The last live performance I saw was the Ukrainian national ballet and opera version of Puccinis “La Boheme” at the Demontfort hall in Leicester city centre.
La Boheme
Now you are probably thinking I’m a high brow poncey stuck up operatic lovey, you couldn’t be further from the truth. My music choice ranges from operatic, to big band sound, through disco and hip hop all the way through to seriously heavy metal and anything in between. If I like the sound I’ll go see the group that made it.
It’s good to have a variety of music to admire. My love of operatic and chamber music goes down to my total admiration of musicians who can play these beautiful instruments and make such wonderful sounds with them. And that’s why I appreciate live music and will attend a concert whenever I get the chance.
My favourite group is another question though, and that group is REM. As they are no longer around I’m off to see a tribute band to them called “Stipe” that will be in my area next month. I’m looking forward to that.
I could answer this question easily and say “Nothing”. Next question please.
I’m not active in anything currently but I have done the litter picking thing just like many people have stated, I’ve gardened for the elderly I’ve done shopping for them, I’ve recycled old cameras and passed them on to community groups, but to be honest, as I’ve stated in previous posts in my community there needs to be some community spirit and to be totally clear there is none of that around here.
There are so many isolated groups of people unwilling to interact with each other in this city, as in other sizeable cities and this makes developing a community spirit nigh on impossible.
The person who can break that cycle and develop community spirit will get my vote for office.
What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?
To be honest there is no job I would like to do for a day, however if I’m pushed I’d probably like to do the job of my boss, because:
I’ve done his job before and I’d just like to prove to him just how totally incompetent, useless, untrustworthy and disorganised he is. No malice intended here, he just is all four of the above. He has the man management skills of a Gibbon on heat, and you can’t talk to him about anything personal without someone else finding out about it. If things don’t go his way he just throws his toys out of the pram, a total incompetent being paid by a similarly incompetent and disorganised company.
Most mornings I discuss these questions with my wife as I use this blog like a journal that I used to keep beside my bed. In that journal I used to write my feelings and fears and left it there for her to read so she never had to worry about me hiding anything from her, being a blokey bloke sometimes you just can’t talk, this was my way of dealing with it.
Anyway I’m drifting here. The reason I discuss these things with the wife is that she sometimes knows me better than I know myself. She jokingly said to me that “I give you directions” however I corrected her and said yes, that’s right for directions, but this is direction in the singular sense.
Targets
What gives me Direction?
For me I have to have goals or targets in everything I do. I give myself a timescale on all my projects, I set myself small targets in pretty much everything. Even holidays are booked to have that something to aim for and the next holiday is usually already booked before we depart on the first one, ensuring continuity in timescales.
It all sounds very anal I know, but it keeps me in line and I’m happy if I’ve got something to aim for.
That’s direction for me. Look forward and don’t spend too much time dwelling in the past.
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
The respect quote is big for me and this picture below says it all:
Respect
The reason I put my dog up as the main picture for this post, is that he being a simple small canine he has this as his goal in life both to me and my wife and he delivers this daily without question.
Now let’s talk about humans….. nah I can’t be bothered to waste my time we’ll end it there.
Good question, I’m sure the majority of people would link this question to work, however the company I work for has so burnt me out that I just don’t feel productive in the paid work sense. I’m just tired, tired of the politics and tired of the individuals now in place as managers who to be honest would struggle to arrange a P*** up in a brewery, I am physically tired.
Old drayman cart
I would say I’m more productive in the home environment. The wife has recently given some deadlines for jobs to be done in and around the house and that’s where I find myself most productive. See here for an example: The best laid plans and all that…Pt2. I work good to timelines and can manage my productivity really well in these instances.
I just don’t get that at work anymore, however i will always be 100% professional in my role.
I’m probably more use at work as an old secure pair of hands, so I’m taking a step back from the productivity and letting the youngsters make the decisions and to take the lead in these cases and just helping out when needed… is that being productive? I don’t think so, but they say age related discrimination dosen’t exist. I beg to differ.
Well to be totally transparent and honest to you, all I can honestly do is show you my most frequently used emojis and offer an explanation as to why.
