There Now Follows a Party Political Broadcast

There Now Follows a Party Political Broadcast.

Dam! So I’m Not 40….

Well what can I say, one minute things are going swimmingly the next…. well, I suppose I had better explain.

I am an active person, well I think so. I keep myself busy with small jobs around the farm and house, plus I play petanca – something which I was told was a rather strenuous sport -  so I was most surprised to find that somehow I had un-done all the good work my chiropractor had done on my back.  I really could not see how I had done it, so I began to think back.Well it might have been lifting the paint tub. I have had a large tub of white waterproof paint sitting in the shed, which needed to go on the roof terrace so I took it up there and over a few days duly painted the terrace, with a little help from Git the Ghecko.

As you can see it was red before I started now you need dark glasses up there,  in fact I now have to go and buy two new loungers in anything but white else I can’t find them.

Job done I then decided to put a few more tiles on the porch roof to cover where I had exposed it to fit the solar panels. Well it was raining so off we went to get them and after a couple of trips to Tarragona – always make a list or you will forget something plus buy a few other bits YOU dont need but someone else does… - I had everything I needed so in between showers I got busy and again had help from Git but I managed to get the job done. Meanwhile, my wife had been decorating the house and had a couple of jobs for me to do nothing strenuous, so how I did my back in? again I really can’t think.

She can go out there and garden away for hours, building small walls round the beds, making sculptures, all these things meant bending.  Apart from her hip and knee aching she is fine, then I realised, it was my brain at fault.  You see it still thinks I’m 40 not 70, and do you know, that’s how I see myself and therein lies the problem. My body which is much saner than my brain, knows what I am capable of doing so when my brain says “oh we can do that no problem, been doing it for years..” it goes “oh no you don’t, come on back, give in” and my back does just that.

Mind you all my friends at petanca are exactly the same sometimes I think we really do forget how old we are. We are all on Statins and various blood pressure tablets but not one of us sits still.  Last weekend I had to, but then the FA Cup was on so I did not mind missing petanca too much.  We actually had a PJ day last Sunday, perhaps this retirement club really IS the best club in the world.

So that is how we spent last week, a couple of Old Aged Gits with Forty year old minds, doing the things we do but a little slower. But hey we would rather be like this than ‘Waiting For Godo’.  It’s not just our minds that keep us going but the birds and animals up here even if they are little git’s at times…  They provide us with plenty to write about and a book of poems in progress.    Happy Days…

© Michael Douglas Bosc

American Poppy

American Poppy.

Two In One Week

I like many other authors like to know what people really think of our books, well I certainly do.  Good or bad it does not matter because out of it comes information to help the author to see where – if any – mistakes are being made and allows for any alteration. Always remembering that opinions very much depend on the readers taste and likes. The other thing is style of writing. My style is totally different, but does not detract from the story and I am learning to ‘put more meat on the bones’, remembering that not everyone lived through the times I write about nor remembers London just after the war. So I was getting just a little concerned that no one had written a review after buying the books. Then I read a review by Arther E. West so I sent him a copy of the second book in both the Stanley Saunders and Jason Watson series.

When we were at a fira this weekend we bumped into a friend and to my surprise he had read A Loving Son. I asked what he thought about it and his reply was quite encouraging.  He said that my style of writing is ’unusual’ that you could have been there, but the story was good and had a fast pace, then very tongue in cheek, asked if I was Stanley? (do I look like an assassin?).  Anyway to my great pleasure today I received this from Arther West:-

“I have reviewed many books in my time but none quite like this. Michael Bosc has his own fresh style of telling a story which makes him stand out. He made me feel as though I was there with the characters as things happened, a sort of voyeur, which made it hard to put the book down.  He has captured the essence of post war London  in depicting the East end as it really was. The gangs, attitudes of the upper classes, and, shall we say, a corrupt police force, bringing to mind Saville row with the expensive jags parked outside…..

So to the story. We find our hero in the army, where he is assigned a female operative and together they are tuned in physical fitness by some very sneaky people. Whilst there Rupert has a job for him which takes him to the cold depths of Canada where he was supposed to ’accidentally’ die. But he finds out he has been betrayed from a dying man, and makes a promise to him that he will find and destroy the person responsible. Thus begins his trek out of the wilderness.

Back home he recovers, attends his mother’s marriage to Reg and catches up on his business with a surprising outcome. He is then asked to sort a ‘small problem’ for a US Government department’, not once but twice with the last one leaving an unanswered question. As to who tried to have him killed? well you need to read the book…

Once again Michael has given us a fast paced and racy novel. He is a good teller of stories albeit in a slightly differently style. But be warned, once you begin you will be kept wanting more. I await the next book with anticipation.

A.E.West.”

All my books are on Kindle and I am now awaiting his review of A Bengal Poppy.
© Michael Douglas Bosc

Englands Parking Holiday

Englands Parking Holiday.

Honey Wine and Olive Oil

Yesterday we visited the annual honey and olive oil fira in El Perello. We like this fira it shows the produce of the area and gives people a chance to taste both the honey and oil locally produced.

amongst the stands displaying honey and oil were wines, breads, cheeses, a large herbal display and various other items.  I found old friends there

Celler Pinell de Bre  which is just up the road steeped in the history of the Spanish Civil War and producing some very special wine of the Terra Alta  http://bit.ly/LJWX4V you can contact them here.

Also in their usual place I found the Co-operativa Batea, displaying their magical wines. We were informed trade was going well and were asked if we would like to sample some of the wines – sadly their offer was declined driving and the Mossos - but if you would like to sample some of their magic http://bit.ly/QmshfT talk to them.

But this year the large hall was curiously barren. The honey sellers were there but even the stall where you can purchase bee keeping equipment was smaller.  Also missing was the herbal stand, here you could buy various herbal medicine and teas along with those for cooking.  The stand which demonstrated various massage chairs, the music stand where you could see fine instruments,  neither were there.  Even outside the stalls were muted and no wood carving demonstrations by young men with chain saws.

We wandered around the town square for a while then as it was getting late I decided to take my wife for a meal in L’Ametlla de Mar, the little town just up the coast.  We rather like this town, it was the first place we stayed at when we arrived before buying our finca.  I parked the car in the car park by the marina and we climbed the steps to the town.  After wandering around looking for a restaurant we came across a small one down a side street called The Gramophone.  The inside is nicely decorated with tables enough for  28 people inside and 16 outside.  There is an old-fashioned gramophone and radio which have been converted to play discs and which played old standards whilst we ate. The food was excellent we shared a blue cheese and apple salad the dressing was superb and a plate os patatas bravos, followed by a plate of various fresh seafood all washed down by a bottle of really good full-bodied red wine from Marca http://bit.ly/KuRyC8.   We then drove home through the mountains, all in all it was a perfect day.

© Michael Douglas Bosc

The Bile of Politics

The Bile of Politics.