We will never be rich financially. But we are wealthy beyond belief in other ways.
How does your mindset affect your financial success?
Says it all
Me and the wife will never be financially “rich”. We both enjoy spending what we have worked bloody hard for over the last 40 years or so, and we kind of enjoy the fruits of our labour.
If we get money we spend it, we love treating others. I just wish others could see the joy that gives to us.
Whilst the wider family berate us for giving items away to charities, when we could have made some money through one dodgy selling platform or another, they don’t quite understand the pleasure we get in helping some other less fortunate soul out.
I think the difference is that we’ve been there. So down on our luck that we didn’t know where the next meal was coming from. We were so good at disguising our situation that no one really knew just how bad things were.
But, about 30 years ago we turned a corner. Luck came in the guise of a job that I worked my butt off to get, and from that time on we have never looked back.
We are not well off, don’t misunderstand me. However we are comfortable, we have experienced extreme lows and come through it all. That’s why I’m happy to give stuff away, if it helps someone up a challenging step in their life, then that is fine by me.
As I said at the beginning, we may never be rich financially, but for the wife and i, we are rich beyond belief in love, appreciation, and experience. And if we can pass it on, and give someone else that step up then so be it. The jobs a good un.
Do you actually read posts or are you a serial liker?
Are you holding a grudge? About?
It’s a wet autumn early morning in the East Midlands and once again insomnia has gotten the better of me, as once again I’ve failed in my attempt to get a good night sleep after a long run of night shifts.
Whilst i was sitting there wondering what i could do without disturbing the wife from her slumber, an idea came to me regarding a post i could write. So up i rise, and off to my room i go and the drivel you are about to endure is a result of that decision. My standards are quite low, my grammar is even worse. Please don’t hold that against me.
iPad on
I turn on the iPad, and the WP daily prompt arises from the internals of the machine. How apt? “Are you holding a grudge?” Now, this wasn’t planned but I couldn’t have asked for a better prompt. Apparently it must have struck a nerve with me in the past as i have already answered it once before.
Anyone who knows me will be quite aware that i write my posts for two main reasons. One is as a wellness journal, it helps keep my overactive brain in check, it allows me to get my thoughts and activities in print, and gives me that release i sometimes require, it allows my family to check in on my piece of mind and to allow them to see what i am getting up to. Secondly, it allows me to have a permanent record of the cameras and items i have repaired. This second reason has proved to be a fantastic resource, as when on the rare occasion that i pass an item on, or sell one online i have a full record of the history of the item that i can pass onto the individual who is purchasing, giving them a full history of the item and its repair history. This has proved to be an excellent and beneficial selling point as such.
The posts are not put together in days, despite how poor my writing style can be, the whole production of that post can take many months. A post that i suspect may in fact be published later today has been in production since late December 2025, getting on for nine months now. Now that doesn’t mean that because it has taken almost 9 months that you will be presented with a 1000 page book, you wont, thats just not me. What you will get is a concise record of what i have had to do over that time to get this item back into a working condition. I currently have 22 posts in a draft format and one of those is still in draft after originally being started in May 2025, that one alone has been worked on now for 16 months, a whole year and four months and it is still a work in progress.
My way of working is that as soon as i get stuck or delayed on one subject, i move on to the next until i either obtain the parts i require (this can take months if the item is unique) or until i have a brainwave on how to complete an activity. Add to that i have a home, a wife and a job that all quite deservedly require my attention, you can now see just what the delays are in getting some of these projects to a final “Print” condition.
I can hear you all now saying, “Just get to the point lad.”
Well, my grudge point is this “like” system that WP insists on using across this platform. The way i work is that when i like a post i will genuinely like it, and if it is worthy i will also post a comment. I follow many bloggers on this platform, all of them exceptional authors with exceptionally good writing ability that i am always in awe of.
Just the other evening my phone pinged constantly for around thirty seconds as an individual touched upon my site and liked almost 20 of my past posts. This is my grudge point. Collectively those 20 posts took up probably the best part of a year of my life one way or another, and this individual read all those posts in less than 30 seconds. Obviously he didn’t.
Now, please don’t get me wrong here, i do not blog for likes, that has never been the point of all this. However i do always appreciate peoples kind words and comments, good, bad and indifferent and especially the constructive ones. It just annoys me that someone feels they can boost their activity via WP at the expense of individuals that spend an awful lot of time getting the content prepared in the first place.
I follow a lot of blogs where English is not the authors first language, i even copy some onto a worksheet and get the content translated so that i can see what has been written, its always nice to reply to these authors, and there has been many a complimentary comment comeback, often showing surprise of the lengths i have gone through to read their posts.
