Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Neil Platt

Bye, mate.

A great friend. A loving husband and father. A strong man in every way.

Just the best person to know.

I will miss you.

Until we meet again.

Robinson

For a Friend

Hi all,

I'd appreciate it if anyone reading this blog would read my friend Neil's blog at The Plattitude. That's Neil in the picture above. Smiling, beer at hand, ready to spread good times to all. And how I will always remember him.

It is entirely possible that this will be his last entry and it is so important to try and spread word of this wretched disease and the harm it inflicts on all those affected by it. Neil's driving force in this last year of his life has been to spread awareness of Motor Neuron Disease.

Whichever way you can, whether you Tweet it, post it on Facebook, Digg it, Blog it, Mixx it, Google it or any other of the myriad forms on communication these days. Please, pass it on.

Many thanks,

B

Saturday, 21 February 2009

The Hardest Thing in Life So Far

Watching a friend slowly succumb to a cruel and incurable disease.

Still there. Trapped in his own flesh. By his own flesh. Avenues of expression slowly closing off, one by one. Lying in front of his wife and son and family and friends. But separated from them in an unspeakable way.

The anger I feel. The pain I feel. The sorrow at times missed. These can be nothing compared to those felt by him and his loved ones.

I feel so helpless watching my friend die.

Friday, 20 February 2009

Back from the cold...

Good god! Where have I been?

It all started several years ago, when Sir Splitford Gomm rang up asking about my inclusion amongst the crew of his expedition into the heart of Darkest Corstorphine. My refusal resulted in a press gang forming outside my back door over the course of several weeks, unspotted by either myself or the dogs. To cut a long story short, there was a terrible mess made once they had struck, leading to a chase led my Ringo Ondatje, Gomm's leading lamplighter and man of many faces. I only managed to lose Ringo yesterday by passing myself off as Richard Digence's spine specialist, Henrietta Blish and using a staple gun to attach Ringo and his posse to a cargo flight bound for Christmas Island.

Well, of course not. A combination of laziness, the ol' "D" word and other stuff have gotten in the way. But suffice to say that the scaring of small, tree dwelling rodents shall recommence as of this moment. I've also fallen prey to this Twitter thing presently doing the zeitgeistal rounds and can be found here: http://twitter.com/TalcyBri.

Well, spring is sounding like it's in the air - more birds in the garden (several new Gold Finches, a Thrush and a Sparrowhawk ripping a sparrow from the garden bench) and even an evening chorus. Plus walking the dogs with only a jacket on (trousers, yes of course I wore bleedin' trousers) in the sunshine. Hope it lasts.

Current task is preparing a proper writer's CV for an application to Skillset to try and get farther up the road and perhaps earn some more moolah. Glencoe reached a second revised draft but where now? New ideas are also afoot and a zero budget (but believeable!) alien invasion script is occupying most of my writing time at the mo.

B