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Sixty Not Out!

Sixty Not Out is a cricket term, it refers in general to a person who is up at bat and has scored a certain amount of runs (In this case 60) and is still not out.

I am part of and to be specific, at the tail end of the generation known as the Baby Boomers, but I don't feel that the title and the box we are in really defines the age that I and my fellow 'Sixty Not Outers' really are.

I was born in 1955, ten years after the end of World War Two. Rationing had only stopped in 1953 in Great Britain. We grew up playing around the ruins of a country still trying to emerge from years of sustained attack and our parents were weathered and tired. We were the generation (along with others of course) who were given the task of rebuilding the country and between our Parents and Grandparents we did just that.

For me, I feel that I was part of a mixed generation caught up in a revolution of change. Our music and fashion defined us and our desire for something other that what our parents had drove us to search for something new. Half of my friends bought into the line of thinking that our parents had (Not a bad thing, I am not judging) They finished school, got a job and if lucky enough went to college (Not University, College). Then they got married, bought a house and had a family. The other half of us left school and were less focussed on those ideals. I joined the Army and served for eight years. When I left in1979 I went back to College but found out about a programme called Camp America and went and my lack of focus ended my first marriage. I remained in America for twenty fives years. I remarried and then remarried again. (No, I'm not bragging just recalling my journey) not so dissimilar to many of my kind.

I have been many things in my life, a Soldier, a Restaurant Manager, and an Actor and I work in the Entertainment Industry at present. At 38 I gave up a solid career as a Restaurant Manager and went back to Acting School and finally found that thing which stirred my soul (Much to my wife's bewilderment) Oh, and I have been married for 28 years and have three children (Possibly by best accomplishment)

The challenge as I see it though, is that as I reach retirement age I am nowhere near done. Unlike many of my Grandparents generation, who were physically and emotionally broken after a long life of working in mines and factories, I have not had to endure that. We have had better food, better education and better working environments. We are younger in mental years as well as physical and we don't want to stop, in fact in many ways we are only just beginning.

In the last ten years, I have taken up Triathlon, got a Masters Degree and written three Children's Books. I, along with my wife, bought our first house and we had our second child, I was 50 and my wife was 40. And what I find is that none of this is uncommon.

So if we are SIXTY NOT OUT! What's next?

What's next for you and what is stopping you from having your dreams turn out the way you wanted them?

Stevenage Talent Making An Impact On The Recording Scene

ROCK AT THE CASTLE in the Hertford Castle grounds, has become an annual event and it's the place to see and be seen. A great day combined with a lot of local Hertfordshire Talent made for a fantastic family day out. The grounds are dramatic and with the three stages that are now set up; the Main stage with the dramatic Castle backdrop, the intimate Garden Stage and the upbeat family friendly Island Stage sported a variety of music genres from Folk to Rock to Pop. Two musicians who stuck out for me are both from Stevenage. They both had a mix of original and covers and both had a distinct and engaging sound.

LEANNE BODY gave an intimate soulful performance as she quietly connected with the audience who's response was attentive and appreciative, a clear indication of Leanne's talent and personality.







Leanne Body on the Garden Stage at Rock At The Castle.


On the Island Stage Cara Beard had an immediate impact on her audience with a Fleetwood Mac cover as her warm up and then straight into a mix of originals and covers. Along the way she entertained with a strong mash up of several covers which she delivered seamlessly and energetically. Cara is an engaging performer with a warm personality and a strong connection with her audience. Get her autograph now because it will be really difficult when she is on the stage at Wembley or the O2!

Cara Beard with clip from her original song 'Burned'

You can check out Cara Beard at her Youtube channel

Cara:  https://www.youtube.com/user/Lovelyrics97

And Leanne's FB Page https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=leanne%20body%20music

Why Donald Trump is the 45th President and Great Britain has left the EU

The love of my life and best friend is an American, we have been married for 27 years and we have two children, one is American and one is English, I have a son who lives in America while we all live in England. We moved back in 2004 after living 25 years in America.

I don’t think any of us know quite what to say about the last year; my wife and I are trying to explain to our 9-year-old how a man with absolutely no credible qualifications, who has run a campaign for the last 18 months based of bigotry, racism, sexist comments and behaviour has become the next President of the United States and at the same time explain to my friends and family in America, how we could opt out of the European Community without any clear plan for the future.

I can only come to one conclusion; you, the Politicians have stopped listening and we the people have reached the end of our tolerance for your indifference to our needs. You think you listen but you don’t, you simply give us lip service then go about your business as usual. So a racist, bigot stands up and regurgitates the thoughts that so many people have asked, things like why does an illegal immigrant appear to get better treatment than someone who was born in the US, has served the US and been willing to die for the US, but now must declare bankruptcy in order to pay for the injuries sustained during a war he fought defending the freedom of the illegal immigrant. In Great Britain we ask, why does it appear that we are paying more and more to the EU and getting less and less in return. Why is it we appear to be losing control of our country? Then along comes our own version of Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, espousing the same homophobic, racist bigotry and sets the minds of so many thinking that he is listening to them by regurgitating those questions and tuning them into hate. Our Prime Minister put it to a national vote and the people, many of who are simply angry and tired after so many years of not being listened to, make their voice heard. We awake to find out that we have exited the EU with no clear strategy for the future, the United States wakes up to find that it has an unqualified reality TV star as the next president.

