Good Friday?

I feel quite fortunate today as I have been enjoying the first of four days off...well needed I may add but none the less gratefully accepted. The reason of course is Easter, the moving target of religious festivals, sometimes early March sometimes, as this year mid April, obviously the Emperor Constantine couldn't quite decide when he fancied his Spring break at the council meeting which decided the festival dates, so Easter became a moveable feast. Now as those who know me are aware I don't normally do religion but I was reminded today of a Good Friday around 40 years ago which links in with all of the above. I was around 7or 8 and for some reason that I am unable to recall my dad had to go out on Good Friday afternoon, I went with him. Though I can't remember the reason I do remember vividly what I saw and heard, or rather what I didn't. We walked into the town and possibly for the first time in my life I saw no people, not a soul...just me and my dad walking through the town centre, not only were the no people but there were no cars, no buses, nothing, only my dad and me and some pigeons and I am sure they were there because they felt they should be. Now why would this spring into my mind today again? Apart from it being Good Friday of course. Well not too many years into the future Easter for me was a blurr of work for I was caught up in the aftermath of the changing attitudes of our land. How can people live without being able to do anything on one Friday and Monday each spring? How on earth can people manage without some kind of retail therapy for 24 hours? How can the economy survive?? Truth is they could live,manage and survive but somehow,as mentioned in a previous blog, we as a nation seem to think that we should never take any time off for no reason...hang on though...isn't it Easter? This brings me back to the point of not doing religion, if you are a believer Easter is the most important festival of the year, but in all the years that the erosion of the holiday took place I cannot remember much in the way of objection from our churches. First it was...a few hours open if you want, then 9-6 only, now it is a free for all with my local supermarket open 24 hours, a full bus and train service, all manner of places to go with your loved ones to be served and attended to by people away from their loved ones...very Christian. There has been a news story this week about bringing religion more into the public debate, if it happens then the people who debate it have to include all angles, and not do a Constantine and select the bits that suit. As I pointed out I don't really do religion but I would like to ask whoever leads the debate about where they stand on the story of ridding the temple of the sellers and the "den of thieves" though somehow I am not sure I would get an answer. Happy Easter everyone and if you have been lucky enough to have a few days off, stay in and enjoy, back to normal soon, see if you notice the difference. However if you feel you need to be Christian over the holiday pop down to your local tesco temple and read the sign which says "sorry we are closed Easter Sunday" and forgive them, for they know not what they do...or do they?

Odds and Apps

Did you know that as I write this blog the Venezuelan Ladies under 17 football team are pitting their wits against their Italian equivalent? Don't worry if you didn't I am not even sure that the majority of the good people of the two protagonists are sat on the edge of their seats huddled around the TV or radio hanging on the every word a South American John Motson. So, how is it that yours truly know about this iconic sporting event? Well...it's all to do with the Grand National, an annual flutter and the downloading of a couple Apps. Having performed a kind acupuncture on the list of runners and riders for tomorrow I thought why not avoid the annual trip to the betting shop and take a leap into the 21st century and have an online dabble, after all Vic Paddy Ray et al make it sound easy and entice you with offers. It was after the download and looking at each of the sites that the only thing that's easy is the losing of money. I listened to a debate the other week about why the number of people with gambling addictions is rising, it was similar to the debate I heard about binge drinking...the main cog in the wheel was ignored, the ease of obtaining your addiction. Off licences and supermarkets have made it so easy and in relevant terms inexpensive to obtain alcohol in greater quantities than ever, the new look book makers and their cyberspace offshoots have the same affect. Now, I know, that some of the few who read this will be saying" it's up to the individual" and in many ways your right. However, when an individual becomes a vulnerable individual then that attitude changes and when there a suddenly thousands of vulnerable individuals then everyone's attitudes need to change. Which brings me back to our young ladies football match. As I'm not a gambler I chuckled at first,shook my head and moved on, deleting the app, if I was a gambler there was a host of in play options with ever changing odds all just one click of a button, and another click and another click away and before you know it you could have lost more money the they took at the ground. And if under 17s international ladies football isn't your thing, you could always try, well, almost anything... My old grandad used to say he knew people who would bet on two flies crawling up a wall...have a bang on that!

