Pride


Pride is something we hear people say but seldom do we see it take such a form as I saw on Boxing Day 2016.
You see we all meet up at my mums on Boxing Day, it’s like an American supper where everyone brings some food. So there is know pressure on my mum to cook. It’s just a great family get-together. Now I know this is nothing special in it’s self. You would and everyone else would have done something like this. After all it is Christmas and this is what we do. 

It’s just this Boxing Day was planned for me, my brother and sister and our retrospective children. That’s it about twelve people thirteen if you include my mother. But this didn’t happen because we had the next generation of family turn up in force. And this was brilliant. There was nieces and nephews and they are all grown up too, so they brought there children. In the end I think I counted twenty two. Ranging from under one years old to over eighty years old. It was brilliant. Sadly some people couldn’t be with us but were missed greatly.  
Now when pride made an appearance was when my mother walked in to the room and every chair and table and cushion and spare square foot of floor had a body on it. And when she walked in every one of them faces turned and smiled. She said in a soft voice.
 ‘this is all because of me’ 
That’s it, that’s all. She said and some didn’t even hear her, but I did. And the expression on her face was of pride and disbelief at the shear accomplishment of making such a thing happen.  

I saw pride in her eyes, which In turn made me proud of her. 

I love you mum and thank you for making me possible. I really do owe you everything. 

Moments of Importance 

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Some moments are ment to change us and some are meant to fade like a smoke ring carried on a passing breeze. Such moments like, the first look from a girl across the room. The first time a girl holds your hand. The first time you pluck up the nerve to kiss her on her lips, the clash of teeth and the acupaning realisation that you are not as good a kisser as you thought.  A true Constant in life is love. And if your lucky enough to find it and you hold on to it. Then happeness will follow.

Whatever love may be, I think its emotion, the rawest emotion of all, it fills our lives with Purpose. Without it memory’s will fade and dullness takes over. Just remember that in the end we don’t look up a picture of our best car or wish to see a statement of our closing balance.

We look into the eyes of a loved one and remember them moments of importance. Them moments that filled our life with love and smiles. Have a good day and I hope it’s full of such moments.

Photo from http://funny.pho.to

Are you a Skilled person? or a Knowledgable person? or both?

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Knowledge and Skill, are two words that people use to describe others abilities. Although we all could be guilty of the synonymous use of these words. I feel we need to give them more thought. Because when we do we may find that they have very different meanings entirely.

The competence of a person can be assessed using these two words but have you ever looked into your knowledge or skill level. For instance can you tell someone everything there is to know about your field of work but you seldom put this into practice and when you do you seem clumsy and un-practiced. Well thats more knowledge and less skill working hand in hand. Or someone who can turn there hand to anything but has a hard time telling people how to do it. Thats skill but little knowledge. I believe I maybe the latter. Which believe it or not is the better of the two.

You see a man with little knowledge can increase his knowledge by reading and learning the required knowledge. Almost anyone can do this with enough time and effort. But an man with little skill may be able to increase his skills by practice but we all cannot be Leonardo Da Vinci or Mozart, and from the academic world there is Stephen Hawkings and Plato. These men were Knowledgable beyond most others. But to have reached this level they must have had skill in equal measure. For I’m sure there are men out there now with the understandings of the greats (the knowledge) but lack the skill level that is required to bring about true greatness.

So in short if you have knowledge then use that knowledge in practical applications and you will grow your skill to its fullest. But if your lucky enough to have Skill then acquire all the knowledge you can and you may be great one day.

In the end both Knowledge and Skill are required to master any field. My personal feeling is that its best to start with a bit of both. After all a skilful brain surgeon with little knowledge is a surgeon with a dead patient. Also an engineer with a lot of knowledge but little skill makes for machines that don’t last that long. (hmmmm is that why things just don’t last that long anymore.)

I hope you enjoyed this post. I know I’m not writing enough post and will try harder.

Please comment or just Like my post.

“The man who makes everything that leads to his happiness depend upon himself and not upon others, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.” – Plato

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” – Plato

Good day or bad? How come it can change so fast?

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Nothing in life knocks me back more than, how fast a day can go from good to bad. You can be having the best days of your life and BANG right in the middle of your smile come a knock back that if you could script your own life you wouldn’t write It In, because it’s to unreal and people would think it fake.

