An Important Ceremony

I know what some of you are thinking ... but you're wrong .. this ceremony happened a few days ago and it's called 'The Washing of the Hat Ceremony' and is my official marking of the start of the County Cricket season.

All season, I wear my hat to the cricket .. without a wash so as you can imagine, it's a bit nasty b the end of the year (but let's face it, County Cricket ain't a place to pick up chicks .. ya dig lol :-) ... So every year at the start of the season, I give it a ritual wash .. God I can't believe how sad this is sounding as I write this :-) .

Anyway .. the season got off to a good start with a win at Kent which is good as Notts may struggle a bit this year so all points will come in handy.

Ok .. enough sad man talk ... on with work now.

Before and After

A couple of Buddhist Podcasts

Just a quick 'stop gap' post ... but I came across this excellent 2 part podcast by Dr. Eric Hauber, Vice General Director of SGI-USA on the Buddhist perspective of Life and Death ... Found it really interesting and well done ... pretty suitable for people who know little about Buddhism too. Oh .. and if you want to know the Buddhist view of sex, listen to the the Q&A's at the end :-)

Part 1

Part 2

4 eyes good 2 eyes bad

Oh Bollox .. !!!

I've just trodden on my glasses and bent them out of shape !!!

Now I've got to walk around looking like freakin Kermit until they're fixed .. grrrrrrr

Buddhist Interview

Found this randomly .. it's a video interview by the Washington Post with Bill Aiken who is US Vice General Director of Soka Gakkai International .. though you might find it interesting .. shame about the military ad first though :O

Another post shock .. and a new(ish) book

I recently book the book 'The Reluctant Buddhist' written by TV presenter William Woolard ( used to present Tommorow's World for those of you old enough to remember !).

I have to say that I was very impressed by the book and I think I'm going to be recommending it for new people to read, even before Buddha in Your Mirror.

Although it's not strictly an introductory book as such, it covers his own journey from sceptic to a long practising member and I'm sure many members will identify with many of the things he mentions. It does cover all the usual introduction points, though I would have liked at least a brief explanation of SGI which he does mention, and also Daisaku Ikeda, but doesn't go into any detail on them, which is a shame as a brief history would have been really helpful for new people.

That said, he explains very clearly, the difference between this and other forms of Buddhism, in that this practise is not an 'other world' practise, but is firmly rooted in daily life and designed to move our lives forward.

I've just started to re-read it but for me, it's a great book.

Ta da .... !!!!!!

Nag Nag Nag .... jeeze, just because I haven't posted here, you'd think I'd left the country lol ... Ok .. well truth told it's only one person who is sooo bored at work that he needs to read my blogs .. You know who you are lol.

So .. what have I been up to .. not a lot, truth told. I've taken on a work from home job which takes 2 hours a day and that seems to have impacted fairly heavily on my free time which is irritating, but helps pay the bills so I shouldn't moan I guess. Apart from that .. well , quite a bit of jazz including the excellent John Donaldson and the Partisans, been to the Mayfair a fair few times (now, there's a surprise huh !). Also been out for a couple of meals .. one of which was after a Kosen Rufu meeting and cooked by Makato, a Japanese chef (aided by his mad dog Iggy !) .. Real simple meal with sushi to start and sea bass steamed with herbs and soy .. sounds so simple but it was perfectly cooked. The other one was at Easter at Emily's .. with her Dad and lodger .. funnily enough .. Sea Bass again .. all nicely done .. though she did manage to almost caramalise the frozen lemon mueringe (spelling ?) pie lol.

And I seem finally to have a date for my tokubetsu enshrinement ... May 1st ... good day really as it's also International Workers day and as I used to take the Morning Star and the guy enshrining used to be an SWP member, it's probably appropriate.

I can't even remember when I received the Tokubetsu but probably around October last year and I finally got the Butsudan (cabinet) for it last week and you can see the pictures below.

Ok ... that enough for now Simon ;-) ?