I Tell You...Its Back To The Dark Ages Here...(also known as 'Bonfire Night Comes Early to England')

Dear Reader,

Well, once again long time no see, er - that is long time, you no see me...if you see what I mean.   I apologise.  There are a number of valid excuses, the most pertinent of which is that my computer blew up in flames several weeks ago and now I am back to chalk and a slate...there's not much you can do to those, but neither are they particularly well known for hosting websites, and that is one of our problems.   Its a bit like being in a time where there WERE no computers, and I tell you, my eyesight has improved a lot since I gave computers up.

Any time I spend online has to be begged and grovelled for (as in this, borrowing someone else's machine) and although I spent several nights sighing, my fingers twitching once the infernal thing had combusted, I grew to like not having one strapped to my lap day in, night out.   The great computer fire of Summer 2011 will long be blamed for SLC Designs not having been updated in a donkey's age.

 Like people everywhere, I am right now  astonished by the drama occurring on the streets of Manchester (as well as various other places) this evening; as I write much of the youth, freeloaders, dropouts and disaffected of England seem to be running amok and burning out cars, destroying buildings, homes and businesses and generally causing pain, distress and fear to the general populace; watching this havoc made me think of the Blitz in the second world war (not, you understand that I saw that first hand!), but I did a lot of research on that for a book I wrote for my Dad's birthday last year (when he was 70) all about the year he was born (the year of the Blitz); it brought home to me what it must have been like for the people then, and I feel terribly for the innocent people caught up in this mayhem, a shame to the country and a terrible indictment of a criminal minority hell bent on getting stuff for free and terrifying the entire populace into the bargain.  I hope I never see anything like this again in my lifetime.

I have a ton of stuff for the site, but right now, its being held to ransom inside something called a hard drive.  Yes indeed, it is driving me very hard up the wall.   Normal service will be resumed as soon as I can mug someone for the use of their machine, the little men inside the machine resume work, or perhaps - I'll have to go out and purchase a new one.