What we gonna do right here is go back.

Way back, back into time.  But first a round up and some sad news. 

One of my favourite authours has died.  Alan F Alford was an alternative historian who wrote on themes of ancient egypt and the near east religion (Assyrians) as well as cosmogenic destruction as a metaphor for those myths.  I came across his obituary in this months Fortean Times, and was saddened by his passing, his books made a lot of sense and thanks to positive reviews in FT, I actually bought some of his later works through Amazon.  For a new age / alternative thinker he was a rare person, that, actually admitted that what he believed was wrong (largely his theories on Zechariah Sitchin, tenth planet and all that) and amended his theories.  It lost him a lot of support but gained him a lot of integrity.

Way back.

What would you do if you could go back in your lifetime and potentially break it by talking to yourself or deliver yourself a present.  I don't have a Delorean nor Michael J Fox to drive us but as a hypothetical question, I'd take my old video and TV back to my childhood somewhere around 1986 - 88 and tape stories without words from The Childrens Channel, if only to prove that some of those old eastern bloc cartoons actually existed instead of being mere fever dreams.  Finally capturing Henapippa on tape, as well as something I think was called Backyard, and one with the ginger haired kid with the chickens and of course something we called the seven kind alarm clocks (a cartoon involving clocks we loved clocks as a kid).  We'd also get a bit of Chas the rabbit too, chas was a white rabbit with purple hair operated by some old weirdo, we thought he was funny, simply for posterity. 

My next trip would be taking the shedload of crap cassette tapes I've amassed through work and send them back to my younger self around 1990 to 1992, with a note on top simply saying Tape Pirate radio over these.  We've got a lot of Nigerian tapes either talking about god or singing about god, and would tell my younger self, to copy them when you listen, cos a lot of them shows don't exist. 

My final trip would be to my Grandads house out in Hounslow, back then with planes going over my head and a look round his green house at all his plants and stuff.  He had mainly Fuchsias and Pelargoniums but from an old relative he had cacti including a large cereus and a nice clump of Faucaria in a 4 1/2 inch pot, bits and pieces of the collection exist in my cactus collection as well as bits and pieces owned by relatives in my mums side of the family.  I would love to go back and see us it when it was in its prime (he had Epiphyllums so it would well worth looking at too).   We'll leave you with a few photos to gawp at, some we think a hold over from my aunt and some of my stuff.

Part of my Aunt Marions Greenhouse,

Our conservatory, this Cleistocactus was my neighbours and is around 50 years old.