Judging by the complete silence following my last blog about the camel, it seems that it's not just best left to the imagination; it's best not to think about it at all. I don't blame you!

Ps this is my last blog before my ten day retreat.

What a way to go!

The poor woman died while the camel tried to have sex with her. I think the rest is best left to the imagination.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6954728.stm

I'm shortly going to go on a meditation retreat down south; it's a ten day silent one, where you don't talk to each other and you are not to leave the centre before the course has finished. Men and women are kept separated and even eat in separate areas, to minimise distractions. It's under the tradition of S N Goenka, and he does these retreats all over the world. I've done one of them before about 2 or 3 years ago, and I'll tell you they are an uphill climb, but well worth it at the end. I felt like I was floating on air, and the great feeling lasted for weeks afterwards.

I remember on the first full day of the retreat, we all had to get up at 430 am for the first meditation. I felt so ropy at getting up this early that I decided to go to the canteen to help myself to a cup of tea, only to find out that all the teabags and milk etc had been locked away! I thought this was cruel and unusual punishment. I guess it was to make us realise that there is more to life than just passing pleasures.

Eeeee, they don't make music like they used to when I was a lad, I often say. However I've rather taken to the Ketchup Song recently. They are singing in Spanish so don't know what it's actually about (probably something and nothing); but the song is catchy and they all seem to be having a good time in the video.

It's funny how the subconscious mind manifests itself in dreams. Ever since I bought my house about 12 years ago, I have had problems with leaks in a certain spot. It was leaking when I first bought the house, the water was coming in through where the Velux window is. The window was getting old anyway, so I decided to replace the whole window and flashings, and that seemed to solve the problem. Since then I have had minor leaks in the same sort of area. I have those sorts of roof tiles that are prone to slipping down a bit, letting water in, and the felt underneath is obviously faulty, but am very reluctant to spend a fortune having a roofer strip a large area of tiles to mend the felt. Your money is in their hands....

I didn't realise how much it was actually bothering me until the other night I had the most interesting dream: I dreamt that I woke up one morning to the sound of heavy work going on outside: hammering, banging, lifting equipment, scaffolding and so on. When I went out to investigate, I discovered that some workmen were putting a new roof on my house. I was a bit angry at first because I hadn't asked for it to be done; I asked one of the workmen what was going on, and he explained that due to global warming and the increased incidence of stormy weather, the government were paying for everyone to have new stronger roofs fitted. I was over the moon when I discovered it was for free. As you will understand, I was rather disappointed when I woke up!