Rooftop View in Paris

I had a very nice time in Paris last weekend.  First we noodled around the Isle de la Cite, then went to see St Lazare, and finally meandered up and down the Boulevard Haussmann and Rue la Fayette, ending up on the roof terrace of the Printemps department store.  Unfortunately it dribbled down on and off, so the photos aren't as good as they might be, but nevertheless it was a great view!

Commemorative airplane

St Lazare Clocktower

St Lazare church

Back of the church

Inside the church

An umbrella can be a very effective argument!

Printemps!

On the roof!

Eiffel Tower

Madeleine church

La Defense - where the Evil Ones dwell

Montmartre

Cool lamp in hotel entrance!

Unknown church pronounced 'Insupportable!' by A....

But I like it - it breaks all sorts of architectural rules!

Depression and Anxiety ( Mental Treatment symptoms causes signs spiritu...

Another Suicide ....

This morning I woke up to the news on the radio of Robin Williams' death by suspected suicide.  This sort of news never fails to sadden me - I have been affected by suicides myself.

I remember recently a friend of mine lost her husband, too, to suicide brought on by depression.  As though losing the love of her life wasn't bad enough, she also suffered because she blamed herself for not having done enough to prevent it.  This is a common response by suicide survivors, and very understandable.  But it is also very very far from the truth.

By the time a person commits suicide they will often have exhausted all internal and external resources.  They are literally 'spent', bereft of all strength and unable to carry on.  Human beings are'nt  vessels one can fill up with strength or hope, no matter how much one loves them  - to a large extent they need to do this themselves.  And usually, if there is someone in their life who truly cares for them, that person will have already spent years if not decades to make life more bearable for their depressed friend.

Instead of blaming themselves for not having done enough, suicide survivors should comfort themselves with the thought that if it hadn't been for their love and concern and support their loved one probably would have died a lot earlier.  They enabled their dead friend to have many happy moments which lightened the darkness of their depression and gave them the strength to carry on, even if only just for a day or an hour at a time.

Suicides often genuinely believe their friends and relatives would be better off if they were dead.  Their self esteem can be very low, and so they fail to see how important they are to their loved ones.  It is easy to only see one's own bad sides and mistakes, and to only see the good sides of others, especially those one loves.  Many of us are guilty of that sort of thinking; if we do someone a favour we immediately forget about it, but when someone does us a good turn we remember it forever - no wonder we get an incorrect view of our relative worth!

It is unfair to accuse suicides of being selfish and not caring about the friends and family they leave behind.  They are often utterly exhausted, drained by sadness and hopelessness.  They see how their depression affects the ones they love, and think that by removing themselves from life they free their loved ones from the burden they feel they have become.  But of course, things aren't that simple; suicide survivors may be delivered from the burden of caring for their dead friend, but often they now carry the burden of guilt and shame of having failed to save the suicide.

So what should one do after losing a loved one to depression and suicide?  Remember them with kindness and compassion, and treasure in your heart the time you were able to spent together.  Give yourself full credit for having done so much to help them while they were alive, and don't be angry with them for not having been as strong as you might have wished.  And above all, enjoy your life as best you can - for if you live with guilt and sadness, you are throwing the gift the suicide tried to give you by taking their own life back in their face.

Honour them by having a good life, and honour life by being happy!

Musical Potpourri & Intergalactic Laxatives

My music station

Every now and then I feel in need of a mega-dose of music.  Old music, back from the days when music was terribly important to me, and when every song carried a memory and a special message.  Yesterday was a rainy day, followed by a thunderstorm, and I felt a bit pensive, so I opened the CD doors of my Welsh dresser and settled down to some serious listening.  I am not good with links and stuff, and notice that after a while they get disconnected anyway, so I am not posting any links, just a list of what I listened to.  And, just for laughs, I have added the lyrics of one of my favourate, little known, song by Donovan.

Happy Sunday Afternoon!

Donovan - The Intergalactic Laxative

I was impressed like everyone,
When man began to fly,
Out of earthly regions,
To planets in the sky.
With total media coverage,
We watched the heroes land,
As ceremoniously
They disturbed the cosmic sand.

In awe with admiration,
We listened to the talk.
Such pride felt they,
Such joy to be
Upon the moon to walk.
My romantic vision shattered,
When it was explained to me,
Spacemen wear old diapers
In which they shit and pee.

Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to there.
Relieve you and believe me, 
Without a worry or care.
If shitting is your problem,
When you're out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to Mars.

They don't partake like you and I,
Of beefy burger mush.
Their food is specially prepared
To dissolve into slush.
Absorbed by multi-fibers
In the super diaper suit,
Otherwise the slush would trickle
Down inside the boot.

Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to there.
Relieve you and believe me, 
Without a worry or care.
If shitting is your problem
When you're out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to Mars.

You may well ask now what becomes
Of liquid they consume.
A pipe is led from penis head
To a unit in the room.
The water is recirculated,
Filtered for re-use.
In case of anti-gravity -
Pee gets on the loose.

Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to there.
Relieve you and believe me, 
Without a worry or care.
If shitting is your problem
When you're out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to Mars.

Wherever man has conquered,
On the quest for frontiers new,
(Da da da da)
I'm glad that he's always had to do
The number one and two.
It makes it all so ordinary,
Just like you and me,
To know the greatest heroes,
They had to shit and pee.

The intergalactic laxative
Will get you from here to there,
For cosmic constipation
There's none that can compare.
If shitting is your problem
When you're out there in the stars,
Oh, the intergalactic laxative,
The intergalactic laxative,
The intergalactic laxative,
Will get you from here to Mars.

