Noble website here. It is by LillyLee.

I personally, loved this unique and genuine glimpse into the authors mind; his thoughts and processes of the modern world as we know it and the emotions that come with it. His writings are something we can all connect with and relate to. The book speaks with great voice and character and makes you feel as if you have slipped into his mind to take a walk in his shoes. I would call it modern poetry maybe. If you are looking for something different, something new, something creative… look no further. I wish it were longer and have added a couple of his others to my TBR :-)

Best Laid Plans and my other poetry volumes are available in paperback and Kindle formats.

 

TGIF

It is Friday already. The week shot by didn’t it?

Since it is Friday and for 1-day ONLY, My Haunted Life is FREE on Kindle. After that, it will be back to 99cents or even more. So now is your one and only chance to save money.

If you do download it, do me a favor back would you please? Write a review and if you enjoy it, tell your friends, the postman, the guys down the pub and the women at work – anyone who will listen in fact!

I am busy at work on My Haunted Life Too. It will be out before Christmas. Of course, I had intended to keep working on the prequel tho The Last Observer but…. I got distracted. I find I quite like writing these short true stories and I can see more next year in different genres. I am still working on the follow up novel but I want to get it right so I am taking my time. My Haunted Life Too will be a few additional stories about my life but mainly stories from relatives and friends about their bizarre and often frightening experiences. They will, in places, be a little more creepy, a little more frightening and a bit more lurid… Should be scary fun.

Meanwhile, it is almost the weekend. Have a good one all!

Life in a Haunted House

G. M. Vasey:

Its not just me……

Originally posted on Cold:

We never get any trick-or-treaters. I can tell myself that it’s because we’re the only house on a dead-end street and surely, being off the beaten path is part of the problem. But if I’m to be completely honest, it’s because I know that little kids are afraid of our home.

Yes, we live in THAT house.

It’s the one we all dared each other to visit on Halloween. The one that got the occasional egging from only the bravest, most rebellious teens. The one that made toddlers cry.

In the neighborhood I grew up in outside of Chicago, there was a dark, recessed house that looked like a Turkish prison. It definitely stuck out, as the rest of the homes in our neighborhood had been built in the early 1960s and had a decidedly family-friendly feel to them. Swing sets in the back yard, goofy Halloween decorations and middle…

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BOOK REVIEW: My Haunted Life by G. Michael Vasey

G. M. Vasey:

A nice review…

Originally posted on Amplify the Magic!:

I received a complimentary copy of this book (on request) in exchange for my honest review.

It’s my opinion that the world is divided into those who ‘believe’ and those who don’t. Of course there’s always a grey area of those who aren’t sure, and who believe in some things but not others, but for now, let’s keep things black and white (so to speak). There are those who believe in the paranormal and those who don’t. I’m generally quite a cynical person, but for some reason, I firmly believe that there’s most definitely something other than the grounded, mundane reality that we take for granted. I believe that there are entities and energies that attempt to communicate with those who are open to it.

Vasey is what’s known as a ‘sensitive’: someone who is open to anything and everything from the astral plane that wants to communicate. He has…

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