Book One
An Open Book: My Story, My “little” Life
Also now available in paperback at http://www.amazon.com/Open-Book-little-Normal-Anyway/dp/1494903938
Many people over the years have said I should write a book about my journey, my ‘little’ life
… so here’s one (of three)!
“Be bold and unseen forces come to one’s aid.”
“If you don’t risk everything, you risk even more.”
– Erica Jong in her book ‘Fear of Flying’
from Here, There and Everywhere 
http://www.amazon.com/Here-There-Everywhere-Craig-Lock-ebook/dp/B005GVDCLM
“I’m gonna write till I drop!”
For a bit of “wacky” humour click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogPZ5CY9KoM
Monty Python on novel writing
“Watching children grow
is like threatening the ivy
to climb the garden wall.
You wait for it to happen
you hurry it along with love.
But still you’re disappointed
at giving someone life enough
to walk off on your own
and not be carried in your arms.
You never turn your back – not once,
and yet one day they’ve grown apart
or taller.
It’s all the same.
Polly put the kettle on, we’ll all have tea.
Giving love to children
has made us older overnight.
– Rod McKune
Dedicated to my dear family. “I love you in the very special way that I’ve written about in these pages.”
DIARY OF A ROLLING STONE
and HOW I HAVE JUST THROWN A DOUBLE SIX TO START A NEW STABLE LIFE.
I don’t know why “the hell” I am writing this story of my life; because probably nobody will believe it, but my friends (who are a motley collection of out of the ordinary crazy individuals, as opposed to my dear wife’s rather “straight-laced” friends) have suggested that this account of my life could be a hilarious best seller. We shall see (“dream on, sonny boy”!
*
I am writing these first words on a Jumbo jet bound for New Zealand… and who knows what! I am a 39 year old male, who has been working in Cape Town as the Life Manager of a dynamic insurance brokerage, marking time to join my wife, Marie and twin sons, Gareth and Sean in New Zealand. They have gone there 6 weeks ago on our second immigration to NZ (4th actually in 4 years…so we have had plenty of practice runs). We are going there for a dull stable life of bottling jams, pickling bums, er sorry buns and especially picking noses and endless cups of tea (as my dear mother says, all Kiwis do that – pick their noses, except for “straight” Round Tablers and Rotarians, who don’t do it at functions!). So I guess I’ll have to learn how to pick my nose to be accepted In “Godzone”*. Please excuse my dear “crazy” wife (must have got the “bug” from your author, but indeed she has a heart of gold.
RIP our chaotic crazy existence so far.
* little joke interlude
Question: “Do you pick your nose?”
Answer: “If I were you, I would have picked a better one!”
*
I think that I have always been a bit different to the “normal run of the mill sort of person”; so let’s start at the beginning and maybe we can understand why my life has been waylaid (and I have been laid) by many tributaries off the beaten track.
I am now starting this account of my life on an aeroplane heading for the other side of the planet: the idyllic South Pacific islands of New Zealand to rejoin my family there and a new future. What will happen to me and my family there? We shall see…
October 1989…high up in the sky
*
As my dear mother once said, “I’ve been riding the rapids of life in all my years”; so now its rather nice to be becalmed here in these calm waters. Yes, here in the haven and at the same time, the harbour of “Sleepy Hollow”, we are sheltered from the storms of life. And this is the reason why I have been able to write so prolifically. Something that I like very much and a craft that gives me great satisfaction.
*
Though I don’t know why the story of my “insignificant little life” should be so interesting as to have written a book about it. However, my dear wife, Marie said that it may be fascinating and inspirational to others! She also said it might HELP other people having a battle in the “game of life”.
I really don’t know about all that. I think I’m really quite an “ordinary bloke”. Anyway, whatever the “boss” says, gets done. So here is my “little” story, true “ekse”…
Table of Contents
DIARY OF A ROLLING STONE
DEDICATION:
INTRODUCTION:
SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS:
NEXT THING and THE BIG QUESTION: WHAT TO DO WITH
MY LIFE?
THE MIDDLE YEARS EARNING A LIVING AND THE FIRST
STIRRINGS OF MY POLITICAL CONSCIENCE
THE GREATEST EVENT OF MY LIFE and
FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES
Also THE BIRTH OF MY
POLITICISATION
“MY POLITICAL AWAKENING”
CHAPTER: THE WRITER IS BORN.
FROM MY PERSPECTIVE.
SCAM – “A PACK FULL OF LIES”
THE FINAL WORD:
APPENDICES (is that the right word?)
The various books* that Craig “felt inspired to write” (including An Open Book and Here, There and Everywhere in e-book format as well as paperback are available at:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005GGMAW4 and http://goo.gl/vTpjk
All proceeds go to needy and underprivileged children –
MINE!
Don’t worry about the world ending today…
it’s already tomorrow in “little scenic and tranquil” New Zealand
BooKs by cRaig loCk 
Reblogged this on Golden Dawn: Beyond the Miracle.
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Thanks for the follow/link/like/reblog and/or kind thought(s)
(but if you are following me, my friends say it would be far more entertaining with a video-camera*!)
* By the way, do they still make them in today’s ever-faster changing world..or is it all done with mobile phones?
“total non-techno” c (who doesn’t possess a mobile phone, after a rather eventful’ experience some years back, whilst trying to walk and talk at the same time )
Men…Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em!
craig
Thanks for the follow/link/like/reblog/comment and/or kind thought(s))
Hi
CAN’T KEEP UP…BUT THANKS FOR THE “THANX”
I’ve had many many hundreds of thousands of comments on my various other WordPress blogs at https://craigsblogs.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/craigs-list-of-blogs-updated-sept-2011/
in recent years …true!) …a few of my blogs went “balistically viral” a few years back.
Obsessive or WHAT! Am really pleased you are enjoying my writings, as the reason I write is to share. However I am unable to keep up with the comments and was spending entire days just on replies on my various blog pages.
Though I’m rather “driven”, I still get really, really fatigued (there’s a few books there). so sorry can’t reply individually to all you good people scattered around the planet, but DO try to read as many as possible daily (and even moderate a few when I get a “mo”), I got swamped with comments on my various blogs, so have had to close them off on all of my blogs, except for one or two of particular interest to me – sorry and hope you can understand.
* “Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
~ Franz Kafka
I do really appreciate your liking, linking to and/or following this blog (and “writing in”), so “thanks for the thanx”
“As we live and move and have our being, so from this vision, we create heaven in our own lives… and perhaps even heaven on earth.”
– craig (as inspired by Acts 17:28 and the words of Felicia Searcy)
“Aim at the earth and you may not get off the ground.a
“Aim at the stars and you may reach the moon.”
“Aim at heaven and you’ll have earth thrown in…
and you may even hit the stars.”
– craig (as inspired by the famous quote by CS Lewis – 24th May 2012)
“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
When (or if ever) you arrive in heaven, let faith, hope and love be the wings that carried you there.”
– as adapted from the inspiring words of Jonathan Edwards, former minister in New England, Massachusetts
“The Greatest Race: Living by (with) faith, hope and love is the highest podium any person can reach, God’s podium that anyone stand on.”
– c
“Having pursued the goals, the dreams set before us and run the race with persistence and endurance, after giving it all. Then one day standing on the summit of life, breathing in the pure sweet oxygen of achievement, totally satisfied in running the greatest race, the race of life one that ANYONE can run and win.”
from http://racetothechequeredflag.wordpress.com/
and http://www.godandformula1.wordpress.com
“If a man is called to be a street-sweeper,
he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted,
or Beethoven composed music, or
Shakespeare wrote poetry.
He should sweep streets so well
that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say,
here lived a great street sweeper
who did his job well.”
– Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.
PPS
Instead of trying to reply to each one of you, I’ll just keep on writing
“If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I’d type a little faster.”
The various books* that Craig “felt inspired to write” are available at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005GGMAW4
http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B005GGMAW4
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=la_B005GGMAW4_sr?rh=i%3Abooks&field-author=Craig+Lock
https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=%22craig+lock%22&sitesearch_type=STORE
http://www.creativekiwis.com/index.php/books
and http://goo.gl/vTpjk
All proceeds go to needy and underprivileged children –
MINE!
“When the writer is no more , the value of your purchase will soar! ”
Don’t worry about the world ending today…
as it’s already tomorrow in scenic and tranquil ‘little’ New Zealand
PPS
“I wish you well on a rainy day
I wish you rainbows to brighten your day
To feel your quiet moments with a special kind of warmth
to remind you that happiness can happen
when you least expect it.
I wish you rainbows to make you laugh and smile
to show you the simple beauty of life
and to give you the magic of dreams come true.
I wish you rainbows
I wish you well.”
– Larry S. Chengges
”Since I can never see your face,
And never shake you by the hand,
I send my soul through time and space
To greet you. You will understand.”
– James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915)
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