Another year has flown by and I’m already celebrating my anniversary of being the northlondonhippy, again.

And by celebrating, of course I mean writing this.

Whoopeeee…

Seven years ago today I started my original website on Blogger. Its still there, though I moved everything to this, my own hosted website a few years ago.

Go me!

Back at the beginning, I posted quite frequently, mainly because I had nothing better to do.

Blogging sprouted from a relatively brief period of unemployment , it gave me something to do with my time, when I wasn’t getting high or gobbling magic mushrooms, which were legal at the time.

You didn’t think I was going to get through this without a mention of shrooms, did you? Shrooms played an important part in the early days and I was a regular consumer of them. Since the government tightened up the regulations, I’ve been without them. I miss them, a lot. Shroom reference ends.

Flash forward to seven years into the future, to this very day and you’ll see that I hardly post anything, any more. There’s probably more posts about my lack of posts, than any other subject.

I don’t even attempt to make excuses any more, I’ve just accepted that my participation here is sporadic and random. I pop up whenever I feel like it, I just don’t feel like it very often.

That’s not strictly true, as I seem to continue to maintain a running list of topics I want to cover, I just don’t seem to get around to doing it. Then, whatever the topic might be, becomes less interesting to me, or less relevant and I delete it from my list and it just never gets written.

I’m back to making excuses again. Sorry, I’ll stop now.

It would be easier if I could just beam my thoughts directly to the internet, I think that’s coming as a feature this summer in the iPhone 5, but don’t quote me on that. I wouldn’t want to be starting that sort of a rumour.

I know I bang on about Twitter a lot, but I do spend a lot more time there than I do on my own website. If you did want to bathe in the weird thoughts flowing through my head on a daily basis, that remains the best place to do it. Though again, my participation is random and sporadic. I consume far more than I contribute to Twitter, but I do suffer from information gluttony and tech addiction.

That’s probably one of the biggest changes to my life in the last seven years, the amount of technology in it. I’ve always liked tech and toys, but here in the future, they are more pervasive and useful than ever before and I find that I am always connected, always consuming media.

A typical day starts with me picking my iPhone up from the bedside table, switching off airplane mode and letting it check my email. I put it in airplane mode when I go to bed, so it doesn’t ding or buzz with new messages, but I leave it on because it is also my back up alarm clock.

I come downstairs and fire up my iMac, which is the hub of my technological existence. The hard drive in it died last week and its being repaired this very second. Don’t worry, I have a TimeMachine back up, so I don’t think I’ve lost very much at all, but I am missing my 27” beast very much.

I’ve been using my lifeboat computer in the meantime, an original black MacBook that I think is nearly 5 years old. While I’m thankful that I’ve got it to use now, its painfully slow, its got about 25% of the screen space of my iMac and the viewing angle of the LCD screen is not very good. Five years is a very long time in tech termss and my MacBook is definitely showing its age. Its better than nothing, loads better!

Anyway, my normal routine with the iMac is to switch it on as soon as I wake up, read the papers online, along with a few other websites, check my RSS feed reader, keep an eye on Twitter, do some work on some other websites I work on, deal with professional and personal emails, sync and charge my iPhone and control my Mac Mini.

My Mac Mini is around 4 and a 1/2 years old and is also showing its age. I use it as my media hub, its connected to my flatscreen tv and my A/V amp. I use it to play music (streamed around my house to two AirPort Express units, one in the kitchen, one in my bedroom), I also stream online radio stations the same way. I use the BBC’s iPlayer service, I download and playback videos from Bit Torrent, I use it to screen XVID films friends give me, or even just to playback videos I’ve shot myself. It gets used a lot. I mostly control the Mac Mini with a remote control, or I use OS X Screen Sharing to remotely use control it from the iMac.

My iMac is a powerful computer, I use it to edit video and I mainly use iMovie. I also record my own music, using Logic Pro and a host of external toys and musical instruments that connect to my iMac with ease

Once I’ve done everything I have to do on the iMac, I might move over to the sofa with my iPad. I surf, use Twitter, keep up with my RSS feed, all in a relaxed, comfortable way, but that’s not all I’ve done with it. I’ve also used it to edit video, write blog posts and record music. Some of the music production apps I have are truly amazing, especially Apple’s new GarageBand app. Its easy to lose hours of your day just playing around with it. I’m also a secret Angry Birds HD addict, but shhhh, don’t tell anyone.

My iPhone is always with me and I use it for so many things, its really a Swiss Army Knife of a gadget. Its my calendar, my contact book, my mobile Twitter machine, RSS reader, internet browser, still camera, video camera, music player, film and video player, navigation device, compass, photo editor, video editor, news portal, note taker, audio recorder, gaming device, clock, weather centre, torch, handheld trackpad for my Macs, email client, reference library, text message device, oh and its a telephone and videophone too! It does even more than that, I’m just running out of steam thinking of it all.

My point to all this tech history is that none of this was possible 7 years ago, 2 of the devices I just mentioned couldn’t have even been imagined then.

In 2005, I had a running joke here about my brand new all digital lifestyle, right around the time I bought my first iMac. Its no joke today, my life truly is all digital. So’s yours. So is everyone’s.

