Tag Archives: bloganuary

What is your mission?

My mission is to write short stories.So inspired by David Cornwell and Robert Buchan here is my original short story .”What is your mission?”

“Albert”,he hated that name, D only used it when he was drilling him down. Now “Albie”he liked, Francesca called him “Albie”. Particularly when they were in the throes of consumating their thriving relationship.

They’d been seeing each other for more than 2 years and neither of them could imagine being without the other. They were passionate people but also aware of their situation.

Albie worked for the UK Government and often disappeared for days,sometimes weeks on end.

Francesca initially found it rather exciting,but recently, the novelty had worn off. She,too,worked for the government. Nothing glamorous,nothing that meant foreign travel or anything.

She never spoke to Albie about his “business trips”, as, he had made it quite clear to her right from the beginning that there were reasons that he couldn’t discuss his movements.

Albie loved Francesca;and while he listened to D droning on about the situation in Saudi Arabia and how we had lost several valuable agents,and that D had his suspicions about a mole in the organisation. Albie found himself daydreaming about Francesca.Albert wanted to say.

“Get to the point D,what you are telling me is history.What do you want to do,blame me?”

However,he remained silent and inattentive. His interest was piqued when there was a knock on the door,and Elaine McGlellan entered brusquely.

D acknowledged Elaine,though she hadn’t given him a chance to ask her to enter the room.Unceromoniously, she plonked herself on the chair next to Albert and placed the package of brown folders she was carrying on her lap.

“Thank you for coming Elaine”.

“No problem ,Sir.I’ve just confirmed who our mole is, and I believe Albert here can get her to surface.”

D laughed .” Get her to surface ,Elaine! Is that what you call it? There you go ,Albert,and you thought I’d brought you in here for a drilling down about the events in Saudi. Well, no, we know it wasn’t your fault.Those people died because we’ve got a silly little secretary called Joanne who thinks she has met the love of her life, a Saudi Architecture Student and he has persuaded her to pass confidential information to him”.

We need to stop her.

“And how do you intend to do that?”

“Well ,Albert.” Albert grimaced,he really didn’t like that name.

“We believe Joanne is planning to leave the UK shortly, and we don’t want that to happen.If she goes ,we’ll never get her back ,we suspect the plan is to elope with her architecture student”.

“Can’t you just shoot her for the traitor she is? ” D was surprised at Albert’s harsh reaction. Albert noticed.

“Look D ,Sajeed was a good friend of mine,if that silly girl caused his death,well an eye for an eye,a tooth for a tooth,that’s what I and the Bible say.”

Elaine said “Well that is one option.It really makes no difference to us.Depends, how you want to play it, Albert?”

“Well, I don’t think it’s worth prolonging the stupid little girl’s existence any longer than is necessary.She’s made her bed and she can bloody lie face down with a bullet in her head in it.”

Elaine grew pale,she hadn’t expected this blood lust from one of the operatives whom she had the up-most respect for.

“That sounds a bit messy, Albert,look I have the girls address,you’re ex Special Forces, you know what you can do to make it look like an accident,drugs or whatever,we’ll cover your back.”

“Yes, I can make it look acceptable to the Met,just another lonely girl,living in a flat.London is such a sad place when you’re alone.”

D smiled “Well I’m glad that’s sorted, so Elaine, I can rely on you now to cover Alberts’ tracks. “

“Of course ,Sir”

“Well, Elaine don’t dilly,dally give the details to Albert here, and he’ll do what is necessary.”

“Look both of you,all I really need is the girl’s address .”. He looked at D and Elaine and sighed.

Albert was already planning his next move after the murder .It would be quick and stealthy, and he could spend the weekend with Francesca, infact maybe they could spend a romantic weekend in Paris,he was up to asking Francesca to marry him.Yeah why not, he pondered?”

Elaine handed him the buff brown folder.

