'Ours is to reason why, to tell the truth and open eyes'
Legless Blog - Ian Reed / John McMiken
Legless blog archive for January 2009
For my current Blog click here!
British expat amputee in Thailand
'Let it be'
Legless Blog -I first decided to create this blog page after seeing all of the bad publicity given to and constant hounding of my fellow legless celebrity, Heather Mills on many other websites and in the media in general. This page I created as a place where I can state my personal opinions, thoughts and musings openly, and just share my views and feelings with the Internet World.
This is my legless website, I pay for it and I am the manager, owner/boss/ruler of it, so 'legless or not', as 'freedom of speech' is still a basic human right in true democratic countries where you can view this blog, then I feel that this is somewhere that I can speak my mind without recourse. This is not a commercial page, it is just my own social media page. Nobody has forced any of you to come here and nobody is holding you here, so if you don't agree or like what you are reading here, then please feel free to leave at anytime!
As someone who has exactly the same physical injuries that I have, I find that the hounding of Heather Mills by the media is disgusting. I now see how celebrities, legless or not, can never have a normal life, because they never have time to themselves without someone from the media trying to drag up any kind of dirt from what would just be a normal everyday incident to anyone else, but in Heather's case any normal incident gets sensationalised by the media. Heather's physical disability seems to incite them more, and being honest, if I personally was hounded the way that Heather is, then some of these media personnel would consider being only 'legless' a bonus after the physical injuries that I would personally inflict upon them. I am thoroughly disgusted at the treatment of Heather, I suppose you could call it a feeling of 'Legless unity', so if any of the media responsible are reading this blog, then in Paul McCartney's own words "Let it be". Listen to the music.
We are both legless!
****
You can email me anytime at: blog@leglessfool.com
'The Legless Blog January 2009 by The Legless Fool'
I was all prepared to spend my first evening without alocohol this evening due to my lack of funds at the moment. But, what happened this evening restored my faith in people again. I had just finished making my food for the next week and I was ready for bed, when a knock came at my door and it was a new friend of mine that I had not seen for a few weeks, inviting me out for a beer. Being very short of cash at the moment, I was in two minds about this invitation, If I go, do I have the money to socialise? I knew that I didn't have the cash to go out, so initially I declined. The person insisted that I go out with him, money or not, and I felt obliged to go.
If you have never been in this position before, then it will be hard for you to understand, how demeaning it is to have someone invite you for a drink when you know that you do not have the funds available to assist with the invitation offered, but I was eventually convinced to go out with my friend even though I had absolutely no money with me. I explained my unease to my friend and he just passed it off as an inconsequence, but as a person that is used to taking care of themself I still felt uneasy about this situation, but I went along anyway.
We ended up having a very good evening together and talking about many things in Thailand. How I eventually ended up back in my room I do not know, I just know that I had a good night with my friend Jimmy and that I drank a lot more beer than I am used to 
.
Cheers for now 
The Legless Fool - absolutely legless tonight!
Continuing from my post yesterday, today after finishing my internet work I decided to see if I was still the number one legless recluse on the internet, of course I was because I wonder just how many legless recluses there are in this world and especially ones that have a high profile internet presence? But today I looked at some of the other search engine results below me and one of them made me laugh, it was a joke about the definition of a legless recluse and it said that a legless recluse is: 'Someone who can hide but cannot run away' .
When I started to think about this joke later, I realised just how applicable this was to me, not in a physical sense, but this is exactly the position that I find myself in now. I successfully managed the first phase of my quest to start my life anew again, by my escape from 'Parasite farm' in Nakhon Sawan six months ago and moving to a single apartment in Bangkok with the help of a friend in Bangkok. The problem now is that I am stuck here, I am in a financial trap, I can just about survive adequately on a day to day basis here, but as for the final stage of my quest which is, moving to somewhere that I would really like to live now and start again, that is now on a permanent hold because there is no possible way that I can see that I can raise the money required to complete this quest. The only outside chance that I can see to achieve this now is by acquiring some extra funds from the sales of my book 'Legless in Thailand', but in the last two years I have received absolutely nothing from the publishers of my book and I am rapidly losing hope on that score now.
So the joke that I read seems to fall into the category of a very old English saying: 'Many a true word is spoken in jest'.
Cheers for now
The Legless Fool/Recluse - who cannot run away
After my usual evening beer break yesterday evening, I just returned to my room and computer. I had already finished the work that I had set for myself for the day, so I just thought that I would play with some of the words from my websites on the search engines, which I do just to keep myself amused and occupied when I have nothing else to do .
Going through some of the content on my 'leglessfool' website I picked out the word 'recluse' which I had used to describe myself in Thailand these days, so I linked this word with my usual keyword of 'legless' and it seems that all of the search engines now have me confirmed as 'The Legless Recluse' on the internet, because I came up number one on the first page of every search engine results for these keywords. I always thought that the definition of a recluse was someone that kept themselves to themselves far away from anyone else, which I do in real life, but quite obviously even though I really am a recluse, the search engines are turning me into a kind of celebrity for being a recluse 
.
