Sunday

Like the proverbial rabbit in the headlights, I'm ready to go,
I'm suited and booted but as the reluctant bride, I can't cross the threshold.
Some invisible force draws me back to the belly of the domain.
The kettle, the facebook, the twitter hold me in their grip of distractive indecision.
Why can't I just leave like a parachutist, sky - diver to their destiny?
What really holds me here?
Can it be as simple as fear?
If that is the case, then I must be entombed in the stuff.
It's oily, rubber coat barnacled on to my body.
Every Sunday the same, I greet it with good intentions but however it was made, Sabboth for man or man Sabboth, I cannot get rid of this dread in the pit of my stomach.
Sunday is the waiting room of death.
We will have spent so many of them hungover, withdrawn in a go slow museum, garden centre, do nothing but think everything type of day.
I suppose that when the call comes we will be ready but Dear God, on this day, your day of all days, please don't let me die of 'thwarted ambition'.

Thespian

There's something in my subconscious that tells me that being an actor is not a proper job! As Constantin Stanislavski said "Love art in yourself, not yourself in art". It's seven months since I started Sharkfishing in Wales and it has been a whingefest! Moan, Moan, F.....cking Moan! Yes I am a Moaner! Who isn't? Everybody Moans because they are not happy with their own lives. If your not happy with your own life, the only thing to do is blame the Government! Yes it's the Government's fault that I am a miserable bastard. So I have decided to put a bit of fun back into life and become a Thespian. It's the only job that doesn't need references and where having Bipolar Disorder is a bonus. Most actors are acknowledged as rather eccentric and left wing, so I should fit in. The only stumbling block I can see is Motivation. My ego has diminished to such an extent that ambition to be in Pobol y Cwm or the next James Bond Movie is at an all time low. I just fancy having a more serious go at it,because it is fun, it is playing! It must be the next best thing to playing sport for a living. I'm not sure whether I have a talent for it. I have been told that I have the voice for it. Have a look and listen to the velvet tones below and see what you think!

Thank you for following Shark Fishing In Wales for the past 7 months and hopefully you will follow my progress in the West End, Hollywood and the Edinburgh Fringe!

I told you I had Delusions of Grandeur didn't I! 

UFO Hughes

October 1978. Location – Denbigh, North Wales.
PC NEVILLE HUGHES and two uniformed colleagues (one of who was a sergeant) observed a UFO whilst in the grounds of North Wales Hospital in Denbigh.
UFO CLASSIFICATION – NL (NOCTURNAL LIGHT)
On Duty sighting. 3 Officers. Source – FSR Vol 25 No 2 Mar/Apr 79.

Late evening. 25/01/79. Location – Denbigh, North Wales.
PC NEVILLE HUGHES observed a UFO after responding to a call from a Denbigh family.
UFO CLASSIFICATION – NL (NOCTURNAL LIGHT)
On Duty sighting. 1 Officer. Source – FSR V25 No 2 Mar/Apr 79.

2045 hours. 26/01/79. Location – Denbigh, North Wales.
A member of the public, Keith Jones was about to go into the restaurant where he worked near Denbigh when he observed a UFO at an altitude of 100-150 feet. He went inside and asked his employer to go outside and look at the object. They watched a stunning aerial display by the UFO for several minutes before calling the police. A short time later two uniformed police officers, PC BERWYN JONES and PC NEVILLE HUGHES arrived at the scene where they too witnessed the UFO. The object was disc shaped with a dome underneath. There was no noise and it was described at being too low and too bright to be an aircraft. The object was last seen heading in the direction of Ruthin.
UFO CLASSIFICATION – CE1 (CLOSE ENCOUNTER 1ST KIND)
On Duty sighting. 2 Officers. Source FSR Volume 25 No 2 Mar/Apr 79.

http://www.nicap.org/waves/1979fullrep.htm

The Futura (Fleapit) Cinema, Denbigh, Clwyd.

