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brianmate

As Time Goes By

Hi Everyone



It seems that a number of our friends have been or are away on holiday, enjoying sunshine and warm weather, while we are here enduring cold grey skies and damp rainy days. Now we are thinking why are we not on similar adventures until we remind ourselves that most of our friends are ten, fifteen, or even twenty years younger than us and that they are doing what we did at that time. I have said before that as we approach middle age our world gets smaller and now we realise that our driving adventures abroad are now either not now possible or that we no longer have the energy or desire to plan such trips. Even holidays here in the UK are now planned so that we rely less on driving while still being as independent as possible. What we do have however is many precious memories of great exciting holidays and the fact that most of our road trips have been recorded in daily journals and thousands of photographs. Now I am revisiting my journals and rewriting their contents on my computer and adding the best of the photographs. Interestingly rewriting these memories reminds us of small moments that we had forgotten and, hopefully at least our family will read of our adventures. Sadly, the Senior and Junior Partners when they went on their road trips in the 1960s have left little evidence of their adventures so for those of you still able to explore the world record your experiences to remember and share as you approach middle age.



At some point this winter almost everyone we know has had a cough and cold. As friends, it is only right that we share these experiences. The sneezing and sniffily nose seem to last about a week but the coughing can last for three weeks or even more. Now one of my friends passed this treat on to me which is ok but this has caused a problem for the Main Contractor as every time I cough when we are watching the TV she complains that she cannot hear what the people are saying so now I have to train myself only to cough when nobody is speaking even through this may cause me to go blue in the face. Thankfully I have found a solution. We now watch only wildlife programmes as neither of us can understand what they are talking about.


If you read this rubbish every week you can perhaps imagine that I have missed my vocation in life. Instead of being a builder. I could have had a career in journalism with my readers hanging on my every word as you do of course. Every week however I am convinced that my career path was the right one as I actually produced something, with many of those buildings still having a useful life. In comparison, journalists produced thousands of words and stood in front of TV cameras last week informing us of the tomato, cucumber, and lettuce crisis which turned out to be hardly a crisis at all. It used to be said that this week's news is next week's chip paper which is still as true now as it was then except that for health and safety reasons we cannot wrap chips in newspaper. Our old papers get used as bedding at one of our local kennels at least until the local health and safety officer decided otherwise.


Just a Thought :


On one of our road trips, I went into a bar with a piece of tarmac under my arm. I ordered two beers, one for myself and one for the road.


It's not the cough that carries you off. It's the coffin they carry you off in.


Saw a journalist interviewing someone in a local bike shop this week. Turns out it was the spokesman.


Brian



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