MOUNT VERNON, NW3

A NEW PROSE PIECE FOR YOU...

Hello beasties!

Just a short prose piece this time, inspired by some photos that I took on a walk that Toby and I did back on Sunday 25th September 2016 in the Hampstead area, We walked from Hampstead to Kenwood House and I recorded some introductions for the 2016 Halloween episode which I'll be posting next week, along with some of the photos of the locations where I recorded. For now, however, I am sharing one or two photos taken of interesting (to me) signs up Mount Vernon in London, NW3. Mount Vernon isn't a mountain by any means - but it is a slight hill/incline that continues the road that passes Hampstead Tube Station.

Anyway, I decided that I'd like to write something from these photos and this is what I came up with - to be honest it's a bit of an M.R. James parody - although my piece takes a slightly absurd situation and attempts to give it a Jamesian twist... Here are the photos that I mentioned...

There is no new podcast to announce this time - our Halloween episode will be up early next week... So, next post we'll be discussing that new episode and I'll also be sharing with you another prose piece on the subject of Halloween.

Until then I'll leave you with that slightly spooky story of mine which was inspired by my visit to Mount Vernon...

More soon!

Yeti hugs,

Paul xx

PS This piece was written on Monday 3rd October 2016 and tweaked and slightly reworked up until time of posting.

MOUNT VERNON, NW3...

Making my way one September afternoon...

I traversed Mount Vernon bound for Kenwood House...

Nearing the rise I passed by Benham's Place and Holly Berry Lane -

Pausing at the house where Robert Louis Stevenson once lived...

Eventually I moved along the road to consider the view -

Looking down the hill towards Hampstead tube stop...

Although on this occasion there were leafy trees and bushes in the way...

Maybe in the Winter or early Spring I might return and see, thought I.

It is whilst I mused over such things that I noticed a figure -

He was coming up the footpath on the right side of the hill -

Within seconds we were face to face on the ridge...

I recognised the face almost immediately...

It was me - and almost of the same age and dress...

He paused when he saw me and then smiled before speaking,

"Ah... I thought I might find you here one day...

"If I were you I'd not come back here...

I did and look at me now... Here I am... Dead as can be."

I was confused, "But how can you be dead and yet I am here still alive..."

"Simple..." he shrugged. "I am a ghost of a possible future...

And from the looks of it a future not too far in advance of yours now..."

"But can I prevent whatever occurred to you?" I enquired, flustered.

"I have no idea... " he sighed. "You can only try, can't you?"

"What occurred to you?" I asked - shocked at how identical we were.

Whatever happened must be due to happen imminently.

"At least I didn't die at the shock of seeing my own ghost..." he teased.

It's not a joke that I find very amusing, to be honest.

I let him continue - awaiting some revelation...

"I came here in the winter - passing by on my way to Kenwood House...

Only I never reached the house, nor even the Common...

Here I stood at this very place - here on Mount Vernon, NW3...

I was admiring the view; with the leaves gone I could see for miles...

That said I don't advise that you return any time soon..."

"How did you die? Did you slip? Fall on some ice?" I guessed.

He shook his head, "You see how narrow the road is?" I nodded.

"Well, it's not easy for vehicles that travel this way...

Especially not when a house is sold and there are deliveries..."

He indicated a house close by the Holly Bush public house.

"I am embarrassed to tell you..." he said and frowned.

"I was killed by a falling piano, pinned to the ground by it and here I died...

Don't let the same thing happen to you, will you?" he added.

"I cannot be sure that destiny won't catch up with you some other way..."

I was about to ask him more, but glancing back I found him gone.

After this I reasoned that I probably needed a beer of some kind.

I walked slowly from the Mount up towards The Holly Bush...

Nodding at an Estate Agent outside the newly sold house...

I vowed then never to return to Mount Vernon...

And so far, up until now, I have kept to that promise...

It is now New Year and there is snow on the ground...

Looking from my study window I recall what my future self told me...

"I cannot be sure that destiny won't catch up with you some other way..."

And so I wait.., and wait... It is unbearable - agonising...

The tension is so great that I wonder if it wouldn't simply be better -

To fetch my shoes, my coat and hat and take a little walk, through NW3...

Can it really be any worse than simply waiting here and worrying...

After all...
I hear there's a fine view down Hampstead Hill from Mount Vernon...

This piece and all contents are Copyright Paul Chandler 2016.

THE BIG 4-0-0!!!

WE CELEBRATE OUR 400TH POST!!!

Hello beasties!

HAPPY 400TH!!

It's all birthday's around here, at the moment - 15 years since I wrote THE TRUE LIGHT only a week or two ago - this particular anniversary of our 400th post - my own birthday in a few week's time and then we'll be reaching our 15th anniversary in the Spring of 2017! Still, birthdays are meant to be celebrated - so celebrate we shall! That said, this one might be one of those more modest birthday parties - just a nice slice of cake and a glass of champagne, perhaps...

