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Ieuan Dolby

The Mariners Articles

A New Baby and the World Outside

Posted Wednesday, July 01, 2009 (130 days 1 hour ago.) Viewed 44 times.

It is now two weeks since my second son was born. Time enough to settle into some sort of routine and to realise that he does in fact have a name, not " cutie", " baby" or " it"! For my wife and me it has been a traumatic few years, two miscarriages, a house break-in and a shift from a life in Taiwan to one in Edinburgh, Scotland. But we have managed and as Ewan Patrick latches onto life's nipples I can now look outward once again to what is hopefully a new start for my writings.

And what has the world been coping with in the last few weeks, nay months? Some guy called Michael Jackson popped his clogs! Gordon Brown of the UK is still twitching in the "hot" chair and that guy over in America, that Obama chap is still well-liked despite having failed to instantly fix the economy with a flash tap of a rubber hammer on a couple of bent and rusty nails! Further west and into the darker corners of the world where journalists report in whispers and dictators wear unfashionable sunglasses, nuclear weapons are still the topic of the day, China's GDP continually increases and Iceland still shivers from its recent pummelling as a financial powerhouse!

On more domestic matters it is nice to see that the weather is improving. I nearly booked myself a ticket to the North Pole before the good weather arrived in Edinburgh! The news reports from England (which became victim to a spot of sun before Scotland did) was all of doom and gloom, frail-ancients flopping down by the road side, dogs being cooked alive in locked cars, the possibilities of bottled-water prices shooting through the roof with all but the super-rich being able to afford them and of heat waves that would have us all sitting inside the fridge for dinner and cooking the eggs on top! I managed to stop myself buying that ticket and am now enjoying what has turned out to be a pleasant sunny day bit like summer has always been really!

I better go and change a nappy, my work is only just starting!

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Shifty Eyed Gordon Brown

Posted Friday, June 05, 2009 (156 days 9 hours ago.) Viewed 21 times.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom may assume that the world is at war and that the general public mostly wish him to wave the white flag and call "surrender". But is that the right thing to do? Up and till now I couldn't have cared less who was in power, as far as I am concerned one politician is as bad as another but recently Gordon Brown has taken poor leadership to whole new depths. His face tells the full story. He barely carries his haggard and sunken, shifty eyed exterior; he depicts a well-dressed prisoner-of-war who snoops and ferrets out camp titbits for his captors. Slightly better fed than the average prisoner but with a whole lot of things to hide from his peers!

The real problem that the British are suffering under is not as one may assume a Telegraph Newspaper led political scandal that has riveted the world for the last four weeks, nor a weak and inept government that has reeled under an economic crisis that has demanded a leader with stamina and strength but the fact that we don't really have anybody to follow! Today or tomorrow!

Oh, we have many expense-fiddling wild-eyed youngsters who aspire to great heights even if it means ratting and turning against those who have led them by the hand so far. We have many opposition hopefuls who only say "no" when Gordon says "yes" but these are not leaders, not men or women of strength and leadership quality, these are simply well-educated political babies who have no charisma, no faithful following based upon resounding speeches and certainly no proper leadership skills that are so in demand at this moment in time.

Britain lacks a real leader to take us forward and through these ongoing expense-claim scandals and economic recession.

What we have is Gordon Brown, a weak and ineffectual guy who has pulled up the drawbridge of No10 and won't come out to play. In fairness to the poor man his wobbly heart is in the right place! He only wants to do what he thinks is best for the British people, he wants to be fair and to consider all sides of an argument or problem. Looking back he did act responsibly and quickly when the banks were collapsing faster than the journalists could get to them. He has shown leadership quality albeit in a quiet and unassuming manner but . we need a leader Gordo.

There are a bunch of smooth-talking kids surrounding Gordon's castle and he is inside pickling cucumbers or perhaps throwing speeches into the waste paper bin faster than he can complete them?

Come out my good man! Open up the window and shout from the battlements "enough you pasty-faced whiners". He needs to lower the drawbridge and to come charging out on his ebony steed, frothing at the mouth and ready for battle, to scatter the hopefuls away like a hurricane attacking a pile of autumn leaves and to say "I am in charge"!

But I guess it's too late for that now! I wonder which upstart will topple him from his nag.

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Politicians, Bankers and a Disturbing Lack of Inspiration

Posted Thursday, May 28, 2009 (164 days 7 hours ago.) Viewed 805 times.

It may have been noticed by a few, none more so than myself, that I have not written any ribald words of wisdom recently. In fact, it would not have been out-of-order to assume that I had successfully adhered to a rashly made New Year's resolution that went "don't write anymore" - I have not written anything since 2008.

The reason for this period of writing celibacy is simply because I didn't know where to start amongst the supersonic changes occurring in the world's political and economic environments. For some, this economic crisis has been heart rendering as money and jobs are lost, insecurity and fate become daily companions and the horizon remains a bleak and dried-out jungle of recriminations, attacks and little common sense. These unchartered waters have been heightened by the embarrassing array of pointless utterances as Britain's political elite mutter and waiver their ways through a crisis that has clearly shown a government (society) riddled by greed and self-centredness. Those very same human-traits that dragged the world into recession and left economies, countries and people crippled by astounding debts!

