FROM THE ISLANDER: W. P. Bradley archives B. C. history articles from Victoria Colonist’s defunct Islander weekend supplement in new WordPress blogsite

W. P. Bradley, a young historian interning with the Hallmark Society, has just started archiving articles from the Times Colonist’s defunct weekend section of local history called The Islander, in a new WordPress blogsite called, appropriately enough, From the Islander.

An article on Victoria’s bastion of reaction, the infamous Union Club of British Columbia, caught my eye today, and I provide a link to it below in the Comments section and in LA ROSA‘s blogroll to the right under the title From the Islander: B. C. history.

To give an idea of the cultural revolution that has happened in the last forty years, the RUKUS rock + roll dance band will play at the freakin’ Union Club tomorrow night to commemorate the graduation, forty years ago, of a bunch of rock-crazed long-haired kids from the Victoria High School class of 1970!

Welcome, W. P. Bradley, I will be visiting the site regularly as I am a trained historian with a keen interest in local culture.

Too bad the idiot CanWest Gobal publishers cut The Islander, eh?

It was one of the best things about the old paper.

‘Goyo de la Rosa’ (Gregory Hartnell)

Editor, LA ROSA and CCC BLOG

EARTH WALK banner by ‘Goyo de la Rosa,’ with Woo watercolour by Emily Carr, Victoria Times Colonist, Sunday, April 26, 2010, page A3

The rainbow-coloured EARTH WALK banner reappeared at the front of the parade last Saturday, carried by a group of smiling young people as they headed from the Legislature to Centennial Square.

I painted that banner in the early nineties, at the request of the organizing committee of the day, along with another similar banner that hung for a number of years over Douglas Street near Discovery during Earth Week.

It is always a bit of a guessing game to see whether the old banners I painted will be used from one year to the next, as there seems to be a capricious aspect to this whole business of which banner will be chosen to lead the parade, and which is hung over the street.

For a number of years, both were used, but the paint I used on the street banner was always problematic, tending to stick together in a big lumpen mess when folded, and needing touch-ups when unfolded.

Some years, one or the other of the banners I painted were used, and other years, neither.

Just for the record, this year the banner over Douglas Street is not my handiwork, and is frankly, not very well done, if I may say so.  Sorry.

The Darren Stone photo in the Times Colonist  yesterday is not the first to show my early nineties banner in that publication, but it came yesterday placed at the top of page A3, and just below it was a full colour photo of a watercolour by Emily Carr of her beloved pet monkey Woo.

The juxtaposition of these elements on the newspaper’s page would no doubt have pleased my old friend Robin Buote, who collaborated with me in those halcyon days of the early nineties in propagating the myth of the appearance of Emily Carr’s spirit at Saint Anne’s Academy.

She would always appear at dusk, that most enchanted hour, after a white bird alighted on the cross at the top of the cupola, where she would stand with her pet monkey Woo, stroking her beloved pet as she slowly turned her body around and surveyed the beautiful gardens of Saint Anne’s Academy and Beacon Hill Park below.

There is a subscription drive underway at the moment to pay for a new cast sculpture of the great Victorian artist and her pet monkey Woo, which is planned to be placed on the garden property of the Empress Hotel, on Government Street, a few blocks north of her old family home.

We’ve heard of the Children of Celebrities, the Spiral Cafe-based band of old Victoria hippy folk musicians.

Woo is the first pet of a Victoria celebrity who is getting the media manipulation treatment. 

- Goyo de la Rosa’

