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So I was getting into my car and this bloke says to me: "Can you give me a lift?" I said: "Sure; you look great, the world's your oyster, go for it." Tommy Cooper Success is doing what you plan to do whatever the results. John Watson |
Walking in Petts Wood and The Hawkswood Estate Page 25Saturday April 1st 2006 Choose The Right Path Very few people were in the woods at lunch time today. Perhaps they were busy savouring their April Fool's jokes. I was passed by a fairly young couple as I walked along Soldiers' Field. There are two smaller tracks in the one path. The higher track or path is much easier to walk on. I was walking on it and as the couple passed me, the woman swiftly moved on to the higher path in front of me. "You have chosen the right path!" I said. They both laughed even though it was none of my business which path they chose. Still, as you get older, you can get away with all kinds of comments since people tend to assume that older people are slightly potty. One of the benefits of the human condition is that humans have the freedom to choose which path they are on hundreds of times a day. However, too many of us tend to choose the path of short term rather than long term pleasure. We spend all our money instead of saving up for a more relaxed future. We eat the tasty but unhealthy foods which give immediate pleasure but which pile up the threat of diabetes, cancer and heart stroke for the future. We sit in front of the computer all day and pile on the weight which can shorten our lives by years. But the bright side of all this is that we can at any time change our lives and start choosing the right path. As someone has said, it only takes one person to change your life - you. Tuesday April 4th 2006 April Fool or Bullion Robber? I was visited today by civilian investigators from "operation delivery", the huge Kent investigation into the major bullion robbery from a warehouse in Tonbridge Wells. Apparently martial artists were among the suspects - I'm not sure why! The investigators wanted to check a list of the names of my martial arts students against their list of suspect martial artists. My list received the all clear. At first, I had to investigate the investigators because when I rang up the local police to check whether the investigation was bona fide, they did not know the name of the investigator who had first phoned me and I began to think the whole thing was an elaborate April Fool joke. However, two investigators (both retired policemen) showed up this morning and I had to ask them to wait in the car while I checked them out with the extra information they gave me. This time somebody did remember the name of the investigator and the fact that he wore a beard which he did! I have always thought the April fool tradition was of doubtful value! I headed into the woods after the investigation and met up with B and C and In who had just finished their walk. Again the woods were almost empty although the weather was pleasant and even bracing. The war between the warden and his volunteers and the 'cut down the wire fence'' cowboy who likes a 'free range without fences' continues. The 'free range man' set fire to one of the warden's notices a week or so ago and is sniping at the fences that protect the heather plots. The warden has replaced the notice and the fences are still up although there are a few branches down. I reckon that the Warden is winning the range war at present. Monday April 10th 2006 The Groucho Marx Walk Today, after looking behind me to see that no one was watching, I tried out a lunging type of walk that reminded me of Groucho Marx's favourite funny walk. However, no cigars are involved. I read about this walk in Helen Foster's 'GI Diet'. You just take long lunging steps like Groucho, but, unlike Groucho, you rise up high after each step so that your legs and especially the thighs get a maximum workout. Then, you walk normally for a while before you become Groucho again. The principle of changing from one style of walking to another can be used in relation to jogging. It has been called the shuttle jog. Jog along for a while, then break into a sprint between lamp posts or trees depending on where you are. Then revert to the jog or even the walk. I threw in a few side kicks at the trees today as well for good measure. When I returned home I did 100 situps and 10 leg raises. My neighbour had inspired me earlier today by telling me how Gary Player, at the age of 70, still does 1000 situps a day. No wonder he still looks trim and still plays golf. I tried the Groucho walk and the side kicks with my martial arts class in the evening. We all had a good laugh and one of the class had a chance to show off the full cigar shaking walk with one arm behind the back. Unfortunately most of the class were too young to appreciate this! Thursday 13th April 2006 The Apple or The Biscuit. I met three of the Oracle of Delphi group (B,C and I) on my way into the woods today at noon. It was quite cold and blustery so we did not chat for long. Later I met J and her dog B by Soldiers Field. J had just seen R (another member of the Oracle group). We mentioned weight loss amongst other things. Although J has no need