Category: Random musings

I won the lottery…that day

Share what you know about the year you were born.

My birthday year was special because I was born. I’m not being big headed, I actually won the lottery that day.

Well I didn’t win the actually “money” lottery, so you can stop thinking about the begging letters, however anyone born prior, during or since are all in fact lottery winners and your prize is life. (Like it or not.)

Yes your chances of winning the top prize in the Uk National lottery are a whopping 1 in 45,057,474 (source National Lottery)

Prior to being born your parents entered into a lottery arrangement (Polite way of saying what occurred) and your odds of being born are allegedly an eye watering 1 in 400 Trillion . Just let that sink in for a moment. You really have won the lottery of life.

As I said, like every big winner there are things you will like and dislike about you fortune, but you have been afforded probably the most precious gift of all.

Life.

So there is the saying that someone is one in a million, next time you are told that, stop that someone in their tracks and say. “ Hold on there, I’m actually 1 in 400 Trillion.”

We are all very special, on this little planet of Lottery winners.

Stay safe. You wonderful person.

(Picture courtesy of Earth.com)

We are all judgemental

Are you a good judge of character?

People are a puzzle, I think we all know that. Some say we shouldn’t judge people but those same people may have well been stung as a result in the past. It’s hard to avoid being judgemental, and to be honest it’s hard to imagine anyone’s survival by not being judgemental. And thats why we have the saying “ Once stung, twice shy” it came about for a reason and that reason probably was that someone had trusted someone when perhaps they should have been a bit more wary. I direct you to an earlier post I wrote: Trust

Being judgemental does not mean you are nastily caging someone and instantly putting them into a “bucket” as they say. Not one person can honestly say they do not judge people, do you not have someone turn up at your door and think “What do they want?” Do you not see a customer and ask “Why are they here?” This is judgement in its most basic, every day use. Now, when you instantly start labelling people all wrongly when you don’t know them, calling them all kinds of nasty things, this is very wrong, and you’d be a wise person to avoid this kind of behaviour. This is poisonous judgement of someone.

We all get judged, we go for work interviews and are judged, on a regular basis at work my superiors regularly check my competencies to carry out a role, this is all judgement and is needed to see how capable an individual is. It is in many cases a necessity.

A good judge of character has the ability to advance the process through to a number of other traits, one of those being trust. This may then lead to friendships as well, as you can see this is the natural progression of your life, this entire process needs to occur to develop social interaction and relationships.

Don’t say you don’t judge, you do. You just need to look back over the day to see your style of judgement. If it’s bad – make a change.

Have a peaceful day.

Happy Woofday

Strange how people’s social calendars change when they become carers of animals.

Today I have received an invite to one of our dear departed Alf’s friends.

It’s Barneys birthday

Wasn’t expecting this to be honest, what does one take to such a soirée as this?

He has good texting skills

Barney and Alf grew up together, Alf was about 5 years his senior and when he was younger he took him under his wing, however as Barney got older and a lot bigger the order of bossiness changed. However he is a great dog and one of the family, just crazy as a box of frogs.

Strange as you start aging, the randomness in your life just gets stranger and more wacky.

I wonder if they will be serving Jelly and ice cream? That might just swing the acceptance of the invite.

Happy days everyone.

My World

When are you most happy?

Like a broken old loop from an Eastenders sub plot, lots of people will say “When I am with family”. Well that doesn’t work for me. My family were an extremely dysfunctional unit and to be honest we were probably best kept apart. My dear darling mother died on this day 20 yrs ago, she was the glue that held our family together and once she had gone the rot set in.

However, I have my own small arm of the family that consists of just my wife and I. It used to have a third member, little Alf our dog, but he unfortunately passed away in August of this year and what I always refer to as “My World” again collapsed, so now we are two.

Alfie Bichon Frise

Home is my safe place and that is where I feel safe with the only person I know that knows me better than I know myself. After 33 years of marriage I am still excited to go home at the end of a working day, and I can’t wait to see her again.