JUST WAR NO MORE: Dorothy Day, Pierre Maurin + CATHOLIC PACIFISM

+++  With the CBC Radio report announcing that the so-called ‘Conservative’ government in Ottawa is getting set to try to extend the tour of duty for Canadian troops in Afghanistan to 2011, my mind is preoccupied on this first Sunday of Lent with thoughts of war and peace.  The silence of the Canadian Catholic bishops on this unjust war is stifling and shameful.  One does not need to be a Christian pacifist, which I hope I am, to understand that this war does not by any means conform to the so-called ‘just war doctrine’ of the Roman Catholic  Church.  So, there has been a huge abrogation of responsibility here not just by the bishops, but also by the priests, deacons and lay presiders who never say a thing about it from the pulpit, and by the Catholic press, which has yet to have a serious nation-wide discussion on these issues.  Perhaps now that the Afghan matter looks set to be made an election issue by the parties, it is time that the national debate on what we are doing there should happen.  ++   Some people think that an election at this time would be unwise, mainly, its seems, because they can’t stomach the idea that the bumbling grey man who leads the Liberal Party of Canada, might just win the contest by default.  I don’t particularly like Stephane Dion either, and his position on the war is confused as only Liberal Party policy can be, but in terms of incremental disengagement, he makes just slightly more sense than the Prime Minister.  ++  If I understand his position, it is to have troops left there in a peacekeeping and protective-defensive capacity after the current period ends next year, but not engaged in pro-active offensive patrols.  He condemns the Tories for their ‘never-ending war,’ but does not say how long Canadians would act as peacekeepers there. The Bloc, the NDP and the Greens want immediate withdrawal of troops.  The latter position is the one that the left wing of the Liberal Party should pursue in order to change Dion’s mind.  The Liberals should then enter into talks with the other opposition parties to form a peace coalition to dump the Tories.  Otherwise, divided as they are into four opposition parties, the Tories are likely to get re-elected again with a minority parliament that will continue to squander innocent Canadian and Afghan lives without any kind of real mandate by a majority of voters.  ++  To better enable Catholic pacifists and other Christian pacifists in this country to understand the history of the American Catholic Pacifist movement, I provide a link here to a short outline from the Houston Texas Catholic Worker online newspaper:   http://www.cjd.org/paper/pacifism.html  ++  This link is also found in the tags and in the blogroll to the right under the heading ‘CATHOLIC PACIFISM: Dorothy Day, Pierre Maurin + Catholic Workers.’    +++

MARSHALL STOKES, genius pyrographic artist, opens @ Incite + Concyse, 2514 Douglas, 7 pm, February 1st 2008, for 1 month expo

+++  Just met Marshall Stokes, the genius pyrographic artist from Portland Oregon who is hanging his work at Incite & Concyse, 2514 Douglas Street, next door to the 50/50 Gallery, opening February 1, tonight at 7:00 pm for a one month show.  I found my way there after noticing unusual 20 cm. x 15 cm. miniposters for the show nailed to telephone poles in Fernwood.  These are screen printed with black ink on thin cedar board, showing Koi fish in a design that owes a debt to Japonisme and Art Nouveau.  As I had not arranged for an interview, I didn’t want to interupt, as Marshall was still busy this afternoon hanging his show, so I just introduced myself as a fellow artist who is amazed at his genius after visiting his website.  That site, which is found at popicon1.com, and here to the right in our CCC Weblog blogroll under ‘MARSHALL STOKES,’ gives the viewer-reader a comprehensive catalogue of works by this very talented young man, his bio, contact info, history of expos, gallery of work in different media, etc.  I encourage viewers to visit the  site to get a better understanding of Marshall Stokes’ work, pyrography, and the link between Asian art, particularly that of Japan, and the contemporary skateboard design and screen print scene in Victoria, Portland and throughout Pacifica.  ++   Like FMR, or the CCC site, if I may be so bold, even though we are still very much in the primitive stages of blog development and don’t have pix here yet, the Pop Icon site is premised on the essential design fact that the colours of pictures exhibited on black backgrounds are seemingly visually enhanced as a result.  I left a copy of the January number of Island Catholic News showing my colour art with Marshall, and referred him to Jack Wise’s work, which I think he would appreciate.  He carefully wrote Wise’s name down in a notebook before giving me one of his beautiful little cedar posters.  I was honoured by the gesture, and said that I would tell all my friends about his one man show that will have a couple of local music groups playing for the opening party tonight.  I neglected  to note the names of the groups, however.  +++ 

MOUNT SAINT MARY HOSPITAL CRISIS by Anne Ray, Island Catholic News, February 2008

