Once Upon A Time

Author: Matt Heselden

Once upon a time there was a little boy with blonde hair who wanted to be a train driver when he grew up. When He discovered the love and the joy of reading he decided to be an author not a train driver. That little boy didn’t become an author but he continued to write from time to time. Usually, his writing went in the bin. Sometimes he would put it in a box and leave it to gather dust.

Swans

Sharon and Finlay Smith sat in the living room of their cramped Victorian terraced house. An old, large leather sofa dominated the room. A collection of faded photographs hung on one wall, the frames covered by years of dust. One photo in particular – Sharon’s favourite – showed her dancing as lead ballerina in Swan Lake. It was a reminder of a life that could have been but never was.

On the opposite wall a computer and large monitor sat on a cheap plywood desk . The screen glowed and the computer hummed like an electronic idol ready for worship. Finlay sat at the desk, slouching over the key board, his face almost touching the glowing monitor screen.

Cigarette smoke hung in the air blue and thick.

Sharon sat on the sofa, watching a wildlife documentary on television. “I can’t believe that about swans.”

“What’s that?” Finlay asked.

“Swans Fin. The documentary on the tele?” She stubbed out a cigarette and immediately lit another.

“What about them?”

“They mate for life. They’re monogamous and never leave each other. Until death do ‘em part.”

The computer monitor lit up briefly as Finlay battled a computer generated wizard. “Yep, I guess they have it pretty much perfect.”

“Lucky them,” Sharon said under her breath.

Finlay picked up the keyboard and slammed it on the desk. “Shit it all! Fuck it to high heaven!”

Sharon didn’t respond. She continued to watch the television like she hadn’t even noticed. Whenever her husband failed to beat the aliens or the dragon or whatever stupid game thing it was that week, he reacted as if it were real. She could never understand that.

On the television, two swans started to mate.

“Do you think they’re together all the time, Fin? Or do you think they like to have time apart? Perhaps they need ‘me time’”

“The swans? Dunno.”

“Probably not,” said Sharon.

“I need to kill Lord Obscuro to complete this level; fucker.”

“If they mate for life they must be pretty sure about each other. Soul mates probably.”

“What’s all this talk of swans for?”

“It’s on TV.” Sharon waved her hand at the screen, causing ash to fall from the cigarette.

Finlay sighed.

“Swans might mate for life but humans have more intelligence. We don’t need shackles. We’ve got other needs. Other wants. It’s just the way it is.”

“Like computer games, Fin?”

Unusually, Finlay took time to consider his answer. “Yeah, we all need a bit of space, a bit of time now and again. You know; a change.”

Sharon tried to swallow but her throat was dry. “So if one swan wants out, what does it do? What if there’s a better gig elsewhere? It might leave then.”

“Maybe you right.”

Sharon fixed her eyes on the television screen. “They say if one dies, the other dies of heart-break soon after. You know that?”

Finlay sighed heavily. “Yeah, that’s what they say.”

What Do You EU Do For Me?

Author: Matt Heselden

Over the past two weeks we’ve seen hints of a referendum on EU membership from UK Chancellor George Osborne. Tabloid headlines such as “We must stop Germany now” and a ‘crusade’ spearheaded by The Daily Express to get the UK out of the EU suggest the majority of British voters would choose to leave the EU. The British public, however, has little understanding of the European Union, the way it works and benefits of membership. Any vote on membership would be motivated more by prejudice and fear than a well-informed decision. That is hardly a fair vote.

So, what are the practical benefits of EU membership? Forget the ideals I wrote about in my opinion piece earlier this year. What does Britain’s EU membership do for me?

Freedom of movement
Every EU citizen has the right to live and work in another member state. Freedom of movement features in the 1957 Treaty of Rome and since then the law has been changed to reflect the needs of the EU. For example, the right for retirees and students to live in another member state became law in 1990.

This means that any British citizen can live in Lille, study in Stockholm or retire to Marbella. This is particularly pertinent to me as my partner is a Portuguese national. As a European Union citizen he has the right to live and work in the UK, access healthcare, has the right to vote in local (but not national) elections and still retain his nationality. That same right of freedom of movement allows my Danish cousin to live in Sweden but work in Copenhagen and gives two of my British friends the possibility of living permanently in Berlin.

UK tourism
For many communities in the UK tourism is vital to the local economy. In December 2011, Worthing Council announced it had been awarded £170,000 from the EU funded 2 Seas programme. This programme, which is called 2 Mers in French and 2 Zeeën in Dutch, is designed to help businesses in Kent (UK), east and west Flanders (Belgium), the southwest Netherlands and Nord-Pad de Calais (France). The money awarded to Worthing Council was used as part of a larger fund to create new children’s play facilities and to offer training to local businesses (in marketing and use of technology, for example). The fund also helped “develop a new range of marketing materials…” promoting “Worthing as an attractive destination…throughout Europe.”

