Thank You

I would like to thank all of you who have leapt to my defence during the recent unpleasantness. It is heartening to know how many friends and supporters I have. Sadly - because I believe in freedom of speech - I have reluctantly changed the settings on this blog so that I can moderate comments that are submitted. I will change this status as soon as `Exeternews` dissapears back into the ether...

I don't know who this person is, but I would like to reassure no-gooder that I have a singular lack of jilted ex-lovers on my trail. In fact I don't think I have ever jilted anyone in the true sense of the word...

One last note. Exeternews asked why I don't invite journalists along on our expeditions. The answer is: I do! We had a journalist along at the Cannoch Crocodile hunt and several at Martin Mere. We have nothing to hide and journalists are always welcome.

Open Letter to the person calling themselves `Exeternews`

Sir or Madam,

I do not know who you are although I have my suspicions. I have ignored your impertinent comments for weeks, but they have now gone from being irritating to defamatory. I have taken legal advice and am referring the matter to the people in charge of www.blogger.com. They will take whatever action they deem necessary.

I am quite happy to enter into a discussion on the ethics of the CFZ on any public platform. I will not, however, respond to mudslinging from someone too cowardly to come out from behind a facile pseudonym.

Jon Downes

WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

00.24 a.m Saturday.

We have been travelling since lunchtime, and I am so tired I can hardly stand, but we are back, and although its good to be home, Loch Ness was great fun. We didn't catch the monster, but there is a lot to report, and I hope to be able to make a proper report on the morrow - in the meantime, here are three of the most famous Cryptozoological beards.....

MONSTER HUNTERS SIGHTED AT LOCH NESS

For the last three days the monster hunting duo, Jonathan Downes and Richard Freeman have been filming at Loch Ness for an American TV show hosted by Penn & Teller.

Yesterday an eagle-eyed CFZ member sent us an alledged photograph from a Loch Ness webcam. Showing what appeared to be the CFZ team in a boat, cruising the vicinity of the ruins of Urquhart Castle.

Jon and Richard will be back by the end of the week, so watch this space for more updated news.

Sources:-

Webcam: http://www.lochness.co.uk/

Urquhart Castle: http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/drumnadrochit/urquhart/

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Recently Thelma put a posting on the CFZ Forums with a questionairre about the things that CFZers do and don't do etc. These included favourite films, music and whether or not drugs should be legalised and I should have a haircut. I answered reasonably truthfully, but looking back at my - and other peoples - answers a pattern began to emerge.

I think that it is interesting how many people don't think that drugs should be legalised (despite what people in certain quarters think about the CFZ). I think that one of the most destructive things about my generation was the widespread view that drugs are OK, and worse that cannabis is a "soft drug".

Cannabis is a seriously powerful psychoactive agent, and the present generation of skunks are vastly more powerful than anything we had back when I used to proselytise for weed twenty odd years back.

A few years back someone sent me an Alcoholics Anonymous leaflet after one of my appearances at the Unconvention. He told me that he thought that I was an alcoholic. I was furious, but with hindsight I think that he was probably right. Until a couple of years ago I drank far too much, and although I was never one of those people who had to have a drink in order to get up in the morning, I certainly used it as an emotional crutch, and over indulged to a dangerous extent.

I think that booze and dope (particularly the latter) did me more harm than any of the so-called harder drugs that I messed with over the years, If I had my time again, I don't think that I would have touched any of the things I did with a bloody heat bargepole, and I would have drunk far more moderately.

My drinking and drugging days are largely behind me now, but I still ain'y gpnna have that haircut!

Be back home tomorrow

It's strange. I have been away from the office for a week now, and it seems to belong to an entirely different time and space. I have been staying with Corinna and her two daughters in Lincolnshire, and generally enjoying domestic bliss and a level of normalcy that I never usually experience. Apart from going to see Alice Cooper at Wembley on Sunday, and writing about half a chapter of my new magnum opus (it is now 50,000 words and rising), I am happy to report that I have generally done nothing with aplomb and flair...

However, I catch the 7.54 for Brum in the morning and will be back at the CFZ after lunch. After that I have about five days in the office before I fly to Loch Ness on Tuesday,,,,

What a life eh?