Does the world look stupid ?

 

DAY FORTY-ONE: Wednesday 10^th February  2021:

QUESTION: Well three questions actually. QUESTION ONE: Do I look stupid ? NO  QUESTION TWO: Do you look stupid ?  NO  QUESTION THREE: Does the world look stupid ?  If you believe the World Health Organisation then the answer is YES !

 Can you really believe that a laboratory in Wuhan containing corona virus was not the source of the pandemic taking lives of people every day all round the world ?  It would be like saying a nuclear explosion outside a missile silo had nothing to do with the weapons stored there ! No we are being asked to believe that frozen fish imported china virus to china from where it was re-exported to the world !

World Health Organisation = JOKE but this joke is not funny.

Yesterday in the UK another 12,364 new cases of china virus were recorded and another 1,052 lost their lives. Locally to where I live 57 more cases and 3 more deaths. All just numbers with zero respect for the people behind the numbers.

However, yesterday I came across someone who is developing a website inviting people who have lost a loved one, a loved one anywhere in the world to place a photograph on a cyber wall. I do not know a lot more than that but I thought it was a truly beautiful idea.

According to Google 2.34 million people have died from china virus. How many will that be as of 31^st December 2021 ? I dare not guess, to make a guess would be foolish and to make a guess would be disrespectful.

I have set myself a target to write one million words in stories across 2021 and to publish such on Amazon in a minimum of 24 books. As of yesterday I have written 310,342 words and published 10 books with one pending. That would mean I am on track to write 2.831 million words and publish one hundred books. I need to think this through but could I some how use my writing to honour those who have died ? I need to think about that. I need to think a lot about that.

SMILE OF THE DAY: Your mind is a magnet: If you always think of blessings, you attract more blessings. If you always think of problems, you attract more problems. Always keep good thoughts and always stay positive.

Right now I am coming towards the end of my book BEHIND THE NOOSE. As I have been writing it has been hard to stay positive as I debate the crimes of serial killers and talk about injustices where innocent people have been executed for crimes they did not commit. I am part way through talking about Derek Bentley a 19 year old with a way below average IQ who was executed for murder in 1953. He did not commit murder, he was under arrest when his friend killed a policeman. The murderer was under the age of eighteen do did not hang, Derek was nineteen so he was killed. It took many years after his death before his conviction was overturned.  His body was then exhumed from the prison and reburied. On his grave it reads; Derek William Bentley – a victim of British justice ? I would like to think I could finish this book today but I do not think I will, possibly tomorrow. Target tomorrow.

So what was happening ON THIS DAY:

10^th February 1950: US President Dwight D Eisenhower warned against United States intervention in Vietnam. Common sense, shame his country lacked that common sense.

10^th February 1962: In the Cold War captured American U2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers was exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. I remember that.

10^th February 1996: IBM supercomputer defeats Garry Kasparov at chess. I remember that very well. I often wonder if one day somebody will invent a computer that works. If they do it will not operate on Microsoft Windows, that’s for sure.

10^th February 1950: Mark Spitz, some simmer or something, was born.

10^th February 2014: Shirley Temple, born 1928, died.

For my friends who will open my time capsule on 1^st January 2021 I wrote something yesterday which I called: Are you an Mkeyneyan ? and put it into the capsule box. I have included it here at the end of today’s diary page.

Something I want to work on today, copies of which will be placed in the time capsule will be cards featuring my life maxims:

Life is a DISCO so DANCE

Life is a lot more fun if you are silly (Silly not stupid)

Life is a ballet so point your toes

Life is a game of football, there is more to it than two goal posts and a bit of grass between them

The best foundation for success is failure

Life is a novel so start writing

Life is like a vinyl record, it if does not crackle you have not played it enough

As well as putting these into the time capsule I want to start including them in the SMILES we send out every week. Wednesday, time to start working on SMILES for next week.

Let me repeat SMILE OF THE DAY then I will share that bit of writing I put into the time capsule yesterday:

Your mind is a magnet: If you always think of blessings, you attract more blessings. If you always think of problems, you attract more problems. Always keep good thoughts and always stay positive.

Are you an Mkeyneyan ? A what ? A Brummie comes from Birmingham. A Liverpudlian comes from Liverpool. A Mancunian comes from Manchester. A Londoner comes from London. They ALL have my sympathy, they are not Mkeyneyans !  What ?  An Mkeyneyan comes from Milton Keynes. Founded as an idea in January 1967 when Harold Wilson’s government designated an area of land for the construction of a new city Milton Keynes was born. I came to live in Milton Keynes in September 1971 and have made it  my adopted home. Witing under the pen-name of Max Robinson I have written a number of books centred on Milton Keynes, allow me to share them with you.

NOT THE CONCRETE COWS is a collection of newspaper and magazine articles I wrote in the 1990’s about the then adolescent new city of Milton Keynes. The cover depicts a concrete cow in negative as an attempt to explain there was more to the city than the infamous concrete cows.

Infamous thanks to BBC Radio DJ and presenter Noel Edmunds who was forever poking fun saying that as the new city was concreting over farmland the Milton Keynes Development Corporation decided its concrete fields needed concrete cows.

The book was out of print for decades but in 2020 I republished it both in e-book and traditional format on Amazon. The e-book format can be downloaded for £1.99 and the paperback for £3.99.

For several years I wanted to write a sequel but simply could not find the time. I wanted to write about the adult new city of Milton Keynes. The covid lock down of 2020 gave me the time to write but Milton Keynes never did become a new city so titling the new work as MILTON DREAMS THE CITY THAT NEVER WAS I try to spark a dream that one day it will rightly be awarded a city charter. I suggest it will not be politicians who will achieve city status for our home but Mkeyneyans coming together to celebrate the good in Milton Keynes, to fix the bad and to repaint the ugly then celebrate everything we know and love.

The book is dedicated to Harold Wilson who was prime minister in 1967 and whose government designated an area of land in North Buckinghamshire for the development of a new city. Early thinking was that would be The New City of Bletchley but was revised to take a name, Milton Keynes, from the village in the centre of the designated area. The e-book download costs 99p and the paperback edition £3.99

IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS, this is something I am VERY, VERY proud of.  

In 1991 I organised a project for students in my charge when I was a head of year at Leon School. The school took its name from the Leon Family who had pre World War Two lived at Bletchley Park. We set out to trace the present-day Leon Family. The project was a success beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. We recovered so much about the Leon Family which had been lost and forgotten then the jewel in the crown was to reunite Sir John Leon Fourth Baronet with his ancestral home of Bletchley Park. Sir John had no idea of his connection with Bletchley Park which was in 1991 starting to be known for its role as the home of the codebreakers.

I wrote up and published he project under the title IN SEARCH OF THE LEONS. That was thirty years ago, during which time within the development of Milton Keynes the heritage of the Leon Family has been set aside. Now in 2021, after thirty years, I have republished the work with some updates as an e-book on Amazon. This can be downloaded for just 77p.

Milton Keynes has a vast musical heritage which is unknown to so many residents. Purely as a bit of fun I have put this heritage into an e-book designed to be read on a phone with the reader flicking into YouTube to enjoy MILTON KEYNES A DISCO FOR A NEW CITY. The download costs 77p.

Milton Keynes is now fifty-four years old and so full of heritage and legend which sadly many Mkeyneyans are ignorant of. I am not interested in history, Henry Ford said it was bunk !  I am, however, deeply interested in heritage and through my writing am keen to tell as many people as possible about it.

To check out my BOOKS FOR A MKEYNEYAN all you need to do is to go to Amazon, put in the title and my pen-name of Max Robinson. Help me celebrate our heritage.

And with that I will sign off.

Speak again tomorrow:

Dave