Reduced mobile roaming charges
The UK’s EU membership means cheaper call and data charges while you’re having that long weekend in Paris or that summer holiday in Italy. From 1st July 2012 new laws will come into force across all EU member states which means making a call will cost no more than 29 cents a minute and receiving a call will cost 8 cents a minute. Data, still overpriced, will cost 70 cents per MB. By 2014 this cost will be no more than 20 cents per MB. These laws were recently signed by European Parliament President Martin Schulz.

Consular Assistance
As a British and EU citizen you have the right to seek assistance from the embassy or consulate of another EU member state if you are in a non EU country that doesn’t have a British diplomatic consulate. This assistance will be given to you under the same terms as it’s given to nationals of that particular EU member state. For example, the UK has withdrawn all diplomatic personnel from Mali but diplomatic personnel from Denmark, Germany, France and Spain still remain. If needed, you could seek assistance from any of these countries embassies or consulates. This is a very useful but unpublicised benefit of being in the EU. More information can be found on the European Commission website.

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
In simple terms the ERDF is a pot of money funded by and awarded to member states to reduce economic disparity in local communities. It’s designed to fund projects that help “employment, small and medium-sized enterprises, innovation, high-tech business investment” and assist with other priorities in local areas. In England alone over €8.2bn of funding will have been given to local projects by 2013.

Funding from the ERDF was awarded to The Tower Hamlets Women’s Enterprise project, which offered business design support for business run by women living in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Between January 2005 and March 2007 the project received € 278,235 from the European Union.

Conclusion
From regeneration of council estates to training for local business owners, EU membership has many benefits that touch the daily lives of British citizens but are not known to them. If British citizens are to given a choice on EU membership, we should also be given the facts – good and bad – to make an informed choice.

Healthy Comfort Food

Author: Matt Heselden

A warm March gave way to a wet April and it’s reported May will be an unseasonably cold month. I turn to comfort food when the days are cold and wet. Cooking is a cathartic process for me and I love being in a warm, steamy kitchen when thunderclouds are looming or hail is falling. Making comfort food is always a good mood lifter but isn’t always as good for health or general well-being.

Foods such as bread and other wheat/grain products, potatoes and rice have a high glycemic index, which means the body stores the energy from these foods as fat. I find that eating large amounts of such foods makes me sluggish. This was true at the end of 2011 when Christmas indulgence had left me with a pot belly and feeling generally tired and unwell.  I decided it was time to increase my overall well being, lose some fat and obtain a little more lean muscle mass.

In my quest to cut out these refined foods I looked at the fashionable paleo diet and what elements of it I could use to achieve my goals.  The paleo diet works on the fact that modern humans haven’t evolved much in 10,000 years and that we should still be eating like our Palaeolithic cave dwelling ancestors did.  It’s reported to be the only diet that works with your genetics to decrease fat and increase lean muscle mass. A true paleo diet will also eliminate vegetable oils, legumes and dairy products as well as grains and associated refined products.  Such a strict diet won’t work for me so I decided to do the following instead:

1. Cut out all bread, rice, pasta, refined sugar, cereals (except oats) and potatoes (except sweet potatoes).
2. Increase the amount of lean meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
3. Reduce my consumption of alcohol but cut out beer altogether
4. Exercise regularly with a particular emphasis on gaining muscle mass and losing fat.
5. Treat myself. Enjoy a pizza or curry now and again and don’t worry about breaking the rules occasionally.

It’s a pretty easy strategy that has worked so far and the paleo diet doesn’t need a lot of planning or preparation. Remember, this isn’t a ‘no carbs’ diet. The carbohydrates come from all the fruits and vegetables in the diet.

Try uncooked porridge (with fruit and nuts) for breakfast and substitute milk for a little pressed apple juice. Pret a Manager offers the ‘no bread’ sandwich, which is ideal for a paleo lunch on the go.

So, how do you make comfort food that doesn’t have include refined carbohydrates and almost conforms to the paleo way of eating? My Chilly May Chilli is one example obtaining optimum nutrition without compromising on taste. The recipe substitutes rice for sweet potato but that can be substituted with a large green side salad. You can find my Chilly May Chilli recipe here.

In just over four months I lost around two kilos, changed the ratio of fat to lean muscle in my body and I have a better sense of well being.

The paleo diet is probably the only diet that will help you achieve weight loss and/or muscle mass whilst given you optimum nutrition. It should be stated that I also increased the amount of exercise I do, which is also a factor in losing weight and gaining muscle mass.

In its simplest form the diet encourages you to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, seeds and lean protein sources. Simply increasing the intake of fresh fruit and veg and cutting down on foods such pizza, pasta, rice and dairy is easy and is beneficial to everyone.