Smart Resolutions & An Uneducated Debate

Well it's been over a month since I put to digital paper some of my inane drivel so I thought it was about time I continued to fulfil one of my New Year resolutions. In doing so it got me thinking, that's two thoughts in one paragraph! Why do people commit themselves to a pledge that in many many cases can never be achieved? I am maybe the wrong one to discuss this. I made 5 resolutions as the clock struck midnight on New Years Eve and 13 became 14. Of those 5 I have achieved 3 which I suppose isn't a bad percentage, and I suppose we are only a quarter of the way through the year...and I didn't say when I would complete them! And there lies one of the problems of resolutions in my view and it can be found in most walks of life or business, a vague target with an almost non existent timescale. Like all targets, and a resolution is a kind of target, it needs a specific goal, steps where you measure progress or not, be realistic and achievable and crucially have a timescale for completion. Most resolutions fail because they aren't covered by one or more of those SMART targets. Realistic and achievable I would imagine are the common pit falls, "I want to lose 2 stone by Valentines Day!" As they finish off the quality street in front of Jools Holland. My two failures fall into the timescale category and it's something I am working on, but I wonder as I discuss targets with groups of managers as part of my job whether or not this is a British trait both in the office and during the singing of Auld Langs Ayne? On a more serious topic this week saw some disruption in schools with a strike by some teachers. It never ceases to amaze me how fickle some of the great British public can be. I was fortunate if that's the word to be driving a lot on the day of the strike and from the 6:30 news the trap was set...these public sector workers...it's not like that in the private sector...don't know they are born etc etc etc...the debate about the reasons hardly surfaced again and when it was offered by some they were shouted down by the I work harder than you brigade...the basis of their argument was, I'd love their holidays, surely if you teach one child you can teach any child, I work weekends, one even said they should count themselves lucky they work indoors!! Classic tabloid ignorance fuelled by media and some ministers. It was the old divide and rule, us against them, goodies and baddies and the facts are lost. On the point of the hardness of the work all I can say is that 2 or 3 days a month I do a kind of teaching in my work and I can say without fear of contradiction I am more exhausted after those days than in any other job I have done and that's been 12 to 14 hour days in various retail roles...it is not an easy job. Back to those oh so balanced debates not once did I hear a mention of the most important people affected by this...here's a clue...schools are full of them and they will be in our place in a generations time...yes! Children!! Governments of all colours look on these young folk as pawns in their ideology...a child is not a commodity it's a person and we cannot treat them as such, they are all different have different strengths, weaknesses and all could offer something, if allowed to, or rather if those public sector slackers were allowed to do the job they are so good at...maybe our governments have seen Another Brick In The Wall by Pink Floyd too many times!

David Bowie and the anything but common cold!

I felt it only right to add my congratulations to David Bowie after he became the oldest winner of best male at last nights Brit Awards. I'm not here to debate the merits of the win, it was a decent enough album, released out of the blue. It would have won the "Best kept secret by a Brit" award, if there was one. I just can't help looking at this, and not without a wry smile, from the point of view of those who these awards are for and who they are aimed at. Let's be honest most of the so called pop fans of today should have been in bed when the show was broadcast. For those who did defy their parents or watched in their room on their own TV Smart Phone or Tablet this result must have been puzzling. Here is a man...yes an adult...yes an adult pop star!who could be their grandfather or even great grandfather who hasn't toured since before they were born, only released one album in years,actually that's similar to some of their own, beating some of their own...I wonder if they thought leaving the xbox and GTA 33 or whatever was worth it. And I wonder too if that thought flashed through the minds of some of the marketing execs etc... Whose night of XFactoresque self publicity had suddenly gone off the rails slightly? I suppose there would have to come a time when manufactured music aimed at primary school ages would have its day...I'm not sure we are there yet, unfortunately, maybe Grandpa David has brought us a little closer though...another reason to congratulate him. This week for what seems to be the umpteenth time this so called mild winter a group of germs has been attracted to me and the old hankie drawer has taken another battering. With this in mind I was interested to read that scientists are close to providing a cure for the common cold...a miracle I hear you snuffle...I too would have joined in the communal nasal celebration if it wasn't for the fact that I also read somewhere that humans never get the same kind of cold or flu bug twice...it is always different! So I hope I haven't yet had the strain that the scientists are working on, I would feel very put out if I had got rid of the thing myself just as the cure arrives!