+++  Mount Saint Mary Hospital and other long-term care facilities have been much in the news recently.  My mother resides there.  ++  Mount Saint Mary Hospital is owned and operated by the Marie Esther Society (Sisters of St. Ann) and is a  not-for-profit charitable organization with a governing Board.  The Hospital is of particular interest to Catholics, although the issue of long-term care in general is a concern to those of us who already have family members in care, or who realize that we, or someone close to us, may one day need to be a resident of such a long-term care facility.  ++  Currently two parallel campaigns are under way – the first is to protest Vancouver Island Health Authority’s (VIHA) funding cuts which affect the operational (or resident care) side of Mount St. Mary Hospital.  The second campaign, conducted by the Mount St. Mary Foundation, is to raise funds for resident activities, pastoral care, music therapy, volunteer recruitment, and staff and  volunteer education in palliative care and practical nursing.  ++  Letters and articles in the local press have focused on operational cuts proposed by VIHA.  Last summer Mount Saint Mary’s had a shortfall of $1,100,000 in  operational funding; and over the next three years the budget is to be reduced by $900,000.  Cuts to facilities which fall in line with the new model of care of 3.24 hours of care per resident are also planned at Kiwanis Pavilion and Broadmead Lodge long-term care facilities.  ++  STAFF REDUCTION  ++  Last year Mount Saint Mary Hospital was forced to let go 22 staff on the operational side, seriously impacting the quality of care as witnessed by a letter signed by seven practicing doctors at Mount Saint Mary.  Their letter decried the decreasing standard of care at the Hospital and stated that any budget cuts would be intolerable for residents.  ++  If further cuts are made, without question more staff will be cut in the future: an estimated 20 positions.  Reducing staffing levels in an already overstretched situation will cause elderly and frail residents to suffer further loss of comfort and dignity; as a result we could see an increase in illness and possibly premature death in some cases.  ++  VIHA’s response to date has been to deny that the proposed funding model will be detrimental to residents’ care, and also to deny that in a hospital which has already lost essential staff and is expecting further cuts (to comply with the model of 3.24 hours of care per resident) the safety, as well as the quality, of residents’ care will be affected.  ++  To obtain more information about the campaign protesting the cuts or to be involved in the protest contact campaign chair Jinx Barber – email: savesaintmarys@gmail.com.  ++  PETER AND PAUL  ++  I believe that ultimately the decision about operational funding levels should be guided by the citizens of British Columbia, who have expressed their wishes through numerous letters to the local media.  The recommendations of doctors and health professionals should carry more weight than ‘targeted care hours per resident numbers’ produced by VIHA.  ++  Standards in other care factilities should be raised if needed, but robbing Peter to pay Paul is not the way to go.  If revenue needs to be increased for standards to be maintained, the government needs to let the public know that.  Money certainly seems to be available for cost overruns for the Vancouver Convention Centre and other projects.  ++  The second campaign relates to the programs supported by the Mount Saint Mary Foundation, which are a vital part of residents’ spiritual and psychological well-being.  The goal of the Foundation is to have residents live every day to the fullest extent possible.  When this happens residents suffer less stress and are less vulnerable to depression.  To support the Foundation programs, the long-term goal is to raise $5,000,000 over 5 years to fund programs during that period and to create an Endowment Fund, which would be self-sustaining in the future.  ++  This campaign is being supported by the Catholic Bishop of Victoria and will be promoted in local parishes in the near future.  Already $1,000,000 has been raised in pledges and donations.  ++  More details about programs and the fundraising campaign and how to donate can be found at the Foundation website: www.msmfoundation.ca/.  Questions about the campaign can be directed to Mandy Parker, Executive Director, email address: MParker@msmfoundation.ca.  +++   

ALEX CUBA @ University of Calgary, Alberta, Dec. 12, 2007, CBC Concerts on Demand @ CCC Weblog

+++  Goyo de la Rosa writes:  Peter Cook from CBC’s Concerts on Demand alerted us to ALEX CUBA playing solo at the University of Calgary late last year.  The concert is available here at the Concerned Citizens’ Coalition Weblog in our blogroll under ‘ALEX CUBA.’  ALEX CUBA is the new moniker of Alexis Puentes, late of the celebrated Puentes Brothers son duo with his blood brother Adonis, both from Cuba.  I appreciate the notice from Mr. Cook at CBC, and refer listeners of fine music to their wonderful on demand concert listening service with enthusiasm.  +++

Pattie Boyd, George Harrison’s ex-wife, writes in ‘Wonderful Tonight’: Bob Dylan “turned them on to marijuana”