They like to describe all this as “disruptive technology” and that’s a pretty accurate term, as long as you don’t see disruption as a necessarily bad thing. I don’t buy CDs any more, I don’t go to record stores any more, because that industry has been disrupted by the ease and availability of music downloads. If you own a chain of music stores, you’re not going to like this sort of disruption, but if you are a keen media consumer, you’re probably pretty happy about it.

Technology isn’t the only thing that’s disrupted my life in the last seven years, there’s also been some illness and some death. When it comes to disruption, nothing else comes close.

Both of my parents passed away since I started this website. My father was already ill when I started it, and his cancer featured frequently back in the day. Somewhere, in the archive, is a post called “Dad’s pissing blood again” and I’m surprised it didn’t win any awards. He died before this blog was a year old.

My mother crossed over to the great beyond at Christmas, two years ago. Nothing fills you with the holiday spirit like a bereavement on Xmas eve, and that applies to the future too, Xmas will now and forever be a reminder of her death.

While my mother had health problems for years, her sudden death was unexpected. My father died slowly over the course of a year and we pretty much knew when his death was coming to the day. I last spoke to him two days before he died and I got to say goodbye. I didn’t have that chance with my mother.

I’ve become old in the last seven years, at least in my head I have. In my head I’m not 48, I’m “pushing 50”. One of those posts I haven’t written is entitled “My unhealthy obsession with death” and I will get around to writing it, mainly because I’m hoping that spitting out a life time of death obsession might help me move past it. Or not. Who knows.

Blogging is like therapy for me sometimes, its a good way to try to work shit out.

I don’t really think I will ever work out my weird obsession with death, specifically my own. I’ve imagined my moment of death so many times, in so many ways, yet I know that none of it has probably come close to whatever horrible fate awaits me, as it awaits us all.

Keep an eye out for my death post, it will be a cheery little number, guaranteed to lift your spirits and make you want to do a happy dance down the street.

The truth is that I feel expendable, disposable and irrelevant because I am getting old. Maybe that’s normal. Maybe there’s no such thing as normal.

I can feel my body breaking down, I discover some new ache or pain on a daily basis. My joints creak, my muscles throb, my bones ache and I’ve been diagnosed with a long term health problem that requires daily medication for the rest of my life.

Middle age is a joy.

Middle age is stupidly named. Either you are young or you’re old. I’m old. Physically I am, but in my head I’m still 18 years old and full of all the hopes, ideas and dreams I had at that age. Sad, eh?

I’m the same person I was back then, I might move a bit slower and have loads more knowledge and experience, but I’m still me.

And I still smoke weed.

That was one of my goals when I started blogging, to further the cannabis cause. I’ve been smoking weed every day, for a couple of months shy of 30 years. I would qualify my use as a combination of recreational and medicinal, though its certainly more medicinal these days.

Weed should be legal and the fact that its not shows just how mixed up our current drug policy has become. Cannabis can be so beneficial in so many ways.

Right now, in these difficult and depressing economic times, cannabis is a cash crop our leaders should not be ignoring. A licensed, regulated and more importantly taxed cannabis market would be a much needed boon to the economy. Instead they would rather close schools, hospitals and libraries and let criminals control the market. Its as foolish and shortsighted as it sounds.

I’m not going to bang on about it too much now, my position is clear.

I may not be as prolific as I once was, but there’s a giant archive of nearly 750 posts to explore. You might learn to love me, you might come to hate me, but I’m sure you can waste plenty of time here, if you desire.

So that’s it, my weird and rambling reflection of the last seven years of living my life online, just for you. I’m always here, just a few mouse clicks away. Come hang out with me, any time.

If the first seven years are anything to go by, the next seven ought to be a real gas, man! Groovy!

Who wouldn’t want a high that was legal? Isn’t that the ultimate goal? Sure, booze is legal and will get you absolutely blotto, but so what? People want a choice of intoxicants.

I don’t like liquor and if asked, will declare that I no longer drink. Its true, I can’t remember the last time I had even a sip of alcohol. The hangovers were just too much to bear. I’m too old for a self-inflicted sore head.

Where does that leave you if you don’t like booze, but you do enjoy altering your state of consciousness? Black market drugs like weed and coke and smack and MDMA and speed and LSD I guess.

But what if you don’t want to break the law? I’ve already suggested voting for leaders who would change the laws, but we can’t seem to find any, except for the Lib Dems and if its going to be a hung parliament anyway, then we should all vote for the Lib Dems so they can have a bigger share of the eventual coalition government.

But I digress. If you want to get high without breaking the law, you look for something legal.

Until 2005, fresh magic mushrooms were legal to purchase and possess in the UK.

Finally, there was a legal high available that was profoundly effective and readily available. I shroomed regularly for a couple of years, every week or two. I was always careful, I stayed in a safe, comfortable environment (my own home) and had very pleasant, enjoyable times. It was easily one of the best drug experiences of my life, I can’t begin to express how much I enjoyed it.

Well, I can and I did, if you read the first couple of years of my output here, I rave about shrooms continually. Taken responsibly and with a rough knowledge of the appropriate dosage, shrooms are relatively harmless. You would need to consume your own weight in mushrooms for the dose to be fatally toxic and I haven’t heard about anyone who’s tried.

