The last word (la última palabra)

This is where all the bits that didn’t fit in anywhere else ended up. Beginning with a list of the kind of things that make my kind of simple life just perfect…

FILMS…

I adore the cinema, always have, while with equal fervour abhor television (haven’t had one for over 30 years, nor radio, or newspapers). My forever number one classic being TRULY MADLY DEEPLY (1990, directed by Anthony Minghella). And current second-best THE TAPE (2021, directed by Martha Tilston). If you love films too, I keep a list of all the ones I’ve seen recently that are good, you can download that here (updated weekly).

BOOKS…

Click here to download my current book list (updated weekly).

MUSIC…

I don’t have a favourite genre, liking virtually anything, as long as it’s been recorded with care and performed with soul/ integrity. However, my all-time favourite albums currently are Atom Heart Mother – Pink Floyd and Missa Sanctae Caeciliae – Joseph Haydn. Click here to download a full list of all my other likes (updated weekly).

OTHER THINGS I LIKE…

food – am always hungry and will eat virtually anything. I especially like curries & spicy food – as well as toast with chopped tomato on top (the “breakfast of kings” in Spain) ● pastries & cakes ● desserts (the true measure of any great meal) ● plus all the usual suspects, like: twiglets ● crisps ● anything that doesn’t have sugar (11 fillings in one year put pay to all that)…

plus…

the smell of wooden cabins ● hot chocolate at RIVER CITY CAFÉ (Powell River, British Columbia) accompanied by their three-berry slice ● portuguese pastel de nata cakes ● good neighbours ● the smell of the sea (especially Newlyn, Cornwall) ● people who are original in thought and deed ● Penzance/ Edinburgh/ Amsterdam/ Covent Garden/ Camden Town/ & Paris back in the 1970s, definitely not now ● bicycle trailers ● bright vibrant colours ● cats ● gardening ● handmade anything, by me or others ● having things work properly ● enjoying meals out with other people ● bargains and second-hand ● repairing broken or discard items ● spring ● real espresso (artisan roasted), just as it is, without sugar/ milk ● graphic design ● interior design magazines ● food magazines ● independent magazines ● alternative living magazines ● making books ● learning spanish ● living anywhere but the UK ● walking home in the dark through a forest ● living well away from other people ● learning about keeping bees ● teaching english to adults ● photography/ making films ● writing with a fountain pen ● having lots of coloured pencils/ wax crayons/ and pens to draw with ● incense ● hats ● cycling instead of walking ● using natural materials ● writing and receiving letters, corresponding ● original designed fabric ● thick wool jumpers ● corduroy shirts/ trousers ● to own a genuine harris tweed jacket again ● ancient South American Indian design ● the street markets and hardware shops of Northern Portugal ● flannel sheets ● artisan pottery tableware ● second-hand bookshops and record shops ● eating in season ● beachcombing ● real French croissants and pastries ● thrift stores & charity shops ● wearing socks in bed ● being around older people ● vintage motorcycles ● pedro ximenez sweet wine/ mead/ & homemade aguardiente (coffee flavour) ● vinyl LPs ● handmade socks & fingerless gloves ● tartan scarves ● the sound frogs make in the grey-water pond ● the sound of cicadas ● the smell of rock rose ● making xmas cards & presents for friends ● having odd bits of vintage crockery ● illustrated children’s books ● the Feria district in Sevilla ● the independent shops in Main Street Vancouver ● the smell of lime flowers and orange blossom on the tree ● learn how to snowboard ● fresh figs ● working in the garden before the sun rises ● people with a passion ● giving back and foot massage ● singing ● reading books ● Shetland Library ● watching films/ dvds ● playing the bongos & djembe….

and here is a selection of happy images from our past:

swipe to see more photos

Dislikes…

the NHS ● sundays ● living alone ● microwave ovens ● Eckhart Tolle/ Michael Reynolds/ Rob Hopkins/ Bill Mollinson & all the other self-appointed gurus/ experts who have got very rich from peddling dodgy alternative ideas ● GPs ● swimming ● being cold & snow ● British radio ● reliance on cars ● towns and cities ● bullfighting ● SEPRONA ● smoking ● drugs ● same-sex bar culture ● strong artificial smells (like washing detergent/ shower gel/ perfume) ● dog shit ● how horribly thin and wrinkly I have got ● holidays & travel, except to visit friends ● driving ● cooking ● all religion ● all politics ● wasting money or time ● people who say what they think you want to hear ● all sport ● tv ● newspapers ● crowds ● complementary medicine ● “fashion” or “followers” ● walking/ hiking ● ex-pats ● anyone in authority/ bureaucracy (especially councillors/ architects/ solicitors/ and the police) ● swimming pools ● supermarkets & processed food ● wild boar & deer ● children ● feeling sad ● dust & dusting ● late nights ● make-up & hair products ● mornings ● mobile phones ● earning money ● being trapped indoors ● IKEA ● painted finger or toe nails ● hairdressers ● heels on shoes/ boots ● worrying about money ● working with cement ● dishwashers ● poetry ● short stories ● watches ● lots of piercings & tattoos ● nationalism (flag waving/ racism/ identifying as coming from a particular country) ● British tea ● sports/ lounge wear ● pastel colours ● charities ● royalty ● the infernal combustion engine ● shopping centres ● crofting ● farming ● fishing ● social media ● Amazon ● Shetland Islands Council ● the crofting mafia ● pubs & bars ● Shetland Arts ● Shetland Amenity Trust ● Viking wind farm ● Shetland Charitable Trust ● salmon & missel farming ● sheep farming ● shops and cafes that only open when it suits them ● the Dowry cafe and Mareel cafe, both in Lerwick

EVERYONE’S PATH WILL BE DIFFERENT, THAT’S SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO PUT NATURE FIRST. dO THIS AND EVERYTHING ELSE WILL FALL INTO PLACE NATURALLY.

