It doesn't just rain it pours.

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Just days after I posted my last one commenting on the weather and how nice, and sunny, it has been the British weather lived up to it reputation, and now we have suffered days of showers. As I start this blog it isn't just raining it it absolutely poring down. My back garden looks as if it could flood and all this is happening when the schools have broken up for term time holiday.

Normally children can keep themselves occupied for a day if they can go outside to play, but when it's raining, and when it carries on day after day, and they aren't at school they not only start to go stir crazy, but they will also send you crazy.

For a lot of my followers around the world who are parents, and who live in sunny climates, especially in the Middle East, this may not be a problem, but in the U.K it's one of the things you have to live with. I've finished my draft to Daniel Jones Doom the sequel to Frenzy a Daniel Jones Story and I'm glad I have because it can become almost impossible to write at home when you have two young bored children running about.

We all have dreams and as one dream comes true then another one pops into your head. My dream was to become a published author which I have now achieved with Frenzy a Daniel Jones Story which is available in over twenty different countries, and hopefully next year Daniel Jones DOOM will be released. I'm already thinking about my third book, and as the children drive me crazy this rain soaked week, I dream of having a little boat somewhere on the broads that I can use as a writing studio. Somewhere I can escape to first thing in the morning, somewhere I can write in peace, and then just lock up and leave at the end of the day when I've finished to return home to my family.

Children soon grow up so we should enjoy their youth with them because before you know it they will have grown up and left home, but then again sometimes we all need just a little time to ourselfs.

Regards

Mark.

Time of year for the bike.

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The Sun has been out in the U.K all week and it's been great.

But when the sun comes out so do the family bikes and the other afternoon I spent an hour in the garage pumping up wheels and oiling the chains on the family's bikes. On Monday morning the sun was out in full force, the heat had already warmed up the day so there was no excuse for not doing the school run on the bikes. The children love to bike and when the weather is this good it's quite an enjoyable experience; especially on the return journey when you haven't got to peddle like a mad-man to keep up with the kids who go shooting off without a care in the world.

As a parent you are always looking out for their safety, always thinking about any possible unseen dangers they may face on the journey; dangers they are oblivious too like cars pulling out of driveways, and drivers opening side doors. The list of possible hazards can seem endless and you could worry yourself to the point where you never take a risk, or allow you children take them.

It's only natural and it can be hard to fight these urges, but fight them you must if you want your little ones to experience life to the full, and more importantly to make mistakes, and for them to learn for themselves. Then again going with human history we don't always learn from our mistakes. Time and time again humanity falls down in its own ignorance in its failure to learn from history. We as a species seem to go round and round in circles in a never ending cycle of madness hoping that somehow if we only increase the madness we might actually win this time!

Again and again people use violence against their fellow human-beings and again and again only love has been shown to truly work.

Why we all find it so hard to give love a chance instead of turning to hate every time we have a squabble with each other is a hard question to answer, and no doubt if you tried to answer it two different people would disagree, and it would end up in a fight.

All I know is that I love life and it's the most beautiful gift given to us.

Regards

Mark

My bit for Democracy

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 On Friday the 23rd of May I will be playing my small part in hopefully the smooth running of local democracy. I will be one of the counter of votes for the European Elections that are being held on the 22nd.

This is the second time I have had the honour of this task after I did the very same thing in the first elections that were held for the new role of Police Commissioner's that were created to give local democratic control over the police. The vote was carried out using the P.R system instead of the first past the post system that are used in the national elections.

The European Elections also use the P.R system and although like a lot of people I wasn't sure about using this type of system for voting; I now believe it's a better system to use. What I have noticed about these European Elections are that a lot more people are now taking an interest in voting. During the seventies when the older first past the post system was used most people didn't bother to vote in the European Elections because basically you only had two two parties that had any chance of winning, the Conservative or Labour.

Now the smaller parties have a chance of winning and it has really opened the debate. Even though the old style parties still gain the most the power; the smaller parties views work their way through the system to effect national policy.

As an example take the Green Party. They have never held national power, but their agenda is flooding into daily life. In my youth in the seventies factories used to pump their waste straight into the rivers, and raw sewage went straight into the bathing waters off our coast. And as for green energy is was just for science fiction writers.

Now our rivers are clean and teaming with wild-life, and the hundred miles of continuous beach in Norfolk have blue flags flying over most of them. Off the coast of East Anglia are sited two of the countries largest wind farms, with a third is under construction, and one of the U.K's biggest solar farms has just started to operate south of the town of North Walsham. Norfolk County Council are in the early stages of commissioning  a second solar farm to be constructed on the runway at the old R.A.F base in Coltishal potentially making it the biggest in Great Britain.

Within the next five years Norfolk could truly call itself the first Green County in the country. All the homes, factories, offices and businesses could be powered by energy that comes solely from the wind or sun!

With pesticides slowly being taken out of farming, and my local authority of Broadland having one of the best recycling rates for house hold rubbish in the county; things have improved so much over the last twenty years, it's easy for people to forget how dirty our past was.

And it's a continuing process. The second largest bus company in the county are changing their fleet from diesel power to run on much cleaner natural gas, and the days of the all electric car being the main type of vehicle on our roads are fast approaching.