You could always pick fresh mushrooms in the wild, provided you knew what you were looking for, because the wrong type of mushroom could be fatally toxic at a much lower dosage. But if you were buying them from someone who could reliably tell you the strain, with knowledge of where they were farmed and advice on how many to take, you would be much better off.

And for a few years, we were much better off, with our safe, easy to buy fresh shrooms. It was bliss.

And then they got very popular. And then the media got interested. And then the government got involved. And then they were banned.

The above paragraph will be repeated again, you will notice, I promise.

And so I did sadly lament the demise of my beloved shrooms because the government man didn’t want me to have any more fun.

But it was too late, the market for legal highs had been established, a decent customer base still existed. All they needed was another product, something legal that would fuck you up a bit.

The answer came from New Zealand:

BZP

BZP came as something called party pills, which was a big change from fresh shrooms, it was a man made chemical of dubious origin. Rumour was it was used for worming pets, but it gave people a buzz, so we tried it.

It worked. It was quite speedy and a bit spacey, pleasant but not overwhelming. There were many brands, legal high forums were brimming with reviews to help you choose. People were happy to have anything that was legal and had an effect.

And then they got very popular. And then the media got interested. And then the government got involved. And then they were banned.

Right around the same time, the first legal marijuana substitutes that worked came along, the first was called Spice, which has become a generic term for these drugs. The ingredients were kept secret, so we didn’t know what the magic herbs we were smoking were, but we knew they got us high.

Turns out the herbs weren’t magic, but the JHW-081 they sprayed onto it was. JHW-081 is a synthetic cannabinoid, made in a lab to mimic THC. Sneaky fuckers, no wonder it worked.

As if overnight, many different brands of smoking mixtures came on to the market, all with a very similar weed-like effect. It was legal, but it was also expensive, and in some cases pricier than real weed.

Think about that, people were willing to pay more for a legal weed alternative, than actual weed. That says a lot.

And then they got very popular. And then the media got interested. And then the government got involved. And then they were banned.

In the gloom of my post-legal-shrooms existence, I tried many of these legal highs and a few years ago, I was getting these rather delightful little capsules shipped in legally from Israel.

They tried to keep the ingredients a secret, but with a bit of research, I discovered it was a chemical related to cathinone, which is the active ingredient in khat, the Africa plant that is used as a stimulant when chewed.

At first, I only ordered a couple and found them quite pleasant and quite strong, closer to real MDMA than BZP or the crap that followed. I ordered a few more, and then a few more.

And then I ordered a lot.

And then I lost a couple of days. No lie, I think my bender lasted around 48 hours. People were concerned, I just disappeared. It was the most morish drug I’ve ever had and I used to do coke years ago. I kept going until I swallowed the last pill I had.

Then I crashed for a couple of days and felt extremely depressed. I was angry with myself for losing control, something I rarely if ever do while under the influence of anything. I didn’t control this drug, this drug controlled me.

It didn’t, ever again. I didn’t touch any more after that. It seemed to target my pleasure centre with laser-guided precision. No thanks.

Guess what I am 99.9% certain that drug was?

Mephedrone.

Kids, listen to your old uncle hippy, that shit’s not worth it. Its way too morish. It feels absolutely wonderful when you’re taking it and you will want to take it endlessly. You can’t, eventually the money, or your body will give out and then you will crash. The crash sucks. Its not worth the pleasure.

As much as I don’t like mephedrone, I am merely suggesting (in strong, unambiguous terms) that you not take it, I am not suggesting some knee jerk reactionary ban. Actually, I think it makes more sense to keep it legal and out in the open. at least until you have an alternative to offer.

If the government can’t offer an alternative (I suggest weed, please), the marketplace will find one. It always does, because we live in a capitalist society and supply will always try to meet demand.

Oh, and if you’re against supply and demand, even in the illicit marketplace, then you are against the very foundation of capitalism. So take that all you anti-drug commie pinko socialists! Get on the free market bandwagon, don’t get in the way of trade!

Banning mephedrone isn’t the answer, unless the question is: “how can we get another untested, cutting edge man-made intoxicant into the hands of our children in the quickest possible time?”

I’ve yet to see one conclusive report of a death being caused directly by mephedrone. I’ve seen lots of bullshit about it being “linked” to a few untimely deaths, but alcohol and other drugs have also been in the mix, though that hasn’t been highlighted.

If I drank myself to death right now while eating a banana, you could quite accurately state that, until the coroner’s report is issued, my death was linked to eating a banana. I can see the headlines now, “Ban the Yellow Scourge”.

Booze kills and kills often, but the alcohol industry spends a lot of money on image and reputation management. When you think of liquor, you don’t think of corpses, do you? No, you think of good times, parties and women in tight dresses that you know will have sex with you.

Think about how many times you’ve gotten pissed, puked your insides out and woke up the next day feeling like death, swearing you’d never ever do that to yourself again. Until next Saturday.

That’s either effective marketing or addiction. Or both.

The legal high industry isn’t organised, they don’t have a centralised body to speak on their behalf and be their public face. Its the same for illegal highs for that matter. Who represents them? Who does their spinning?

No one.

Maybe its time they did.

People’s need to get high, to be intoxicated, to alter their state, is not new and its not going away any time soon. There will always be a demand for substances, legal or otherwise, that change your mood.

