A year ago today we lost our little dog Alf. It’s been a tough year and I must say time has not been a good healer, it’s as tough now as it was back then and he’s left a massive void in our family structure.
I’d say now that if you aren’t an animal lover then read no further. You wouldn’t understand.
However if you have a modicum of appreciation for a species that loves another being, unconditionally, then please read on.
Planning goals, now there is a conundrum if ever I heard one. If I really want / require / need something then there is a modicum of thought and planning that goes into it, otherwise most of my goals are on the fly as they say, whimsical to many and probably with no planning at all.
Things like holidays and breaks away are the wife’s domain and she does that most competently, I just pass some money her way when she needs it, so I don’t really get involved there.
Work
Personal goals for me are pretty much medium to long term and I don’t go over the top in achieving them according to any time scale. If they occur then that’s good, if not I’m not really that bothered. I have nothing planned that’s life changing or affirming, to be honest, I’m quite happy with my lot.
The only goal I’m really spending some time in planning is my pending retirement. It’s been on the cards for a couple of years now and will probably be a few more years yet, unless Lady Luck intervenes and allows me to close that door and enter through a new one any time soon. But even here I have no time scale, it will happen when it happens.
I guess this is why I am not a planner for my company as timelines and schedules are not really my thing as they say.
Things such as days out are always off the cuff, last minute, and here I am pretty good at putting together a last minute schedule. This is something I am good at, and ties in with my work. At work I’m always responding to issues that occur on the rail network and have to have a plan in place out of reactive necessity, not really having the pleasure of being able to draft a plan in advance of such a set of events.
Failed trains
That’s where i can excel, I guess that’s why I’ve been in this role for the last 25+ years, we have planners for the proactive stuff and I’m there for the reactive stuff, applying the big Elastoplast if you like. However, you always learn from these incidents and therefore fine tune activities accordingly, so if they ever occur again you can apply a different sticking plaster if you like. You learn and adapt, reactive response allows you to do that, you are not working to someone else’s plan, a plan that is just put together to satisfy auditors, and has not even been prepared by an experienced individual in the first place. Railway management is good at doing this, incompetence reigns supreme!
So in a nutshell my goals are pretty much reactive and get put into place as they occur. This is the same in my life outside of work and I guess this is a result of how I am at work. It can’t be all that bad as it seems to work well with me across all areas of my life.
So I’m not going to change just now, am I?
Here’s to that impending retirement, roll on I say.
If you see me running, just run after me and try to overtake me. I’m running for a purpose😂
Other than that such a thing doesn’t exist for the majority of people.
I love the attitude of the Icelandic people, they live on an island that is forever changing due to volcanic and seismic activity but they have such a mañana attitude. They know their environment and they are constantly prepared to move on out, with pretty much no real panic or concern.
One lady I spoke to who makes lovely art using glass and volcanic ash said, “ if I was constantly worrying how would I even begin to enjoy life?” And she is right you know. What’s the point of worrying about something that hasn’t even happened yet and making yourself sick over it?
The ability to get away from an incident fairly quickly is probably the best advice I’d give. But then again what do I know?
I tell you what though, I won’t be losing sleep over it.
I guess this is quite easy, especially for me to answer, and I do suppose a lot of others out there will probably feel the same. I’ll read other comments later just to confirm this. But for me I’m pretty simplistic, for me it’s just two things, comfort and silence.
I know that makes me sound like I’m some kind of Monk in training but it’s not meant that way. I could have said solitude, but I like to have company, however when the occasion suits, solitude is good.
Local park
I find the company in choosing those I want to be with, those who know me and have similar likes and tastes to me. The silence/quiet/solitude aspect is what seals the peace, and to be in that position with the company you choose to be with is what truly brings me peace.