I do believe that if we had stayed with the old voting system for the European Elections none of this would have happen. The same old tired parties would have looked after their same old interests, and apathy would have ruled the elections. It was common for some areas to only get a 20% (or less) turn out for the vote, but now that has all changed.

Life would be a lot more hazardous, not just for me, but also my children, if it wasn't for the small parties like the Greens banging away making the larger parties look over their shoulders, while stealing the Greens ideas to keep themselves in power.

That's the beauty of Democracy and one well worth making the twenty minute diversion from your daily routine to make the effect to visit the polling booth, and to cast your vote. Not to would be just plain madness.

Regards

Mark.

Chosen By You Book Club:

You can now check out my latest and hottest new interview so click the link below and enjoy the read.





Chosen By You Book Club: Blog Tour Interview - Frenzy: A Daniel Jones Story...: Frenzy: A Daniel Jones Story by Mark King Synopsis: Daniel leads a peaceful life with his family until he finds out a repulsive s...

The Drop

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It finally happened?

Yes after three seasons in the top flight of English football my beloved team Norwich City F.C couldn't avoid the drop, and got relegated to the Championship.

I remembered the first time it happened when I was just a child. At the time there wasn't a Premier League it was just called Division One and they dropped into Division Two. I remember it being such a shock it left me in a daze that lasted for days. It felt personal then. As a child I looked up to my heroes and they had let me down. I walked along the seafront in Lowestoft trying to clear my head from the disaster, and ended up in the amusement arcade. I spent the next two hours pumping my ten pence coins from my stash of pocket money into the Space Invaders machine, while trying to take my anger out of the never ending line of space ships that kept floating down the screen.

I didn't know it then, but it wouldn't be the first or last time I would have to go through such punishment. The difference now is that there isn't the pain anymore when it happens; because you learn that there is always the hope of promotion and making it once again into the top flight.

It's a good learning ground for the ups and downs that we all face in our daily struggle that is called life. Moments come when you feel dazed because of failure and you think it's the end of the road. The other difference is that now I don't end up down the arcade on the Space Invaders machine, but down my local the Fat Cat and Canary with a pint of ale in my hand, and a group of fellow distressed supporters. We will moan, and groan and pick over the bones of every bad decision made. We will pass judgement and blame, and then head home to family life.

On this occasion it isn't me who has to pick themselves up, but the football club. From the Directors at the top, through to the management and players, they will all have to take some of the blame, learn from it and get ready not to make the same mistakes next season.

Every cloud has a silver lining and to me this could be a positive event for the family. Both my children like football, but its hard to get tickets together to watch a game at Carrow Road when there is always a sell out crowd. We are already making plans for next season and are hoping they will be able to go and see some live action in the Championship. The other positive is that they may actually get to see a few winning games. My youngest has now seen six live games either at the ground, or on television, and he has never seen them win a game.

It's hard to convince a five year old, just turned six, to stick with the Canaries when all they do is loose. Children like to be winners, and are easily drawn to the big teams like Man United/City, Chelsea, Liverpool, or Arsenal because of this. You as a parent want your children to be winners in life too, it's only natural and hopefully next season we will all be winners!

Then again the last time Norwich got relegated they kept on loosing and ended up in the third tear of English Football!

What do I do if that happens?

I will have to see if they have Space Invaders on the Nintendo Wii.

Regards

Mark

25 years and nothing changes.

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It's twenty five years since the terrible football disaster the was Hillsborough when over ninety Liverpool fans were crushed to death before the start of the F.A cup semi-final. Over the last two months there have been various moments of reflection held throughout the nation, and before the start of games.

On Easter Sunday Liverpool paid a visit to Carrow Road to play the team I support Norwich City. There have been great effects made since that terrible day to improve both the stadiums that fans use, and also their behaviour once they are there. With what the Liverpool fans have experienced over the years in seeking justice for the extensive police cover up over their own failings I expected the people of Liverpool who visited that day to be on their best.

How wrong was I.

For all my readers around the world you will know that I am a steward covering the away section at Carrow Road. The game started at twelve noon so I had to be at the stadium at 10 am. We were informed that most Liverpool fans turning up were expected to be under the influence of drink, or drugs, and a sniffer dog was employed for this reason. By 11 am when the majority of the Liverpool supports arrived this prediction was proved right.

Many of them without tickets tried to jump the gates exactly the same thing which happened on the day of the Hillsborough disaster. Extra staff were called in to stop it which ended up with a female steward in tears after being abused, and it carried on throughout the game with various assaults on staff. At half time some of the bars had to be closed early when they were trashed, and by the time the game had finished urine was running down the isles, and hundreds if not thousands of pounds of damage had been done to the seating area.

Twenty minutes after the game had finished the rest of the ground was empty bar us stewards who had to stay behind to look after about a thousand Liverpool fans who refused to move as they continued celebrating. This was when the worst thing happened. There was a massive explosion. Everyone froze in silence for five seconds.The worst fears of a bomb was on every ones face until the supporters knew it wasn't one, and started to cheer and clap.

What idiot takes an explosive device into a football stadium for a laugh?

By the time they left everyone was glad to see the back of them and as I walked away from the stadium I reflected on what had gone on. In the last three decades the two biggest disasters that accumulated in the large scale death of fans within a football stadium has involved Liverpool supporters; after their disgraceful performance on Easter Sunday it may well not be the last.

Regards

Mark.