European Union Citizen

Author: Matt Heselden

If the idea of EU citizenship was promoted more at a local (member state) level would we see an increase in pro-EU sentiment? Should member state governments do more to make their electorate pro-EU?

I consider myself a Londoner, English and a European Union Citizen but I don’t really think of myself as British or a citizen of the United Kingdom. Is this hybrid of highly local and pan European self-identification normal? How do other EU nationals identify? I’m probably in a minority. I am, after all, the sort of person who thinks catching the train from London to Paris to meet a friend just for lunch or flying to Brazil for the weekend is perfectly normal.

The way I identify nationally has evolved over time and because of a number of factors. The most influential factors for me are making friends and building relationships with people from other EU member states.  In addition, while I identify with being English I don’t particularly identify with the political entity that is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I wonder if this is true for someone from Wales, for example. Does someone living in the Basque region of Spain consider themselves a Basque EU citizen rather than Basque and Spanish?

In a document titled EU Citizenship and the Market published by  the European Institute at UCL Jonathan Scheele writes “EU citizenship is in fact a rather different concept from classical national citizenship” and that it “especially relevant to those who make use of the Treaty provisions on the four freedoms to work across borders”. In the same document Dora Kostakopoulou states: “Peace and freedom are the underpinnings of our European identity made possible by the development and maturation of the European Union, including its unique model of citizenship…”

For me EU citizenship isn’t just a legal framework that includes free movement or access to another member state’s consulate in a non-EU country. It is also a state of mind, idealism and a willingness to find common ground while acknowledging difference.

Make Workplace Meetings More Productive

Author: Matt Heselden

I attend around three meetings during an average working week. These meeting are all necessary but are not always run efficiently. The result is usually meetings that overrun, mental fatigue or irritation among attendees and lack of productivity. Not all my meetings are like this but during my career I’ve attended many that were.

Meetings should be an efficient exchange of information with resulting actions if appropriate. In his blog post, Mark Horton quotes Microsoft, stating “employees globally spend an average of 5.6 hours a week in meetings” and that “69 percent of participants feel that these meetings are unproductive and unnecessary.” So what can be done about this global problem?

Regular departmental meetings, small working groups, project group meetings or brain storming sessions may benefit from a change of format. ‘Stand up’ meetings are becoming more popular in business and may be the cure to unproductive meetings. Attendees are required to stand not sit and this type of meeting is reported to increase productivity, reduce the duration of meetings and prevent the mental drain and lack of focus amongst of attendees.

Practical tips to get your meeting on track:

1. Create an agenda ahead of the meeting and stick to it – do not deviate.
2. If you Chair the meeting you are in charge regardless of your status in the company hierarchy.
3. As the Chair you must facilitate dialogue and keep to timings. If other issues arise give or take an action to discuss at suitable time and place.
4. Regular meeting such as a weekly departmental may not need an agenda if all participants are familiar with the format of the meeting and know what is expected of them.
5. Keep meetings formal but personal. Every attendee counts and should have a chance to contribute to the discussion.
6. If you manage a team and Chair your regular departmental meeting try changing the venue of your meeting. Taking your team to a local coffee-house or treating them to a working lunch once in a while will make them feel appreciated which can lead to better working relationships and increased productivity.

Meetings are a necessary part of business but conducted in the right format needn’t be the bane of your working week.

A Cure for Writer’s Block?

Author: Matt Heselden

In my last post I wrote about authors who inspire me. In this post, I talk about writer’s block and how I’m trying to overcome it.

Bloggers, authors, copy writers (and even people who tweet) all fall foul of writers block. In fact, anyone that has to write for business or pleasure will – at some point – be stuck for words.

Today I am one of these people. (The irony of writer’s block inspiring me to write this blog post is not lost on me.) I think the only effective way to break through writer’s block is to write. It’s a simple as that. Let the words come out and hopefully that drip of creativity will turn into a trickle which will in turn become a flow. Put the words on the page and try not to think too much about what you’re writing.  It’s a first draft – no, first hash – of your finished piece so allow the words to come to the page as they are. One of the best things about writing is you can always edit later. You should allow the creativity to flow and then read what you’ve written with an appraising eye.

I started this blog for personal and professional reasons and thought that by my third post I would be in full swing, in the zone and my creative juices would be flowing. But I’m not because I have writers block. Today I’m thankful.

While deciding on topics to write about I remembered an old blog I created in 2009 called 51 Degrees. The purpose of this blog was to allow me to write in a work of fiction but based on true life events and in the first person. The blog is aimed at a predominantly gay adult audience and generally set in London. I’m still unaware of blogs that focus on life in Soho. There’s so much going in this tiny area of London, I think it should be documented in some way. If you know of any good Soho-based blogs, let me know.