Recent history has shown that when given the choice, people prefer legal substances, even if they cost more and have less pleasant effects than their illegal rivals.

If the government left well enough alone with my old friends, magic mushrooms, none of us would have ever heard of mephedrone and whatever might follow.

Go on, if you let us all have legal weed, we can leave all is designer drug shit alone. Please?

I haven’t been so well for the last couple of weeks. Hey ho.

I’m waiting for the results of another blood test, that I had been putting off, but a few days ago, I had a couple of litres sucked out of my arm.

Ok, it seemed like litres, I didn’t look. I don’t like blood, especially my own if its not deep inside my veins.

The reason I’ve been putting it off is because my regular GP of nearly a dozen years is now on long-term sick leave and getting a blood test meant seeing a brand new doctor.

The new doctor and I didn’t get off to a great start. He took my blood pressure using some fancy automated gizmo and when he checked the reading, the expression on his face told me it wasn’t good.

My mother suffered from high blood pressure, took medication for it and was monitored regularly. With that in mind, I’ve always kept a close eye on mine, and thankfully it has consistently been low, 110/70 which for an oversized, middled-aged smoker is pretty damn good.

The electronic gizmo was showing 170/110, which is not good. Its about as far from good as you can be, its “call an ambulance now” good.

I was incredulous of this reading straight away and told him I’m consistently 110/70, young doctor new guy looked like he going to shit himself. I asked him to take it again with an old style, manual sphygmomanometer.

He had to go find one and I was momentarily left alone, my mind racing to the obvious, yet slim possibility that something changed with my blood pressure.

It could explain why I was feeling so shitty again.

The new doctor guy returned with an old-school blood pressure cuff, quickly wrapped it around my arm then pumped the squeezey ball for all he was worth. As he let the air out and took the reading, his concerned expression relaxed into a very slight grin and I knew it was fine.

And that’s all he said, “its fine”. He didn’t even share the correct, final score with me and I think I know why.

It was 110/70, just like I told him it should and would be.

Doctors don’t like it when you know more than they do, even if it is something as personal as your own damn blood pressure. Especially, younger, inexperienced and insecure doctors, like this one, who I unintentionally put on his back foot.

It would have been easier if he just got it right the first time, but that’s true of just about everything anyone gets wrong, ever.

I told him I had Hashimoto’s and needed to get my thyroid levels checked, though I said “T4 levels” just to be snarky and this time it was intentional. To be fair, this was right after he told me smoking cigarettes was bad for me, like he was the first person to share that particular pearl of wisdom.

“Well, gee whillikers, doc, they’re bad for you? I did not know that. Next you’re gonna tell me unprotected anal sex with crack whores is bad for me! I did not know that, either.”

He asked me what my symptoms were and I told him: breathlessness, like trying to catch your breath on a cold day without any exertion, very occasional, but noticeable heart palpitations, alternating sweats and chills, a big lack of energy and worst of all, my back problems have returned.

When I mentioned my back problem, he looked at me quizzically and I had to explain to him how I was suffering from inflammation in the joints of my spine, which were lighting up nerves in my leg, sciatic really. I had to go to explain that one of the symptoms of Hashimoto’s is inflamed joints as attributed by my regular GP last summer.

All of this started last summer when my back gave out and for around a fortnight I could barely walk. I got over it and haven’t had any real back problems since, just the occasional, isolated twinge, but nothing of any concern.

Until about 2 weeks ago, when I started getting severe pain shooting down my right leg, mainly in bed and bad enough to wake me up. I haven’t really slept more than 3 continuous hours since then, though often I wake up, put an ice pack on my back, or take a horrible codeine pill or both, and go back to sleep.

I saw my chiropractor three times last week, which improved it slightly. Since then, I’ve worked a couple of nights and its become bad again. Sitting in a shitty office chair for 12 hours will do that to you.

And because of the bank holiday weekend, I can’t see my chiropractor again until Tuesday, which is also bad.

Moan, moan, moan, I’m just a big hippy baby.

I left the doctor’s office with a blood test form, with more boxes checked than I ever thought possible, hence the litres of blood extracted. He’s running every test imaginable, which is cool, but he did it out of fear, not because he thought there was anything particularly wrong with me.

He didn’t really answer my question about the possibility of my thyroid levels dropping again, requiring an increase in my daily dose of levothyroxine. I don’t think he knew the answer. I don’t know either, but right now, its my best and only guess.

I was told by my regular (and much missed) GP, that once my dosage was adjusted properly, I would “feel like a new person”. That hasn’t happened yet and I’ve reached the point where I don’t think I ever will.

Yep, all of this has me down. I am bored with having health problems, its tedious always being asked with deep concern “how are you? no really, how are you?” I know people mean it and its not that I don’t appreciate their concern, I just don’t like having to answer it over and over again.

Mainly I’m bored with feeling like shit all the time. Its making me think all sorts of things, like: this is my life now, my best days are behind me, I’ve achieved nothing with my life.

All sorts of uplifting shit, really!

Just check out the title of this post, “Running out the clock”. That’s kind of a downer, isn’t it? Now that you know the context.

