Book Reviews
Hold the front page! This is what the papers say. If you’ve come across anything else, please let us know. Apologies for the lack of radio interview sound bytes – coming soon!
Life in the Day
August 2005
By Emma Mills
Goan-born writer and feng shui consultant, Mickey Elias, came to England at the age of eight, fleeing death threats in Uganda. He grew up, fatherless, in rural Wales, after passing through several refugee camps. Ex-marketeer, publicist, therapist, OCD sufferer and workaholic he is now publishing the first ever 18 Certificate book, “MEN Speak the Unspeakable”, in which he attempts to reclaim his manhood.
“I wake up showered with kisses. My girlfriend Angela works as a head chef and leaves at about six. Sometimes I wake and think ‘shit, she’s already gone!’ And then she appears by the bed and kisses me goodbye.
I get up around eight. In the winter I never want to get out of bed and in the summer I can’t wait for the day to start.
I don’t eat breakfast, I should, but I don’t. I check emails, work out what I’m doing that day and whether I need to wear a shirt.
My days are filled with seeing clients and organising publicity for the book. It’s different to how it used to be. Years ago when I got successful working in feng shui / therpay I was on the TV a lot and in the papers. People would recognise me on the tube. I hated it. I hate the fame thing. Especially when you are dealing with something so personal. People expect that you’ll remember all their darkest pain, but I don’t. So I moved from North London to the East End and have been hiding there ever since.
At the moment I’m trying to find people to help me with the book’s website. But it’s difficult. It needs to be the right person you know; people that feel for it. I’m just now beginning to understand that this book is a big deal. It’s the first of its kind, a book with an 18 Certificate. But I need to be OK with this, there’s stuff in there I don’t want kids reading.
When I’m not working on the book, I’m seeing clients. The label I’ve used for years is feng shui. But it’s so much more than that, it’s a life situation. I don’t get silly arses saying, “I don’t know where to put my potted plant.”
It’s working out what was going on with your folks for the nine months you were being carried. It leads back to everything. I have clients who think they might be gay, or whose business is failing, or who can’t get pregnant, or who’ve been abused. I call it the ‘Lap of Honour’, one last time and then no way can you be a victim of this anymore. And I’m really careful about this. It’s like the matrix: once you’ve taken the pill of awareness there is no turning back. It can be frightening. If I f*** it up, it’s bad karmically. And I don’t want to go to hell, there’s too many Catholics there.
At the end of the day I like to relax at home. People ask about taking my work home with me. But it’s not that simple. Everyone that I see is an absolute reflection of me. That’s how it works. It’s part of my pathway. I ask myself: what are these people telling me? I’m knackered by the end of the day. But I love it, I really love it.
To relax I do the ironing. Maybe it’s the OCD thing. Most of the book was written whilst I was doing the ironing. I go into a zone where it’s crisp and peaceful and calm and everything gets perfect. But I don’t do pleats.
I also do weights. It’s not a macho thing, I’m not into that. I work everything out of me. I used to go to hard-nut gym in Bethnal Green but then I injured my knee; so now I’ve joined a posh gym. It’s not the same, everyone’s too busy being pretty.
I get so busy in the day I sometimes don’t have time to do anything else. Like today for instance, I could really have done with a good cry today. I’m not the sort of person who encourages ‘letting it all out’ – I’m very pro-active, go in there, get something done, work through it, and can you buy me a drink now please? But sometimes I wish I had time to cry. I don’t even have time to fart at the moment.
My house is beautiful – very me, it’s got a great vibe to it. It’s big and airy with a huge glass table that I can work at. Gina has her own room. Most of the time we end up following one another around the house because we don’t get to see each other enough.
My house is tidy, everything has its place. I need to be in control. When I was a kid everything was so out of control, having to go into hiding and all that shit. I don’t cook and I don’t drive. That’s what my friends are for. Angela is the most magnificent cook, which is lucky, because I’ve never cooked a meal in my life.
I’ve spent most of life looking for a home. I’m Goan, there’s no such place as Goa anymore, the Indians have taken it over. I was brought up old Portuguese and thrown out of Africa for not being African. My childhood was spent in Wales. The only place I’m not stared at is Mexico and Australia feels like home. I mean – where do I go with that? I think in the end my home is inside of me. It has to be.”