for this, I certainly have. J suggested eating fruit instead of a biscuit or other fat and sugar laden food. She assured me that after a while I would no longer desire the biscuit. I would realize how inferior it was to the fruit. As Jim Rohn, says it is the little choices which define our lives. He uses the example of the Hershey bar and the apple but says much the same as J. I taught J the Groucho Marx walk in return for the good advice. She performed it well. When I reached home, I did 110 situps and 15 leg raises - a slight improvement! Saturday 15th April 2006 The Iron Circle of Life At about 11 a.m. I felt like retiring to bed for a good sleep. I had been up to 2 a.m. the previous night. But then I remembered Jim Rohn's words about making good and bad choices. I decided to make the good choice and headed for the woods. I met up with B and C at the entrance to the woods and then later by Soldiers' Field. They had noticed a sheep trapped in the iron fence circle which surrounded a tree in the field. It had got into the circle through a hole in the fence but could not find the way out again. C hinted that I might like to go into the field and rescue the sheep but I said that my fence jumping days were over. B said the same about his fence jumping days! On reflection we could both have lifted C over the fence as she is the smallest of the three of us. Later, I noticed that they had persuaded a tall young man to climb the fence. As I left the scene, I noticed him striding purposefully towards the trapped sheep. How many of us are trapped in the iron circle of a boring and mediocre life? Like the sheep we do not realize that there is a way out i.e. belief in our own abilities and the determination to work hard to achieve our goals. We go round in circles like the sheep without noticing that there is a way out. Maybe some kind person will show us the way. Thursday 20th April 2006 Dog Prejudice A poodle sneaked up behind me in the woods today and let loose a barrage of barking! The owner was most apologetic. He only barked at people who did not have dogs with them. I asked her to tell him I had a cat at home! I met J in the woods today.He was walking his dog as usual. We discussed child birth amongst other things and how amazingly brave women were to go through the pain of having children not only once but several times. Thursday 27th April 2006 Credit Card Debt And Fraud I met J again today at about the same time and place as last week. I told him that I had had a call about one of my credit cards that was being used fraudulently. I still had the card but someone had got the number when I bought something and used it to buy a cell phone and possibly other things. I told J that I should try to look on the bright side. At least I had money to spend. Then I realized that I was already in credit card debt and told John that even the money represented by the credit card was not mine to spend. He replied perceptively: Everything is relative. One reason I owe so much on my credit cards, even without the fraud, is that I have spent several thousand pounds this year alone on courses about how to make millions. If only one these courses works (as I am sure they will if I apply what they teach) the money I have spent will seem to be a drop in the ocean and the courses will be a huge bargain at the price. Of course, if I don't even open the packages that the courses came in and don't put into practice what I learn, the courses will prove very expensive and will take ages to pay off. In the end I had to stand well to one side of the path before he rushed past me. His owners called him a 'baby'. On the contrary, he was mature enough to realize that I was a lot bigger than him! However, he was immature enough to bark at the same time that he was avoiding potential trouble. Monday 1st May 2006 Husky In Petts Wood? As today was a bank holiday, I met several new people in the woods. Denzil was sitting on the bench with his black collie (or close to collie). She was a friendly dog with beautiful eyes. She died early next morning. D believed that she had been saying goodbye to her friends. It is no wonder that humans become so attached to their animal pets. I was delighted to meet my friend B and his lovely wife P at Soldiers Field. He had read my last post about credit card fraud and we discussed the importance of having a wife who could save you from financial disasters like mine! Later I saw a very tough looking white dog. I asked the owners if it was a husky? To my surprise they said it was Northern Inuit - a cross between a husky and a wolf! It soon disappeared from view and I kept a wary eye out for it. Not long after it came racing past me at a rate of knots. I could easily imagine it pulling a sledge over the snow of Northern Canada or Alaska. A hundred yards or so further on I saw another exotic looking dog. Its owners told me it was a German gun dog - a Ymarana (I think!). It didn't seem too friendly. It probably prefers dead pheasants to live humans. Monday 15th May 2006 Presa Canario in Petts Wood Today, I met another exotic dog - a Presa Canario. It came up to me in a friendly fashion so I patted it on the head and body. I might not have been so relaxed if I had known a little more about