Anyway - let's focus on the here and now! So, this week we're celebrating our 400th post - it's not going to be a terribly long update, but I have written a little "400"-themed piece at the end of this post... I'm very proud that I've been able to make this blog a portal for my writing and if anything it's stronger than it's ever been. I think the advent of lulu.com over 10 years ago now and the ability to post photos around the same time pretty much spurred my enthusiasm in a way that has never ebbed.

Some projects like this start off good and go down-hill - but I think my blog is something that started off quite average and yet has definitely improved - especially in the last 5 or so years! As I was saying - being able to include photos has definitely made it a more colourful place to visit! I'm also pleased with how the site started off just as a place for my poetry - was somewhere I could talk about my poetry books, but has also, more recently, become a place to share photos, talk about other writing projects - promote videos and since May 2016 trumpet the arrival of a new podcast episode... In the last couple of years it has also become my go-to place for new prose and poetry that I write - more than ever before a first draft goes on the blog long before it ends up in a published book...

Next up, before we go any further, we've got a couple of new podcast episodes to announce...

THE SHY LIFE PODCAST - 28: IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH...

Here we are for episode TWENTY-EIGHT - and this time Mr Yeti has a couple of hospital appointments to attend - not to mention Mr Deeley, who has to go to the vet! To cheer matters up our returning special guest is Jo or Wifey #1 who first appeared in episode 12 - and Paul manages to only confuse her half-a-dozen times! Yay! We also have messages from our regulars, review a couple of recent appearances on podcasts and listen to some more of Mr Yeti's daft poems. Thank you to Jo for being our special guest and also thank you to Brenda Boo, Toppie Smellie and ThatPeterG for allowing me to use footage from our recent LOTSL episode, number 207. Our next episode, number 29 - will be our live episode that was broadcast around 4pm (EDT) / 9pm (GMT) on Sunday 16th October 2016. Episode 30 will be our Halloween episode. Please email me at shyyeti@yahoo.co.uk if you have any comments - you can even send me a sound-file and I'll include it on the show. The music is by Shy Yeti and Luca. This episode and all contents are Copyright Paul Chandler, 2016. Episode 28 was recorded between the 13th September and the 13th October 2016.

This episode can be downloaded on iTunes, Acast, Podbean and also from Soundcloud at the following link:

28: https://soundcloud.com/shyyeti/the-shy-life-podcast-28-in-sickness-and-in-health

THE SHY LIFE PODCAST - 29: MY FIRST LIVE PRIDE48 SHOW!!

Here we are for episode TWENTY-NINE - and it is time for our very first live show on Pride48! Mr Yeti interacts with the chat room - reads some of his poems and we have guest appearances from all the regulars! The gods enjoy it so much that they show their pleasure by making thunder!! True!! Our next episode, number 30 - will be our Halloween episode - out in the next few days! Please email me at shyyeti@yahoo.co.uk if you have any comments - you can even send me a sound-file and I'll include it on the show. The music is by Shy Yeti and Luca. This episode and all contents are Copyright Paul Chandler, 2016. Episode 29 was recorded live on 16th October 2016, but with pre-recorded inserts prepared on the 13th October 2016.

This episode can be downloaded on iTunes, Acast, Podbean and also from Soundcloud at the following link:

29: https://soundcloud.com/shyyeti/shy-life-podcast-29-alt

Might I add that the live show on Sunday 16th October went very well and was great fun to record - special thanks to Tim From Alaska, Toppie Smellie and Crone for listening in and taking part. I am pleased to announce that I do have two more shows lined up:

Sunday 20th November and Sunday 18th December 2016 on Pride48 at 4pm (EDT / 9pm (GMT)

Basically I'm looking to do a show once a month on the 3rd Sunday of the month - although I may even consider doing a fortnightly show from 2017 - I'll just have to see how busy my weekends get. That said I'm pretty much always about on a Sunday evening as I'm usually due to go into work the following morning.

Following this episode - as long as nothing goes wrong - we have these little shows for you:

30 - HALLOWEEN EPISODE

31 - THE BUSY WEEKEND...

32 - BIRTHDAY EPISODE

33 - THE RETURN OF MR GOODMAN

34 - JAY THE HAUNTCUB EPISODE

35 - SHY YETI IN VENICE...

36 - BITS AND PIECES EPISODE...

I don't want to say too much what each episode entails - and it may be that some of these will be juggled or that possibly there might be another live episode slotted in there somewhere. I also have one or two other episodes squirrelled away and a number of other interviews lined up to record over the next few weeks. At this rate I'll have all my 2016 episodes in the can before very long!!

Before we go - here's a little link - I searched for any posts on the blog that included the number "400" and found one or two of them; although mostly it's just the number of pages in a book that I've written or some such... Anyway - there are one or two poems in this lot too; check it out!

http://thedaffypoet.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=400+shy+yeti

As promised at the start, I'm going to leave you with a new prose piece - it's on the theme of "400"...

Next time we'll probably be thinking about Halloween and hopefully I'll have my podcast episode ready for your enjoyment ...

Take care - more soon!

Yeti hugs,

Paul xx

P.S. This piece was written between Tuesday 27th and Friday 30th September 2016, with some re-writes and tweaking down up until posting. Thanks to Toby for the photos of Deeley...

IF I COULD LIVE TO BE FOUR HUNDRED...