On the internet I don't really mind about this because my high profile presence on here is by personal choice for the sole purpose of trying to promote my book 'Legless in Thailand', I only hope that this doesn't somehow spill over into my everyday life 
.
Cheers for now
The Legless Fool - legless recluse in Thailand
Sitting outside for my nightly beer break tonight, the clock at the restaurant had been moved so I had to revert to using Venus again as my time indicator. Over the past month or so Venus' arc across the evening sky here has gradually changed and now it is about 20 degress more Northerly than it used to be, the times of it's visible arc that I can see from my evening beer perch has also changed, but I have been monitoring it each day and it still gives me a good indication of the time that I have left for my beer break .
Whilst doing my usual search engine work yesterday and using 'legless' as one of my keywords, I spotted another website close to me in the SERPs and it was a link to a short story entitled 'Legless', this caught my attention and I decided to take a look at it. The story was a short fiction story written by Brianna Aisling and it was about a man who was also physically legless, so I decided to copy it onto my computer and read it before going to sleep last night. I found that the story was well written and was written with feeling which I found very moving and I am now quite a fan of this writer and look forward to reading more of her stories in the future.
Cheers for now
The Legless Fool writer - in reading mode
I know that it has been very quiet on here lately, but I have to conform to government bureacracy sometimes and I had to go for a new Thai visa to Penang to maintain my present status quo here in Thailand. It was quite a good trip this time though, I really enjoyed it and I met some very interesting people in Penang, but these trips are a bit like 'the Beatles magical mystery tour' to me though, I never know exactly what situations I am going to encounter on these fairly regular trips and because none of us has the inbuilt ability of total foresight, anything could happen, especially to me! So each trip is a kind of adventure for me, who knows what will happen each time?
I have decided to write a new story about my last two trips to Penang because there has been too many small incidents to write about in full here on this blog and I am still recovering from my last trip, with the aid of a few beers of course!
More on here about my new story when I eventually get around to writing it, which I think will take a few days and many more beers, so please be a little patient 
.
Cheers for now
The Legless Fool - back in circulation again
Ever since I moved back to Bangkok five months ago, I have deliberately made myself unapproachable and I have been downright anti-social to everyone around me, other than with my Nigerian friend, Justin, that I meet occasionally. I have been quite happy with my solitude, it gives me more time to think about my life, stories, any future books and even what to write on this blog sometimes.
I had to buy my train ticket for my upcoming trip to Penang yesterday and on my return to the apartment in the early evening I saw one of the largest and brightest full moons that I have seen in a very long time. Back at my apartment, I dropped my jacket and ticket in the room, I grabbed my beer mug and then I went to sit at my usual drinking place at the front of the apartment for my evening beer break .
Sitting at the front drinking my first beer, I met Justin and we chatted for a long time, mainly talking about visa runs and my upcoming next trip to Penang on Tuesday this week. Later, another foreigner arrived at the apartment and went into into the shop to buy some beer and on the way back out again he said "hello" to me and then chatted to Justin for a while, they obviously knew each other quite well. After he had left, Justin told me that this guy used to live in an apartment here a long time ago. We sat there talking for a while longer until I finished my beer and then I returned to my apartment, because I had some cooking to do.
Back in my room I realised that I had run out of drinking water, I need this because I need my morning cup of tea the next day, so I grabbed my water bottle and went to fill it from the drinking water machine at the far end of my apartment block outside. When I had eventually filled the bottle, I started walking back to my room and someone called out to me, it was the foreign guy that I had seen talking to Justin earlier and he called me over to him. He and a few Thai guys were sitting on a Thai bench with shelter across the road, when I got there one of the Thai guys motioned me to sit down and poured me a beer in a glass. The foreign guy's name was Jimmy and we started talking and drinking together, the Thai guy that had poured me a beer also joined in the conversation and spoke very good English. I immediately felt quite comfortable with these people, I have a knack of making quick character judgements of people and these guys seemed quite good, I am usually right with my character judgements, unfortunately this knack does not seem to work with the characters in my personal and emotional relationships .
The night went on very well for many hours and everybody was talking, drinking beer, joking and laughing and for the first time in a very long time, even I was laughing with them . Jimmy sent a Thai motorcycle guy for more beer and he wouldn't let me contribute any money. This turned into quite a party and we all got to know each other very well, it was very enjoyable for me because basically I am a very sociable person, but I usually keep that side of my character well hidden these days.
In the early hours of this morning everyone started to get tired and we eventually all drifted off to our respective abodes and fell asleep. Reflecting on last night today, I had to admit to myself that I did enjoy our impromptu little party last night, I reckon that it must have had something to do with the full moon bringing my true character back out into the open .
Cheers for now
The Legless Fool - back in social mood
Even though I am still waiting nervously for the first payment of my pension to be paid into Thailand, I received a good email yesterday from my very good website hosting company Namesco stating that they are supporting me through this changeover and they have even given me a new hosting package that supports far more than my previous packages, so my websites will not be affected at all.