the breed. The owner told me that it was cross between a Spanish Mastiff and an English Bulldog. It looked large and powerful and appeared devoted to its owner. A vet later told me that they were fierce dogs. However, this one was friendly and seemed to have an excellent temperament. I checked up on the internet. The breed came originally from the Canary Islands, starting in the 1800s. It is believed that a farm dog from the Canary Islands was crossed with mastiffs and bulldogs that were brought from Europe to the Islands, creating the modern Presa Canario. Like many fighting dogs, the breed became nearly extinct after dog fighting was outlawed in the 1940s, but it was revived in the 1970s. As Presa Canarios are often bred for fighiting or as attack dogs, this breed has a reputation of fierce loyalty to its owners and vicious agression to any other person or animal seen as a threat. Wednesday 17th May 2006 Cat Wants A New Life? I caught a severe head cold this week and have avoided my usual walk. However, I did take a short walk down the road this morning in search of Lizzie, the 22 year old cat, who had disappeared. I found her, where I had found her a few weeks ago, about two hundred yards down the road in a house with a gravelly drive. She was standing in the middle of the drive meaowing loudly as is her custom. Last time she just stood there as I approached and picked her up. This time she made a break for it and I had to do a flying rugby tackle. I just managed to grab her tail before she disappeared under a gate. I had landed on my left knee in the gravel but did not break my knee cap. Apart from some blood and gravelly indents in my knee, I was none the worse for the experience. The vet thinks her mind may be going at the age of 22 and she is losing her bearings. Maybe she wants a change. She did take up squatter's rights in our house a few years ago and possibly wants to move on. However, I think she just lost her way. It is easy enough to get lost if you spend most of your life, as cats do, in one or two houses. Many people would like to change their lives if only they believed they could. Andrew Reynolds has come up with some great words on this: "The life you have lead until now doesn't have to be the only life you lead..." This takes some believing but maybe not for Lizzie. She has already experienced a change of life by moving in with my sister and myself. She probably believes that other humans will be kind enough to take her in, feed her, take her to the vet regularly and get out of bed throughout the night to attend to her every want! My sister even takes her milk and her food to her as she lies luxuriously on my bed waiting for room service! Saturday May 27th 2006 Lizzie Disappears Today at about 10.30 a.m. Lizzie went missing for much longer than usual and I did not find her although I walked to the usual places. The house seems empty without her. In the evening a resident of Clarendon Way not far from us heard her meaowing loudly and gave her milk and food and a place to sleep as she seemed very tired. Later she was released to find her way home, but, sadly, she cannot now remember her way home. Monday May 29th 2006 Cat Posters I spent most of the weekend giving out leaflets describing Lizzie and asking people to phone me if they came across her. I also put posters up on trees and telegraph poles Although she can be a pain at times and loves to wake you up when you are feeling most in need of sleep, she is a real character and both I and my sister feel gutted at the thought that she might get run over or attacked by a fox. Most of my walking has been done on the pavements around this area putting up posters and listening out for Lizzie. So far there has been no sign of her apart from one phone call about her brief stay in Clarendon Way. Thursday 1st June 2006 Safe With The RSPCA? I had a call early this morning with the address of another house in Clarendon Way where Lizzie had been sighted. Eventually I ended up at a house where Lizzie had been handed over to the RSPCA. I assumed at first that this had happened on Wednesday and my sister and I were delighted that the foxes had not killed her and that she was now safe with the RSPCA. Later, I discovered that the hand over had taken place at 3 p.m. on the Sunday after Lizzie had disappeared. She had then been taken to a vet who had decided she should be put to sleep. I was thus wasting my time with the posters last Monday. The RSPCA inspector said the vet's decision was final. When I phoned him he admitted he had assumed that Lizzie was a stray and that if I had been there as the owner, he might have decided to keep her alive. Our own vet had decided several months ago that Lizzie could live quite happily despite several problems with her health and age. She was receiving regular medication to that end. She might have lived on for months and even years. I later suggested to the RSPCA inspector that the vet's decision should not be final without at least leaving a few days to discover if Lizzie had an owner. She agreed and apologized. She also said that she would raise this point with the RSPCA and the vet concerned. Both the vet who had put Lizzie to sleep and the RSPCA inspector were ready to answer my questions honestly and obviously thought at the time that they were making the correct decisions. At least Lizzie no longer has to face a gradual death from old age, kidney problems, tooth problems and mental confusion. Hopefully, next time a similar case to Lizzie arises, the RSPCA will allow a few days to check out reports of missing animals. I had put Lizzie's photo on two big missing pets internet websites and had sent a photo to Battersea Dog and Cats Home, not to mention the posters in the neighbourhood. A recent photo of Lizzie is below. I used this one on the posters and the missing pet sites. You can see what a great cat she was:
