Eroticdreambattle

Jytte

poliphilo — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 10:21:27 GMT

So, I've done some digging and I find "J" is on Facebook and her first name is Jytte- which is pronounced You-tah- with the emphasis on the first syllable- so not unpronouncable at all, just daunting to the English eye.....

"J"

poliphilo — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 08:47:29 GMT

"J" is a regular attender. I call her "J" not just to conceal her identity but because it's what she asks us to call her. Her real name is Danish and- she maintains- unpronouncable . She is also a spirit medium and Spiritualist minister, who turns up sometimes wearing her dog collar. She's well-known in Denmark, maybe less so over here- where she now lives. I'd asked her to give us a talk and yesterday she did.

I was nervous because it would have been my fault if it had fallen flat, but I needn't have worried because she's used to standing on platforms- and did famously.

I know something about spiritualism and so does Ailz and so does Edna but I think the subject was new to everyone else. I'm always taken aback by how very few people care to look into the subject.....

Let's Not Fight.....

poliphilo — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 08:14:55 GMT

Quakers veer to the left and a Friend who admires right-wing demagogues like Rupert Lowe is an anomaly, but not so much of an anomaly that he wouldn't find supporters among the Friends if he made a point of broadcasting his views. There is a potential here for in-fighting and schism.

As a Quietist I think we should leave our political views at the Meeting House door, though I'm aware that this is also a political view.

Some people love conflict and thrive on it. I don't. Not any more.....

A Bit Wild

poliphilo — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 14:34:38 GMT

I cut the grass. Or, rather, I cut some of it. I like a garden to be a bit wild.....

Disclosure Day- As If......

poliphilo — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 08:05:44 GMT

Steven Spielberg is a member of the elite. He'll have been read into a lot of their secrets.

I think he feels a certain nostalgia for the days before he owned a yacht and that accounts for the sentimentality that oils his movies.

They are big machines that leak blood.

I gather there's no particular need to see his latest one, Disclosure Day. It has aliens in it but tells us very little about them. It's basically a tease....

His elite friends will have said, "OK, we sort of want to you to tell the little people this, but on no account must you tell them that...."

I think he'd like to tell us that- the way Stanley Kubrick did- but his elite pals have got him by the balls.....

It's A Pity

poliphilo — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:40:10 GMT

We have a Friend (Capital "F" meaning Quaker) who appears to be lapsing into strident Islamophobia. He quotes Rupert Lowe and Ant Middleton with approval. He is also very old and ill- and it's a pity....

It would be a matter for private grief if he weren't doing all he can do to propagate his views.

Who'd have thought we'd have to tell a fellow Quaker not to be such a fascist.

For those who don't know, Rupert Lowe is a 68 year old businessman and politician who used to be with Reform but has since formed his own party, somewhat to the right of Nigel Farage, because he wants to be The Leader. MAGA likes him and Elon Musk backs him.

And Ant Middleton is a former SAS man who gets into scrapes and has been threatening that all it'll take is for him and his mates to say the word and millions will rise up and there'll be Civil War in the UK.

We did our best to fight fascism yesterday by welcoming three women from the East Sussex Interfaith Group to our Meeting- one of whom was a Muslim. They wanted to find out what we're about. We talked to them, included them in our worship, gave them coffee and cake and a good time was had by all.

Second Childhood

poliphilo — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 06:38:55 GMT

I was watching raindrops race one another down the window pane. Sometimes they go fast, sometimes they dawdle and sometimes one of them will pause or hit obstacles so it's a real race. Unpredictable. You could place bets. Sometimes they run together and became one.

And then I remembered a poem by A.A. Milne on just this subject. I looked it up. It's called "At the Window" and it's in Now We Are Six- the second collection of Christopher Robin poems. The child in the poem follows the progress of two raindrops- one called James and the other called John. John is his favourite. John wins. Well I never, I don't believe I've thought of that for sixty years or more......

The Pit

poliphilo — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 06:09:05 GMT

I had slid back into looking at newspapers. I didn't let them get to me, only scanned the headlines to find what out what they wanted us to be obsessing about, but a slippery slope is a slippery slope and I've now dug my heels in to stop the descent and clawed my way out of the pit.