+++  Pattie Boyd puts a  page reference to an episode with Bob Dylan as the first item in ‘Wonderful Tonight’s’ index under ‘Beatles and drugs.’ It’s hard to believe that the Beatles hadn’t smoked mota earlier in their career as black-jacketed rockers in seedy Hamburg clubs, but Patti Boyd, widow of the late Beatle George Harrison, says in her memoir ‘Wonderful Tonight’ that Bob Dylan ‘had turned them on to marijuana.’  ++  The English Catholic convent-educated Boyd, tells her fascinating story with Penny Junor, in a book that was published by Harmony in hardcover just before Christmas last year.  Here’s the quote from the chapter entitled ‘George’ on page 73:  ++   ‘On the last leg of their marathon American tour, the Beatles had met Bob Dylan in New York.  They had been thrilled – Dylan was their hero and mine – and George couldn’t wait to tell us about him and how he had turned them on to marijuana.  A mutual friend, Al Aronowitz, who worked for the Saturday Evening Post, had brought Dylan to their hotel.  He had apparently misheard a line in their song “I Want to Hold Your Hand”: where they sang, “I can’t hide,” he had heard, “I get high,” and had assumed they were seasoned drug users.  ”Right, guys” he said, as he walked into their suite.  ”I’ve got some really good grass.”  So Dylan had rolled a joint, they had opened a few bottles of wine and had a very jolly party.  George was full of it; they had laughed all night.’  +++  As I received  a recorded message this morning from a robot at the Greater Victoria Library saying that this book is now overdue, we will reluctantly have to return it, as there is a long list of others waiting for it.  +++ 

MARGARET PATRICIA HARRIS 1923-2007 by Patrick Jamieson, Island Catholic News, February 2008, Vol 22, No 1

+++  ICN FEB 2008:  MOURNING MARGARET: ONE YEAR ON…One year after the death of his dear mother Margaret Patricia Harris (1923-2007), ICN Founding Editor and former Concerned Citizens’ Coalition  candidate Patrick Jamieson writes about the mourning process in these excerpts from the original longer piece printed in the latest February 2008 number of the Island Catholic News in a full page article, on page three.  The article is accompanied by a black and white photo of the author’s late mother with his father James Jamieson, with the accompanying caption: ‘Margaret and Jim Jamieson circa 1951 in Edmonton.  At that point they had two sons with four more children to follow in the decade of the 50s.’  +++  It will be a year February 8th since my mother died and seems time to remember a few more significant aspects of her personality, life and dynamics in our collective family.  ++  We are all having a very difficult time, I would say, in integrating her physical disappearance.  ++  My sister Christine and I wrote tributes and eulogies a year ago at the time of the death which were printed in Island Catholic News.  ++  Mourning, it seems to me, requires self-conscious processing if we are to truly grow through it.  If we are to reap the benefits mourning grants to us as a grace.  ++  Too often the funeral itself is seen as a sour imposition upon family and friends and perhaps should be done without.  As Christians and Catholics my family feel they have no real choice.  It is spiritually too important to say goodbye properly and start the process of living beyond.  ++  The funeral and the year following were a critically important period of growth for those left behind, a gift just as much as the ones granted when she was alive.  ++  For my mother was someone who in her being granted gifts by her mere presence.  It was always a pleasure as a youth to introduce my close friends to her, knowing her charm would work on them.  I enjoyed watching how they reacted as it would reveal something about them, their character.  ++  She was hospitable and graceful in her loving way.  Personally what I miss most is just being able to sit in her presence and connect.  Chat about the day.  Bring her up to date on what is going on in the community, with the newspaper and often within the petty world of politics within the Catholic church.  That connection was a metaphysical compass bearing which gave meaning and direction to the deeper regions of my life.  ++ II.  She went to Saint Anne’s Academy, graduating in 1940, so her roots were in the region, although she travelled away with my father’s military postings until 1977 when they could return upon retirement to help care for her mother who lived on the Island from 1920, coming from Northern England at Darlington, a Quaker town.  ++  My father, after sixty-five years of married life together, it must be said, misses her the most acutely.  Although some of her children are close behind.  She was one of those people with a sort of personality that insinuates itself deeply and permanently into your psyche.  She was not to be denied.  In a good sense, as they say.  ++  My father, I would say, has had a very hard time filling in the gap.  He still lives in their condominium apartment but finds it haunted.  Wanting to move out of its confines but realizing it is much too soon.  Their apartment represents physically what we have left of her in a way.  A sort of permanent shrine, none of her children wish to see it sold yet.  ++  Christmas was interesting that way.  The feelings from the years when she constructed and reconstructed the traditions that had grown up through the years.  Because we were a rootless military family sort of group; Vancouver, Edmonton,  Whitehorse, Ottawa and Oromocto, New Brunswick as well as Chilliwack, Winnipeg and finally Victoria all added their dimensions.  It always seemed like it would go on forever with her mystically at the helm.  ++  My father has kept up his refugee work but with an obvious lessening of intensity at age 86.  But of course he realizes that it is all largely a distraction from this gaping maw at the centre of our collective life created by her passing.  His challenge, and ours, is to symbolically let her go again and again over these next few years.  ++  Just before my mother passed, a great grandson, Jamie, was born who she was able to hold two months before her death.  Now within the year of her passing a great granddaughter, Poppy, is born in Winnipeg and my father looks forward to meeting her soon.  ++  My sister, Rita, who lives in Winnipeg has drawn the connection already in her visiting with the baby and feels it helps in some small if concrete way.  The tangible experience of healing through mourning.  ++  … IV.  My mother’s creativity was how she created a whole phenomenal universe for her family.  Physically and emotionally.  It was a power she took for granted yet tempered with an alluring charm and graciousness.  She  rarely had to threaten.  He method of discipline was largely that of charm.  One never wished to disappoint her or go against her best values.  It lent itself to great difficulty when it was time to leave the emotional security of the family nest.  ++  She could be fiercely aggressive and highly articulate in defending and explaining her values, particularly in the earlier years when it was key to our earliest and permanent formation.  ++  This whole way of life she wove, converged at a central point in the values and spiritual principles that guided us out through its cone at the end and into weaving similar patterns in our own lives, ones that we had all but unconsciously learned.  ++  As my sister wrote in her eulogy, such a richly symbolic figure when she dies leave a huge gap.  The temptation is to try to fill that gap with another person, frenzied activity or some other false substitution.  ++  But as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says: “Nothing can make up for the absence of someone we love, and it would be wrong to try to find a kind of substitute: we must simply hold out and see it through.  This sounds very hard at first, but at the same time it is a great consolation, for the gap, as long as it remains unfilled, preserves the bonds between us.  It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap: he doesn’t fill it, but on the contrary He keeps it empty and so helps us keep alive our communion with each other.”  +++ 