Sunday June 10th 2006 Two relatives from the USA have been staying with my sister and me for the last week - David and Janet Powell. David had to have an unexpected operation on Thursday at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich. Being a man of steel, David was keen to get a walk in today - the day after he got home from hospital. So I took him and his wife Janet through the woods. We passed the gargoyle and the Willett Memorial taking photographs as we went and then walked along the path by Soldiering field. I took more photographs as we went - Dave feeding leaves to a tame lamb and Dave and Janet in the Rhododenron pathway. We eventually arrived home after a very hot but pleasant walk. Some of the photos I took will be posted below soon. Wednesday 14th June 2006 Be Careful What You Wish For On Monday in the sweltering heat, I had said to a passing lady walker, 'Bring on the rain'. She laughed and commented that we are never happy with what we have. On Tuesday, the rain bucketed down and Wednesday was much cooler with some rain. My usual walk seemed to be half the distance in the cooler weather. I discussed England's prospects in the world cup with a passing dog owner. We agreed that cooler weather would help 'our boys'. His dog, an ageing mongrel, was not interested in the world cup. He preferred to use his hind legs to hurl the muddy ground behind him. His owner said that he only did this to annoy him since that was the way he treated the lawn back home. Dogs, understandably get bored and irritated when their owners stop and talk to passers by in language they do not understand. They prefer to dig up the ground or sniff at any crap that might be lying in the grass by the side of the road. In the evening, I got out my bagpipes, which I had not played for over 5 years. Not surprisingly, I and they sounded terrible. I won't be playing them in the woods in the foreseeable future. Monday 19th June 2006 Eating lamb? Today, as I approached Soldiering Field from the railway end, I noticed a fairly small fox on my left eating a lamb. It ran off as soon as it saw me. What amazed me was that many sheep and lambs were lying down sleeping and eating within a short distance of the fox. Maybe, they reasoned that the fox would leave them alone since it now had its meal? I continued to stand and watch what the sheep would do now that the fox had gone. Gradually they got up and moved away apparently more frightened of me than the fox. Two lambs hobbled over towards the dead lamb and gazed at it before moving on. Maybe they were hobbling because they had been chased by the fox before it had seized its victim. I was a little mystified by their behaviour. Why didn't they all band together to fight off the fox either before or after it killed the lamb? Humans, too, have been know to allow a serial killer free reign until one person, who was brave enough to lead, challenged and defeated the killer. One cannot criticise the fox for killing and eating the lamb since we do the same but to eat it in the close proximity of the other sheep and lambs seems a little too cruel even for a fox! I shared my thoughts, as one does in these situations, with a young lady who was passing by with her one year old boxer. I mentioned that I should not have frightened the fox off since it would now have to find another victim to eat. She commented that it might well return at a later time to finish its lunch. She did say that it was daring of the fox to kill the lamb in broad daylight. However, this year foxes have become increasingly daring and almost tame. One was using the main footpath and nearly walked within feet of me before it saw me and moved off fairly slowly into the brush. I also noticed a fox, recently, sitting on a wall by a main road. It seemed quite comfortable and unphased by the traffic! Foxes frequently visit my garden and exchange looks with me though I do not encourage them with food in case they attack the local cats.
Thursday June 29th 2006 I entered the woods early today to avoid the heat and kept fairly cool. I met up with five friends B and C, I, R and J not far from the oracle of Delphi or more realistically the oracle by the oak tree. We had a good chat covering several topics which were mainly to do with cats, dogs and foxes. Later I met a man with his dog. We discussed the way that people without dogs were seen as some kind of a threat in the woods. He remarked that a man with a gun is widely accepted in the countryside whereas a man without a gun and without a dog is seen as some kind of weirdo.
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