That’s how I feel right now, like I am just running out the clock, on those last few decades/years/months/days/hours/minutes/seconds (delete as appropriate) that I have left.

It doesn’t matter if its true, I mean of course its true, its true for everyone, but what matters I guess is that its how I feel right now. And I don’t feel like I have decades or years.

I should point out I have no medical evidence to suggest I am going to die any time soon and in actual fact, rationally I don’t believe I am going to die any time soon. I’m still talking about how I feel.

Emotionally.

Now, this is the part where I’m supposed to remind you (and myself) that I’ve always been a survivor and blah blah, I’ve come through this and I’ve come through that, but again that’s not how I feel.

I feel like I haven’t got any fight left in me, but that’s probably just the Hashimoto’s talking. I really do feel like my energy is zapped most of the time and doing the simplest things takes tremendous amounts of effort.

With that in mind, think how daunting anything complex must seem to me at the moment, like negotiating my way through the NHS to a better diagnosis and treatment.

Either I need a simple adjustment to my thyroid meds or something else is wrong. I can just about cope with another increase in my dosage and the additional tests required, but anything more than that and I don’t think I can be bothered.

Happy days.

I liked it better when I was the king of fun, but if I am going to get nostalgic, I might as well lament over how much I miss my beloved fresh and legal magic mushrooms and I still curse the government for banning them.

What’s the connection? Right now, I would really benefit from a decent, old fashioned shroom trip. An afternoon shroomed to the gills would do more for me than 10 years of psychotherapy ever could. And it would be cheaper, too.

As I was threading my way through the rush hour traffic this morning, struggling to get myself home, I started thinking how much I could really do with get seriously out of my skull.

What I mean is, I could really do with a psychedelic trip that got me totally off my face. I need to see some pretty colours!

I’ve done acid a handful of times, the last time around 10 years ago. I also used to enjoy magic mushrooms, around every week or so. I’ve lost count of the number of shroom trips I’ve had.

Magic mushrooms grow wild all over the UK and a friend of mine would take an annual pilgrimage to the West Country every autumn to collect them. He was always very generous with them and I ended up with a few trips yearly.

Then, in 2003 I discovered that fresh magic mushrooms were available, legally to purchase and consume. I didn’t believe it at first, that you could really buy them that easily. At first, I thought it was some sort of a scam. How wrong I was!

I first ordered them from EDIT my friends who are now the exclusive distributors of my NLH deluxe bong. They arrived the following day and were exactly as described. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I started researching shrooms, learning about different strains, potencies and dosages. With my friend’s West Country shrooms, I never measured them; they were dried and relatively easy to consume, if not totally disgusting.

Fresh shrooms are even nastier, slimy and cold, with the flavour of what I expect the insides of a rotting corpse might taste like. Gross!

I started out on 30 grams of Mexican p-cubes, which is a reasonable, but not overly strong dose — for me anyway. Over the few years I did them regularly, I worked my way up to higher doses, peaking around 55 grams or so.

The trips were amazing, I got to hang out with the mushroom god. Search for him on my site, if you want to know more. Basically, if you eat enough shrooms, the mushroom god visits you and shows you the pretty colours!

Shrooms take a while to hit you. On an empty stomach, it would take 60–90 minutes before feeling the first effects, with a peak reached anywhere from 2–4 hours and lasting for 4–6 hours. It pretty much wasted a whole day, but what way to waste it!

Psychedelic drugs enhance your perception; the simple way to understand it is they make the synaptic nerves in your brain fire faster, giving you more sensory input. Your vision sharpens, as does your hearing which makes music sound amazing. As you get further into your trip, patterns in things swish and swirl, wood grain flows like a river.

On one particularly pleasant trip, on some Colombian p-cubes, right at the point where I peaked, I saw a burst of rainbow colours in the air, in a sun-filled room. It was astoundingly beautiful and completely unexpected. Colombians are apparently known for the colours they produce, but try as I did, I was unable to repeat the experience.

No two trips are exactly alike, which is why I had no chance of repeating my explosion of colour by premeditating it. Shrooms take you on the journey, though I can’t say I really lost any control. Except once…

For my birthday a few years back, I had some Hawaiian shrooms, which are very well known for their ultra-high potency. I had tried them before, electing to experiment with the recommended starter dose of 10 grams. They didn’t do that much for me. Then, I did something stupid, I doubled the dose.

Bad move! I had a seriously strong trip which ended with me hiding under my duvet with my eyes closed for several hours, still seeing a multi-coloured geometric pattern stretched from right in front of me, all the way to infinity. I couldn’t see what my eyes were seeing, I could only “see” what my brain was generating. Kids, I seriously recommend you do NOT try this at home!

A few months after that, the government put fresh magic mushrooms into Class A, which is the same category as coke and smack.…the fuckers! In no way are shrooms anywhere near as bad for you as heroin or crack. Used responsibly, they are very safe, good fun!

Thanks to the actions of some stupid tourists, the Dutch have just banned shrooms as well. So much for tolerant Holland! The tourists in question were all drinking as well, but booze had nothing to do with their unfortunate incidents. Sure thing! Booze never causes anyone any trouble, does it?

I think I read that shroom farming is a 14 million pound a year business in Holland. That’s an awful lot of money to be just throwing away. And people will still want their shrooms, they will just have to go underground for them.

