Giving, it’s not just for Christmas it’s for life..

I’ve knicked a quote here that in the UK usually refers to purchasing dogs as Christmas presents, you just don’t do it, it is a lifetime commitment.

Now we move on to giving and charity. At this time of year we are bombarded by requests to give and there are many tugs on the heartstrings that I have no doubt serve a purpose and achieve an influx of donations for those requesting assistance. And rightly so.

Then Christmas is over and done… silence!

Hence my title of this page. The singer George Michael had a song called “Praying for time” where he takes a well aimed prod at people by referring to our charitable contributions or lack of them…

These are the days of the empty hand
Oh, you hold on to what you can
And charity is a coat you wear twice a year
This is the year of the guilty man
Your television takes a stand
And you find that what was over there is over here.

George Michael

Charity is a coat you wear twice a year, that’s a strong statement and it’s probably right.

Charitable giving shouldn’t just be one of those twice a year activities, it should be a year round thing. I know we are in a financial crisis and not everyone can afford to donate, however time is as valuable as money and it does not have to be a financial donation.

It’s something I’m going to change personally in the coming year, I do donate through my payroll to some small charities but I also fall in to that “ Charity is a coat you wear twice a year” category.

I’m determined that I will give more of my time, I have plenty of it, as we all do, no excuses we can all give time, hopefully it’s the one thing we are “Wealthy” with. We all hopefully have plenty of it.

Let’s use it, let’s make changes no matter how small.

Remember this quote:

Time, we have plenty of it

I hope I haven’t come across as patronising or anything like that, this is never my intention. I was just mystified at advertising targeting a period when people naturally give, however missing out on the other 11 months of the year. Mind you I guess they are targeting an audience and getting it right.

Im going to wear that coat a lot more during 2025

Have a safe and peaceful holiday period, wherever you are and whatever you do. Stay safe. Peace

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

Subchannel Stations: The Radio Broadcasts You Didn’t Know Were There

A good article on subchannel transmissions. Courtesy of Hackaday.

Analog radio broadcasts are pretty simple, right? Tune into a given frequency on the AM or FM bands, and what you hear is what you get. Or at least, …

Subchannel Stations: The Radio Broadcasts You Didn’t Know Were There

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.

The World Morse Code Championship

Interesting to read this. I passed my RAE exam back in December 2003. We didn’t have to master Morse code but I did take it on and even today I’m ok at deciphering it, if a tad slowly. I could transmit it at about 8 words a minute, and if I’d stuck at it I’m sure I’d have become better.

But like most things i just didn’t have the time available to further it. I do still like to put the radio on occasionally and listen to slow Morse on the amateur bands.

If you were in Tunisia in October, you might have caught some of the Morse Code championships this year. If you didn’t make it, you could catch the …

The World Morse Code Championship

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.

Wanted: free time

I so much wish to write some posts of substance on this blog but in the last few weeks I just can’t be bothered. I’ve reposted a few posts that I’ve liked or found a familiarity with but that’s about it.

Looking at my draft posts I have 14 – yes 14 that are in the process of being completed dating back to May of this year. These are all a number of projects I have on going including Camera repair, musical keyboards, video games, a complete radio control boat build as well as radios and some old cassette players that I have taken on board. I’m stuck for a number of reasons.

I do most of my repairs in our conservatory out of the main house away from the wife. My equipment that I use can be moved in three large boxes that take about an hour or so to assemble and disassemble, hence I like to be able to leave it assembled for a while to get any satisfaction and achievement out of what I’m trying to repair. If I had to put it all together and take it straight down again I think I’d lose total interest in the task at hand.

However it’s getting near Christmas and the wife has invited her entire family around for Christmas Day dinner, hence I have had to make myself and my gear scarce, as she plans to be feeding them all in our conservatory, my workshop.

It’s like I have had to shut up shop for the season, with so much still to do. I’m also awaiting a good number of parts to finish these projects, so that doesn’t help either.

A selection of the backlog of projects I have ongoing

So as it stands, unless I can adapt my kit to be a bit more stealth like then I’m probably not going to be attending to any of these much before the new year.

That said, has anyone tried these usb portable soldering irons at all? I may be in the market for one.

In the meantime I suppose I’ll just have to mingle and be nice. It’s going to be a tough Christmas 😂