If I could live to be four hundred...
How would I feel about it?

Okay... Let me think about this...
What do you mean you want me to decide now!?
I can't do that... You have to give me a little more information...
I mean, I'm presuming that this is four hundred with a good quality of life -
With health and energy and a curiosity that propels us ever onward...
With good hair and fabulous fashion-sense and nice cake...
There's no point being four hundred having still been shoved into a care home at eighty...
I'm presuming that life as a four hundred year old would mean life running at a different pace...
Although I'd still be happy only to spend eighteen years in education...
Don't tell me you expect me to be sitting exams until I'm fifty two;
I don't think I could do it...
Let me take a set of encyclopaedia home and I shall report back forthwith!
For that matter neither do I want to suffer the agonies of teenager-hood well into my forties -
Or suffer the stupidities of my twenties until I'm seventy-five...
Living with the bad choices of my thirties until well after I'm one hundred...
Still tripping over the mistakes of my sixties until I'm almost a century and a half...
Let's look at things more positively...
Let me consider how much more I could get done...
How many more books I could read and films I could see...
How many more places that I could travel to...
I'd have to get me a bigger house, that's for sure -
Just to fit all the tat from an extra couple of hundred years of life -
The kind of treasures that I'll be picking up along the way...
Ticket stubs, theatre programmes, birthday cards, favourite shirts...
Of course - there's a good chance that even if we're able to hang around a little longer -
That time will age and wither these trinkets even if we do try to preserve them...
Do you think that'll just be us who live on -
Or will our pets also be able to live extended lives...
Because, that would be awesome and if we're honest -
These are the people who truly matter to us the most...

So, anyway - all of this is a nice idea - but increasingly...
I realise that maybe there is also quite a lot of admin involved...
All the developments in technology; it's simply wearying...
All the family squabbles that used to drag on for decades...
Now they could drag on, literally, for centuries...
There are a lot of questions here that I am only now beginning to consider...
Would I still go bald at thirty-five or might I have hair into my nineties?
Three hundred is the new sixty - or something...
I can already see the greetings cards and the car bumper stickers with that on it...
Not that anyone with probably send cards or drive cars in the future!
You'll be expected to work until you're well into your third century...
You know that, right!? It doesn't bear thinking about...
None of this is seeming like a very good option...
I mean, how can this be? How could living to be 400 be a bad thing?
I'm sure with a bit of thought we can turn this around...
I just need to know all the rules first - and then we can work from there...

So, if I could live to be four hundred...
How would I feel about it?
Just let me know the details and I'll get back to you...
But don't take too long about it - because I'm a way off being young...
Although, of course - if I do live to be four hundred - 
I'm still in my prime...

This post and all contents are Copyright Paul Chandler 2016.

SUMMER'S BACK... IN PHOTOS!!

WE'RE BACK IN LUXEMBOURG!!

Hello beasties!!

This week the podcast reaches Mr Yeti's adventures in Luxembourg - recorded back in late-August - it is also our 399th post here... All the details that you need to know are coming up next...

It's only the second time that I've recorded a podcast overseas and there's a lot of different things to consider. I'm particularly chuffed that not only did we record in Luxembourg, but we reached France and Germany too - all in one episode. Trier and Metz really are lovely towns worth visiting for the day if you're staying in Luxembourg. I've made a lot of youtube videos whilst away in places like Venice, L.A., in Germany and France and there you are thinking visual all the time... With podcasts - and I'm going to state the obvious - it's all about the sounds of the city!

I was very tempted to write one of my silly pieces about cities that I have occasionally done - about Florence, Paris, Lyon - to name just a few - a love song to Luxembourg... Maybe I will one day - other than all the building work it would all be good. I don't really want to write that piece just yet though - I'm not ready to draw a line under Luxembourg and move on... I think I need to go back... You know, to research my prose piece on the city... Let's get a Kickstarter campaign going to send me back - I have so much still to see - so much that I need to say...

Hello!? Hello... Don't you want the Kickstarter link? No? Think about it, at least... Okay!?!

THE SHY LIFE PODCAST - 27: ALL ABOARD FOR LUXEMBOURG!!

Here we are for episode TWENTY-SEVEN - and this time we are off to Luxembourg for a few days - visiting some nearby towns in both France and Germany. There's quite a lot going on - and some of it is slightly sinister! Our next episode, number 28 - will be out in the next few days. Please email me at shyyeti@yahoo.co.uk if you have any comments - you can even send me a sound-file and I'll include it on the show. The music is by Shy Yeti and Luca. This episode and all contents are Copyright Paul Chandler, 2016. Episode 27 was recorded between the 17th and the 26th August 2016.

This episode can be downloaded on iTunes, Acast, Podbean and also from Soundcloud at the following link:

27: https://soundcloud.com/shyyeti/the-shy-life-podcast-27-all-aboard-for-luxembourg-alt

Here are some more photos from the trip...

As I said at the start this is our 399th post - so next time is our 400th post... See! I can add up! Amazing, aye!?!

More soon...

Yeti hugs,

Paul xx

This post and all contents are Copyright Paul Chandler, 2016.