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!    

Neil and Omran

7 Up Series Documentary 1964 - Highlights from Michael Apted on Vimeo.

"Give me the child until he is 7 and I will give you the man".

I remember being very moved while watching the World In Action Documentary Seven Up which followed the lives of twenty children from different parts of the UK and from different social backgrounds.

When the picture of Omran Daqneesh reached us this week something about him struck me immediately. He reminded me of somebody and I couldn't for the life of me remember who and then going back through the Shark Fishing Archive I saw the picture of Neil from Michael Apted's 1964 Documentary 7 Up. Neil's story in particular had struck a chord with me with his battle with Mental Illness. Omran is only 5 and Neil was 7 in the above programme. 

Heart & Soul

I'm slipping! The 6 Month Anniversary of Shark Fishing was last Tuesday and I let it pass without a post! Well, here it is 3 days late!
I'm seriously thinking about going back into Teaching! it's the only thing I know! I enjoyed it but I took it too seriously. I went Mad. I won't blame it on the Teaching but it was stressful. I keep getting emails from a Supply Teaching Agency in London and I'm sorely tempted to write a 'bare it all' email explaining what happened to me, ending up with the diagnosis. It's worth a punt! You won't get a straight answer from any of the Teaching Unions or the TES.

Can you Teach with a Diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder?  

I've got all the bits of paper they call qualifications. I can't get any references though! The school I taught at became an Academy and having written asking for references, I've heard nothing back. I'm getting used to the silent treatment! People don't answer your emails or they take such a long time that when you get a reply you forget what your original missive was about.

I'm getting bored now. There's only so many times you can walk across town, through Bute Park, into various libraries, leisure centres, museums and coffeeshops. Ideally I would pursue my ambition to be a Freelance Theatre Arts Facilitator but this is Wales and I don't know whether I can face rejection or whether I can actually be arsed. If only London wasn't so expensive to live, I'd be back there. It's interesting, but it's also souless and commercialised and very busy. A Friend once said "You'll never be happy" and I'm starting to think he was right. I am content but not satisfied. It's my blog so I'll whinge if I want to! I am also getting paranoid. I believe that there are librarians who are reading my blog because ever since I criticised the Revolving Doors on Cardiff Central Super Dooper Library I'm getting looks from Gorgeous Librarians. I mean lets face it they are an easy target. They are just so passive. They just sit there and look at computer screens and answer questions from the great unwashed. I couldn't do it! What does miff me off considerably is that the Welsh Language Section (Oh Ho! Here we go again!!!) is on Floor 5! Out of Sight, Out of Mind? So Tourists and Foreigners coming into the Library wouldn't be aware that there is a language other than English!

"Floor 5 Madame"!

" Oooh Non, je suis cannot be arsed"

There is a very plummy announcer followed by the Welsh Speaking Librarian on the Public service Announcements. I heard one of the Gorgeous Librarians make the comment that the Welsh was twice the length of the English announcement!

Well, put the Welsh First then!!!!  

Capital City Of Wales! My Arse!

Anyway, whether I can Teach again or not!

I'll keep you posted!

 

Back, but Unsettled!

Well I'm back in the Capital of Wales and am feeling rather unsettled. They say the grass is always greener but I tried that gig once and got my arse bitten in the process. Having been to Liverpool and Darlington, it has clarified in my mind what course I would like to follow and that is to be a Community Arts Facilitator specialising in Theatre, Drama and Creative Writing. There's a lot of these wannabe luvvies in Wales and age is not on my side which if you have been reading my blog will know!
I walked through Bessemer Rd Market this morning, real people, 'Y Werin Datws' as opposed to those who frequent Riverside Organic Market on the Fitzhamon Embankment! Two markets, two miles away from eachother, but a world away!  It got me to thinking about class and whether 'The Lower Middle Class' need to be championed. These Titles are ridiculous aren't they!

Working Class: Poor
Middle Class: Wealthy
Upper Class: Rich

If you're poor you are less likely to have access to quality education, perhaps then you are more likely to be less enlightened and evolved as an adult. But if the types who frequent Riverside Market are anything to go by then perhaps quality education is not such a blessing after all. In the Bakers in Grungetown, not the one that was held up by gunpoint,  the gentleman serving behind the counter was bemoaning the fact that customers didn't say thank you! Just pointed and grunted at what they wanted and paid and went.

Perhaps this is something that the universal human condition shares whatever social strata you belong to! Arrogance, Rudeness, Lack of Politeness, Manners! Wossat then?

I left Bessemer Rd and walked to the British Version of Walmart in Leckwith. I don't like supermarkets at the best of times and who did I walk in behind but none other than Rhodri Morgan, Former Fuhrer of the National Assembly of Wales. He was humming to himself.  He only got the National Assembly Gig because Ron Davies had his moment of Madness. Along with Alun Michael, these were the leviathans of the Welsh Labour Party at one time. I didn't like any of them. When they lose power they seem to have more humility about them! In Liverpool, I remembered Neil Kinnock, the Welsh windbag's speech laying into the Militant Tendency.

Was it Karma when he did his 'All Right Speech' in Sheffield which led to a lot of people left in the room turning the light off.

I'm meandering a bit here but it was refreshing to hear of MP's this week being open and honest about their Mental Health Conditions.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it will require a critical mass of people to stop working for money. To discredit the 'Capitalist System' which is now well past it's sell by date it will need people to refuse the conditioning. Bartering, working together instead of competing against eachother. In Liverpool I was in discussion about the London Weighting Allowance and the Cost of Living in the Capital. Why should it be so high? It has been created artificially high. Why are there rich ghettoes in London like Chelsea and Knightsbridge and Kensington. If people in poorer areas see how the rich live on their doorstep they are going to start questioning their own lives.

 All we are saying is

 "Would you mind being less ostentatious about your wealth please" 

We all know that if Camoron and the Con Dems carry on like this then the only result that can possibly happen is a Labour Victory!
Then the Farce Continues!

Liverpool Tomorrow!

Capitalism Makes us Crazy: Dr Gabor Maté on Illness & Addiction | National Radio Project

Capitalism Makes us Crazy: Dr Gabor Maté on Illness & Addiction | National Radio Project