“Thanks”

Albert stood up,folder in hand ,and walked steadfastly out of the room. As he walked along one of the long corridors of the nameless government building , he couldn’t help but have a quick glance at the folder.The sooner he knew Joanne’s address ,the sooner he would be able to arrange a rendezvous with Francesca.

He glanced down at the address and stopped immediately in his tracks.It was Francesca’s flat address. Francesca was Joanne.

What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?

I see life as a beautiful passage.Death also

We are all connected ,some live a long time, and some barely see the light of day before being whisked away.

There is no rhyme or reason for this,we may try and rationalise it , but life and longevity are indeterminable.

Perhaps what is important is the spark of life in whatever form it takes. Either in the very young or in the very old. The genius,the beauty ,the electricity,the neurons,the complex being.

Time represented by longevity is irrelevant. We should laugh at time and celebrate the spark of life.

Never mind the length feel the quality.

What could you do differently?

If I was in a room with a bunch of people I didn’t know and one of them asked me

“What could you do differently?”.

I would not be impressed. I would feel rightly so that they knew nothing about me and had no basis to ask such a question.

The reality is that life is so complex ,and there are so many possible permutations of life choices that to regret or reconsider a choice seems hard on oneself.

“Do differently?” I would reply. Playing for time.

“Nothing really, I think it’s important to be adaptable but also combine that with determination.”

“Really?” My imaginary protagonist would say.

“Yes really” .I would reply,becoming slightly irritated.

“…but you could determinedly go in the wrong direction…” My protaganist smiles.

“Really, possibly,but I would have made the best decision I could with the information I I posessed, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“No,there’s nothing wrong with that; and if you are adaptable ,you can adjust to any change in circumstances as needs must”

“Yes.”

“Nice to speak to you,I’m just going to check out the buffet.”

“Good idea. I hope you make good choices and find something nice.”

I regard the stranger as they turn and make their way across the room and think.

“My, that was a lucky escape and look for the exit.”

If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?

If I had a freeway billboard, I would obviously be in the United States of America. As we don’t have freeways in Europe.

So ,my billboard would have

“Think Before You Shoot!” In 6 foot high letters.

Even if it got peppered by gun shots over time.It would still be effective in getting people to think about America’s awful gun laws and the message about “thinking”,not reacting is important.

Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

Interesting question.I have flashbacks about my past,but I don’t have premonitions about my future.

The flashbacks ,though ,are not me thinking,they just happen. They are situations that struck a chord in my brain at a time in the past and just occasionally pop up.I wouldn’t describe them as thinking.

Thinking,I associate with planning.So, is planning about the future? Yes, I suppose it must be.You can’t plan your past.

Anyway ;on a sad note. I don’t feel confident about planning anything . Everything seems so unpredictable and expensive. All I feel I can do is live in the present.

Is that a bad thing? It’s how it is.

What is the greatest gift someone could give you?

If the total population of the world gave each other ten minutes of their time each year to find out about each other and to really undestand someone. The cumulative effect would be amazing.

Some no doubt would see it as a waste of their “precious” time. And I would say that this is silly.Ten minutes of your time a year.

I estimate that with a world population of 8 billion people and the premise that any form of effective communication counts ,be it talking ,holding hands, or looking someone in the eye . It would take 1.3billion hours of everyone’s time in a year to achieve.Given that in a Year, we have 70,080 billion hours of time available. I think it would be time well spent.

Crazy I know,but we’d still have 70,078 billion hours each year to do what we do currently do now ,but with a better insight . Now, that would be a great gift.

What colleges have you attended?

As if,as if I would.

Like any other writer,my life experiences are my building block to who I am.

Details like where I was born and brought up,where and how I was educated, and why I feel the need to publish my thoughts on a Public Platform such as this.

Writers can not help themselves ,they sweat facts about themselves onto the paper, internet,or whatever media they are using.

I thought about inventing a fantasy Potteresque college of the weird and wonderful,of Hermoines and Hagreds,of wild parties and derring doos of Masters and Students alike. It would have been fun.