I’m not one to moan or groan about life. I take life as it comes. Truly I do. No really I do. Ok I suppose I try to and some people may say that I can take things a little to far at times but I can assure you it all comes from the right place. And I never want to hurt anyone.
As you know I’m not a religious man but if I had to align myself to any one religion I think it would be of the Buddhist persuasion. A good quote from Buda is;

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
Buddha.

I like this one because happiness is a gift we can all give. And when we don’t take the opportunity to share such a gift its a waist. So less shouting and jealousy and more sharing of the cheapest thing in life a SMILE. Smiles in my experience give happiness for free.

Have a good day. Or what’s left of it. And remember to smile.

Christmas cheer

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snowman holding a box

Well Christmas is finely here and never mind the goose I’m already getting fat.
What a great time of year this is. That’s if you can avoid the hype and take it for what it is. And that is a time for greeting and meeting and making merry. Catch up with family, friends and the odd stranger.

I met two polish guys yesterday, they came to buy my old car. They were hooded and spoke broken English like they just stepped out of a modern day thriller. It took one look at my Christmas decorations and hopefully a smile in my face to bring the conversation away from cars and clutches, brake pipes and bushes to the merry Christmases we had when we were young. They told me of twelve course dinners that they had to endure and fish not turkey as the main on their special day of days.
So meet and greet and be kind while remembering that a smile and a little sharing can change a novel book villain to really nice guys. Merry Christmas to all and I will blog again soon.

It’s My Birthday Blog!

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Well, here we are again, on my birthday. I don’t have many deep thoughts or profound truth to share today, even though, at 41, maybe I’m supposed to enter into a status of maturity and impart wisdom on all unsuspecting youthful twenty somethings. Well maybe, but hay ho who am I to tell you what to do. I could be accused of opening my mouth to much on the odd occasion, I could even be right in what ever wisdom I’m spouting (on the odd occasion). All I can do is tell you what I have learnt. Some people may disagree with me every now and then but I think I should share all the same.  After all isn’t that why we all blog in the first place.

Enough of all that. I stumbled across a question offered by baseball player named Satchel Paige and thought it fitting being its my birthday.

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”

Now this really ticks the boxes for me right now, mainly because I’m forty-one years old and feel younger by far. So if I didn’t know how old I was then I would be a lot younger if asked.

He was also quoted saying, “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, then it doesn’t matter.”
I love this one, because it really reflex’s my own opinion on the growing old dilemma. It only matters if you let it. 
So ask yourself the first question and when you have finished answering that one then think about the whether it matters to you.

I’m forty-one and love the fact that I’m more wise about the world and people. I can hold a conversation with most if not all people I come across. My life experience has given me the knowledge to write many short stories and almost two novels. I have two children and a wife of over twenty years. Happy is the under statement, I’m ecstatic with my age and the life that I’m living. We trade the youth for the wise and its a win for me no mater how I look at it.

I think this sum’s it up quite nicely.

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.  ~ Chili Davis

So happy birthday to all that share this day with me today. Enjoy it whatever your age.

The Sun, how it changes my day.

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I walk with my wife, the sun breaks through the clouds. I feel warm, I feel happy.

There’s a definite change in women when this happens. In the winter months, when it’s cloudy, it’s raining, there’s drizzle and it feels miserable. Oh and not to forget it’s wet and damp. Well women cover up, they have there hats on, umbrellas sprung open and big coats covering from chin to toes.

We don’t really see then. We just don’t notice them. They become part of the grey back ground.

So as soon as that sun comes out my wife and women change, they evolve like a butterfly, they will go from this covered up form, kin to a nun and transform into a beautiful glowing sun filled person, full of life with the embodiment of all things nice. They really do entice us all, my male friends pretty much say the same thing, we all notice. With the first bit of sun the first thing a man notices is his partner or wife. It Isn’t the sun its self. We love the sun only because women are gorgeous in its light. I’m including my wife, as she is very gorgeous. She does the same, see changes, see becomes vibrant and colourful, there is a little bit of flesh that shows after being coved up for the winter months. The skirts, the makeup, and then “the smile”.