Writing a serialised novel in blog format is called bloving and according to Urban Dictionary a blovel is “a novel created based on the contents of a blog” and was “coined by blogger Ana Marie Cox.”  These types of blogs are also called ficlogs which is short for fictional log. There’s a nice blog post about ficlogs and blovels at booksarecool.com, which gives a suggested reading list of good ones.

I already said the best cure to writer’s block is actually writing. So, when I’m feeling uninspired and have writer’s block, I’m going to use my 51 Degrees ficlog as the cure. I plan to revisit those old, dusty blog posts, re-edit them – or create new posts based on them – and post here. It will be my own, personal cure to writer’s block. When you come across a 51 Degrees ficlog post, you’ll know that I’ve been taking my writer’s block medicine.

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it via your social networks. Thank you!

You can visit the original 51 Degrees blog or read an excerpt from of one of the posts ‘Bear Bowling Part 1: Kath, Kim and Badboy_4u Too…‘ below.

The message box pinged.

Badboy_4u: hi mate. you look well nice.

 I was logged on to a well-known gay dating website that Owen had set-up a few years back. It’s one of his many internet business ventures that have earned him enough money to live in the style to which he is accustomed. The popularity of the site seems to be increasing and there are now members all over the world. What’s that song, The Internet’s for Porn?

Read more at 51 Degrees.

A Review of Book Love

Author: Matt Heselden

Inspired by the coverage media coverage Charles Dickens’ 200^th birthday, I thought about my favourite authors and how they could both be described as a Dickens of their respective genres.

I thank my mother for introducing me to reading, for encouraging me to read books and to actually enjoy reading. That love encouraged me to write stories while at school and create three un-finished manuscripts of my own. These manuscripts will never see the light of day – I wrote them for enjoyment and often when I was experiencing stress. I discovered early on in life that writing can be very cathartic.

The love of writing came from my love of reading and there are only a few authors whose books I’ll read more than once. Of those, there are a only small number that have made an impact on my life.

Originally featured as a serial in the Pacific Sun and later the San Francisco Chronicle, Amistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series offers insights into 1970′s San Francisco and the residents of that city. The characters are instantly loveable and the sort of people you might find in real life. For me, Michael ‘Mouse’ Tolliver along with Mrs. Madrigal personify 70′s San Francisco perfectly. I read the first volume in the series while on a United flight from London to San Francisco. It was my first holiday without my parents and the first time I’d been outside Europe. I was 18 years old.

I now associate that book with adventure and travel and burgeoning sexuality. I re-visited San Francisco last year – 12 years after my original visit – and had the same copy of the book with me on the plane.

I’m a fan of fluffy, magic-like science fiction. My love of the genre started in the early 90s watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on VHS tapes, not from reading. The technology inspired me and I was captivated by the drama. I liked the fact the human race had grown-up and chilled out. In the 24^th century humans are a bit more evolved and have managed to look beyond prejudice and greed. For an 11 year-old coming to terms with his sexuality, the tolerant Star Trek universe seemed like a Utopia. Watching Star Trek also inspired me to read lots of science fiction.

Alastair Reynolds has gained critical acclaim with his hard sci-fi stories. If Maupin is the modern Dickens of San Francisco, Reynolds is the Dickens of the future universe.  He creates likeable (and often unlikeable), engaging characters which have human traits I can relate to. He skilfully creates drama and action while keeping the sci-fi plausible, underpinning it with current science fact. You won’t find warp drive or Shakespearian quoting French captains but wormholes, orbital habitats, bird-like aliens and copies of early twentieth century Earth have all featured in Reynolds’ books.

Century Rain features a futuristic main Character called Verity Auger who finds herself living in a slightly altered copy of early twentieth century Europe. Auger is a very real person; she’s brilliant but fallible. She is a loving but often distant mother and divorced. Reynolds describes Paris and Berlin brilliantly, using real life points of intrest to set the scene. I’ve read Century Rain many times and packing it when I go to Paris has become a ritual.

What both authors and books share are well-imagined characters, people who strike a chord with me in some way. Reynolds and Maupin also offer descriptive, colourful backdrops where their characters exist. Maupin is a San Francisco resident and when I read his books I feel like I’m walking the streets of his city with him. Reynolds offers grand, alien worlds but he does so by grounding his universe with real science, which makes it feel more very real.

Both the Tales of the City and Century Rain are ultimately about the journey. I associate both books with travel – physical, emotional and spiritual. They both offer escapism from
the humdrum of daily life and inspire me to better myself, to keep travelling the road and to change. For that, I’m truly thankful.

Reynolds’ book Blue Remembered Earth has recently been released and Maupin has announced he is working on his new book The Days of Anna Madrigal.