Hi Everyone
Dull, dismal, and depressing. Now before you get the wrong impression, I am not talking about myself or even the Main Contractor. We have never had any desire to live abroad as it would take us away from family and friends but also the idea of enduring hot summers in southern Europe where many people relocate to does not appeal. This week however has given us food for thought. Firstly ten days of summer in winter in Madeira have given way to what seems like weeks of dull dismal and depressing weather. Where have all those sunny crisp winter days gone? Then this week we had a day trip to visit our granddaughter who is at University. That involved four railway journeys of just over half an hour each on yet another rainy day. The first train was late, made even later by the fact that part of the journey was at near walking pace as the fields on either side were flooded although the track itself was not affected. I know nothing about agriculture but it struck me that, in a week where food security was discussed at government level, there were many fields badly affected by flooding, with hardly any animals, and where fields had been ploughed, little or no chance of crops growing on the waterlogged earth. Predictably, we missed our connection for our second train but fortunately, the next one was only a few minutes later. This part of the journey was partly wooded but more industrial. The small woodland areas looked in desperate need of coppicing and many of the industrial locations looked tired and untidy. Add to that the amount of litter all along the trackside and it seemed to me to sum up Britain today. The first part of the return journey was trouble free but our last train was again delayed by a signaling fault but at least we finally arrived home safely. The good news is that we had a great day with our granddaughter, and the rain mostly stopped while we were there.
Many things have changed out of all recognition in my lifetime. In the days of the Fruit, Vegetable, Flower, Game, and Lolly shop, the Partners never heard the words Financial Advisor who seem to be indispensable to many people today. The Junior Partner had his hard backed book with his neatly recorded weekly takings and expenditures and if the first was more than the second and if he could keep the results away from the Junior Partner, then everything was rosy. The Senior Partner had however a secret weapon, homemade jars of pickled cabbage and onions, and high priced lollies In addition, being tight with money enabled her to buy their retirement house. In addition, the Junior Partner did not have a pension plan or life insurance policy but they still managed to have nearly thirty years of comfortable retirement. They did of course have a bank account unlike many of their contemporaries who kept most of their money in a biscuit tin under the bed. In this more complicated world we now live in perhaps a Financial Advisor is useful but one thing has not changed over the years. In order to need one, hard work and a slice of good luck are just and useful today as they were back then.
I came across an interesting statistic this week. Apparently. in 2007 we had a larger economy than China. Ten years later in 2017, the Chinese economy was four times larger than ours. I found this difficult to understand until I experienced our local Chinese takeaway on a Saturday night. It was full of customers, the telephone never stopped ringing and a thermal bag of food was collected by a delivery driver every five minutes. In addition, they only accept cash and it was then I realised that it was the great British public that had contributed to this seismic change, together with a few other Chinese products of course.
Just a Thought:
People using umbrellas always seem to be under the weather.
You know you are working class when your TV is bigger than your bookcase.
Chinese food is amazing but I cannot believe that a chicken fried my rice.
Brian
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