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Systematic desensitization is gradual exposure to feared objects or situations. The goal of Systematic Desensitization is to overcome the avoidance pattern by gradually exposing patients to the phobic object until it can be tolerated. This will be challenging for the patient at first to deal with the fear, but gradually, most will overcome this fear. Meet my friend, Patient X, hill walker and country man supreme, fearless traveller of the high fells and mountains. A man who never shrinks from a challenge, no river to deep, no mountain to high (queue for a song), but, put a cow in the field by the path and it’s a whole new ball game, then like superman in the presents of Kryptonite, he becomes a mere mortal. But not any more, this Sunday his wonderful girlfriend (partner, other ½, significant other, +1, etcetera etcetera) as a TREAT! Arranged for a visit to a local dairy farm, you known a large flat grassy place with cows, 100s and 100s of them, just so he could try a bit of Systematic ...

I usually struggle to find things to write about, but today I have more of a problem with what not to use. I have always been fascinated by war, not uncommon for a boy whose toys were mostly solders or guns and who read war stories or watched war film for entertainment. As I have got older I came to see both the horror and the glory of war, old soldiers will tell you there is no glory in war, but how else can you describe the examples of courage and selflessness displayed by individual soldiers and units on all side and in all conflicts. Over the years I have read 100s of first hand accounts of combat from all the major wars of the last century, and in amidst the horror and death there are always moments of bravery and humour as mans sprit tries to offset all the negatives that surround him. War in all its forms is a failure of reason and shows us at our worst, but in war we can also find our best, the freedoms we now have and hold so cheaply, are soaked in the blood of our fallen. As ...

Monday, again. I’m sure this day comes up more than once a week, time just seems to be rushing by, I now have less than 100 posts till the end of this project and it only seems like I’ve been doing this for a few weeks. Yesterdays post was in honour of Remembrance Sunday and all our war dead, for those of you that may not known here in the UK we honour our fallen on the Sunday closest to the 11th of November, the anniversary of the end of the First World War, and this year I have never seen so many people wearing poppies, the symbol of remembrance, I suppose its one positive of fighting two wars at the same time, people remember all those that have gone before. The photo from yesterday is a close up shot of the airborne forces war memorial at Tatton Park, it right on the edge of the old drop zone that was used to train the bulk of our paratroopers during the Second World War. ---------------- Now playing: The Bangles - Eternal Flame via FoxyTunes

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them. ---------------- Now playing: Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms via FoxyTunes

On the news last night they were going on about how the banks had given in to public pressure and followed the bank of England in dropping their rates. At first glances this seems a reasonable statement, but in reality it’s the media putting a spin on the news to make them seem more important. Let’s look at it again, but in detail. The banks have changed their rates in around 10 working hours of the bank of England making one of the most startling rate changes in history. As it takes days to gauge public opinion from surveys, polls and focus groups, the public pressure they referred to must have been that reported in the media. So the public pressure is the handful of people chosen by the news companies to reflect their slant on the story and in a kind of self for filling prophesise the banks have now changed their rates and the news companies can point to their public pressure as the cause. If it was not for the media in the first place most of the damage done to the world economy wou...

Very little to say today, pressure of work taken it out of me. So I will point you towards a couple of posts on two blogs I’ve come across, I found them great for lifting up my spirts. The first is Fresh as a Daisy , just read the post and the pop back to catch the bit you missed. The second is a video posted on Hattie Hattie , watch the original one to see what a good job they have done. Photo today frost covered Bull rushes. ---------------- Now playing: k.d. lang - Constant Craving via FoxyTunes

So when will America take the next big step and elect a woman president? I’m just old enough to remember when we (well the adults) voted in Maggie, the shock and horror of it. For most of her time in office she was hated, or so it seemed in the press, but when the country need a strong leader she fitted the bill perfectly. In fact the comment at the time was that she had more balls than any man in her cabinet. When you think about a country is more like a household than a business, mostly because in a company there are standards of behaviour, people while not being nice to one another are mostly civil, while in a family there is no code of conduct and anything goes. Most families I know are run (and run well) by women, mostly without their husbands knowing this is the case (for my male friends reading this, not yours obviously). Give a woman a country and there’s no knowing what she might achieve. Today’s photo is from the show on Saturday, I call it “The wait”, I wanted to use this fo...