We and the good people of the United States don’t care though because at last we have had our say and we would rather be right that successful in both cases.

My suggestion is to all Politicians is that you listen, really listen to what the people want, after all you are only Managers not Dictators and you represent and fight for what the people want, not what you thing is best for them. In a day and age when the majority of people were uneducated and untraveled that might have worked, but the majority of us be we ever so humble are well travelled and well educated and it does not work anymore. Try something new. Listen. Really listen.

I did not vote to leave the EU and I would never in my life vote for Donald Trump, but I fully understand why people did both.

The Value Of A Life

I’ve been lately thinking about my life’s time, all the things I’ve done and how it’s been. And I can’t help believing in my own mind, I know I’m gonna hate to see it end.

                  Poems, Prayers and promises

                           John Denver

I have been thinking lately; about life and friends and family, about the things I have done and I how I arrived at the place in life that I am in and about the life I have ahead of me. One which I see as a full and happy life along a journey that I hope I will take with many of those friends and those of my family who mean so much to me.

I recently spent time with many of the family who over the years have come to be the most important people in my life. We spent time with those who we only see sometimes once in every couple of years due to the fact that we moved to England in 2004 and they all live in America. I spent time with my son and his family and with my wife and her family. My daughter Erin who is now a young woman but who will always be my little girl managed to pull off a small family reunion on a glorious day in the park, by the lake, a lake that has come to mean so much to me and one which holds wonderful memories from thirty years ago. My son is now reaching his 30^th year and there is talk of he and Katie starting family.

This wonderful time was sadly marked on the last day by the news of the death of a friend. A tragic and wasteful loss of life due to driving accident.

There are mileposts in our life that have a lasting impression for different reasons and this one is one of those. 

Dave was only 47 and, by todays standards barely into his life. I met him at The National Conservatory Of Dramatic Arts, in Washington DC more than twenty years ago along with several other people who have come to mean so much to me. Most of us have not seen each other in the same twenty years however they had a lasting impact on my life. I have kept in touch with a few, but not enough and time has moved on for all of us. We all started at this small Acting School in the basement of a Church (As many seem to be) with one thing in common; Dreams. We all had a Dream, some of Acting, some of Teaching, some of a life behind the Scenes, but we all had dreams.

Those dreams ended abruptly for Dave and it jarred the hearts of those who new him, friends and family who he left behind. There will be forever those things that were never said because we can say them the next time we see each other, questions about what we might achieve with a life, a gift that we have that we can do so much with, how we might affect other people and give them the inspiration to reach for their dreams and in turn they may go on to inspire yet others, sadly this life will never see out it’s full potential and others will live their life with many questions.

Our hearts went out to those in his family who will miss him the most.

While the world watches.

Look, I don’t know if what I write has any worth or if it will have an impact on anyone or inspire you, but I do know that it makes me feel good to try and make sense of the world and this is the way in which I do it.

At the moment we have just gone through one of the most life changing events in history, we have as a country for better or worse voted to leave the EU, something we have been part of for over forty years and, as such, we are now in unknown waters.

In the forty plus years since joining the EU which has taken on many forms and names, the world has changed significantly. Chances are that if you were alive you would have mixed emotions at Great Britain entering into a partnership with other countries in Europe, at least one of who wished for our demise only a few short years earlier. We didn’t have the internet and quite possibly only two TV Channels. You were lucky to have a phone in the house and superstores like Tesco and Asda had not even been thought of. The world was still a very innocent place for many of us. WWll was in the past Vietnam was something that Americans were involved in and not us, and Woodstock was something we wished we had all attended. Our leaders however wanted more and with that notion took us into the Common Market.

In forty years the world has changed beyond recognition. The internet is immediate and an intrusion at times, we walk around with a phone stuck to our hand at all times and there are 100s of TV channels (Still with little of value on them) There are at any given time a dozen wars going on and we have seen the horror of September 11^th and July 7^th There is not a day goes by when someone gets shot in America at the hand of a maniac in a country more committed to being right than successful about gun control. In one fell swoop we are no longer part of the EU, we no longer have a real leader of the country and most of the opposition party are jumping ship. In a time when we need leadership the most it’s a scarce commodity. We are being represented by leaders who look like buffoons and while the world waits to see what happens to us, I suggest that the leadership we desire might need to come from out of own sense of logic and our own moral compass.  

Already we have seen the signs of bigotry and blame, as though immigrants who work as dishwashers and bus drivers are stealing our jobs? Be real, I do not see a line of white British people lining up to take their places. 

While this may be a great opportunity for Great Britain it may also be a time of great challenge for many also. We must be thoughtful and patient, look, all this money, the £350 million we are supposed to get now that we don't need to pay it to the EU, I guarantee our Government will find a more creative way to use it. Once gone we will never get it back. I seem to remember that VAT was a stop gap solution andante in, well you know the rest.