Untouchable

poliphilo — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:35:06 GMT

I dreamed the victims of Jimmy Savile were scattered across the landscape like broken dolls. I had to tell someone about this so I told a person who turned out to be..... Jimmy Savile.

How do you expose and take down an evil when the worst practitioners of it are the rulers of the world- politicians, influencers, billionaires, men of God- and they have corrupted and intimidated all the forces that might otherwise be marshalled against them?

Savile and Epstein were procurers to the elites. Diddy was another. In Belgium there was a man called Marc Dutroux who had girls banged up in his cellar. They weren't at the apex of the pyramid, those at the top are untouchable.

Prince Andrew? Pretty low-level, expendable. But notice how he is still protected....

YouTubers: For The Attention Of

poliphilo — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:37:48 GMT

"Terrifying", "Disturbing", Worse than we thought"- Sorry, chaps, but your revelations are none of these things. Yes, I want to know what's new in archaeology etc, but I'm an old bird and you can't tell me anything that's going to knock me off my perch. Sell, but don't oversell- and please stop appealing to the lowest emotions. Sometimes when scrolling down through your latest offerings I think, "I don't want to do this anymore".....

Also, there's good AI and there's crap AI- and if a vid is too obviously being narrated by a machine or is illustrated with bog standard AI images of the kind I've seen many times before it has to be very, very interesting to prevent me from clicking out.

Yet again, come to the point and don't string me along, because if you do I'll abandon you and find something to read on the subject- and that'll take me a couple of minutes and not the three quarters of an hour you're hoping to hold me for.

Now for something positive. I've been watching 30 year old episodes of Cadfael with Derek Jacobi- and I do love how you guys archive such things.

Sensitive

poliphilo — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:31:45 GMT

We have piles of sensitive documents that are now surplus to requirements but still sensitive- mostly generated by Ailz's trusteeships- and we're not allowed to burn things round here and our shredder is bust.

Do we really have to buy another shredder?

No, indeed not. The internet comes up with a great suggestion. Soak papers in a bucket of water until they turn to pulp. Squeeze into a ball, recycle.

Yes!

.

Combing Down His Yellow Hair

poliphilo — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 06:47:45 GMT

Here's a song you don't hear much any more- Bobby Shaftoe.

When I was a nipper we used to sing it in and out of school. Pretty little tune, easy to sing.

I came across a version on Youtube yesterday- performed by a couple of Geordies calling themselves Blaydon Aces. They were pictured on the banks of the Tyne with the Baltic Gallery in the the background. Sweet!

"Funny," says Ailz, "It's clearly a woman's song but it's always performed by men".

But it's also a sailor song. And your average 19th century sailor didn't suffer too much from gender anxiety. Besides, where would you find the women to do the singing on board a Tyne Collier?

One thing that always bothered me was the "silver buckles on his knee."

I thought that sounded painful. I mean, how were they attached? With staples perhaps? Poor Bobby.

I Wish

poliphilo — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 14:35:27 GMT

It's raining hard. The wind is blowing. The Met Office says expect gusts of up to 39mph.

In my childhood we used to take jig-saw puzzles with us on our seaside holidays so we'd have something to do on days like this.

I wish I had a jig-saw puzzle with me now.

Scammed

poliphilo — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 06:58:35 GMT

I got scammed yesterday. It's an occupational hazard for anyone who stands front of house in a place of worship. First comes the sob story and then- oh, by the way, could you lend me the money for the train fare to X? It's urgent and you're my last hope. Afterwards one notices the inconsistencies and improbabilities and kicks oneself, but in the heat of the moment one's sympathies override one's critical faculty. Ailz consoled me with the reflection that anyone who goes to the lengths these folk go to in their yarn spinning must really need the money- and could almost be said to have earned it. This one even had a confederate who backed up the initial phone call with another from (allegedly) the Isle of Wight.

I dreamed last night that we were being bombed by the Germans. The planes angled down one by one in broad daylight and dropped their bombs in a nearby street. There were big explosions.....

