As almost New Year and returns to work and school will inevitably produce more folks extending the Holiday Season to avoid dribbling the short, but desperate February coming in a month. Avid readers please note: If you've not absorbed the basic point of all this stuff, which is to 'Look on the Bright Side" of the Life you chose this time, or move on to the next still miserable!
First, numerology. That's the first linguistic device in this blog post, after all. Now, if you employ numbers, say Sums, or full stops in this case, you can often avoid full stops without being criticised too much! Though do note more advanced forms of Maths need numbers in many forms, including squared, Algebra and so on. Plus twos and zeros. Though those wishing to criticise you may not like you of course, possibly the Maths Teacher who really wanted to be a Mathematician. Bringing us back to the miserable, failed Mathematician!
Now, let's look at Philosophy or rather Philosopher, as defined by experts with that tricky task. I met a few who were excellen and happy to teach me their subject free if I'd not signed up for their courses. Clearly, this is one where you don't need to pass exams, though if you want a Degree or two you do. Tricky for a lazy old bloke by one who just wanted to sit around and think! At this point please note the term Philosopher in no way infers we humans don't teach and learn wisdom with each one we encounter, and that's before we move on to other aspects of Nature, our true home. A brief biography of the blogger should suffice to show a male of the species, born the second son, third child, of four, in a Cottage Hospital in the countryside just outside Fordingbridge, Hampshire, on the edge of The New Forest of England. Health Planners then understood the process was rarely an emergency and far safer kept away from ill people in the the City with all their disease, when competetent nurses could cope and maybe one doctor, and if it really went blue light, an embulance was only ten minutes away. It's said in quiet times the crew called over anyway, for a cup of tea and to chat up the nurses. Of course, other species don't have hospitals and many mothers always preferred home birth to be closer to the Nature they came from, but civilised folks soon learnt to rely on experts with white coats and degrees! Progress?!
Moving swiftly to where this idyllic childhood led in the life lived in its various stages, let's just say by the age of 60 around the same number of jobs as years lived were performed and when the State Pension arrived, age 65, the full amount was promised in my Bank Account, plenty for this old itinerant without bills, plus the Local Government one and all the perks like Free Bus Travel. When putting into the calculation school, Teacher Training at a third class college willing to teach me to teach pupils how to play sport and and read English, plus other subjects at far lower level, you can see how life floated on, a rural idyll ... !
London was next. Briefly teaching children, but it never suited me or them, so the next job was Adventure Playgrounds, which did. From there to a Playbus on a community project in a licensed squat and then a trainee Bus Driver with London Transport. Between two brief breaks this job was the record at 12 years. Of course a 4 year stint organising the TWGU local branch was elected by the members and paid by LT as a bribe to keep the full-timers happy, so that meant the bosses paying the trouble makers to stir up the workers. Strange! That was fun for a Red, determined to overthrow Capitalism in favour of Communism, as proposed by Marx and Engels in Capital, and by 1970 there were plenty of Parties contending for members in order to unite the workers. If this seems weird, dear reader, The Life of Brian's the film for you! It sure sorted out Christians and Communists with a sense of humour anyway.
Though the Marxist Theory was plausible, in practice it failed, as happens. By now the first daughter was waiting to emerge and the parents decided London was not a place they wanted for a child to grow up, so she was born in London and raised in Newcastle, where her Mum and Dad had extended family. Second daughter appeared two years and a half later, and the family was complete! When the daughters emerged, the diferencences between their parents became crystal clear, which happens. We both fell in love with the girls, and they knew it, but the Mother was sure it would be better to go it alone, with the Father close for by for babysitting purposes, which was tried for six months, but it was so disturbing he flipped and returned to his Mum, to support her in the family home when his Dad died, That was the pretext to protect the girls at least, and assurances were given that they would have regular access either in the North-East or near Grandma. This indeed happened until they were teenagers, when frequency reduced somewhat, since teenagers have their own friends to share. Sometime later, when a job was found in County Durham, it was certainly quicker for driving, but not necessarily desirable for various reasons for weekends or more. Hey Ho! That's Life. We were lucky still be in regular contact and still are now they are in their thirties . Many aren't, and their stepmother in Hampshire is one.
Well, dear patient readers, that's it for 2.2222 today and sorry for the tardiness. You may have noticed it's already 3.2222, which won't work in Numeroloy, but plenty's been going on in Stanhope anyway.
More blogging tomorrow, the 4th of January, when Mick the Hat returns from London!