Favourite Emojis
Laugh: I laugh a lot and like to use this a lot.
Face slap: best way to react to some silly questions
Wave and clap: Not heard from someone in a while or cheering someone
Face emojis: In general these ones save a lot of words, self explanatory.
Fox, Blue Dot and Goat: Relate to my football team and allegiance
The rest have all been used for something or other, I’m sitting here wondering what in some cases.
I do think that if you reviewed your most used emojis on a monthly basis, it must surely give an insight into how your month is going. I’m sure someone in a very high payed University position is already looking at this information as we speak.
To be honest I’ll talk about anything. The only things I try to avoid are religion and politics because both subjects can get a bit heated.
I also love talking about sports. Especially football and my local football Club where I’m a season ticket holder. I love discussing football with people who support other teams. I love to hear their points of view. We share anecdotes, we sing silly songs and we have a tribal atmosphere as such and this all provides hours of stuff to talk about.
King power stadium
I also love my hobbies. You probably already know that hence the reason you’re probably looking at this blog. You may have just stumbled across it and if you have, “hello” and welcome to the Foxes Den where I’ll try and fix things. I’m not always successful but I’ll get immense fun and enjoyment out of it. It all helps me keep a level head.
Our garden pub door sign – same as this site
I’ll try to avoid talking about Work because to be honest it’s starting to get on my nerves now. I’m getting to the end of my working life, I’m looking forward to retirement if I can make it. I just hope nothing occurs in the short period of time between now and then. I don’t want to bore people about my work, i just try to keep people safe but you don’t always get recognised for doing that. You represent a big organisation and that’s it for you really, you’re no longer an individual. You’re just a number and I don’t like that.
Work
I hope this answers the question that was originally put to me for this blog post as I’ve gone on a bit I must admit, but hey it’s 02:30 in the morning. I’m sitting at work waiting for the next job to come in and I’m contemplating whether to have another cup of tea
I think I’ll have that cup of tea. I deserve it.
I wish a happy day to everyone who is reading this. I hope you are successful in all you do, I hope you’re kind to people and at peace with your lot. Be kind to yourself as well because at the end of the day you are the most important person on this planet.
Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?
I had to ask my wife for clarification here as my mind had drawn a blank. Now the flood gates have opened. In the words of George Michael- “Turn a different corner and we never would have met.”
Yes, this question really is a closing doors moment. We all make decisions on a daily basis, lots of them, and then occasionally a big one comes up and you have to concentrate on how you respond. Not all decisions are particularly bad, but hindsight being a wonderful thing you occasionally look back and say, “ I wish I had done that differently.”
Contentment
For me that moment would have been in the late 80s. As a couple my wife and I have always had a bit of a spend thrift attitude to money, if we had it we kind of spent it. Sometimes we lived beyond our means as I’m sure we all do from time to time but we had good times and made memories and don’t regret that for one moment as you can’t put a price on good memories. They were what we used to call picture moments, we still have them from time to time and we will occasionally say to each other “This is a picture moment” and we know at that point one of us has taken a mental picture of that very moment for posterity.
In the 80s we had a chance to purchase what was our old house for about £80k. Considering we were only 17 miles from central London it was a bargain, but because of our spendthrift attitude for life it was out of our range even at that price. Instead we poured endless amounts of cash into a flat we renting, we should have realised we were lining someone else’s pockets and not ours. We didn’t care, as ignorance is bliss….isn’t it?
Fast forward about 3 years, a little wiser and settled due to impending marriage and the offer for the same house came in this time it was in the region of £140k the price had risen by £60k. This time we jumped at it, it was tough and we had to knuckle down on our finances but we did it.
Looking back yes this is a regret that I wish we had jumped at when we had the chance. If we had where would be now? Would we be in a better position or not? All I know now is we are happy, we are content and happy with our lot. We do not envy people, in fact we are happy they have done well and celebrate their good fortune, yes we could have done things differently but would we be as content with our lot?
Like I said at the beginning, George said it all in his lyrics.
Regrets, none at all, lessons learned definitely, are we better people for our experiences? You bet ya we are.
Foxes Den 
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