I haven’t had any shrooms since the government outlawed them. It’s not because I haven’t had the chance, one can still get them, if one knows where to look — like online! You can still get grow kits from Europe, if you really want some and they’re dead easy to grow. I haven’t had any shrooms because I don’t do Class A drugs and haven’t done since I gave up coke and E’s over 5 years ago.

I still love weed and continue to sample lots of different legal highs, and as of today, I wouldn’t mind something psychedelic. I don’t think I will actively seek anything electric, but should I be offered some shrooms or even a blotter, I would be sorely tempted to accept the universe’s generosity. I could really use a little break from reality right now, I think it would do my mental health a world of good.

I decided to try Funk’s Twisted (Psychedelic Funk) which are supposed to be the trippy ones from their line of party pills.

I took the first capsule around 3pm on an empty stomach, then sat back until the effects began. At around 4pm, just as I was starting to come up from the first one, I took a second.

The high was to be expected from something BZP based – I started feeling up and happy and somewhat euphoric. What I didn’t get was any overwhelming psychedelic effects, just a slight sharpening of my vision.

I think that is my biggest gripe about some of these legal highs, they never deliver the trippy punch that I am seeking. As much as everyone wants them to be shroom replacements, they’re clearly not. I wish they were!

Shrooms were so much better than everything else you could buy legally, they were the best trippy drug I ever enjoyed. I wish they could come back!

The current incarnation of legal highs are good, I’m not knocking them as I do enjoy the high they produce, but they are different from other illegal highs. While comparisons can be made between piperazines and MDMA, they are very distinctive drugs.

At about 6pm yesterday, I took a third pill, which to be honest was a bit more than I needed. It was the usual story, I hadn’t come up enough from the first two, though by 6:15pm, I finally did but I was concerned I might have overdone it. I did, but only as a personal preference.

The third pill I took was a “Big Grin” also from Funk Pills, which has a different blend to the Twisted pills and consequently different effects. The combination was very pleasant; I was quite deeply monged!

I certainly prefer the “Big Grin” to the Twisted pills as the high is much more mind-numbing. Trust me, that’s a good thing.

I peaked around 9 or 10pm and by midnight I was still buzzing. To aid in the comedown, I drank a Dutch hot cocoa (made with a dash of butter and some ground hash) and took a Valerian. By 2am, I was sound asleep.

Today, I feel somewhat lethargic and hungover, which I don’t normally experience, but I’m attributing it to the increased dose and most likely I didn’t drink enough water; though it seemed like I did at the time. I’m sure I’ll be back to normal by tomorrow, but this should explain the somewhat subdued tone this entry has taken.

I need a few spliffs and another good night’s sleep and I’ll be right as rain.

The Independent newspaper here in the UK published an interesting article about the current popularity in legal highs. Well duh!

As an early adopter and experimenter with the substances they mention, following the ban on shrooms last summer, I’ve been on the cutting edge of this stuff for ages!

But do they come to ask me for a comment on the world of legal highs?

Do they fuck!

I guess I’m just too expensive for them! This hippy don’t come cheap!

It doesn’t matter, I’m still happy to bring you a link to their article. The main point that mattered to me is that the government has said they see no reason to review the status of any substance currently available. That’s cool.

They also mention my friends at EDIT, who really are at the cutting edge of the market. They were big shroom-sellers up until the ban and they were quick to realise that a market continued for legal, recreational substances and have brought many great products to the UK market.

After this little run of nights, I’ve got some well-deserved time off. Besides wrapping up work on one of my non-hippy related projects, I’m going to be checking out some more new products to review for you. I’m really looking forward to getting off my face all in the interests of improving your life!

What other north London based-hippy has done that for you lately?

Yo.

Yes, I’m back.

Two days in a row! It’s like all your xmas’s have come at once and Santa Claus is really Jesus and he’s taking you to heaven to live with god for eternity and have nothing but oral sex all the time. Yee-fucking-haw!

Sad bastard that I am, I was dipping into my hippyarchive for a trip down memory lane. I wish it was a real trip, but the government man took away my beloved magic mushrooms last summer, so now I ain’t got nothing psychedelic to savour and enjoy in the privacy of my north London lair.

I know I harp on about this shroom ban, but I do for good reason! I really dug the little fuckers and I miss them very much!

Way back when shrooms were legal and the postman was my dealer and he didn’t even know it; I used to indulge in this little pastime once every week or so. It was good for me.

When shrooms were legal, they were cheap, easy to get, consistently potent and if used with intelligence and knowledge, very safe. Safer than booze any day of the week, but don’t get me started on the legal drugs!

Yes, some people can go crazy if they abuse shrooms without the required information and smarts. But some people go crazy anyway.

Scooobity bee boop!

How many people get beat up, robbed, killed, pregnant, infected, you name it, because of a particularly heavy night in the pub?

Really! Don’t get me fucking started!

When you put it into that context, the ban on shrooms seems even more ridiculous!

The reason I’m feeling so nostalgic about my former favourite legal substance is two fold; firstly my 2nd anniversary of blogging is quickly approaching.

Fuck! Two years of spouting absolute rubbish online and being ignored by the mainstream press, even though I am the one true genius of the 21st century!