Part of my work environment
I’m a city dweller, I work in the city and the noise is 24hrs constant with no let up, I find peace in taking breaks away from that environment. Fortunately my work allows me to venture into some of the most beautiful parts of the countryside where I can find that peace, and as I work alone I also find that solitude. But that moment of solitude is often kept as a moment of time in my memory, to share at a later date with my loved ones, and so that perfect circle of finding and observing peace, starts again.
To be totally honest at the moment, I’m focused and really excited for the future. Talk to me tomorrow and I’d probably be a different beast with an attitude lower than a snakes belly, but at the moment everything is fine. I’m curious why I feel this way.
Curiosity
As you will all possibly be aware, I like fixing cameras and I love my photography, it being a major feature throughout my life. I struggled in the transition from Analogue to digital and that was when my interest in the hobby dwindled. I wasn’t ready to accept the digital age, I was and still am really, an analogue dinosaur. But I’m curious.
I have recently delved deep, deep into the digital world, tried some really good equipment belonging to a photographer friend, and I really like it, I want to do more. I’m now interested. But is it too late?
I have also been a social media dinosaur, having had bad experiences in the past I’ve pretty much ignored everything but YouTube for the last ten years or so. I’ve regularly slated social media, and now this is another subject that makes me curious.
I’ve changed my attitude. I have in the last, few days gone back into the social media community, yes in many eyes I’ve probably succumbed to the call of this evil temptress, however, hear me out you have some learning to do regarding moi!
Im now on FB, Instagram, and Bluesky and these accounts are pretty much locked down to subjects that I want to see, and people I want to correspond with. It’s opened up communication with distant family members, old professional contacts and over the last few days I’ve even had requests from some of these old contacts to step back into the business professionally, and assist them. I just need to learn to ignore negativity if it begins to creep its way in, and it probably will.
The issue here is that I’m not set up professionally or in the position do so at the moment. But the call to return has hooked me and I am giving it immense and serious consideration. As many will know, and it’s there written there within my profile, that im wishing for an early retirement, and this could be an option that brings in a small income to allow me to realise that goal earlier than I initially intended. But like any business opportunity there is some investment required, and I’m now looking at ways of providing for those required tools of the trade as such.
This has been a positive, because of Social media that has opened up to me, but I’m being cautious.
Im always going to be here working with my old cameras and stuff though, as that’s what i love to do, it just all ties in like a great big knot of contentment, hope and ambition.
And it’s a nice, not always felt, feeling.
And I’m liking it, a vein of positive energy running through an aging body.
Long may it last. We all need dreams. We all need goals. It’s just I’ve left it so late in life, that’s the only nagging doubt that remains.
Write about a random act of kindness you’ve done for someone.
No one likes to blow smoke up their own asses and confess to these actions. I’m not going to start doing that here, today. Random acts of kindness aren’t usually discussed, because that’s seen as boastful. Most people seem to just keep these actions to themselves, building up the personal satisfaction levels in their own minds, and there is nothing wrong with feeling a bit of pride for your actions. It’s good, and should be encouraged for everyone to do, however some people are naturals, and some people just need to try a little bit harder.
I’m just going to discuss one act of whatever that both my wife and I were involved in, in the seaside town of Latchi in Western Cyprus.
We were out for dinner at a small restaurant. A couple sat at the table adjacent to us and we struck up a conversation, we had never before met in our lives. It transpired they had married that day, just the two of them, as they had no immediate family, or friends with them.
We were finished and were saying goodbye as they were about to choose a drink, we heard them talking about how expensive the wine was and that they’d stick with the water.
Drinks
We were paying our bill away from the diners when I asked the waitress to send a bottle of good wine to the newly weds table, but they were only to tell them it was paid for and not to disclose who had paid for it. I’m sure they would have known eventually.
As we were leaving, the wine was arriving at the table and from the distance that we were, I could see them looking around and best of all they were both smiling. I couldn’t see anyone celebrating such an event without being able to toast their momentous day.
Yes it gave us a warm feeling, and I sincerely hope the recipients felt the same way, knowing that not everyone out there is bad, and there is always someone looking out for you. Someone cares.