First the banking elite, then the executives and now the politicians!

It all happened so fast that I was unable to find an angle or entry into the fray! As soon as I came up with a topic the landscape changed; as soon as an idea rattled its way to my pen something else would happen that made it run out of ink!

The stock markets have been the hardest to understand! They have been breaking ceilings when bad things are reported, digging holes in the sea-beds when all the signs are positive. Newspapers are reporting crisis then contradicting themselves with hurriedly produced statistical upgrades! For a while Japan was sinking beneath the waves, one week later she is beating all expectations'. And those politicians, they win the award for baring human failings! As each revelation is drip-fed by the Daily Telegraph not one of our leaders manages to say the right thing! The whole government of the United Kingdom is flailing around like a pod of fish out-of-water! No single politician knows how to reply to their constituents, not one has an answer that justifies or waters down their life's can of worms. The average person does not know what the politicians should say to make things better, the politicians themselves don't know what to say and I don't either!

So maybe we should just sack the lot like we did with the bankers and executives! Sacking people does not solve the problems but at least it is all brushed under the carpet for a while! Check out the news in ten years time: Bank goes under crippled by reckless loans, the House of Lords stigmatised by expense revelations, executives get an average 30% pay rise year-on-year. But nobody will say anything, in fact it will be as if it never happened before and life goes on!

I can well imagine that the politicians in America are shivering in their shoes in-case their personal mountain of under-the-table shenanigans are exposed, that the European Union is trying to pull down a rusty portcullis on their fees office and that journalists the world over are scrambling to dig up the dirt on others nations top-of-the-pile greed and avarice so watch the news for more shattering drama in the world!

But all of this does me no good! All this change and impromptu revelation issuance does not provide for good writing, the world has moved on, yesterday's news is old news and so my printing press remains silent.

Oh by the way, I would though like to state here that my lack of input to Search Warp since the New Year has absolutely nothing to do with the gift received from them. In my Christmas pile was a lovely cup and spoon, which I have used constantly and am at this moment slurping out of in the hope that inspiration rekindles itself. Thanks crew: a lovely gift and appreciated, from a writer who should write more!

Ieuan Dolby

28/05/2009

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A Granny and I on a Virgin Train

Posted Saturday, December 13, 2008 (330 days 1 hour ago.) Viewed 567 times.

This morning I pulled myself wearily onto a Virgin West Coast Train to work my way down to Ellesmere Port near Liverpool, suffused with cold and cough, frozen from the sudden onslaught of winter and sad to be leaving my wife and son back home.

Five minutes into the journey I was back in usual form, watching and learning from those around me, wandering where we all are and where we are all going (in-life I mean as I know that I was heading to Ellesmere Port on the 1051 Virgin West Coast Train, change at Warrington Bank Quay).

They overheat these trains you know. I initially took off my coat. Then when I started to perspire profusely, to the discomfort of the summer-dressed granny perched primly next to me, I took off my vivid-yellow mohair polar neck jumper with all the farm animals on it. Five minutes later as I sat there with my large rucksack between my legs (I had mistakenly thought that I could put it on the luggage rack above but they build these things for coats only these days) I felt the need to take off further layers before I fainted. I could see granny looking at me out of the corner of her eye. She sniffed expressively as I sat immovable and unable to see as the rucksack, the jumper, a sweatshirt, an extra t-shirt, a scarf and some gloves kept me securely in place.

The train was totally empty. I fail to understand how The Train Line with whom I booked my ticket manage seat allocations but there was me squashed against the window in 39A, the granny perched next to me in 40A and lots and lots of unnocupied seats. I wanted to mention by-the-by to granny that she could move to another seat but did not want to risk frightening her with my gravelly voice that was liberally enhanced with the rigors of coughing too much.

And so we worked our way down to the borders and into England, through areas of snow, patches of hailstones, sun and rain and ice and onward to Warrington Bank Quay.

I got off and so per chance did granny!

Due to an unforeseen delay most likely caused by snow on the tracks I had missed my connection and so I sensibly repaired to the only coffee shop around for a cappuccino and a bit of warmth for the next hour of waiting. Seems that my double-generation-apart companion was on the same track as me! And so we sat next to each other at the only table available, not saying a word and seemingly lost in our own little worlds, oblivious to the presence of the other. My train eventually pulled up. The 1502 from Warrington Bank Quay to Ellesmere Port and off I went to hop on.

The train was strangely full but I manged to find one empty double seat further up the carriage and so I plonked myself down before anybody else spotted it. A couple of seconds later a wrinkled and wobbling hand under my nose indicated that somebody wanted to sit down, a subtle hint that I should move my rucksack off the seat beside me.

It was granny.

We passed another half-hour in companionable silence, she in her summer dress on the edge of her seat and I sweating profusely in my six layers of clothes, insistant that I could grit my teeth and bear it in preference to undressing myself again.

Whilst preparing to get off the train, she by covering her summer-dress with an equally flimsy coat and I by trying to cool myself down by wafting air up my t-shirt, she turned around to me and said "nice jumper".

And so we parted our ways. I wonder if I will meet her again on the return journey. Perhaps not but I will be prepared. One T-shirt and a coat should work!

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