Hi Everyone
For nearly 50 years I was involved in building things. It is very satisfying to know that many of those buildings are still standing and fulfilling a useful purpose. In one of my early blogs however, I thought that if I got a second chance of a successful life I would come back as a tattooist and since that blog it seems to give me an even greater chance of success. As I have little skill as an artist and have a dislike of tattoos, I decided to chance my arm as a policy maker if my chance came around again. It seems such an easy way to earn a comfortable living chairing committees, persuading eager and gullible colleagues to invest in wild ideas such as HS2. nuclear power plants or even a clone of myself, if the world could stand two of me. I would have a career spending other people's money with no regard to cost or usefulness. I would build into my contract large fat bonuses as a reward for failure and be able to retire without ever seeing any of my ideas completed. Now if the Senior Partner had made me aware of this easy lifestyle when I was a teenager, I would not have to even think about coming back for a second try.
Back in about 1970 a work colleague asked me if I was interested in betting on the horses just once each week. He told me that it would cost us 5 shillings and 6 pence each (that's about 30p in new money) and that we would be having a Yankee. Knowing nothing about horses or betting I was baffled as, to me a Yankee was someone with a cowboy hat and chewed gun. He explained that a Yankee in betting was a four horse accumulator so he picked what he thought would be the winning horse in four races. If he got two winners we would probably get our money back or maybe enough to buy some fish and chips. If three horses won we could dream of a restaurant meal and if four horses won, it could mean early retirement. After about 4 weeks of little or no success, I was off to the North East on a business trip for three days, so I set off with my list of four horses. As I drove the 200 miles north the radio sports news announced the results every hour. By the time I reached my destination my early retirement was within reach as my friend had picked four winners. In my hotel room, I used all my maths skills to calculate how much we had won. It turned out to be £56, hardly life changing but not a bad investment for 30 pence each. When I arrived back I collected my £28 half share and promptly retired from betting on horses. I was reminded of all this Rubbish as this week the football season starts again. Our club is owned by a local family who are now multi billionaires through their on line betting business. They employ about 7000 people, many of them locally and through their foundation they have funded many worthy projects, many of them local but I am very comfortable with the fact that I have not contributed a single penny to their fortune.
Now it is at this point that I have to ask you a very sensitive question to which I would appreciate an honest answer. Have you had Covid and are you a nose picker? The reason I ask this delicate question is that a group of researchers (you know that I love researchers) have concluded that if you are a nose picker, you are more likely to get Covid. Now don't ask me to explain that conclusion but if, as someone approaching middle age I am called for a further booster this winter, I have to decide whether to go for a jab or refrain from picking my nose!.
Just a Thought:
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.
Donald's favorite baseball team is the Yankees, except when the draft came along, then it was the Dodgers.
There are two kinds of people in this world, people who pick their noses and liars.
Brian
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