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Posts Tagged ‘Personal Journey’

It is odd how what on the surface seems a pretty mundane task can take you unawares and become far more significant than you imagine or, could possibly have imagined at outset but this tale is all about such things. What at first glance seemed a simple thing became like dropping a stone into a still pool and watching the ripples spread far and wide across the surface awakening the ‘dark creatures’ that dwell deep down in the depths.

But having written that, I must question whether that is true or whether in fact, there was an inevitability attached to the whole thing and the ‘simple task’ in this case hanging pictures, merely served to reveal the underlying complexities that were already lurking there awaiting some appropriate moment to erupt like a volcano over a suburban parlour carpet…

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I am a fan, generally speaking, of Microsoft and Windows is my preferred OS – Operating System. I have been a user of Windows since version 1, yes there was one and I have a set of original floppy disks to prove it. I have lived with every version both the good and the not so good over the decades and can look back on the highlights in the journey of Win 95, Win 2000 and Win 7 as well as the horrors of Win 98, NT 3.5 and Vista.

Given the opportunity to download a “Windows 8 Consumer Preview”, the other day, I did and when it finished installing on a spare PC I have, I started playing with it and after an hour came to the conclusion that Microsoft have created another “Horror” to match Widows Vista. Whereas Vista was a cods up caused by truncated technology, Windows 8 suffers from a serious case of “Design Delusion”, how on Earth have they managed to do this again in such a short space in time ?

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It often seems that the basic requirement for a politician is to be totally stupid as is clearly demonstrated by the uttering s of both Lynne Featherstone and Nick Herbert on the question of gay marriage who are displaying the same degree of arrogance over this issue as Gordon Brown did over the Lisbon Treaty. It seems the biggest problem with the average MP once they get a red dispatch box is that they think they can walk on water and become bullies to the rest of us.

I have often fought David Cameron’s corner with the awful denizens of the Telegraph’s comments section because my view was that he was a decent fellow and a “One Nation Tory” but sadly, I am coming to the view that I may be wrong he seems constantly “behind the curve” on so many things, he will need a lot luck to get a second term, is for sure, he is starting to look wobbly.

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My Father used to joke: “When I was 16, I thought that my Father was the most ignorant man on the planet. By the time I was 20, I found it amazing just how much he had learned in 4 years.” We all as teenagers think we know it all, that we have “discovered sex” and our parents could not possibly understand anything about it…

It is in this sense that the furore about “Gay Marriage” totally mirrors the idiocy of politicians ever keen “to do something” and blind to reality and a proper appreciation of the past. Miss Featherstone says the Government has a right to change the definition of marriage and pledges to challenge those who “want to leave tradition alone”, which amounts to one of the silliest things any politician could say because, “It is not in your gift either Madam, the definition belongs to our culture, not Parliament !”

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I knew that it had to happen, it was a racing certainty once they stopped distributing the local free weekly newspaper because it became uneconomic to keep publishing it. Inevitably the day would dawn when for the first time in almost 5 years, I would have to go out and buy a newspaper and on the basis of my ‘needs’, it was obvious that only The Sunday Times would do.

As is most often the case in these things, there were several factors at work which combined to force my hand. Of course losing the ‘freebie newspaper’ was crucial but, it was most certainly exasperated by the amount of print making and framing that I had been doing of late, without the latter, I could have put off the evil day for some months I suspect.

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Although I find the “reader’s comments” on the Telegraph these days, increasingly shrill and stupid, apart from the sheer ‘fun’ of BoJo’s Monday column, Benedict Brogan is also a wonderful “fresh breath” in the dens of the “Right Wing Nutters of the Telegraph”.

He wrote an interesting piece the other day in which he asked, “Where will the voters come from in order to get Cameron re-elected as PM ?” It is an excellent piece which you can read here: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100140226/where-are-the-voters-who-will-turn-david-cameron-into-a-winner-in-2015/ But more than that, he raised a series of interesting questions too…

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It has always been a major problem on the political Left for them to grasp the idea that one should aim to “level up” instead of “levelling down”. You do not remove discrimination and enhance ideas of equality by impinging on other people’s freedoms. This was one the consequences of the legislation that in effect outlawed Catholic (or any other faith), Adoption Agencies that on the grounds of conscience and religious conviction, could not place children with Gay Couples.

This was a very poor piece of legislation which arose from “happy clappy liberals” combined with politicians seeking any vote they can but, in trying to “normalise” homosexuality they in the process have ignored the fundamentals of liberty including for Gay people themselves.

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I was amused by an article in The Economist about Internet Dating and worth a read: http://www.economist.com/node/21547217. Obviously with us about to hit St Valentine’s Day, the topic is “topical”.

I must own up and say that for me, Valentine’s Day is up there with New Year’s Eve as one of those occasions that is always destined to disappoint in the event despite or perhaps because of all the planning effort that goes in to setting the “special event” up in the first place. Oh yes, I do have tales to tell on such things but, I will not bore you…

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Every now and again and generally in the Telegraph, some daft old fool will prattle on about how “grammar schools were wonderful and just what the country needs today…” or some other such and similar drivel which would be okay if even slightly true but as it isn’t, it is not even worth a debate.

As a working class lad who attended a Catholic grammar school in South London during the late 50s, early 60s, I remember it with fondness and was grateful for the experience. However, one should not get sentimental over them, they were a product of their time and that time has now well and truly passed.

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For me, 2011 has been an interesting year with most of the excitement crammed into June when as I was about to depart for a month long trip to the USA, my grandson Mika was born up in Scotland, the day before I left. So June 2011 was to be a very intense month indeed !

Inevitably when I sit and write anything on December 31^st, I think immediately of my Father who died in 2007, if he were still alive, he would have been 91 today, his birthday. But I will think no sad thoughts, nor sing sad songs for we all have our time on this Earth and all eventually will leave it, the measurement being what we did with our time here, not the length of our stay.

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