I think WP should have a minimum time put on the “Like” system of around a minute, hence preventing multiple likes of posts. In the case above, the individual would have had to hang around for about 20 minutes to complete that task, and i am quite sure that would have never occurred. So, how about a minimum dwell time of at least a minute, this would at least be sufficient time to get an idea of what the post is about, and this would be an awful lot more respectful for the contributing author. What do you think about that?
I respectfully went back and read the posts of the chap that did the speed liking episode, he’s selling stuff, questionable stuff along with questionable advice, so i guess he has succeeded in what he was trying to achieve, attracting attention to his own page, i fell right into that trap didn’t i?
Sorry that this has dragged on a bit, i really do appreciate you passing by and taking a short time out of your days to spend some time with me. It’s like a virtual cup of tea really, and as i have been sitting here for close on an hour now without a real cuppa, i now realise its time to make one to take up to the wife who should be stirring about now. And i might just have one myself!
Left work this morning to see this gorgeous sight filling the sky
Just leaving work this morning after a long night shift. It appeared very red outside, as I looked behind as I got to the car I saw this beautiful 180 degree double rainbow over the station at Leicester. Strange thing is it was not raining, I suspect we have some rain incoming.
Welcome to week two of me documenting my week with one picture every day taken on an old camera that i have previously repaired.
So for week two, we are going to use a Canon Powershot S5 IS Digital Bridge Camera that I repaired back in July 2025 – Canon Powershot S5 IS
Canon Powershot S5 IS
Sunday: it’s the 23rd August. It’s been a nice warm day, we’ve had numerous members of the family visit. It’s been a lovely day. It’s one of those days where I’ve taken a handful of good photos, but for the purpose of this post I have to be brutal and pic just one. So here it is, meet Barney, my nieces dog, we brought him a new toy today that was demolished within about twenty minutes. If it has a squeaker in it, it’s his dog bound duty to remove it, and the balls of stuffing surrounding him shows that this mission has been a success. He never eats the squeaker though, he always leaves that to one side. Mad, but a lovely dog.
Monday: it’s the 24th August. A bit of shopping today. But before we can go out and do any, we have to wait for the Amazon lady to arrive with more shopping. Did I mention my wife loves shopping?
Tuesday: it’s the 25th August. Working today, and whilst I was carrying out some checks in the Oakham area I couldn’t help but notice the amounts of elderberries on the bushes. I remember as a child collecting lots of these, so my father could make his elderberry wine.
Wednesday: it’s the 26th August. Another working day, and today i was carrying out barrier checks on a number of crossings in our area. This one was at Brooksby crossing just outside of Melton Mowbray.
Thursday: It’s the 27th August. The yard at work, and since I’ve never been to Blackpool tower I may as well show this lovely old, still working traction unit class 37 (37407) named “Blackpool Tower”
Friday: it’s the 28th August. No work today “Hooray” it’s one of those days of just catching up with things. I’ve had to fix an extractor fan in one bathroom and adjust the timings on two other fans, I’ve also put a new raised flower bed under the front window in preparation for the spring bulbs that will be planted in the next few weeks, just letting the soil settle for a while prior to the planting.
Saturday: it’s the 29th August. New shoes. Well for attending football at least, hence they have the club badge embossed on the rear. Heading south today to meet up with family so these will get their first outing today. The weathers still very wet, however wet is wonderful as far as I’m concerned.
Which fictional world would be the most fun to vacation in?
It’s taken me a few days to ponder this one, then whilst sitting looking out the window on a wet and miserable, East Midlands day, it suddenly came to me, a quick roll back to my childhood where every book finished with the line:
And they lived happily ever after
That’s the place I’d like to have a vacation in…in fact, sod it, that’s the place I’d love to live full stop. 🛑
Wherever you can experience happily ever after, is the place for me. Who knows I could right now actually be living in that very place. I must admit life is relatively comfortable for me, but considering news reports of late that in themselves are very upsetting, it’s probably not where I am as this news input obviously makes me very unhappy.
Perhaps the happily ever after part is the suffix to your life? When we have no mortal ties, no worries, no control, no commitments it’s maybe the time we reach that happily ever after place?
Maybe the kids books should have ended, “They all struggled through life suffering aches and pains, minor disagreements and argumentative periods, before succumbing to a number of minor ailments before pegging it”.
Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as happily ever after, but hey, I did say I was looking out the window on a grey and miserable day didn’t I?
I have so many cameras hanging around the place that I have fixed over these last few years. I have therefore decided to select a few of them to do a little series entitled seven days in seven pictures. One camera for each week. I will choose a random camera, and choose one picture on each day that has a little story behind it. For me, just as my working week does, the seven days will run Sunday-Saturday.