My world

I’m just scared that one day My World will collapse again, but I will not dwell on the future, I will concentrate constantly on ensuring that My World is content, happy and safe and most importantly cared for.

Peace

Anger and hate – Why?

I’m not going to answer today’s daily prompt as WordPress sometimes asks some quite pathetic questions. Who really cares what my 5 favourite foods are or what the last things are that I did for play purposes. If you want to get some good interactions then ask about real life issues, if you want to know what someone has had for dinner then mosey on over to Fakebook or one of its sibling sites.

Today I’m talking Anger and hate, as I’ve experienced it big time in the last few days and I don’t really understand why.

I work hard. Very hard and it’s a thankless task at times. In my job I have to keep transport moving and people safe, however, occasionally one collapses and the other suffers. A young girl with serious issues, had this week presented herself, wandering out onto high speed train lines wearing just pyjamas bringing the system to a halt. I’m one of the first on scene, I arrange protection for everyone ensuring that trains aren’t moving near us and we then go about the task of recovering her and getting her to a place of safety. We achieve this and after a short while she is taken away and given support from a medical team. She is safe, it is all that matters, a life has been saved and it’s about as good as a day gets, but then I meet members of the public who’s travel plans have been ever so slightly disrupted, and it is disturbing and disgusting what I now experience.

“Why didn’t you just let her get hit by the train?”

“She’s ruined my F***ing day as I’m now late”

“People like that deserve to die”

I could go on, and the personal abuse I received questioning my parentage was not much better. It was pure bile and hate and that is why I ask why is there so much anger and hate about today?

What have we become as a society when your lives are arranged in such a way that a small delay brings out the absolute worst in you.

Why is so much anger present in society, even I walked away from this situation and wondered why I had even bothered.

I never use the word “Hate” anyone in my family will tell you that, and I will always pull someone up when they use that word. It’s an awful word, and there is far too much of it in this world. Dislike is a simpler word and can always be worked upon to improve a situation. It’s always easier to turn dislike into something more positive, however hate is a cancerous word that that can rarely be eliminated, it poisons the mind and very quickly kills all manner of rationality.

I work alone, I help get teams together to achieve common goals, the main one being to get transport from point “a” to point “b” safely. Sometimes we are challenged and have to work hard to achieve this goal, but we are always doing our very best. We work in the background and you probably wouldn’t even see us on a daily basis keeping everyone safe, but we are always there, always looking out for issues. Always looking out for you.

But it seems there is (hopefully a minority) an underbelly of society who are so selfish, that they are a danger to their fellow humans, they seem to have lost all reasoning, and common decency and this seems to be eating away at our core values as a social and caring society.

It’s been a tough week and I dare say on the run up to Christmas and just beyond that we will, experience more of these incidents. But guess what?

I will be there, I will do my job, I will put an arm around each of these individuals ( if they allow me) and tell them that I care and that I will be with them whilst they are my responsibility, they need this. I will think about them, no doubt for a long time after the incident and wish them all the very best.

For the irate passenger though I will feel sorrow, for the way they feel and act, and I will dislike that, however they can easily change their ways and become that better person.

Be that better person yourself, don’t hate upon anyone and just try to make life that much better for someone less fortunate, you just don’t know what they are going through.

You will feel a warmth in your body that you may never have felt before. That’s peace and contentment. Spread that feeling, this old world needs a lot more of it.

Have a safe and happy day.

My Primary school teacher

Describe a man who has positively impacted your life.

This is an easy one for me. And to save repeating myself I will just refer you to an earlier post I made back in 2023 regarding this man.

Thoughts 25/3/23

That man was a teacher, absolutely the most influential man I have had the pleasure of coming across in my life. I had a questionable upbringing and my own father could have held this accolade, however he failed in most aspects of both mine and his life. He was a nasty, jealous and dangerous man.

Mr Twelftree however stepped up to the plate and was the polar opposite of my father. He was an exceptional teacher and mentor.

