Dreams of faraway mountains

When I switched on my computer the ‘tip for the day’ was “If you do your best, whatever happens will be for the best”

Thank you Mr Gates. I’ve heard it before but it is not a bad tip for one who is about to write. And I am reminded of something E L Doctorow said: “… nothing of any beauty or truth comes of pieces of writing without the author’s thinking that he has sinned against something – propriety, custom, faith, privacy, tradition, political orthodoxy, historical fact, literary convention, or indeed all the prevailing community standards together.” And I have to say, I’m with him on that one.

In my writing from the locked ward, I therefore absolve myself in advance for any offence I may cause, citing the above quotation as my authority.

I have had diarrhoea this morning. I blame it on the chicken we were served last night. It was in some kind of hot sauce: chilli, perhaps. Also it must have been a pretty old bird because it was so tough; and you know me with my delicate stomach. I once thought of becoming a Vegan, but I don’t think it is really me. Although I once went to a ‘Vegan Fair’ in Liverpool and the stuff they had as samples was quite tasty. I got chatting to one of the Vegans; a tall girl with tattoos all over her arms and shoulders. She was very nice, but I couldn’t see any point in asking her out to lunch.

Did you know that the human brain weighs about three pounds and is roughly the size of two fists pressed tightly together? (I have always adopted a two-fisted attitude to life). And in this lump of grey stuff there is a network of about ten billion interconnected nerve cells, or neurons. It makes you think doesn’t it. Actually that is exactly what it does do!!

The PET scan showed that there is an unusually high level of metabolic activity in my left orbital cortex. It shows up on the screen, glowing red. (See, I told you my brain was overheating). There are other things too which I won’t go into since this is not a medical treatise. Nothing congenital, mind you. No serious organic damage. But this intense firing of the orbital cortex can give the strong feeling that something is wrong. So there you go then. I am always feeling there is ‘something wrong’. Of course sometimes there IS something wrong. But all this medical stuff is getting boring.

I am looking for sponsors. I am planning a motorcycle trip around South America – re-creating Che Guevara’s famous journey, as depicted in that fine film ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’
My trip has nothing to do with politics. I am completely apolitical – ever since I was thrown out of the neo-Trotskyites (Swindon Branch) for singing the Horst Wessel song on the coach, coming back from the annual outing to Margate. If I cannot get enough sponsorship for South America I will ride to Lands End (England) instead. The charity for which I shall be raising money will be ‘Age Concern’.

Of course this is all pie in the Andes if they don’t let me out of here - and that is up to Freddie. His sister (step sister) seems to have adopted a low profile since we came back from London. I sent her a note via Greta, but the envelope came back, unopened.