It could be from any era of camera I have fixed, and for those who take the time to read my posts you’d realise that it could be anytime from about 1920 to the present day. With all the cameras I currently have (about 125 in storage, and growing) this series could go on longer than the soap opera Coronation street has appeared on the telly box ( That comment will be lost on anyone outside the UK).
So for week one I’m going small, with this lovely little portable camera.
A Nikon Coolpix L22, I repaired this way back in 2023, I was going to pass it on to a family member, kind of pleased I kept hold of it though. Here’s the link to the original post: Nikon Coolpix L22
Nikon Coolpix L22
Sunday: it’s the 16th August. I’ve just finished a run of night shifts and for the first time in what seems like months, the temperature has dropped to a nice cool temperature and it’s lovely. To be honest there is only one subject i can choose for today, it’s exactly two years to the day when we lost our beloved little dog Alfie. This is a little display we have on a unit in our living room, often spoken to, touched and stroked, his ashes and pictures dominate this shelf. He was a beautiful and much loved companion and confidant, who we will always miss, he was such a big part of our family. Beautiful boy ❤️
Monday: It’s the 17th August. I’ve been asked by work to do a buckshee night tonight, so the wife and I are going to go out for some lunch today. And today’s photo is from the Grange farm centre where we ate. I go to buy plants, the wife goes to fill the garden with pottery figurines. In this case a couple of sheep, a hedgehog and an Owl. No plants for me though.
Tuesday: it’s the 18th August. On the grand scale of things, this is a quite boring picture, but quite relevant. In the Uk, and especially in my location we haven’t had rain in over 50 days now due to a quite spectacular heatwave. That dry spell ended about 1 am in the morning when we had the first rains. Beautiful, the smell was gorgeous and for the first time in a long period the air was fresh and clean.
Wednesday: it’s the 19th August. Today’s been a funny kind of day where time has run away with us. However Wednesday is a day where we meet up with a couple of friends and spend an evening indoor bowling at our local bowls centre. We’re pretty new to it and are still learning the finer details of it all, however we are improving weekly and enjoying it thoroughly. It’s great company.
Thursday: it’s the 20th August. It’s a wet start, it’s been wet all day, in fact it’s been wonderful. It’s always good to see some rain especially after the bone dry heatwave period we’ve just gone through. My garden water butt went from bone dry to full in just one small rainstorm, and that butt holds just over 100 litres. I need more water butts. I had to therefore complete indoor tasks today, so I decided to get my garage sorted, stuff put up on the walls and a new set of shelves built. And that’s today’s boring picture, an uninspiring photograph of the interior of my garage using the cameras black and white setting. Still a bit to do, but it’s looking a lot tidier now.
Friday: it’s the 21st August. We’ve been busy most of the day, I had to drop my wife off to have her nails done whilst I had an appointment at the hospital about an issue I’ve had dragging on from last year. The good news is that I’m now discharged with no further treatment or appointments required, I’ve been given the all clear and now been told to just get back out there and enjoy myself. Picture wise it’s not anything exciting, once home I continued work on a camera I’ve been playing about with for a few months, with the 3d printer in the background that has been used to create replacement parts for this very camera.
Saturday: it’s the 22nd August. Back to work today for a day, as I’m covering a colleague who is unwell. It’s been a pleasant day, not too hot and I’ve been all over Leicestershire and Lincolnshire today. Ive taken a lot of pictures and to be honest it’s been hard to make a choice from them all. In the end I’ve settled on this nice picture of the signal box on the Leicester- Peterborough line at Uffington. The colours are lovely, the weather was just fine and the light was good. This little camera really does come up trumps at times.
Kodak, have overtaken Fujifilm in traditional camera film sales. Not surprising seeing Fuji have ceased production….sort of
Once again leading the way
Being an ex employer of Kodak, seeing headlines like this pleases me. Shame they are about 30 years late and Fujifilm have pretty much ceased production of their mainstream analogue films anyway.
Better late than never, things could have been so much different if they’d only moved with the times.
Kodak, directors had never really been that good at making a good high level decision. Just ask any of the thousands of good people laid off within the UK due to their poor mismanagement.
A fellow blogger has taken the words from my mouth. So why should I waste my time writing, when she speaks so eloquently.
If you could erase one event from history, what would it be?
I’m firmly with a fellow blogger: Audhdapparently on what she has posted earlier today regarding this subject. There is no point in me posting my feelings when they mirror exactly what she has quite eloquently posted on her own site, so here is a link to that very post:
Foxes Den 
You must be logged in to post a comment.