Planning...weather or not!

The extreme weather and it's horrendous consequences over recent weeks have brought out various different kinds of human nature, good, bad and down right ugly. Brave neighbours risking all to help others, those with adequate transport helping to move people out, any suitable abode made ready to house people who were all of a sudden, sodden. That's some of the good...then you get the bad and the ugly...looters, people robbing sand bags and then trying to sell them for up to £40 each...Where are the sink holes when you want one?! Then there are our leaders, nowhere to be seen for weeks, until it spread a little too close to home for comfort, suddenly waterproofs were found, wellies were bought and off they went with their good will, promises of the world and ...oh yes plenty of camera men. The one thing all of the above good,bad and ugly have proved is that we in Britain are still possibly the best in the world at reacting to situations and probably the worst in the world at being pro active. Why is it, and I know I am not the first to ask this, that our whole infrastructure and way of life stops with a few inches of snow, a heatwave, winds, rain? Why is it that a nation that reared some of the greatest minds, engineers, scientists cannot put plans into action that would at least give those poor people and areas a fighting chance when the forces of nature head our way. The answer is normally money, less money than will be needed now to put things right by the way, but nevertheless money, along with our leaders short sighted attitude of,"it will never happen again" I'm sure the the residents of Somerset would have heard that last year...and the time before that and the time before that...

Read All About It?

Whilst enjoying a few days off I am catching up with some stories and events that I have only been able to glance at recently. For instance the story of the famous celebrity girlfriend of a famous celebrity who apparently could have sent a intimate text to another famous celebrity. I read on as it tells me that the first famous celebrity didn't take too kindly to this and started to contact the second famous celebrity to state his position and the story making it sound like a showdown was on the way mirroring their celebrity big screen personas. Lost in the story of mega star multimedia mischief I was awoken from my superstar slumber by the last paragraph of the piece as this was a report on a trial, not of film star text threats but of how this information was apparently discovered...hacking. Now those of you who know me know that I am not naturally cynical...ahem...but am I alone in thinking it strange that newspapers and media concentrate on the personalities and glamour of the story rather than whether their industry is guilty or not? I will let people with less suspicious minds than me to decide on that one.

Rodent Revelations

Today saw me notch up another year. I could witter on about age and how it's only a number, or I could enthuse about the wonderful cards and presents I received and was grateful for... But that would be quite normal and as those who know me would confirm I try not to be too normal. I started to think instead about the more spiritual side of birthdays and whether I was typical, in my case, Aquarian. However as I don't believe in astrology there didn't seem much point. As a man with an always open mind I then looked at the day itself and if there were any pointers to me and my traits. What I found was quite interesting as I will explain. February 2nd is Or was known as Candlemas, or Festival Of Light. I love candles, pretty thin evidence I hear you yawn...well there's more. The reason 2nd February was this day was that it is the mid point between the shortest day and the spring equinox, so candles were blessed to ensure the light came. So...I love candles, and I also love winter ...still a coincidence? February 2nd is also the day that certain furry animals pop out from their hibernation holes to basically see how winter is progressing, if they discover a bright clear day and see their shadow they stop, do an about turn and you won't see them for at least another 6 weeks as winter still has something up its sleeve. If they discover cloudy conditions with no shadow then they may hang around or pop out again tomorrow as winter has done its worst. How, I now hear you bellow, does this back the theory that I was most certainly born on the right day and I am so February the second? Well, the more astute amongst you will know that the previous tale of rodent meteorology is better known as Groundhog Day, and the even more astute will know that was the title of a film set on... Yes February the second and starring Bill Murray, an actor I happen to like...clinches it rather. Why not check out your birth date and see if anything similar is there for you...let me know, and happy birthday for whatever day of the year it happens to be.