This new portrait of King Charles has prompted many discussions (and arguments) on Facebook. I find that fascinating. I talk about the interpretation of colour in dreams, in my book Working the Night Shift and what I say in there is just as true in real life as it is in dreams.

It's interesting how the colour red suggests different things to different people. Is red angry, passionate, energetic? Or is it violent as in blood that's been shed? Or it may be the possibility of new life as in menstruation. There are so many interpretations and all are dependent on our own projections and our view of the world. What about you? How do you feel about the colour of this portrait?

 To Exercise or not to Exercise? That is the Question.

After enduring two months of gym twice a week, yoga twice a week and Pilates twice a week, I’m just about done with it all. To be honest, it was torture. Forcing my body into all those unnatural positions has taken its toll. Downward dog has knackered my wrists, sit ups from lying position has knackered my back, my knees are groaning under the weight of the cat and the gym has reduced my inner thighs to quivering wrecks.

The only upside of my short membership was a visit to the steam room once a week. It gave me a chance to ease my aching limbs and do mindful, silent meditation as if I was back in the womb. What a treat that was! Sadly though, there was usually a pack of men partaking of the pleasure of the steam. What is it about men in a steam room? It's like being at a buffalo watering hole with all the grunting and snorting, puffing and panting. Why do men do that? 

So, anyway, I’m thinking of ditching the gym and the classes and going back to my regular, brisk walks over the Saddleworth hills. I was a lot fitter, and a lot happier, when I was doing that. Working up a sweat with a roomful of other sweaty, panting people is probably not for me.

 

Knowing; I Wish We Did.

The past twelve hours have brought it home to me how the human race is fast approaching the bottomless pit, if not already there. Are we all asleep? Blindfolded? Or do we secretly want it all to end? I watched the movie ‘Knowing’ last night. That’s the one starring Nicolas Cage. A prophecy about the end of the world comes true because of a solar flare blowing away all the ozone that protects us from the searing heat of the sun. Not sure if it was that, but I had a very bad night’s sleep.

This morning, I switched on the TV BBC News channel 231 only to be met with more of the same. It’s Holocaust Memorial Day. Mention was made of all the other countries that have been subjected to the same genocidal horrors over the years, with one man aggressively bemoaning the current rise in anti-semetism in the UK.  Why didn’t the interviewer ask him the reason for that. Sadly, she didn’t and absolutely no mention was made of Gaza.

That news item was followed by the scandalous spread of AI-generated sexually explicit photos of Taylor Swift. It’s so easy to produce and upload such damaging images, that it’s only going to get worse because there is no way to control or stop it.

Next came an eight-year-old girl, with her mother, asking for more regulation on skincare products for children. What!!!!!!!! Her daughter and all her friends have skincare parties where they experiment with all the wonderful beauty products they buy – and her mother goes shopping for them with her!!! Many of which are anti-aging products! What madness is that? They’re blaming the ‘influencers’ on TikTok. From what I can see, most ‘influencers’ (what a ridiculous term!) are attention–seekers, so wrapped up in their own egos that they don’t care what they’re promoting, providing people look at them.

That was followed by news of the seizure of 4.5million illegal disposable vapes – up from 4,000 in 2021. Why people feel the need to suck on a tube, I have no idea. Maybe they are substitutes for babies’ dummies? I guess that would make sense as so few of us are self-responsible and able to find comfort within ourselves. If those skills were taught in schools, there would be no need of ‘influencers’.

Finally came a report from Bejing where unmanned AI police cars with video cameras (and face recognition capability, obviously) are patrolling the city streets looking for trouble makers. Another small step and they’ll be armed, indiscriminately tasering suspicious looking pedestrians.

Honestly, if this is how human beings are living and evolving, we do not deserve to survive. Roll on Armageddon.