SISTER MARY ANGELICA, LOFTUS, GERTRUDE MARY, SSA, June 24, 1908 – January 10, 2008, R. I. P.

+++  LOFTUS, Gertrude Mary (Sr. Mary Anglelica), born June 24, 1908, in Greenwood, B. C., of Irish/Scottish ancestry, died at Saint Anne’s Residence in Victoria, B. C., on January 10, 2008, at 99 years of age.  ++   Having made contact with the Sisters in Kitsilano, she entered the Sisters of Saint Anne on January 10, 1925, and pronounced her vows at Saint Anne’s Academy, Victoria, B. C., on February 2, 1927.  Last February she celebrated her 80th anniversary as a Sister of Saint Anne.  ++  Despite twice being stricken with TB, Sister Mary Anglelica’s years of ministry were many and varied, and brought her to several missions in British Columbia.  Her ministry encompassed cooking, housekeeping, laundry, gardening, assisting the nurses on night duty, serving meals to patients, and stamp collecting, as well as teaching crafts to patients and the handicapped.  ++  She ministered in Campbell River Hospital, St. Augustine’s in Vancouver, Smithers Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital, and for 24 years at Mount St. Mary Hospital in Victoria, at the sisters’ residences on Johnson Street, Mount Saint Angela, and Begbie Street.  It was while stationed at Mount Saint Mary that, in addition to her other responsibilities, Sister Mary Angelica began making pottery and teaching basket weaving.  She served in volunteer capacity at the Saint Vincent de Paul Store and at Arbutus Crafts, teaching basket weaving for 22 years.  She retired to Saint Ann’s Residence in 1989.  ++  Predeceased by her parents Mary Kennedy and John Patrick Loftus, sister Mrs. Irene Proctor (Leo), and cousin Joe (Marie) Loftus, she is survived by nieces Maureen (Norm) Okerstrom and Sheila (Duncan) Ross; several cousins: Gail Jones, Ann Cole, Bill Loftus, Pat Loftus, Terry Loftus, Joan Uede, Susan Hepburn, Betty Wallace, Mike Loftus, and David Loftus; and her religious community, the Sisters of Saint Anne. ++  Prayers were offered January 14 at Saint Anne’s Residence, 2474 Arbutus Road, Victoria, B. C.; where Mass of the Resurrection was offered on January 15.  Interment Hatley Memorial Gardens.  +++  This article was originally published by the B. C. Catholic weekly newspaper, on January 21, 2008 in the OBITUARIES section of the CLASSIFIEDS, on page 14, with a black and white photo.  +++  A link to the Saint Anne’s Residence at Queenswood is found on the blogroll under the heading ‘QUEENSWOOD,’ in the tags, or at this address: http://www.queenswoodcentre.com/newsletter.html +++  B. C. CATHOLIC newspaper website is provided in the CCC WE BLOG blogroll to the right under the heading ‘Catholic, B.C.’  +++   