This man has, and will forever be the most influential person I have met in my life. The teaching profession has such an effect on young lives, and here I am 45yrs later still holding a torch for this man and his profession. He is an exceptional man, I would love to shake his hand and simply say, “Thank you”.

Stay safe, stay humble.

The total opposite

Is your life today what you pictured a year ago?

I like to normally stay upbeat, but these recent prompts have really got me thinking. I know everyone wants to see the “Yes my life is perfect” answers, but I’m afraid you’ll have to head to Insta and Fakebook for those replies. To be honest looking back at the last year it’s been fairly “Shit” to be honest.

Now I’m not going to fill this post with my woes and issues as there are a lot of people out there that have had it a damn sight worse than me, but the question has been asked and I have to answer it truthfully.

The family is on the point of breaking up due to “family” things, there has been illness, emergencies and grief by the bucket load, however myself and my wife have managed to keep smiling through it all, hiding exactly what we feel on the inside. As I have stated, there are others out there that have had it a lot worse, and to be honest my thoughts and prayers lay with them. Being a strong willed couple, my Wife and I can overcome much that life throws our way, and hopefully we have enough left in reserve to help others who may not have that support to fall back on.

So yes, we’ve had a bad year, just like a lot of people, but we have also learned from our discomfort, pain and uncertainty.

So through mild adversity we remain united and strong, and that is a good sign….isn’t it? I guess all is not that bad, once you have faced the pain and issues head on.

Stay safe everyone.

Loss is forever

What skills or lessons have you learned recently?

No skills but a valuable lesson. It’s a strange one and you’ll probably think I’m a right ass but it hit me straight between the eyes I tell you.

I was standing staring at a picture of a dearly departed and very much loved family member that I was very close to. It suddenly hit me that I will never ever, see or hear this individual again. I don’t know why this occurred but it was just like a wave of undeniable acceptance swept across me and it shocked me.

I have my faith, that I question frequently, but it gives me comfort, and part of that comfort lies in believing I will meet my loved ones once again. But the question now is will I?

Can’t answer that I’m afraid as can no one else, I guess the truth will unfold on the day of my last breath. My god, that will be a day of truths if ever there was one.

It was just such a strange and unexpected moment.

Stay happy and humble.

I Care

Tell us one thing you hope people say about you.

I’ve probably covered this in a number of earlier posts, however this one in particular probably sums it all up just fine. Why bother? I care that’s why.. I’m a pretty hard shelled character and it takes an awful lot to gain my confidence, but I do hope people go away from meeting me and say that I’m a caring soul.

Says it all

I have been hurt an awful lot in the past especially by those who were put on this planet to help me on my way but failed miserably. Through this all though I have kept and nurtured a caring attitude as I don’t wish for anyone to be alone with poisonous thoughts and attitudes. If I achieve nothing else in my life at least I can rest comfortably knowing I have helped along the way.

There is an old saying,” Helping one person might not change the whole world, but it could change the world for that one person”

Simple. Isn’t it. Stay humble.

Morning..probably

Are you more of a night or morning person?

Working a 24hr shift roster as I currently do it’s hard to give a true preference. I have never had a problem in rising though and am quite proud to say I have never been late to work in my life, for that I can be totally relied on.

I love an early rise, I like my cup of tea or two before the rigours of the day kick in, yes I’d say I’m more of a morning person.

Shift work really throws your sleep patterns out of kilter though, and there are times when you have changed from night shift to early shifts when you just don’t want to wake up early, but your body says different. There you are due to rise at 04:45 for an early shift but your body and mind decides you are going to be awake about 3 hrs earlier. This is where fatigue steps in.

However a week or two’s holiday sorts this out and after a few days your sleep pattern is sorted. So I’m now quite confident that I’m definitely a morning person. It’s lovely to rise early before the world is totally motivated and get the day underway, nothing is wasted.

Have a lovely day. Peace to you all.