To be honest I don’t have many. That’s my choice and I could probably count mine on one hand. Why’s that? Because I trust them and they trust me.
That’s the only two things I ask of in a friend trust and confidentiality. If you can’t give that I’ll drop you like a sack of spuds.
Nowadays people seem to have hundreds of friends on line but I bet you that there’s a number of them more than happy to gossip and to be the first one to twist a knife between your shoulder blades.
There’s too many fakes out there. I don’t need that in my life.
You know what I’m not going to list every job I’ve done as I don’t want the reader to fall asleep.
What I will tell you is I’ve never had a day unemployed in my life, no I’m not lying however years ago you could walk from one job on a Friday and be in a new job come Monday. That can’t be done now due to all the security checks and everything that is now in place, but I’ve been in my current job in excess of Twenty years now so I guess I’ve dodged that bullet.
My work ethic has been that I would do anything to earn a bob or two for my family. I’d do any job I’m not a snob in that aspect and no job was beneath me. I think the attitude with some these days is that cleaning drains and service jobs are not for them and they want to slot into a £50k plus job with no previous experience.
Oh yes I remember it very well. I came from a generation that was around just before computer technology started to appear. When I was at school I was probably in my fifth year as a senior at around the age of 16 and it was only just then, that computer technology was starting to appear on the school curriculum, as I was preparing to leave education.
When I left school and started my first job I remember my first months wages were spent purchasing a Sinclair ZX 81 microcomputer, wow this was amazing. I was a bit confused at first though because I opened the box and I plugged it in and I just expected it to work, it was a bit of a shock that you actually had to learn how to program the device before you got anything out of it, however I soon mastered the programming of the basic computer language and I was soon able to program some good little games. Next I moved onto the Commodore 20 a lovely little computer but all my friends were buying the better quality Commodore 64. From the Vic 20 I went down the route of trying the Amstrad Computers, i think it was called the 364 or 464 depending on whether you had Green screen or a colour VDU.
To be honest i still look today at buying an old Sinclair ZX 81 or spectrum, little collectors pieces now but I did enjoy it before the Internet kicked in.
I was just a standard youngster of the day who would go out with his friends and be playing football, cricket, marbles or conkers dependent on what season it was. We used to have great life climbing trees, making bows and arrows, catapults you name it. I feel sorry for the kids nowadays because they don’t have that freedom.
I went out for a meal with my wife a few weeks ago and there was a family of five, mum dad and three kids and I should imagine the kids were only About 12 years old ranging down to a youngster that was probably two years old sitting in a high chair. Every single one of them was on a computer device of some kind or a mobile phone or iPad and I just said to my wife at that point,”look at that, the art of conversation has totally disappeared”. There’s an entire family sitting there and not one of them was speaking to each other. They were all too engrossed in what was going on in other peoples worlds, rather than discussing their own families funny moments, concerns, or achievements.
Yes I do miss the time pre Internet. I think everyone was a better conversationalist back then, to say something to someone you had to walk around to their house, knock on the door, see if they were in and then tell them what you wanted to say face to face.
That dosen’t happen now, we have now produced a generation of people who just don’t do conflict unless they are hidden behind a screen and a keyboard, and that is where I believe most of the anger and hatred spouts from nowadays.
There’s no going back and I’m not saying we should, there was a lot of bad back in those days that is probably the reason children especially, don’t enjoy the freedoms today that we had back then.
So it’s horses for courses, we must move forward with the times, yes we probably had wonderful childhoods but we must not get stuck in the past and genuinely have to evolve, however much we dislike it.
I remember my parents fretting about the future back in the 70s, we are just clones of them and the never ending circle of life just trundles on.
What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?
To me having it all means having enough to be happy. I’m happy with my lot, I have a good life, I’m closer to being poor than rich but I have all I need in my life. My family, my memories, my dreams and ambitions, I don’t have it all in terms of possessions power or money, I don’t envy what others have, I admire them for how they have obtained their good fortune and the hard work they have put into that achievement.
I have what I want, I have the people around me that I want around me, I have happiness and I’m content.
I believe I may have mentioned him before, but I’d like to speak to my old primary school teacher who took over a troubled individual’s downward spiral and moulded him into a half decent person.
That individual was me, the teacher was Mr. Twelftree, the school was Little Reddings in Bushey, Hertfordshire.
I’d love to meet him and talk to him, I’d love to say just two words – “Thank you”.
He was and has been the most influential man I have met in my life, even overshadowing my own father as he saw something in me that even my own father couldn’t see.
Thank you sir, the debt I owe you cannot be repaid, I only hope that what I have learned from you has been passed forward to help others.
I have an old personal cassette recorder otherwise known as a dictaphone sitting in the drawer of my bedside cabinet. On that cassette is a recording of my lovely mum drunkenly singing at a small dinner my wife and I hosted for her and my father about 30 years ago.
She’s singing the old Platters record, “Smoke gets in your eyes”
It’s my most treasured memory of a most beautiful person, and the fact I can still listen to my Mum after all these years at a time when she is happy is immensely satisfying and comforting to me. She didn’t have a happy life with my father, it’s just so good to hear her without worry on her mind.
Me and my wife both collect. She loves a certain brand of handbag, me, I collect cameras, photo postcards, radios, models, garden plants and ornaments and empty boxes.
Together we both collectively collect dust as we’d both rather be out making memories than doing boring household chores.
I have no kids, I’ve not done anything particularly good or spectacular for anyone to remember me by, I’ve just lived a good life, been a good citizen and that’s about it.
So like the majority of residents of this planet that have gone before me maybe I might be remembered as being a decent person, but more than likely I will be forgotten. Ive just been a resident, a paid up member of the brotherhood of man, and that’s not such a bad thing.
Maybe, slinking away into anonymity is the way to go. Who cares? No fuss.
Cold has a beautiful aura to it. It also is a major pain in the ass so I mostly feel the latter towards it.
I love visiting cold climates and Iceland is up there with being one of my favourite places to visit on the planet. It’s set up for the cold, it works well and the locals are all prepared and work well in it.
Back home however we are not. A bit of cold that for some countries would be a minor inconvenience, for us becomes catastrophic and the whole country grinds to a halt. We are never prepared.
Cold brings on my arthritic aches and pains and I long for the summer months, however I am accustomed to the fact that like it or not, winter conditions have to be endured, so I do.
Yes I’m ok with the cold, but to be honest I really do prefer the warmer months.
Foxes Den 
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