Alms for Oblivion – Everything Costs Money by DAVID BURKE, ISLAND CATHOLIC NEWS, February, 2008, Vol 22 No 1, Guest Editorial

+++  I write out of sheer desperation.  Some people write for pleasure, enjoy the process and make money; I’ve made a little while struggling on the disability pension for the past twenty frustrating quasi-suicidal years and when I think back to when I read all of Proust – au recherche de temps grande fondu – I  think that man really had the real ticket, in spite of a lack of humour, and perhaps I love my electric typewriter more than any member of the opposite hex.  Everything costs money.  ++  The structure I impose on myself to avoid insanity is a dubious one but it works.  Commodity – the bias of the world according to Shakespeare – my refuge and bane.  The price of everthing.  While we all know that welfare is a death sentence, sometimes there are small victories that make the whole thing worthwhile, but the thirty-nine thousand dollar Jag-dream awaits.  One day I will write for money.  One day I will date J. K. Rowlings and the Queen of England.  One day.  We live forever on the never never back in my hometown.  ++  Tomorrow is cheque day and the poor of B. C. can breathe easy for a second, with Christmas coming and the sun always shining on Welfare Wednesday.  Beating the system is a full-time occupation and every government office should employ a small core of system beaters, just to be on the safe side.  When every farthing counts every penny looms large.  When every penny has signficance a twenty spot is still a windfall, even though it can hardly buy anything et al.  ++  I retired from acting because there was no money in it, sold a few paintings and reinvented myself as a writer of small chapbooks.  A meagre war.  A war of attrition.  George Orwell and his downs and outs very much became a god to me.  I thought of changing my name to Eric Blair.  Ordinary milk I cut in half, which makes a tolerable cup of coffee, with extra brown sugar stolen from Starbucks.  Toilet paper I buy in single rolls.  I use dishsoap for my laundry and buy tea candles in bulk.  Every now and then I buy two bottles of wine and have a welfare party.  This is as good as it gets.  ++  It’s a crying shame and grievous sin when money means everything, yet underneath the gay camaraderie, the joking, the drinks, the winks, the watching videos and making frantic love is the ticking of the clock of money, for those where time is money and money is time and finally one is driven to church to say please sir, I’d like a little more….time.  ++  So we all reap alms for oblivion.  For it is to the church that we must ultimately turn when times get rough, and times have been so very rough over these last twenty long years.  ++  I’m in constant pain and constant prayer mode.  Poverty is depression and anger is depression in another form, but I can’t market my anger, and so must subdue it, allay it, deploy it and finally satirize it, before the past twenty-seven years become a cross which I bear, from which I learn nothing, bearing only bitter fruit.  ++  Sure I wear clothes with stains on them.  I’m proud of the stains… to me a badge of honour and an indication that I never sold out or sold myself short.  The alms for oblivion take many forms and exactly what was the oblivion Shakespeare spoke of and the great sized monster of ingratitude.  How grateful should we be for our blessings and how willing to move to where the grass is greener and the bananas riper and the lotuses faster and sleeker???  ++  A cup of coffee is heaven, salmon and mayo a benefice and a donut with filling the high life; a day without a touthache is a good day and the evidence of hot water for a bath is the evidence of a God, who art not David Bowie.  ++  Many times I have been suicidal – tobacco-related illness and the ghosts of George Orwell and Beckett hover close by and assure there will be tailor mades in heaven.  Finally I have my superb books to sustain me in moments of smoker’s cough.  The pages crack open.  I enter and escape.  One day I shall not return.  And then the bus pass will not be so important.  The window is open… The field is clear for jumping.  But upwards with wings or downwards in smoke is anyone’s guess, and then the many many I have helped with their little lives are going to have to fend for themselves, as I make my way towards the podium.  +++