What traditions have you not kept that your parents had?
It was the one who called himself my father, and it was pure mental and physical abuse, aimed at my Mother, my little sister and me. We were his soft targets to his hard man bravado.
It was that bad, that i always viewed it as traditional, sad isn’t it? It just happened so often.
I’ve mentioned it before, I have no wish to continue this tradition as no one deserves it, and no one wants it, and no one should ever decide they are going to dish it out, no one person ever has that right to do so.
Abuse anywhere is awful, in the home it is ten times worse, as that should always be your place of comfort and safety, in the very bosom of your family.
God bless anyone suffering in this way.
I have worn your shoes and walked that mile, I do not wish to do that ever again. These “Men” have the reputation outside of the family of being “a great bloke” but at home they have a family waiting in the shadows of fear, waiting, scared out of their minds anticipating his return home, and then the nightmare begins as soon as that key is heard in the door. They are not men, they are merely weak shadows of a real man, as real men don’t entertain such levels of abuse, real men do not condone abuse at all.
I have no wish to follow that tradition. I never have, and I never will. I think I’m the bigger man, and always will be. My home is a place of peace and safety. I have grown, whereas he did not. No one in my household will ever be subjected to that fear.
I’m genuinely interested to find out just how many people use a traditional style camera. Film or digital I’m not fussed, just anything other than the Mobile phone cameras of today.
Loads of Slr/Dslr cameras
I posted an item way back in the early days of this site, that gave numbers of roughly how many cameras have been produced up until 2022 and it was a phenomenal figure in the region of 45 Billion. That’s enough for 5.5 cameras for every single person on this planet. Vintage Camera figures
Ok. This figure does include all mobile phone cameras as well as CCTV cameras, but even if you halved this figure there is an immense amount of traditional hand held cameras still out there.
But how often do you see one being used? Where are they all? I must admit the only time i see them in use is if I go somewhere such as Iceland, you do see a lot of the Far Eastern tourists still using them, but when I get home there is nothing seen at all. I must admit when I go out with one of my old cameras I don’t half get some funny looks, as if I’m some kind of weird trend setter, believe me, I’m anything but.
I would just like to do a very brief straw poll as such to see just how often we use a traditional style camera. As I said at the top, I’m not bothered if it’s digital or traditional film, just as long as its sole purpose is to take photographs. So please don’t include mobile phones, computers or tablets. Just a handheld lump, a piece that just serves the purpose of photography. This poll will remain open for a week.
Oh, and I’ve just found out you can do these poll type things on WP so I had to give it a try. Please forgive me as I’m easily distracted / pleased 😂
Have a super day and thank you for visiting…and voting. Much appreciated.
I’m not about to blow smoke up my own pipe, I really do find this question hard to answer, as I probably see myself totally differently from how others view me.
And that’s it.
It doesn’t really matter how I see myself, I guess the answer is in how you portray yourself in all aspects of your life. Work, leisure, hobbies, behaviours, fears, likes, loves – you name it. I know the person I’d like to be, but I’ll never get there unless I learn the truth and change my ways.
Contentment
There’s only one person I know that can truly describe me to someone, and that someone would be my wife. She knows me better than I know myself, she sees the good, bad and indifferent in me, and to be honest it works in the other direction too. My Wife would probably say she is calm and tolerant, but I’d have to pull her up there as I sometimes see a different side to her that no one else sees. Whereas I’d probably say I’m a people person and I know she’d laugh and pull me up and say I’m the total opposite. And of course she’d be right.
How many people will answer this prompt, and truly turn to someone who knows them only too well and ask them to “Fact check” their reasoning. I doubt many will, so does that mean we will all have either a too low, or even a too high opinion of ourselves?
Sometimes it’s best to get it from the mouth of someone you know well. They don’t do it to hurt your feelings, they are giving it to you straight, it’s up to you then to make changes to become that person you truly “think” you are, or want to be.
Foxes Den 
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