thenotsomightyom

What is the greatest gift someone could give you?

If the total population of the world gave each other ten minutes of their time each year to find out about each other and to really undestand someone. The cumulative effect would be amazing.

Some no doubt would see it as a waste of their “precious” time. And I would say that this is silly.Ten minutes of your time a year.

I estimate that with a world population of 8 billion people and the premise that any form of effective communication counts ,be it talking ,holding hands, or looking someone in the eye . It would take 1.3billion hours of everyone’s time in a year to achieve.Given that in a Year, we have 70,080 billion hours of time available. I think it would be time well spent.

Crazy I know,but we’d still have 70,078 billion hours each year to do what we do currently do now ,but with a better insight . Now, that would be a great gift.

What colleges have you attended?

As if,as if I would.

Like any other writer,my life experiences are my building block to who I am.

Details like where I was born and brought up,where and how I was educated, and why I feel the need to publish my thoughts on a Public Platform such as this.

Writers can not help themselves ,they sweat facts about themselves onto the paper, internet,or whatever media they are using.

I thought about inventing a fantasy Potteresque college of the weird and wonderful,of Hermoines and Hagreds,of wild parties and derring doos of Masters and Students alike. It would have been fun.

Instead I’ve opted to write about protecting information.

Recently,our Right Honourable Prime Minister Rishi Sunak invited me to “like” his Facebook page.That he personally wanted to know what I thought.

I admit,I was flattered ,and then I looked at his tag name and photograph.It said; “this account had been set up by Conservative Party HQ.” I realised I was just a piece of data that they wanted in their database. Modern-day Politicians have learned how to use this information now.I smiled, ignored it, and moved on quickly.

The request from Rishi was made as they wanted access to my details, and with these details to influence me.I suppose I should be grateful to Facebook that they made them state the real origin of the request and enabled me decline and not join my mate Rishi’s account.

My suspicions were also raised by the soon to be ex CEO of a famous UK retailer having a clandestine coffee shop meeting with the used to be Honourable (maybe still is)Nick Clegg who is I think a VP at Facebook now,but indeed is famous in the UK for introducing student loans and fees for Colleges in the UK.In other words Privatising Tertiary Education.

This meeting will all be about acquiring information, as the CEO will be looking for a new job in the New Year. Will she join Facebook?Will we ever know?

Ah , I digress what colleges have I attended, none that you have heard of but nevertheless have taught me things of value.

I am a magpie.I gather shiny details. I listen and learn a lot from people of all backgrounds, and I realise that listening to everyone’s story is valuable. Yes, I gather information,but for good reasons.Would I use it maliciously?I hope not. Would I trust others not to use my information maliciously? No, of course not.

So thank you for reading, and thank you, The College of Life.

Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

Yes,I am a player in my daily life.Playtime to me means getting messy in the kitchen.

Not the heat of the oven or the firey hob for me. They are quite scary and need to be watched over. A necessary evil

I get my kicks from mixing ingredients without technology. My favourite implements are whisks and my Pyrex Bowls. Nothing I like better than lining my bowls up on the kitchen surface and then using my ancient weighing scales to allocate the necessary ingredients to each bowl.

When I first try a recipe,I will measure accurately,and hopefully will have all the ingredients.(That I’m afraid is not always guaranteed,however,it can be fun trying to find a substitution in my cupboards).

I love using the basics ,such as flour,eggs,milk,butter, sugar, and salt.What beautiful foods,such textures ,colours,and flavours.

I love “creaming ” butter and sugar together to make all sorts of cookies and doughs.

As I say ,when I first try a recipe, I will follow the instructions exactly and have great success.Subsequently, I might tweak the recipe out of necessity(usually ran out of something) and the results might not work as well. It is fun to experiment.

Recently,I’ve been infusing to make a non-alcoholic gin. Largely based on cucumber(love cutting and slicing the cucumber). Then I add loose chamomile flowers,cloves,peppercorns,juniper berries, cinnamon, and anything that might give me that “gin”character. Infuse in the fridge for five hours, and then it’s ready. Sieve the liquid and then add your favourite tonic and a slice of lemon. Infinitely experimental.

Would I want to run an International Food Company making popular products.No.The individual loses their ingenuity and creativity.Do I mind clearing up and washing dishes?No ,not at all ,now I’ve got discipline and a system.

Is it playtime in the kitchen for me every day.Yes!

What are your biggest challenges?

As long as I am in this World,I am Happy in it. I feel I have a purpose to make things better in any way I can.

My biggest challenge every day is to combat mediocrity. Mediocrity is fired at us from all angles, People we meet don’t care, Organisations don’t care ,populations and animals are disposable.The World about us makes us feel worthless.Why?Because someone can’t be bothered.

Bothering costs time and money and therefore can be treated as an expense.Those of us who can be bothered see that investment as important,but increasingly standards in all areas of our lives drop eg.Public Utilities, Social Media,Entertainment ,Private Business and Government. When we accept Mediocrity served up by unmotivated mediocre people ,situations deteriorate.

The challenge is to readdress the Balance Sheet of Life and counteract the Mediocre each day,one small step at a time. It is a constant.