This is the most important of all the changes, the smile comes on most faces. I drive round the streets or I walk round the town centres, I go for walks at the weekends. If the suns out with blue sky’s and fluffy clouds then people smile, men are smiling just as much as woman. I like to think that I smile more in the summer too.
So I think this post is a testament to all women. To say thank you for uplifting my day and most other men’s day too. I don’t think you realise what impact you have on us, us men of the world.

Thank you sun and thank you women of the world, most of all thank you, my wife.

 

The picture I used today was taken by James Heathcote, find more of his work at www.jamesheathcote.com

Summer Holidays

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Some unfortunate souls, (like me) have been on holiday for a week or if your lucky two, and the prospect of leaving the sunny beach location behind, well spells out doom and gloom. I’m about to swap flip flops and shorts for toe protector boots and a blue uniform, and instead of looking out towards the horizon on the beach front, I’ll be staring at parts and components for at least 8 hours.


It’s strange because normally I’m quite looking forward to getting back home by now, but as I write this on the eve of my return, I feel I would quite happily stay here for another week or even two. If not for the obligations I have back home, ( like work and house and bills) I might just extend this to a more permanent arrangement. I mean why not? Others live at holiday resorts and look very happy doing so. Could I move here or somewhere like this? If your wondering I’m in Cornwall which is the very south of the UK.

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rolling hills, deep valleys and long stretches of sandy beaches. When the sun is shining and the sky is blue Cornwall is as beautiful as anywhere on earth.

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The dream of a writer as I understand it is to be able to write where and whenever they like. Preferable from some window through which inspiration will flow over you like a child’s smile after handing them their most favourite ice-cream.

We can dream and wish and if we are really lucky, (not to mention hard working) we may reach such goals whether it be Cornwall are your very own most loved of places. To reach high will at least get you somewhere better than you are know.

People you just have to love them.

ImageYou know, I think I like writing because I like people. We are great, we have imagination. No other animal really has it. Our social skills are above and beyond what we need.
I am a developing writer, but my job is in quality assurance. I was a decorator for many years before this and I meet all kinds of people from the very kind, to the very selfish. From the rich, to the poor. The one thing I have learnt from my twenty odd years is that as a whole people are great to be around. Nintey nine point nine percent of them want to know you and want you to know them. It’s great, I love it and love a lot of them.
Now there is the point one percent thet are manipulative and cruel. They try to guide you through their life like there own personal toy. Let’s not be coy, we all manipulate each other, its in our nature. It’s what we do best. The problem comes when we put our self interest so far above others that we forget what is really Important. And that is community, this is why I write and why I’m doing this now. I want you to read this, not for any other reason, other than I like to talk and feel that you may be interested in what I have to say.

Back when I was decorating this point one percent of people would raise there heads in the form of picky customers. The ones that have to complane about this and that. “It’s to expensive.” “It took to long.” Or my favourite “I paid you for perfection.” when actually they nocked down the price to the point that it was not possible to compleat the job in the time they paid for. Quality cost time and as the saying goes, ‘Time is money.’
That said nearly all the people and customers I come in contact with are nice good people.
And this is why I do what I do.

Happy Wednesday people I hope it’s a good one. As I’m sure it will be for me.

Candy Crush, Why?

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Come on its jelly beans and candy bars made in the never never.
Its a hugely popular game, on Facebook and Most phones. Challenging and rewarding to play. On the surface, it does its job perfectly, but when you start to dig a little deeper, it is clear that the game is not so much a game but a game that will slowly drain you of your well earned money.
Ranking as one of the top sell free games. It sucks you in with its cute graphics and It’s got a very addictive gameplay. The farther you progress the more they want to take from you, and that is time not just money. People are spending hours each day playing a game that is unsociable and is killing off the art of conversation. Where I spend my day I see eighty percent of the people round me playing it on their hand held device.

The worst part is when you first play the game, you won’t notice that you’re being sucked in, not right away anyway. You’ll win the first few levels, getting a taste and having a good time. But then you will hit a wall. You will fail. And then you run out of lives. If you want to continue playing, you have to wait awhile for the lives to regenerate or pay real money for more lives. Oh you can always ask your Facebook friends to gift them to you.

My advice, that’s if you wish to take it. Is pick up a book and read something that will improve your life.