This has set my mind at ease quite a bit and looking at my new hosting package it has even given me ideas for a new business, designing and creating websites for other people, this was a business that I used to do on the internet many years ago. So today I created and uploaded a new webpage named Fool's Legless Empire Webcast Uploaded Packages advertising for people to use my website designing services. After finishing and uploading this new webpage, even though it was only lunchtime then, I fell fast asleep on my bed, I wake up and sleep at very strange times these days probably because I am not tied to any strict routine anymore, this is one of the benefits of being retired now .
When I eventually awoke again in mid-afternoon, my mind was playing on an amusing tale/story that I had thought about a long time ago and whilst I was still feeling in a writing mode of mind, I decided to write it on another new webpage and put it on the short stories section of my Ex Post Facto website. Writing the tale itself was fairly easy, but creating suitable graphics, making links and updating the sitemap took quite a bit of time. If you would like to read this quite amusing tale then you can go to Four King Hell .
My new banner and link to my website design services is below, I have been quite busy today and I really need a few beers now.
Cheers for now
King Legless Fool - King of Four King Hell
Doing a search on the internet yesterday, I decided to do a search for something that I personally like, rather than just concentrating on my usual website work. I do love good music and a song that has been on my mind for a very long time now, I decided to search for to see if I could find it.
My personal search engine of choice for my searches is Google and sure enough! Google found exactly what I was looking for very quickly indeed. The song in question was 'All cried out by Alison Moyet' and by using Google, I found an excellent video and soundtrack of Alison performing this song on Top of the Pops 25 years ago. I still rate this as one of my all time favourite songs and she is an excellent singer, she just has a power, depth of voice and a presence that is much too difficult to explain in words, to me she is the epitome of all that is good about British music.
I have now kept a record of this website on my computer bookmarks and it is playing in the background now whilst I am writing this post. For anyone interested in seeing and hearing 'All cried out by Alison Moyet' click on this title or copy and paste the following URL into your browser: http://apps.facebook.com/ilike/artist/Alison+Moyet/track/All+Cried+Out#
Cheers for now
The Legless Fool - All cried out
Just a lazy Sunday for me today, messing about with my internet work and snoozing for a while, but in the late afternoon I decided that I was a little hungry and needed to eat something. I like to keep some food ready in my fridge and I always keep lots of home made potato salad in there, so I grabbed a can of potato salad and I was going to make some tea to drink with it, but I found out then that my hot water pot was empty and I was too lazy to get dressed and go and replenish my water at the drinking water machine outside. I then remembered that I had kept some lime tea in the refridgerator from a long time ago, so I thought that I would just have a cold tea drink with my food today, although usually I just drink hot tea during the day.
Well, I found the plastic bottle of lime tea that I had made in the fridge and as I was unscrewing the top, at the last turn of the top there was a loud bang like a gun being shot, the bottle top hit my hand hard and the tea started foaming out, so I quickly poured some of it into a glass and tasted a little. It was quite a pleasant taste and I started thinking about the build up of gas in the bottle, the only things that could possibly have caused this is that there was a lot of sugar in the tea and some slices of lime in the bottle, so these must have been fermenting for a long time in the fridge, alcoholic tea?
I am not a chemical engineer myself, but as a layman I always thought that any fermentation process had to take place in warm temperatures and not in the cool temperature of a fridge, but I am just a legless fool, so what do I know!
Cheers for now
The Legless Fool tea tasting!
New Years Eve here in Bangkok and I just sat at my usual place at the front of my apartment block and drank beer all evening. Some of the Thai people that were still around, got together nearby, started playing very loud music and most were legless very early on in the evening. I just kept myself to myself as is my way here and I just watched all of these Thai drunks making even more of a fool of themselves than they normally do.
I returned to my room one hour before midnight, I made myself something to eat, poured myself a whisky and then just sat on my front patio watching and listening to all of the drunks still making a noise and trying to outdo each other. Then just before midnight, I poured the last of my whisky into my glass, put 'Auld Lang Syne' playing on my computer, which I could barely hear with the racket going on around outside and I toasted the New Year. At midnight the legless drunken revellers outside started setting fireworks off indiscriminately and the bangs, flashes and cracks just seemed to incite them to set off even more.
All of this noise does nothing for me, so I just went back inside my room, closed the door, finished my whisky and then fell asleep. When I awoke this morning, I went straight to my computer, checked my email and then started doing my search engine work for my websites, but seeing the news headlines on some of the search engines, I went to my BBC RSS input and read about a major fire at a nightclub in Bangkok. Dozens of people died here just after midnight last night at a nightclub in Thong Lor, Bangkok. I am afraid that this news incident here did not surprise me at all, when you enclose a large group of drunks, like I had seen the previous evening, in a small space with fireworks on the premises, then what do you really expect?
Cheers for now
The Legless Fool wishing everyone a Happy New Year
To my blog Archive for December 2008
For my Current Blog click here!
To my Legless Fool Headquarters site
P.S. "I don't remember reading the small print when I signed on for this life, in fact, I don't remember signing on at all, I was probably legless then too! So seeing as you wont let me resign, can we renegotiate the contract please?"
My first published book - Legless in Thailand
My other blog at the St Helens Star newpaper, UK
My home town St Helens, UK and their famous rugby team
Some of my short stories HERE
Biography of author John McMiken
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