I am very aware that this blog has been Cardiff centric thus far and it is ostensibly a farewell love letter to Wales' Capital City (Don't make me Laugh!) but as I might have mentioned before I was brought up in North East Wales, mostly in a village called Llanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd about a two miles outside Ruthin on the Mold Road. As an 11 year old in 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out and we went to see it at the Futura Cinema, Love Lane, Denbigh. The Futura was known to everybody as 'The Fleapit'. I saw many films here. Grizzly Adams in a Saturday Matinee, Bugsy Malone, The Sting, Grease, Poltergeist, Blue Velvet. We always went upstairs because it was smaller and more atmospheric. The Pictures were a real treat in those pre-plasma TV and pre dolby surround sound days. That period 1977-1982 was an active period for UFO sightings in this part of North Wales and what we were watching in Spielberg's Bi-opic we might as well have been sat on top of the Clwydian Range of Hills to see the same things. As a teenager I was an avid reader of books about UFO's. It seemed that there was a sighting every other week. The local newspaper was the Denbighshire Free Press and I remember the headline was 'UFO Hughes'. PC Neville Hughes stationed at Denbigh was called out on so many occasions to sightings that he gained this affectionate nickname. When he received a call, he would venture out on to the Clwydian Range in the Morris Minor Police Car above. The Aliens looking down must have thought, he'll never catch us in that thing!

My own sighting came in 1982 as I travelled back with my mother in a Mini Clubman Estate to Llanbedr from Ruthin and there above Moel Fenlli was a silver orb floating high in the sky.

We watched it until we got home, my mother remembering to watch the road occasionally. Rushing inside, I grabbed the Binoculars and went to my room. Above the mountain you can see in the picture at 8.00pm I had a Close Encounter of the First Kind. The Orb moved across the sky or shall I say it dissapeared and then re-appeared in another part of the sky. It's colour changed from Silver to Gold to Green. It was like a tiny ball of Mercury. There was nothing else in the sky. Cloudless! It lasted for perhaps half an hour! It moved from one side of the mountain to the other! One moment I was observing it and then it re-appeared in a different part of the sky. Vast Distances covered in the blink of an eye.

Not surprisingly this very clear sighting confirmed in my own mind that I was a believer. I was a believer then because I wanted to believe. 

The following year I passed my driving test and as I drove my mother into Ruthin for a change I was stopped by a policeman in a Morris Minor like the one above. Stopped for Speeding, 32 miles an hour in a 30 mph  and the rotund little copper could tell I was not amused.

 His words ring in my ears down the decades.

" I'm doing this for your benefit Mr Williams, not mine"   

"Yeah Right" 

What I should have said was
" I am an undiagnosed Manic Depressive and I am going to have many more of these unfortunate little occurrences before I get my Membership Card"  

Spiritual Desert

Perhaps I should use this post to apologise en-masse to Cardiff's Librarians! If I get a weak smile next time, then I'll know that someone on the top-floor is following Shark Fishing religiously. Talking of religion, I was in the Library this morning reading a book about the Spiritual Desert which is innate to the human condition.

Apparently we have to experience the Spiritual Desert to become whole and to be able to face our destiny, namely death, with equanimity. I was trying to concentrate but someone was clipping their fingernails. Every clip was like a knife going through me! I don't think I would respond well to torture because much of one's daily business is torture-like, noise, interference, hustle and bustle, neon lights, shops, loud music, mobile phones. Silence is what I hope for in Libraries but they have become more like entertainment complexes. I have spent much of my life in libraries reading up on what possibly could be wrong with me, instead of actually getting on and living life. Libraries mean a lot to me, they are my temple, a sanctuary and I feel wounded by the noise. I feel as if I have spent much of my life in a spiritual desert and now I am ready to live. I spend much time alone but I do not feel lonely! I feel whole within my aloneness. I know that I cannot rely on another human being for unconditional love. I can only rely on myself to love myself unconditionally and I think a minor spiritual miracle is happening in my desert. 

Maybe like some others I became trapped or fixated in my adolescent years and didn't progress through Erik Erikson's different life stages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erikson's_stages_of_psychosocial_development

I have an adolescent's attitude to authority and structure which should be embarrassing for a 46 year old but I'm not really embarrassed. Perhaps if I was a parent things would be a lot different and I would be less self indulgent about my attitudes and feelings. Somebody has to play the Citizen Smith role. Feeling alienated is a Spiritual Desert. Observing Couples and Families going about their loud business, I wonder whether their lives should be aspired to or whether I should carry on sailing this ship alone. 

Who knows I might end up marrying a Librarian!