Addition And Subtraction

poliphilo — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 07:31:43 GMT

Life is a process of addition and subtraction. You lose one thing and gain another. You lose the freedom of youth and gain the security of family life- and so on. Of course it's never as clearcut as that. There are gains within losses and losses within gains- and, if you're being properly Zen about it- both gains and losses are illusory.

You think you've found peace in old age but things still keep occuring- and the only peace that you can count on is that which comes from within. Peace (on Earth, anyway) isn't about the absence of troubles and annoyances but how you deal with them when they arise.

As Kipling wrote (in a poem that's deeper than it seems)

"If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same......"

A Miscellany

poliphilo — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 09:39:16 GMT

We had planned for the Quakers to walk in this year's Pride Parade with our big new yellow banner stretched across the road, but no-one did anything much about it and the people who might have led the charge have left the Meeting and the parade's organisers have no record of our initial interest and the date is almost upon us- so it's not going to happen. Could we have mustered enough bodies, anyway? Probably not. There are two types of Quaker- the activists and the quietists- and I'm a quietist so was never going to be the one to rally support. I would have marched, though; I'd even bought myself a ridiculous hat (which was featured in a recent post.) I'm quiet, but not that quiet.

**********

"We're not set up for a comfortable retirement" says Ailz

I say "Ah".

"We don't have enough money for it," says Ailz.

I say "Ah" again.

"This is the Daily Mail talking," says Ailz.

I go "Ah" for the third time.

***********

When the wind whistles- as it's doing right now- I go back in thought to my grandparents' bungalow on the cliff at Rottingdean- not so very far along the coast from here- and time is telescoped- and the things that I remember happening there in my childhood could have happened yesterday....

Wide Screen

poliphilo — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 07:49:57 GMT

The big window in our bedroom that looks out across Eastbourne to the South Downs is one of the things that sold this house to me. I don't get bored with looking through it. The format is wide screen and things are always going on- things like birds, cats, occasionally foxes, bushes, trees, flowers, clouds, patches of sunlight and- at night- the lights of cars travelling the hidden roads or popping up suddenly on the crest of the hill alongside the arrangement of trees that looks at this distance like a little church with a squat square tower, Today we're promised rain- and I expect to spend some time sitting on my bed watching it fall.

Holy Books

poliphilo — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 06:54:42 GMT

They want to set up an learning/study group at the Meeting House. Great idea. I'm in favour of all such initiatives.

One suggestion is that the group should study Faith and Practice- the Bible-sized tome I think of as The Big Red Book- as distinguished from Advices and Queries which I think of as The Little Red Book.

I express approval.

"But you hate Faith and Practice" says Ailz who is sitting beside me.

"Well, yes, but...."

Jacob comes to my resue. "It's rather prescriptive." he says.

"Yes, exactly...."

"So do you have any favourite Quaker books we could look at..." he suggests. Ever so kindly.

I'm on the back foot now. Can I think of any? No I can't. "I don't read Quaker books," I say. And that's true. I don't.

"That's very odd," he says, still kindly (he's a psychotherapist).

"Yes," I agree. "It is odd......"

Had I been all bright and sparkly instead of tired and tongue-tied I might have said- turning a negative into a positive- "But it's one of the things I love about Quakers. that they're not a people of the Book."

Holy books are such a drag. They calcify past movements of the spirit, turning insight into law. I love the story of the newly appointed Zen abbot who was handed the monastery's greatest treasure- an irreplaceable manuscript book in which previous abbots had written their deepest thoughts- and threw it straight on the fire....

A Breath Of Sea Air

poliphilo — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 07:08:41 GMT

Eastbourne in summer smells of the Easbourne Sewage Treatment Works.

The Sewage Treatment Works is run by Southern Water- a private company. They have a long history of not doing their job very well. Josh Babarinde, our local MP, is reported in The Argus as wanting a law prohibiting the CEOs of companies that serve the public badly from awarding themselves bonuses. Yes, that would be nice, and I don't suppose any Eastbourne resident would disagree....

I'm told Venice smells rather similar- in fact probably worse. Ah, but there's a price to be paid for living in paradise!

The Treatment Works is modelled on the Napoleonic era forts that occur at regular intervals along the south east coast. It dates from 1997- and is not unattractive considered simply as architecture. I have seen it referred to as Castle Poo.

