HE WOULD NOT WAKE UP PROPERLY FOR 38 DAYS!

　

 

My boyhood hero

 

 

Life in the Fast Lane

 

Life in the Fast Lane

:

by Robert Edwards

.

Sourced from: from : http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-76709848.html

 

The flickering cine film has all the compulsive horror of the footage of the John F. Kennedy assassination. In a sickening blur of speed, the Walker Lotus 18/21 racing car leaves the track and bucks violently as it surges out of control over the rough verge and slams into a grassy bank.

The driver – with no modern safety harness to protect him – can be seen being bounced out of his seat in the last, terrifying moments before impact. He is left clinging helplessly to the steering wheel, his feet unable to reach the pedals as he hurtles towards his doom.

 

Later, one observer would recall having seen a plume of fire shooting from the rear of the car ‘like a burst from a flame gun’. He would also describe the ‘spontaneous gasp of apprehension’ when the crowd realised disaster was imminent. This was the moment when the dazzling career of Stirling Moss, perhaps the greatest all-round racing driver the world has ever known, came to a brutally premature end at the age of 32. The date was St George’s Day, 1962. The place was Goodwood, the Sussex circuit which was then synonymous with British motor racing.

 

Yet such was the charisma of Stirling Moss – and the enormous popular affection he commanded – that the impact of the crash would be felt across the world for years to come. In the dire gloom of post-war Britain, the rise of Moss, the debonair boy wonder, had seized the public’s imagination. They loved him for his breathtaking bravery, his unquenchable competitiveness and his uncanny level of skill.

Above all, they loved his sense of style…

Robert Edwards

 

From : http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-76709848.html

 

THE UNKNOWN WRITER (from the new novel ‘Stirling’, a story, stories of hope)

 

CHAPTER:  THE UNKNOWN WRITER (from the new novel ‘Stirling’, a story, stories of hope)

  Here is a short extract…
            
            

The unknown writer had been struggling for many years, humbly living off mainly government hand-outs and a few part-time jobs in “Sleepy Hollow”, where most jobs were aquired via “word of mouth” in the closely-knit community. So with nothing much else to do, the writer had written about twenty-five manuscripts on widely varied subjects close to his heart, his passions.

His writing journey had started many years before in 1993 after being “successful” publishing his first five books with a UK vanity publisher. But that episode had been a disaster…financially and even more emotionally; the extreme stress had turned his and his family’s life upside down. Nevertheless, even in the blackness he still felt a “calling” to be a writer, to tell stories that touched and impacted the lives of readers… so he kept writing and daily sent out his articles on the world wide web. And his writings were widely published on the internet.
Anyway, he didn’t know what else to do with his life, but trust God, the Ultimate Source of Life.
 
There were many hard days, especially in the depths of winter. But then spring does follow… and then the glorious summer weather in the small city where he lived.
However, even in his darkest days the “writer” lived in hope that one day his writings would get out to the “real” world in books… ones that impacted, uplifted, empowered and perhaps even inspired people… as many as possible around the globe. And that was what he felt his “life mission” to be.

He truly believed that God had a plan for every life and even when he felt so alone and misunderstood in the deepest valley he somehow knew that he had not been neglected, forgotten, yet he too had a “purpose” in life.

And so he kept on writing… and in so doing his “eyes lifted a little higher” with each long passing day.
                            *

Then one day in March of the year 2011, as the rays of the bright morning light shone into the cluttered lounge…the writer’s  entire life, his world changed for the better… far far better…

7th March 2011

“HOPE, LOVE AND LIGHT”

“Aim at heaven and you’ll have earth thrown in.
Aim at earth and you’ll get neither.”
- CS Lewis



KALK BAY (from the new book ‘Stirling’, a story, stories of hope)

Kalk Bay harbour

Kalk Bay , Cape Town (from http://kalkbaystjamesratepayers.wordpress.com)

KALK BAY (from the new book ‘Stirling’, a story, stories of hope)
Tags: Cape Town, South Africa, Kalk Bay, False Bay, Cape Peninsula, books, new books

Here is a short extract…
Mario (or Ray) caught the train from Harfield Village to Simonstown and after about half an hour reached the False Bay coastline. He passed the stations of Muizenberg, scene of a British battle with the locals from another century… then taking in the breath-taking views of the coast and the distant Hottentots Holland mountains, he passed St James station overlooking the deserted tidal pool and soon arrived at picturesque Kalk Bay station, looking down at the tiny harbour below the platform.

Mario (or Ray) walked down the stairs and crossed under the subway and arrived on the other side of the railway line on the main road. Walking past various antique and curio shops, he soon came to a sign  saying Clairvaux Road leading up the hill towards the low bushy mountain.

He walked up steep Clairvaux Road (past Lock Road) in the picturesque fishing village of Kalk Bay. Then he turned into St Johns Road leading back down to the harbour. In a few steps he soon  arrived at a Hansel and Gretal-like cottage on the left near the top of the hill.

There M was welcomed by a friendly aging man, who introduced himself as craig, who ushered him into the sparsely furnished lounge. The search for the missing writer was over… at long last. Perhaps there was still hope for his beloved son, Stirling… even if it was only a glimmer!

