Hi Ray - Not sure about your message of the 1st November just
read. My only recall is of a purchase way back and that seems to
be connected with my message seen in your list of messages dated 7th February last. However, I will go to my Paypal
account, not least to check payments in general - and come
back to you. Cheers, Mark

Hello lovely man, how are you? I hope you're managing to keep your chin above water after the longest hardest winter I've ever known.

Much love to you, thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read and comment ? x

Hello Ray - I sent you a reply via WOL about obtaining an online
copy of your photobook, but have not received a reply. Did you
receive it?
Cheers,
MC

Hello Ray

I finally got round to putting the Essex poem on the blog!

Hi Ray! Have to catch up on your writing, as it is always well worth it, and I have missed a lot. Been in the throes of trying to manage Zoom for teaching, -webinars, courses and tutorials on Utube. Some of those spoke such weird English I needed the text!!!! One girl kept on talking bout the Zoom 'porrl', and being notoriously thick, it took me a few minutes to realise she meant the Zoom Portal!!!!! The tragic thing is that I am supposed to be teaching English! Hope you haven't been Copvided even in a minor fashion. Am getting really bored with not being able to go anywhere much, although one shouldn't complain, when one thinks what the hospital staff are coping with. Here more than 700, doctors, nurses and paramedics died in the spring go.

All the best, Jennifer

Thanks Ray.... If I hear "We are Sailing" ever on the radio I throw it out the window... same goes for "Don't Cry For Me Argentina".

I have a hate from those days... The BBC. They announced we would attack Goose Green and the Argie moved 1000 more men into positions, same with their ordinance, their bombs were not going off, loads of ships were hit including mine and the bomb failed to explode, they were fucking up the timing on the detonator. The fucking BBC actually announced that... next thing you know Brit ships were blowing up all over the shop.

My other piece of anger is Colonel "H" Jones 2 Para (VC). He shouldn't have been there, he was "Sunray", Battalion commander, his place was safe back with his maps and radios and tea. Instead he took it upon himself to assault Argy machine gun positions across very open ground, I've seen it, and eighteen of his men and him got killed. "Sunray is down" over the radio left two Para headless, the one man with the whole battles cape in his head played the hero, lost and left his Battalion leaderless, he went against military doctrine and training. Had he lived he should have been court martialled! I was told by a 2 para combat medic he had two British rounds in his back. Someone had sense.

Fortunately Major Chris Keeble was his number two, ex SAS and a brilliant soldier, he was able to get a picture, put things back together and won in the end.

The other thing no one ever mentions is the Argentinians were disgraceful, they literally shit everywhere, in Stanly they shit in drawers, cabinets, wardrobes, in all their positions in the field, it took ages to clean up that filth. I don't know why but they did it.

Everyone thought the Argy pilots were real heroes, they couldn't fly at full speed couldn't manoeuvre, they were so low on fuel if they got caught up in heavy manoeuvring to dodge missiles and aa fire, they would run out of fuel on the way home, this made our Harriers look far better than they were! In fact it was two Harrier pilots told me that. Everyone respected them because despite that, and their heavy loses they just kept coming.Amazing courage.

Hi Ray - apropos your comment and its inclusion of Grenfell Tower on "Sutures and Futures", it has been given a racial slant by a black QC at the current enquiry hearing. How easy it is to make this type of
aspersion - as if the emergency personnel might have agreed to
some "selective" response! No positive recognition that a valuable
portion of social housing in central London seemed occupied almost completely by those originating from outside these islands rather
than those in need from the indigenous English/British population.
The tragedy originating in one of the flats seems to have allowed this to be overshadowed and ignored. Something about road, hell and
good intentions comes to mind.

Hi Ray - the Venner name in my family appears to have a history in
the Essex(Havering) area so, who knows? there may be a distant
connection. The name itself has variations - like Fenner and Vanner,
that go back centuries when spelling was hardly a precise exercise.

Hi Ray, back from the dead!!! Not quite dead funnily enough, but flu - whole family even with the jab. Then Christmas with shopping /cooking etc. When I needed them, my computer, dishwasher, and washing machine all went on the blink, (that phrase is a bit of a giveaway)!!! Then to top it all my ..!!!!!!!!!........... husband fell, (entirely his own fault, I say nastily), cracked several ribs, and has behaved like a grizzly with a sore head ever since! As if that wasn't enough, had to cope with a son's legal separation. Whew!!!!!!!
Any way all moused up again and ready to go.

Liked your Masterplan one, but what fell deed or deeds is it referring to? Problem is I can think of so many!

with affection, Jennifer

You are always a delight!

I'm 'not with it'. What does EFIT mean?

If I knew how to do it, I'd post a black and white photo of myself at twenty-five. I know you'd enjoy it, as I do yours: the older person shining through youth.

p o r t r a i t

by Tommy Carroll
Wednesday 20th November 2019 9:52 pm

Cheers Ray

follow your wife's advice-
you can't go wrong!

Ray you are correct. I stand corrected. Correction is the side-street to drunken doorways.

?

Indeed Ray indeed.

"The grindstone that wears a man into a polished version of himself."

Excellent Ray.

Thanks for the comment on Love Me it was I wrote it after a hip operation

Thank you Ray - Nut Hatch - appreciative of your kind comments. P. ?

Thanks for the comment on Cooling Towers, Ray. Very much appreciated, as always. T

Hi Ray, thanks for comments on El Dorado: dodgy is in there, best
Dom.

thanks for welcoming me back (again) Ray - glad you liked True Nature. As usual - you totally 'got it' ?

Hi Ray - you didn't say when you made a visit to West End Central
but the descriptions seemed to match a certain time. Who knows...if
you'd visited its opposite West End number up the road in Marylebone (just off Oxford Street) we might have met !!! A lot of
water has passed under the bridge since those days but the memories remain.

thanks Raypool. ?

Thanks, Ray, for your kind words on 'Man on a Wire'. David

Truely Ray
"The grindstone that wears a man into a polished version of himself."
Is most beautifully put.

"Waiting..."
and
"school holidays..."
quality.

(is that an Alan Benett...voice?)

you get your coat.
I'll get your goat!
?

Hi again Ray! About Nihilistic Poem- only just clicked!!!! Confess to being a 'cabeza di cocco'. Had a laugh anyway. Jennifer

Hi Ray! so sorry about all the fuss over 'tiredly'. I didn't read your comment, but I would have thought it was quite normal to suggest it didn't exist - np at all.
Loved your 'Genesis' am still seeing the despairing face beneath the ice - such an unusual image. Will get nihilistic when have time, or start quackling - if easier!
By the way, things have picked up, I would say - referring to the graffiti period.
Jennifer

Tech is easy
if you're young-
if old
it only adds
confusion.

Thank you Ray - for all of those words - Ymmot

Thanks for reading and commenting on my poem.
Always good to hear from the cool Raypool!