Spiro, The Soul Crew and The South Wales Echo

I think my dad may have had tongue in cheek while writing this. Although he did go through a spell of wearing a Burberry cap and smashing stuff up when City lost.

I don't think the Echo printed this one...

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21 May 2002

Viewpoint

South Wales ECHO

Thomson House

Havelock Street

Cardiff      CF1 1XR

Dear Fellow Football Fans

I must comment on that TV show called ‘Hooligans’ and screened on Channel 4 last Sunday.

The showpiece made me so proud to be a City Fan, that I immediately accessed the website advertised and became a member of the Soul Crew.  How inspiring it is to know that a gathering of well dressed Cardiff City fans are able to dominate their English counterparts

Do join us if you love the true meaning of football

Yours sincerely

 Spiro Jones

April Fools 2003

In honour of April Fools, here's the most successful trick my dad every played. These postcards were printed out by the dozen and sent to over a hundred friends, family and general acquaintances. At least one person (that we know of) turned up to her local GP with a urine sample. Rumour has it that the NHS in Wales gave a hoax warning to all a staff as a result.

But what was most funny (and possibly indicative of the organisational structure of the NHS) was that some doctors thought it was genuine and actually treated patients as a result.

So despite some people feeling foolish, this is a trick that may have had a net positive in the world. Better than littering the houses of the visually impaired, anyway.

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Front

Back

The Afterlife

A very dark and serious poem about death and the afterlife. Or at least, my dad's version of dark and serious.

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The Afterlife

The widow in her bed awoke
A voice called out her name
‘Mabel, Mabel, can you hear me?’
Chilling the air from whence it came

She stared into the darkness
And tremblingly replied
‘Henry darling, is that you?’
Though she knew that he had died

‘Yes, my dearest, it is me.
Didn’t I say that when I died
I would contact you again
From beyond the other side

‘Oh, Henry, Henry, how are you?
How is life beyond the grave?
Is it nice in paradise?
How do you pass the time of day?’

‘Oh, it’s lovely, Mabel darling,
Here the sun shines all day long
So every morning when I wake
I just burst into song.

‘I have some bread for breakfast
And then go down for a swim
I stroll along the gardens
And frolic in the wind

I have some bread at lunchtime
And take another dip
I mate with several females
Then take a little kip.

‘I eat some bread for supper
And take a final splash
It’s so serene and peaceful
No need to fret or dash’

‘But Henry, when you were alive’
The widow sternly said,
‘You were always in a rush
And you never ate your bread.

‘As for swimming, you astound me,
It was something that you hated
You couldn’t even swim, my dear
And we certainly never mated!

‘The afterlife has changed you so’
Henry answered, ‘It’s just luck,
For when I was upon the earth
I was not a little duck!’

30 November 2010