Save the celebrations for another day. How about the day? Ok.

And secondly, I was reading some of my early entries and damn if I didn’t wax lyrical endlessly about my total enjoyment of magic mushrooms.

I miss my funny fungus! The mushroom god doesn’t visit me anymore! I’m a man without a religion! Shouldn’t the European Court of Human Rights be defending my right to worship in the manner of my own choosing?

Nothing else available comes even close to the amazingly pleasant pleasure of being monged to the gills on some fresh, potent shroomies! It was like a religion to me.

Well, put it this way, it made me feel closer than ever to actually having any faith in anything in the entire known and unknown universe.

And they took it all away from me, just because they felt like it! The fucking cunts!

Grrrrrrr!

Gimme back my fresh and legal shrooms or I am going to hold my breath until I turn blue! Gimme! Gimmmeeeee!

Gimmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeee! Now! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I was up mid-morning, later than usual actually and my first task of the day was plucking a few shrooms from my grow-kit. I’m planning a trip with a friend of mine this weekend, and I’ve got plenty now.

Once I tended my shrooms, I sat down at the PC and did a cost analysis of my growing experience to date. Fresh shrooms cost about 40p per grams, depending upon where you purchase them. You can get them for less, especially if you know where to look or are buying in bulk, but your basic 30gram portion of Mexican p.cubes should cost about 12 quid.

My home grown have cost about 15p per gram, if you include all of my one– off costs. If you subtract the costs that will not be repeated, like the propagator, spray bottle, thermometer, that cost comes down to 7p a gram. Well, I was impressed.

Think about how much drugs cost. I’ve read in the papers that pills are down to a couple of quid each, charlie is now suppose to be fifty a gram. Drugs are expensive, and they fuel the black economy. My shrooms only fuel me and they are really cheap.

I like producing my own drugs. I think it’s cool. If I had the space I would have an indoor garden to grow weed as well. If we ever move house, I think an indoor growth space should be a requirement. We’ll have to see what Mrs. hippy thinks about that. With the warm, humid summer we had last year, perhaps I should consider a couple of plants outside.

After tending the shrooms, I read the papers online. There wasn’t anything too exciting or interesting, a slow news day.

Then it was a quick spin up to my local high street. I went into M&S, which I don’t do very often. I needed a pair of trousers and they seem to have the most choice for the short, fat, middle-aged hippy that wants to create the illusion of respectability. I bought a decent pair of trousers, with loads of pockets for 32 quid, which is not bad because M&S clothing is durable, they will last me a while.

I also picked up a few bits in the food shop, though they are always out of fresh chocolate milk, whenever I go. My younger brother raves about it regularly and I would like to try it, see if his praise is justified.

Then it was back home to relax and prepare for my interview tomorrow morning. I recorded the programme that I could be working on, it’s not something I normally watch. I’m not going to say much more about it. If the job is staff, it better pay well, because the show was dire.

I’m going into this interview cold. A friend and former colleague recommended me for this position; I followed up with an email. Within an hour, my prospective employer’s assistant rang to arrange the interview. I didn’t ask her any questions, I figured I could wait to see her boss. Maybe he will be my boss too.

My gut tells me they are desperate, whether it’s freelance or staff. I could be starting fairly soon, in no time at all I could be back to work for real. Or they could hate me and think I am a total twat, stranger things have happened. Who knows? I’ll find out the score when I see this guy in the morning.

I can feel the hippy lifestyle slipping away from me as I come closer to securing gainful employment. That’s not a bad thing, especially the knock-on effect it will have on my finances, but there is a small part of me that will always want to remain barefoot and high.

I’ve noticed the time, it’s just gone midnight, north london-time. I missed out making an entry on Monday and this one doesn’t count, even if I started writing it at 11:50pm, it will be posted on Tuesday. That means I’ll be back later to write some more. It’s late and I want to watch episode 5x4 of The Sopranos, which I downloaded today. Who wants to wait for E4?

The Israelis killed Sheik Yassin with a missile. He was the spiritual leader of Hamas. He was in jail for many years, but released a few years ago when the peace process in the mideast appeared to be moving forward. His death today is going to have a very serious effect on the stability of the region. Expect major retaliation and revenge against Israeli for this, they’re saying Ariel Sharon personally approved the operation. I’m not going to argue whether they were right to assasinate him or not, it really doesn’t matter. Now that he is dead, there’s going to to be a whole new level of shit there. I’m watching live coverage of a huge his funeral in Gaza right now — showing tens of thousands of very angry people. It’s not going to take long before it all kicks off.

I spent the day off my face on magic mushrooms yesterday. I’ve mentioned them before as it is a fairly recent hobby of mine. If you check my very first blog entry, there are several links to sites you may wish to visit for more information. They have been used by people for thousands of years and have a very strong effect.

I’ve taken acid a couple of times and I have to say I much prefer magic mushrooms. They are natural, easier on your system and there is no real comedown. From what I have read, you would need to consume your own weight in shrooms for them to be toxic, so physically they are fairly safe, as long as you know what you are taking.

I’ve never picked them in the wild and wouldn’t know how to spot them anyway. All the shrooms I have had were farmed, either in Holland or here in the UK. You can order them on the net, many headshops sell them, the markets in Camden and Portobello road also have stalls which sell them.

