***************************************************
    The Great Gordino Newsletter - Issue 356 - Mon 6th Mar 2006
    ***************************************************

    Archive Issues online at - gordonbryan.com/archive

    Hi There,

    I hope Monday finds you well.

    I was at the chemist last week, getting a new dose of my happy
    pills.
    As I waited for the prescription to be filled, I could hear the
    staff giggling and muttering about my name.
    'I'd hate to have name like that, with a first and second name
    both being first names'.
    I rolled my eyes to myself and continued to browse through the
    curious items you can get in chemists.
    Is it just me, or does every chemist have a huge display of the
    kind of flowery shower caps that you wouldn't be seen dead in
    under the age of about 80?

    'Is it Gordon Bryan or Bryan Gordon?' the assistant asked me.
    I was tempted to reel out my favourite-but-never-used response,
    'what the hell's it got to do with you, just give me my pills!',
    but I decided against it, as I'm not sure the aggressive style
    would fit the pink flowery shower cap I was putting back on the shelf.

    Mind you, the whole episode made me think of the Fame Game idea
    I had.
    I had the idea of changing my name by deed poll to The Great Gordino.
    This means that all my documents would have to be changed to the
    new name, and it would make me laugh to have random sales calls
    ringing me and asking to speak to Mr. Gordino.
    I discovered that the office to do this is only about an hour in
    the car, and they do a 1 hour express service for £24.
    It would certainly get the name around, and I can aways change
    it back, but I can just imagine what the staff in the chemist
    would make if my prescription said 'The Great Gordino.'

    Another of my ideas was to walk from Land's End to John O'Groats.
    They are the 2 points furthest apart in Britain, and the journey
    has long been thought of as an adventure.
    I could maybe even do it for charity.
    So, I searched online for site which might tell me more about it.
    The walk is around 1100 miles, and would probably take around 10 weeks.
    There were several websites which gave lists of things to take
    with you, and one of them had '2 pairs of underpants' on the list.
    2 pairs?
    For 10 weeks and 1100 miles of walking?
    That's got to be a major concern.
    Imagine if there was an incident or two and you needed more.
    Walking around the nearest department store in all your hiking
    gear, and then going to the counter with a mutli pack of underpants,
    now *that's* going to get you some looks, (especially if I then
    whip out a credit card with The Great Gordino on it.)
    Hmm, maybe I'll just drive it instead!

    I was watching a new TV series at the weekend, called Planet Earth.
    It's one of these sumptuous (ooh, good word) BBC nature efforts.
    The sheer scale of the planet is brought home by shows like these.
    The first episode concentrated on the effects the sun has on life,
    changing seasons, etc.
    It started with a mother polar bear coming out of hibernation, with
    2 little cubs.
    They were so cute, almost demanding a cuddle, but polar bear cubs
    are much the same as women, don't cuddle one unless you're happy to
    risk getting your guts ripped out in an instant...

    One lesson I always get reminded of with these programmes, apart from
    cuddling women, is that animals act on instinct.
    We can imagine all sorts of human behaviour in what they do, but it's
    worth remembering their instinctive reactions.
    They don't wonder what will happen if things go wrong, they don't have
    the internal voice putting doubts in their head.
    That's a uniquely human trait.

    Some species of animal can acheive huge feats to adjust to the cycle of
    the earth's passage around the sun.
    This is something we as humans could do well to remember, particularly
    when we allow that little negative voice in our head to stop us moving
    forward.

    Ok, that's it for today, I'm off curling on Wednesday, so I'll let you
    know how I get on.

    Have a good week.

    'Til Next Time,
    Health and Happiness,
    Gordon
    email me at gordon@gordonbryan.com - you'll have to copy and paste
    thanks to the idiot online spammers!



    
    Get my book here!


    

    Main Archive Page                 Newsletter Home Page