Dreamies

poliphilo — Sat, 30 May 2026 07:53:35 GMT

The cat has gone off his Dreamies (little dark brown biscuity thinga containing "real chicken") so I scatter them for the resident gull who hasn't. Resident gull is pecking away when a somewhat bigger gull descends from on high and there is squwaking and beakwork. Resident gull resorts to the pulling of tail feathers but then a third gull (the intruder's mate?) joins in and resident gull is chased away.

One shouldn't judge. One shouldn't take sides. This is just how gulls are.

The intruders clean up and leave. Resident gull returns. I scatter more Dreamies....

Loud

poliphilo — Fri, 29 May 2026 07:40:26 GMT

I got a compliment yesterday on the way I dress. I seem to remember the word "elegant" being used.

It's not one I'd use myself. "loud" perhaps, "shameless" maybe....

I wasn't always like this. For much of my life I dressed to blend in. I didn't exteriorise my non-conformity.

But now- what the hell!- I love colour.

Red braces, worn to be seen? Why not? This is who I am.....

Stick

poliphilo — Thu, 28 May 2026 07:10:47 GMT

I bought a stick with a polished knob on the end. (Tip shop, £3.00). The knob was integral to the stick and we were wondering how it came to be. A fellow shopper explained it to us. "That's formed from the root," he said."And what you've got there is a shillelagh."

When we got home I did some research myself. Shillelagh's are commonly made of blackthorn but don't have to be. There's a whole mystique around them but basically "shillelagh" is just the Irish for "stick". They're for walking with but can also be used for knocking people about.

My shillelagh is just what I need to help me climb Glastonbury Tor- which is something I mean to try to do at the end of June.....

More Of The Same

poliphilo — Wed, 27 May 2026 06:42:33 GMT

The heatwave continues. The company that manages our water supplies is asking us to conserve.

People were complaining about the heat at the Meeting on Sunday- no air conditiong in our 1940s building of course-and I had a flasback to going into an abandoned church in rural Kentucky- something of a Marie Celeste moment this- and seeing paper fans scattered about as if the congregation had been vaporised just moments before. "How about paper fans?" I said- and so we've bought some. They're sold as wedding accessories. Of course by next Sunday the temperatures will have stepped down (or so the forecasters say) with next week predicted to be cool and drizzly.

Heatwave

poliphilo — Tue, 26 May 2026 07:03:49 GMT

We're registering record temperatures for the UK in May. "Don't go out in the middday sun" says the Met Office. "Enjoy this foretaste of thing to come" say the believers in global warming.

As it cools off in the late afternoon I go and sit on the patio in the shade. The sky is a deep shade of blue and the resident gull arranges himself or herself against it, sitting like a gargoyle at the corner of the flat kitchen roof. We take cognisance of one another. High up, too high for me to be sure whether they're swallows or martins, birds of that sort are whizzing about- swoop flutter, flutter, swoop- chasing small insects. I wonder if anyone has ever clocked the mileage they must do. The moon, just a smidgeon past the halfway mark, is rising, becoming clearer, better defined as the sunlight weakens.....

Grant Allen

poliphilo — Mon, 25 May 2026 08:24:17 GMT

I'm reading An African Millionaire by Grant Allen- a picaresque novel in which a rapacious South African Diamond King gets scammed again and again (hooray!) by an ingenious con man. Grant Allen, who he? Well I'd never come across him before but a week or two back I happened upon a short story of his about a jewel robbery and it was funny, astute, wry- and very, very clever. His Scotland Yard detective says the criminal always turns out to be the least likely person and, by gum, that's exactly what happens. Had Agatha Christie read Grant Allen's stories? I bet she had, because I'm pretty damn sure that she- ahem- borrowed the twist in the tail of The Great Ruby Robbery for one of her most celebrated plots.

Grant Allen (1848-1899) was a Canadian scientist turned writer of fiction, well known in his day and a friend of H.G Wells and Conan Doyle. He was in at the birth of modern crime fiction and as inventive as any subsequent practitioner. Here he is; what a likeable face it is!