I purchased a grow kit a few weeks ago to produce my own. It’s amazingly simply, you just take the lid off the take-away style container, put it someplace slightly warm and spray it with water twice a day. The shrooms grow very quickly, I’m nearly finished with my third flush in as many weeks.

In their fresh and natural state, the mushrooms are 100% legal, the companies who sell them had this point clariifed by the Home Office in writing. They become a class “A” substance when you intentionally dry them, so its best to keep them fresh.

They are also more potent when they are fresh, though you have to consume a fair bit to get the really wild effects. I took a reasonably large dose on Sunday, but at this point I am quite experienced and know what to expect.

I always make sure I am in a safe, secure place when I trip on shrooms, physically and mentally. Evything that needs doing around the house gets done before I start. I’ve recently discovered that it is more enjoyable to trip during daylight hours, as the natural light makes things look better, so I ingested the shrooms at about 2pm.

As I hate the taste, I threw the shrooms into my blender with some juice and turned it into smoothie. It tasted absolutely foul, but I managed to gulp it down quickly. Then I sat down and smoked a spliff.

People can sometimes feel a bit of nausea when they eat shrooms, but this passes quickly and a joint at this stage helps minimize this feeling. Within about 15 minutes, I could feel them begin to kick in. Like any drug experience, it is a bit hard to describe, but I will try.

At first, it is almost a bit speedy, like you just had ten cups of espresso. You start to feel happy, almost euphoric, something definitely changes in your brain. Within about 30 minutes, the visual effects begin. It starts with perceiving light differently, you may notice a sudden increase in brightness on the edges of your vision, as if someone was shining a torch at you. Colours increase in brightness and intesity, your vision becomes sharper and more crisp. At this point, you might also notice things moving or breathing slightly. Patterns begin to emerge in the textures of fabric, my cat’s fur breathes as well.

Now, what’s happening in your brain is that the drug is making your neural synapses fire a bit quicker, meaning your brain is receiving more information than is really there, its almost a state of hyper-reality. Your mind can race, flitting from one topic to another. I find myself trying to not think, and just experience what’s going on around me.

Music takes on a distinctly different quality, sounding crisper, fuller with more seperation between the individual tracks. You may experience sound as a physical sensation. It it really a lovely feeling.

Once I am peaking, I like to lose myself in music video channels. When you discover a new song or video while under the influence of shrooms, it can amazing, yesterday was no exception. I heard several songs for the first time, which really impressed me.

The first was from a band I’ve never heard of before, called Rasmus. The song, entitled “In The Shadows” is a hard-edged, rock-pop song and very catchy. The video is an expensive, well directed piece, and is sure to grab your attention. I don’t know anything about the band, but keep an eye out, I expect it to sell well.

The next one I discovered is the latest single from N.E.R.D, called “She Wants to Move” and it blew my mind. I’ve read about N.E.R.D before, but never really paid attention. This song rocks! It’s got a great fusion of beats, funny, nasty lyrics and some wicked guitar. I am down with these guys, I could do business with them! I’m downloading, I mean purchasing this one from my local high street retailer today!

The third song that grabbed me is the latest offering from Outkast. I’ve had the Speakerbox/The Love Below for sometime, and I have been hooked on Dre3000’s disc. “Hey Ya” is as close to perfection as a single gets. I hadn’t really given Big Boi’s side that much time, but I heard “The Way You Move” properly and was blown away. The horns are very retro, 70s, Earth, Wind and Fire style and it is a very smooth slick sound. It’s another winnder. Those Outkast guys are very talented, they first caught my attention with Stankonia a couple of years ago. It deserves all the acclaim its received.

The other general observation I came away with yesterday after watching several straight hours of music videos is that they want everyone to be a cool black guy, pimp daddy. Every video seems to be showing me that all the cool black guys have all the fun. This is hard to explain, but if you watch, a common theme emerges from all these videos. They say, “I’m a cool black guy, I’m rich, I know how to dance, I know how to party. All the sexy, hotties want to get down with me. If you pay attention, I can show you how, just like this. Break it down!” Watch a bit, you will see what I mean.

Anyway, that was my day on Sunday, totally monged off my face on strong magic mushrooms. Its not for everyone, but I surely do like it!

Believe it or not, I have a job interview today. A real one, for some freelance work with a very large corporation. I’m trying not to be nervous, but the fact is, this is the first real interview I’ve had since I left my last job. Yikes!

It’s going to be informal, I am meeting the guy for a coffee this afternoon. I’ve been in touch with him for nearly six months, waiting for an opening. Finally, last week, he told me there was the chance of loads of work with him. I am very encouraged by this, but not counting my chickens just yet.

I still don’t know when the job might start, what the hours will be, how many days a month I will get, and how much it will pay. Its a senior position, so the money should be decent and the hours shouldn’t be too bad. I’m hoping that it will be full-time or fairly close to that, as I really need some money.

I’m going to have to wrap this up now, I’ve to go try on my suit and see if it still fits. This hippy doesn’t dress-up very often and its a very long time since I’ve worn it. If it doesn’t fit, I’m going to have to make a quick run up to the high street and hope to find something in my size.

Stay cool, stay groovy, ride the vibe.