DB's Play List

Christie, Yellow River

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebels, Make me smile

The Kinks, Waterloo sunset

The Waterboys, The whole of the moon

David McWilliam, Days of Pearly Spencer

Ian Drury & the Blockheads, Reasons to be cheerful

Gerry Rafferty, The girl's got no confidence

Amy Winehouse, You know I'm no good

Buena Vista Social Club, Chan Chan

Stephen Bishop, On and on

Moody Blues, Your wildest dreams

Ry Cooder & Manuel Galban, Caballo Vieje

Velvet Underground, There she goes again

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Proud Mary

Thomas Fersen, Piece montee des grands jours

Jim Croce, Which way are you going

Grateful Dead, Friend of the Devil is a friend of mine

Fleetwood Mac, Rhiannon

Leonard Cohen, Suzanne

The Eagles, Best of my love

Roberta Flack, The time time ever I saw your face

Camel, Spirit of the water

Bo Hansson, Attic thoughts

Tangerine Dream, Movements of a visionary

Klaus Schulze, Synphaera

The Shadows, Apache

Louis Prima, Angelina

Billie Holiday, Strange fruit

Fred Astaire, They Can't Take That Away From Me

Cosmetic Bullshit Artists in London

When I recently went to London I walked down New Bond Street en route to my club, and fell into the hands of a very pushy cosmetics seller!  Selling for Orogoldcosmetics - remember the name!

So there I was, innocently meandering down the street, when this very personable young chap offered me a free sample.  Which I took.  Then we got to chatting, and he invited me in for 'another gift'.  Well I had time and anyway I like gifts!  So I went into the shop with him.

Instead of giving me a gift he started to smear some ointment around one of my eyes, and asked me to comment on the difference.  I couldn't see a thing, with or without my glasses.  Then he called a colleague for reinforcement, and asked him to say which of my eyes he had just treated.  Surprisingly enough, the colleague knew immediately that it was the left one!  Now I was getting suspicious!

Also I noticed the prices - £200 for a pot of face cream?  Whatever wrinkles that stuff may take off my face, the worries of spending that kind of money on a fat & water mixture would put them straight back on!  Meanwhile the young man started to flirt with me, telling me about my amazing skin and how I owed it to myself and my admirers to take care of it.  So I told him about Lakura from Aldi, how great it was and how it was dirt cheap.

This did not go down well with him.  Surely I could do better than that?  He commented on my clothes, my bag, my haircut, and suggested that an elegant lady like myself couldn't possibly stoop to dirt cheap cosmetics?  Then I told him about Oxfam, whence most of my clothes come from, and he became increasingly frustrated.

He started to rub some cream on to the back of my hand, and this resulted in little golden looking bits & pieces coming off.  Apparently this was dead skin.  'If you do this to your face it will take years off your appearance!' intoned the fat purveyor.  'I like my dead skin,' I told him.  'It protects my live skin from sunburn and other hazards!'

'Your husband, the man you love, will dump you if you keep looking older!' I was now admonished.  So I told him that I felt quite secure in the love of my man, and anyway he was growing older, too, and if I looked too young my sweetheart would get flack from all of his friends for being a cradle-snatcher.  It was much better to grow old together gracefully!

'But your lady-friends, who you meet for lunch, they will all drop you if you don't keep up with them!  It is so inconsiderate to let yourself go this way!'  Hear that K and S and R?  You had better start laying in to me for having the ill grace of growing older!  As for the young man, I told him that I didn't hang out with people who were quite as vain as that.

'But every time you look into the mirror you will hate what you see!' he exclaimed in a last ditch effort to convert me.  'Not at all,' I told him firmly.  'I just keep the light bulb wattage low to make sure that the lighting doesn't pick up whatever imperfections I might possess.  Much more economical, and less bother.'

At this he gave up and told me not to trip on my way out.  But I wasn't finished with him yet.  'What about the present you promised me?' I asked innocently, making no attempt to leave.  And you know what he said?  He said, 'I have to go to the toilet now, excuse me.'

Dear me.  I do hope he didn't throw up.  Maybe he was just aching to wash his hands, to dispel any lingering scent of poverty my presence may have left on him.

As for me, I fairly skipped to my club, secure in my self-love, feeling the warm glow of having gotten the better of yet another pushy salesperson who cracked his teeth on the granite foundations of my parsimony!

By the way, I googled the company and its product, and found loads of similar stories - except most ended with the victim buying the product!  I am so proud of myself!

Gargoyles and Grotesques

Basically, Gargoyles are glorified waterspouts and a subset of Grotesques, which are decorative figures stuck onto the outside of buildings (for details see the Wikipedia entry as per the link below).  Anyway, Oxford is full of both of them.  This morning on my way to meeting a friend for breakfast I paused to take pictures of some of them on Magdalen College.  I hope you appreciate them, I took most of them while standing in the middle of the road, dodging cars - luckily there aren't too many of them at 8 on a Sunday morning!

Interestingly enough, when these Grotesques need to be replaced - they are made of a very soft sandstone - they are often not replaced with copies of the originals, but with representations of modern humans.  So one can observe heads with NHS eyeglasses, for example.

Of course, Oxford isn't the only place that is simply thronging with Grotesques, there are very famous one all over the world including Paris, New York, and, according to Wiki, some really nifty ones in the Baltic states.

Happy Sunday!

Magdalen College with its distinctive tower, whence choristers sing on May morning

Definitely grotesque

Definitely gargoyle

Modern grotesques

Entrance to Magdalen College

Notice what he holds in his hand - a model of the college!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargoyle