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| Me |
I suppose that its possible there are a horde of brand new friends out there waiting to say hi and make my life even more wonderful, who've never heard of me or this blog, so I thought I'd give a little resume of what the Barnet Eye is and who I (Rog T/Roger Tichborne) is.
The Barnet Eye
It is a blog I started by accident in May 2008, which has gone on to have nearly 4.5 million hits (last time I looked). It originally started as a blog on the Barnet Times, until the then Conservative administration at Barnet Council of Mike Freer and co threatened to pull council advertising unless they booted me out. I originally intended to blog about local music, but one of my early blogs upset them and a battle between myself and the local Tory ensued. In October 2008, my Barnet Times blog was shut down after the editor Phil Crowther gave in to pressure. The local Tory bigwigs went out to celebrate the "end of my blogging career". That went well!
Oddly, my biggest supporters were local Tories who had fallen out with Freer. They encouraged me to continue on Blogger. I did. I assumed that without the Barnet Times backing, no one would read it. However the opposite was true. Not only that, a whole host of other Barnet blogs started, inspired by this blog. We became known as The Famous Five. I was made a Guardian Top London blogger and contributed articles to the paper about mismanagement and outsourcing in local government. In 2011, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and decided to start a cancer blog. This has attracted huge interest. Seeing that such blogs had an audience and were appreciated, I also started blogging about dyslexia, as this has blighted my life. I also cover football and music. In recent years, the blog has become more about Barnet life than Barnet politics. I've also become a published author, contributing a chapter to a book called West London Wildlife on Aurora Books.
About Me.
I am a self confessed football nut. I support Manchester City FC and Hadley FC (a local team in the Southern league Division 1 Central). I play guitar and sing in a band called The False Dots, who released our debut album after 45 years together last Sunday. You can listen to it here.
I have a wife of 29 years, three adult offspring and two rescue dogs who are my world. I have a band, who I believe are the finest, most creative people on the planet. I believe that all musicians are angels in disguise (except me), sent here to make our passage through life bearable (but be warned and remember Lucifer is an angel as well if you read scriptures and believe in that sort of thing).
I believe in God, but I suspect my view of Gods nature is not a very mainstream one. I go to The Sacred Heart Church, because I find that it helps keep me sane. I despise people who use religion as anything other than a search for personal enlightenment. Those who use it to control people, seek power or start wars are, to my mind evil. I feel very let down by most people in religious authority, but I will not cede them the space.
I am scared of nothing, apart from snakes and believe that I've outlived my usefulness in this world, and so am no only here to cause trouble and enjoy myself. I drink too much beer, but only in my spare time with friends, in private I have a somewhat inappropriate sense of humour at times. I try not to tell lies, but do appreciate that sometimes the truth starts wars (be it in my front room or in the Middle East), so recognise that occasionally a porkie is required.
Everything I write in this blog is a genuine, honestly held view. I get things wrong, and when I do I apologise (even if I don't like the person). I have a bunch of friends who help me out when needed, who I owe the world to.
I'm deliriously happy and contented 95% of the time and devastated for 5% of the time, usually when people I had faith in let me down.
That's about it.
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