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acknowledgements…

I usually hate anything like this, sycophantic chest puffing. But in this case, there is an exception. Because no amount of praise would ever be enough to make up for what our greatest influence/ source of inspiration/ and long-time friend, has done for us over the so many years we have known each other. Shirley-Anne Hardy. Tireless campaigner/ writer/ publisher/ champion for everyone to be able to live a simpler and more sustainable life. Now, sadly, no longer with us. I heartily recommend her book BIRTHRIGHT IN LAND, BY WILLIAM OGILVIE…AND THE STATE OF SCOTLAND TODAY (see the books on alternative living page), followed by the sequel, published in 2011, STOLEN LAND – STOLEN LIVES, AND THE GREAT CON TRICK OF DEBT! Both a guaranteed riveting read and invaluable reference.

the epilogue…

Where I aim to tie up what all the previous pages have merely begun to introduce. Beginning with the question of the moment:

“why is it most people do not feel the slightest responsibility for the imminent extinction of our species, even when it’s their lives which are going to be cut short so tragically?”

I believe the answer is we’ve lost that all-essential connection with who we are, with Nature. Something every other creature knows instinctively, written in their DNA. Their lives therefore are full of clarity. They know where they come from, and what it is they are meant to do. Right from the moment of birth. While we exist in a fog of confusion and dissatisfaction. This is because at some point in the not-so-distant past, some bright soul discovered that he (yes, women are blameless) could have a much easier time if he got everyone else to do his bidding. Getting away with it by pretending he knew something they didn’t. Ever since then he, and his successors, have continued to fool the masses whilst enjoying a life of immense privilege and wealth at our expense.

How do I know this? Because somehow, I’m immune to their scam, I am un-conventional. Wayward from birth. Refusing to accept the regime of education. Employee from hell. Spending the rest of my life trying to live sustainably, outside the system, while everyone else might as well be from another planet.

I haven’t always been aware of this. It only really became clear when we decided to get rid of the television (and stop buying newspapers). Suddenly I could see the hidden agenda. How the media, and those behind it, were controlling everything, including the way we think and live. Ruling by fear, in order to make us work and spend unquestioningly, feeding their limitless appetite for power and wealth.

Interestingly, this change can even be traced archaeologically. Ever since we started being ruled over (about 10,000 years ago), the physical size of our brains has been diminishing. The rate speeding up with the invention of ways to make life easier. Meanwhile, no other species has been affected in this way, felt it necessary to change their existence as we have.

No other species has our insatiable need to over-populate and consume the planet’s natural resources.

No other species has chosen to swap its precious senses to use instead a totally artificial one like language. Substituting a natural inherited connection to all other living things, with words. Not even the same ones, but thousands of different languages, each totally incomprehensible, each taking a lifetime to acquire. All woefully inadequate at expressing anything but the most basic instructions.

Even more bizarre is why we even need to know all the stuff that language creates, that apparently make us more superior among other species. Stuff like what happened in the past/ might happen in the future/ symmetry/ how to measure/ quality/ direction/ orientation/ weight/ height/ temperature/ colour/ stages/ proportion/ models/ profitability/ worth/ or gods? Surely even the simplest soul can see how pointless it is to even begin trying to make sense of the world. Which is so patently more complex than even the most intelligent could understand. It’s like obesity, or the internet. We waste our precious lives stuffing ourselves, and instead of improvement it’s slowing us down, both physically and mentally, even killing us. Look around. Are there any other species with the slightest interest in all this crap? No. Yet they’ve been here just as long as us, they don’t have any of the problems we’ve created, and they’ll still be here long after we’ve gone. If you still don’t understand what I’m getting at, this urban-centric fantasy we’ve created, then read PINCHER MARTIN by William Golding. Or even better, try this simple experiment. Choose a picture or photograph, of anything. Then without showing it, describe that image to another person, using words. I’ll save you the effort, it’s impossible. No matter how long you try, written or spoken, there is no way to describe the experience exactly.

Yet if you and they were blindfolded, then asked to smell/ taste/ or feel an object, the experience would be almost identical.

Better still, if we got rid of language altogether, in no time we would revert to using our sense of telepathy, how we used to express ourselves. But then it would they would not be able to control us so easily then.

Weird how we prefer illusion to reality.

Thankfully it doesn’t have to be like this. We can revert. We can break free from the jobs and money trap. We can stop watching tv, reading newspapers, and listening to the radio. It doesn’t bring happiness, only addiction. Whereas living simply has brought me the closest I’ve ever known to true freedom. Being able to wake up with the sun, labour only to make what we need, stay fit and youthful. I also rejoice in putting something back, helping to replant the global ecology/ forest. This has to be the most fulfilling feeling there is. It could be yours too. The only question is, do you want it enough?

“believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear”