You might be mistaken into thinking with a title like Wacky N Wonderful, this weeks column is about me?…..well the wacky bit anyway? Alas no, it’s about some of the things I’ve found on my perusal around the net this week that I thought I’d share with you. If you like it I might even make it a regular feature, so let me know. First up, what’s big, green, musical & will set you back £15.000?...

& if you said a date with an inebriated Meatloaf?  Surprisingly enough you’d be wrong. It happens to be a very large speaker from the 80’s used at raves and such forth. When I first saw this up for sale I salivated, I’d even marked the spot where it was going to stand on the front lawn like my very own Stonehenge and imagined all the kids faces as they passed our house on the way to Holyrood school, but then I spotted the price tag....…I’m sure I just heard my neighbours huge sighs of relief?.

            Watford Observer:

Something a tad more affordable on the market however is the Helium Levitate gravity defying speaker (try saying that without your teeth in) At £79.99 this impressive looking spaceship comes with no wires & no annoying motor noise apart from your music blasting out of it as its hovers and spins above its hub. I also fell in love with these Aquabot seahorses at only  £9.95 they come with smart fish technology which I’m guessing is similar technology used for the smartphones and means that when dropped in a fish tank they start swimming and diving, and to save battery life automatically go to sleep after five minutes. To wake them up you just tap the tank, or brush your fingers through the water and away they go again. If you love the unusual then you can find both these items and more at http://www.red5.co.uk/

          Watford Observer:

Onto some wonderful ME news and Mays ME awareness month  was possibly the most successful ever in terms of raising awareness, ending with a hugely successful few days of Invest in ME International Biomedical Research Conference Events going by many comments posted online such as:

Tony Bradstock: "Wow ! Just got home from the conference. Brilliant, yet again.  I have to put my hand up to having a little weep, seeing so many good people working so hard to help us find a way in to curing this insidious illness."

Joan Byrne: "Just wanted to say I loved the conference last week. Really delighted I made the effort of travelling from Ireland. Great speakers and great presentations." 

One little girl stood out as a shining example of the spirit of Let’s Do It for ME!  Makayla Nunn came in the top 3% of 65838 fundraisers on JustGiving and you can nominate her for an award.  Read her story and find all the links in this blog published yesterday - http://ldifme.org/second-to-nunn/                           

& finally, It’s now been four weeks since we lost my brother, but it might as well be  4 hours because emotionally nothing has changed, physically the stress of it all has bought on an ME relapse but that was to be expected. There’s still the daily struggle, the sleepless nights, the self-persecution and a pain so deep and intense that at times being consumed by madness seems a real possibility. Grief comes over us daily at unexpected intervals like a large cat stalking its victim, something as simple as making a coffee or drawing back the curtains on a sunny day can have it pouncing from nowhere suddenly rendering us a sobbing wreck, but that’s grief for you.

Since I first shared the news with you, many of you have got in contact to thank me for being honest about loss and grief and for continuing to write the Column, I in turn thank you.

How ironic that some years ago while in comedic mood I wrote:

“I’ve come to the conclusion death can’t be that bad seeing as everyone else does it” while that may be true, it doesn’t make dealing with the loss of a loved one from suicide any easier.  No I’m not ok, none of us are and probably won’t be for a very long time. Life goes on and the choice is we stumble along with it on automatic not really knowing what the hell we’re doing or we give up & fall into some abyss, it’s as simple as that. I’m sure each and every one of you face daily struggles & challenges of some sort from the minor to the major?  And right now this is ours.

If you’re out and about in Watford this weekend, it’s set to be sunny…I’m insisting on it, so no matter your age be safe & have fun.                                                 

                                      Til Next Week, Stay Blessed

                                          Back Before Elvis XXX

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