Afternoon Update: People in My World

:: The biggest news of the day is that my ex-ex, Julian, is in hospital. Saturday evening he was rushed to Barrie's Royal Victoria Hospital in excrutiating pain. It turns out he had a perforated appendix; they operated immediately. Graham, his other half, sent me an e-mail this afternoon. When I finally manged to get through, he was in good spirits but very tired and in some pretty awful pain. Julian is 50; we were living together from 1979-1995 and stay in daily touch by phone or e-mail. I'll post updates as I hear them.

:: Last night, I had the pleasure of running into a sweet (and very bright) young man, Matthew Charlton whom I first met about three years ago at Zelda's, a local funky restaurant in the heart of the Church and Wellesley village. He was working in software design and development back then (at the ripe old age of 20). He's now in engineering at the UofT but that hasn't stopped him from writing music and self-publishing four poetry chapbooks. At 2 am, over a smart martini, he handed over a copy of The Cosmology of Love – musings on love and science. Some good stuff in there, not least the opening piece "Cosmology" and the centre work, "Music". Bravo, Matthew!

:: Not that it was exactly today, but I continue to mull over the fate of Emmerson Swerdfeger, my great uncle, whose pic I happened to receive from a second cousin, Donald Shaffer at the University of Northern Colorado who mentioned my ancestor in passing on his website. Emmerson died at the Battle of Amiens, France, on 18 Aug, 1918 just days after his 19th birthday. I have been doing some geneaological research for a couple of years, since looking for, and finding, my biological family. Alexander Swerdfeger? Yup, it could have been ....

For the record, I am: Alexander Inglis (1955- ), son of Gordon Barclay (1931- ), son of Miles Swerdfeger (1896-1972), son of Arthur Swerdfeger (1871-1963), son of Samuel Swerdfeger (1841-1911), son of Michael Swerdfeger (1802-??), son of Frederich Swerdfeger (1765-1849), son of Rev Samuel Swerdfeger (1734-1798). Miles changed the family name to Barclay in 1930. I am adopted; Gordon is my biological dad.

Welcome to Alexander's Blog

:: Ok, so I have been plotting and scheming to create a blog for quite a while but I found the whole thing quite intimidating. And me, an ex-webmaster!

Like a lot of folks, the thrill of blogging became a reality with Salam Pax's Dear Raed posts from Baghdad. Now a celebrity, many of us waited with held breath and fear in our hearts when his posts stopped appearing after the American bombing started. (But he's alive and well and writing for the UK's Guardian. An update appears here.)

Some blogs are online rants (esp. by gen-xers or loopy politicos), and some are just peeks, diary-like, into some more-or-less ordinary bloke's life which suddenly becomes exciting because this is all, so -- well -- naughtily clandestine.

I am hoping to offer you a glimpse into this sod's boring life, plus some works in progress. (I'll try not to retell my story too many times ....)

Ciao for now