Ray would at least give it a try, his very best shot… 

*************

FALSE BAY (CAPE TOWN, the beautiful “mother city“of South Africa, “the beloved country“)

　

FALSE BAY (CAPE TOWN, the beautiful “mother city“of South Africa, “the beloved country“)

(from the new book ‘Stirling‘)

Tags (key words): Books, new books, Stirling, writer, False Bay, Kalk Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

These extracts (short) form part of a chapter of a novel I’m currently writing, called ‘Stirling’., a “rewarding tale of faith, hope and especially love”

. “Faction”, but perhaps even a true story… or stories!!!!FALSE BAY… FALSE DAWN

On his daily train ride home from school at SACS in leafy Newlands, the train stopped at Muizenberg, site of a battle with the British. Under a grey sky a large swell was running, as big white rollers gathered momentum coming onto the gently-shelving shore. After the bathing boxes and tidal pool of St James came Kalk Bay station, the shallow reef in the distance, where brave (or perhaps fool-hardy) surfers headed for the heavy barrels in the big surf running that afternoon.

Below the shade offered by railway station was the Kalk Bay pool, where the young blonde boy had first learnt to swim – a few tentative dog paddles at first, then his confidence grew and grew… and he came to love the ‘sand and sea’. In the nearby harbour of the fishing village (named after the chalky white lime) used to paint the humble cottages, bobbed many fishing boats, large and small, on which the lively Cape Coloured fisherman played their hard-earned trade. The “Iona” a larger and more opulent vessel stood out from the other craft. This vessel took tourists to see the seals at Seal Island in the middle of False Bay (though the number of seals was ever-diminishing with the growing … and marauding shark population in the warmer waters of the southern reaches of the Indian ocean.

With the conductor’s whistle, the train pulled out of Kalk Bay station and was soon rounding the curve looking across another bay to Fish Hoek (Fish Corner)…the mountain and sand-dunes in the distance.

The schoolboy’s last stop was Clovelly …home and homework (dreaded). At the same that overcast Tuesday afternoon, time nature lovers rejoiced in the splendour of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, way beyond the reaches of Simonstown, the end of the suburban line. And at the tip of the vast and dark continent of Africa lay the rocky outcrop of Cape Point, where some say the mighty Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. But the young boy was not taken by the magnificent scenery along the False Bay coast that day. Like every day, he was lost in thought, dreaming of the day when he would one day drive a Grand Prix car, the fastest and most advanced vehicles… and one day of glorious triumph, perhaps even be champion of the world, the fastest driver on planet earth…

It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”

- Sir Edmund Hillary, conquerer of Mount Everest (1919-2008)

Reach for the stars and discover the champion of life in YOU through playing your own brand of music on the magical journey of life.

If you can dream it, then you can DO it…

and BECOME it!

“

a champion of hope““All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

- Walt Disney

‘I was taught that everything is attainable, if you’re prepared to give up, to sacrifice, to get it. Whatever you want to do, you can do it, if you want to do it badly enough. However, most humans quit too soon in life.”

- former British racing driver Stirling Moss’s famous quote

Craig’s blog (with extracts from his various writings: articles, books and new manuscripts) is at

http://en.search.wordpress.com/?q=%22craig+lock%22&t=post and http://craiglock.wordpress.com

“The world’s smallest and most exclusive bookstore”

“A book is small enough to hold in your hand; but when you read it, the walls fall away and you’re in a room as big as the world.”

“A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.*”

* thanks “gifted gardener” mom, the “fertile garden of my imagination” is in my empty pocket

“Aim at heaven and you’ll have earth thrown in.”

Aim at earth and you’ll hit neither.”

- CS Lewis

- Chinese proverb

The Grand Prix Driver: Epilogue or Prologue???

 

“The Grand Prix driver crossed the finishing line beneath the colourful banner stretching across the width of the oil and rubber smeared tarmac below to win the Monaco Grand Prix in the year that was 2009. Exhausted (both mentally and physically) and saturated with sweat, the champion driver raised his arms, in celebration, glorious triumph, knowing that he had driven his last.. and the best ever race in his long career.

As the great champion of the world drove under the banner proclaiming ‘Sport for Peace” and received the chequered flag to the silent roars of the crowd, he also knew that a new chapter in his rather eventful life, yet also his greatest challenge lay ahead…

THE GRAND PRIX DRIVER

a driver and a dreamer

 

Category: Sports, books, new books, Stirling

The following is a short extract from one of Craig’s new manuscripts Stirling, that he’s currently writing

EPILOGUE

It was one day in the year 1961, whilst driving home after the South African Grand Prix in East London, that the young boy told his father that Jim Clark would one day be the champion driver of the world. The young boy was in a bad mood, because the young Clark had beaten his hero, Stirling Moss. And for the next few years the young South African boy followed the rising Scot star ’s ascending career with great interest and pride. So that the new “shooting star” eventually usurped the place of the now retired old hero, Moss after his near fatal accident at Goodwood, UK…until it too was tragically extinguished in a minor race at Hockenheim, Germany in 1968. And that night the young boy lay on his bed and read the race program over again and again… then he fell asleep and dreamt in peace. One day…

P.S: To dearest dad, see the dream never died!

“It is a celebration of a man’s unique vision – a vision that reaches out and shines, touching with magic the drama of life across all its limitless horizons.”

“Our talents are our gifts from God… but what we do with our talents are our gifts TO God.”

“Only when you’ve been in the deepest valley can a person know what it’s like to stand on the highest peak.”

• inspiring words from Richard Nixon, former United States President“Hold fast to your dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”

  – Langston Hughes

  “Together, one mind, one life at a time, let’s see how many people we can impact, encourage, empower, uplift and perhaps even inspire to reach their fullest potentials…and so become ‘ever more champions of life’.”