Instead I’ve opted to write about protecting information.

Recently,our Right Honourable Prime Minister Rishi Sunak invited me to “like” his Facebook page.That he personally wanted to know what I thought.

I admit,I was flattered ,and then I looked at his tag name and photograph.It said; “this account had been set up by Conservative Party HQ.” I realised I was just a piece of data that they wanted in their database. Modern-day Politicians have learned how to use this information now.I smiled, ignored it, and moved on quickly.

The request from Rishi was made as they wanted access to my details, and with these details to influence me.I suppose I should be grateful to Facebook that they made them state the real origin of the request and enabled me decline and not join my mate Rishi’s account.

My suspicions were also raised by the soon to be ex CEO of a famous UK retailer having a clandestine coffee shop meeting with the used to be Honourable (maybe still is)Nick Clegg who is I think a VP at Facebook now,but indeed is famous in the UK for introducing student loans and fees for Colleges in the UK.In other words Privatising Tertiary Education.

This meeting will all be about acquiring information, as the CEO will be looking for a new job in the New Year. Will she join Facebook?Will we ever know?

Ah , I digress what colleges have I attended, none that you have heard of but nevertheless have taught me things of value.

I am a magpie.I gather shiny details. I listen and learn a lot from people of all backgrounds, and I realise that listening to everyone’s story is valuable. Yes, I gather information,but for good reasons.Would I use it maliciously?I hope not. Would I trust others not to use my information maliciously? No, of course not.

So thank you for reading, and thank you, The College of Life.

Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

Yes,I am a player in my daily life.Playtime to me means getting messy in the kitchen.

Not the heat of the oven or the firey hob for me. They are quite scary and need to be watched over. A necessary evil

I get my kicks from mixing ingredients without technology. My favourite implements are whisks and my Pyrex Bowls. Nothing I like better than lining my bowls up on the kitchen surface and then using my ancient weighing scales to allocate the necessary ingredients to each bowl.

When I first try a recipe,I will measure accurately,and hopefully will have all the ingredients.(That I’m afraid is not always guaranteed,however,it can be fun trying to find a substitution in my cupboards).

I love using the basics ,such as flour,eggs,milk,butter, sugar, and salt.What beautiful foods,such textures ,colours,and flavours.

I love “creaming ” butter and sugar together to make all sorts of cookies and doughs.

As I say ,when I first try a recipe, I will follow the instructions exactly and have great success.Subsequently, I might tweak the recipe out of necessity(usually ran out of something) and the results might not work as well. It is fun to experiment.

Recently,I’ve been infusing to make a non-alcoholic gin. Largely based on cucumber(love cutting and slicing the cucumber). Then I add loose chamomile flowers,cloves,peppercorns,juniper berries, cinnamon, and anything that might give me that “gin”character. Infuse in the fridge for five hours, and then it’s ready. Sieve the liquid and then add your favourite tonic and a slice of lemon. Infinitely experimental.

Would I want to run an International Food Company making popular products.No.The individual loses their ingenuity and creativity.Do I mind clearing up and washing dishes?No ,not at all ,now I’ve got discipline and a system.

Is it playtime in the kitchen for me every day.Yes!

What are your biggest challenges?

As long as I am in this World,I am Happy in it. I feel I have a purpose to make things better in any way I can.

My biggest challenge every day is to combat mediocrity. Mediocrity is fired at us from all angles, People we meet don’t care, Organisations don’t care ,populations and animals are disposable.The World about us makes us feel worthless.Why?Because someone can’t be bothered.

Bothering costs time and money and therefore can be treated as an expense.Those of us who can be bothered see that investment as important,but increasingly standards in all areas of our lives drop eg.Public Utilities, Social Media,Entertainment ,Private Business and Government. When we accept Mediocrity served up by unmotivated mediocre people ,situations deteriorate.

The challenge is to readdress the Balance Sheet of Life and counteract the Mediocre each day,one small step at a time. It is a constant.