Keeping Up The Fight

Today, I had to give myself a good talking to. It's not an easy thing to do, to lift one's heart when it's heavy with anger and bitterness. But such emotions – if harboured there – only beget more of the same, so they must be banished. Banished and replaced with joyous thoughts and images of fields of kittens instead. Yesterday I was in a really good mood – I had a fabulous journey back from Geneva after spending a really lovely weekend in Switzerland. I'd had the most pleasant of times which had made me so happy – I did lots of sightseeing and spent some really quality time with my daughter Imogen and her boyfriend Olivier. I was feeling relaxed and happy, and then my return journey to the UK was trouble-free and most amusant.

Unfortunately, returning to Nottingham life did not bring its own joys when later, I was ill-fated enough to encounter several people in Broad Street who presented me with negativity and bad karma. This was most unpropitious, and definitely not in keeping with my new spirit of optimism and bliss. I am forced to admit that I was temporarily blown off course – temporarily, I stress. Today I decided that I needed to whistle that happy tune once more, and invite only nice people into my life. I thought it was all going well until suddenly, I encountered a dark demon lurking in a penumbral cavity of my heart and I found myself plunging into bitterness and anger once again. This is when I recognized the requirement for a good self-talking to. "All that we are is a result of what we have thought" – so said the Buddha. How right he was. Or, if you believe in what quantum physics tells us about the space-time continuum, how right the Buddha is.

So, only happy thoughts from now on – and happy chances that those thoughts will bring. I have so much to be thankful for and I am one of the luckiest people alive really. Let me tell you about something that happened to me on Friday. I'd had lunch with Imogen who then had to return to work before meeting me later. I went for a stroll on my own and after walking for less than five minutes, I suddenly came upon Geneva's famous Jet d'Eau, thrusting its way skywards before me. This immediately transported me back to my childhood when I used to watch a TV programme called 'The Champions' starring Alexandra Bastedo, William Gaunt & Stuart Damon. These three played a team of secret agents working for a Geneva-based organization called 'Nemesis' and they all had superhuman powers (albeit limited) as well as exceptional intelligence. It was glamorous, cosmopolitan and stylish and a stalwart of 1960s British TV. It was also a forerunner of today's 'Heroes' (which I have never seen but which I understand has attracted a similar cult status). Anyway, the opening credits of this programme featured the three characters standing in front of Geneva's Jet d'Eau which is a giant single-jet fountain on the edge of the famous lake.

As a shy & lonely working-class boy, I would dream of standing on that same spot and of being as smart & attractive as the characters in the programme. Back then, it seemed impossible to me that I would ever stand in such a spot – how could I? How could someone like me, from the backstreets of Naples, ever hope to follow in the footsteps of 'The Champions'? And yet I did. And here is a picture to prove it.



Do you think this has given me superhuman powers? Hmm.....