Increasingly our education system has pandered to providing the qualifications to be a Professional at a prohibitive cost to many who have the ability and talent.
A few win through and they are the Professionals.Obsessed by their chosen professional passion,they are the ones you want to look after you or your family.They excel.
The vet Noel Fitzgerald comes to mind,he epitomises someone at the top of their profession and who is constantly looking to improve outcomes.
However,by their very nature Professions can be closed shops and professional training can be a tick box exercises or worse still a statistical online algorithm driven pass fail quota.
Perhaps one day we’ll have an NVQ Level 3 in Brain Surgery .
Still a Professional with a passion for whatever field they are in are worth their weight in precious metal
What is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?
I carry my soul everywhere I go,sometimes it’s as light as a feather and makes me want to dance to songs and rhythms that in happy times are like the surround sound of life
Other times my soul is a heavy burden full of the weight and worries of a disheartening world where questions are many and solutions few.
Nevertheless the presence of my soul(not I hasten to add in any religious sense) is the part of me that maintains my sanity and hopefulness.My soul can fill up and empty with my mood and circumstances.It’s ever present and always there to strengthen my belief in good outcomes.
Do we all have one? Yes if we want to acknowledge it , the soul is a great leveller of life and how to live it
I realise I have always lived in an alternative universe.
My grandmother on my mother’s side(Nanny),once said I was like Pollyanna from a T .V series that was running in Ireland at the time.Even at five years old I always tried to see the best in everything and to see the bright side.
Nanny must have known what my parents were going through,my dad losing his job and the family’s lovely house in Dublin and having to go and start again living in a horrible tenement flat in Glasgow with my dad’s stepfather.
Their little four year old daughter ,oblivious to the downward spiral and just happy to be cared for and looked after by dedicated parents.Even with everything going on the seven of us,mum,dad,three brothers and two sisters were a cohesive unit.
I suppose that was how I grew up always believing that there was a possibility for a happy ending and if not then it was necessary to stay positive and make the best of the situation.
So where does my alternative universe fit into my previously described start in life?
Well I am social and positive.My alternative universe is the people I meet in my daily life who constantly moan about everything.
That alternative Universe one that I have to visit and be present in,but I am so glad to remove myself from it when the time comes and to settle back to my pretty otherworldly happy place which is my true Universe.
My true Universe is where perspective and fulfillment is.
The alternative moaning Universe is dire,but exists with its only purpose to make me miserable.I have a bucket full of empathy but it is finite ,just like energy is not in infinite supply and we have to conserve it.
Moaning,it seems is infinite and has its own scientific rule to represent endlessness and the fact it will never stop.So by definition moaning exists in a Universe far beyond what us Humans will ever understand.
I discovered it and I am naming it the Spleen Vent Universe.
In summary I’m currently in my true Universe and will at some point will visit Spleen Vent Universe again ,but will do so with my bucket of empathy refilled and my batteries recharged.
What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?
It’s so long ago that I experienced pleasure out of eating out that I honestly cannot remember what I would have spent money on
I can only say there have been more disasters and let downs than great experiences. I love cooking and cookery books,and really will try anything in a restaurant,but always with the thought of making it myself.
Also,there are so many ways to make healthy flavoursome food,but a chef in a restaurant has to appeal to all of their clientele,so surely there is a compromise on flavour and ingredients?
Now Desserts,that is a different matter,health be damned,I want sweet and sticky and would pay a fortune,well maybe twenty pounds sterling for the ultimate sticky toffee pudding. I am hopeful one day that this delectable dessert will come my way and that I will be able to afford it.
Well I’m not 65 so of course , but the above, well yes it applies to me. I’m scared to leave work, it gives me an anchor. I suspect the 93 year old paperboy in Abergavenny who cycles around hills and valleys delivering papers to Octogenarian’s feels the same way. Though he probably feels closer to having wings on his shoulders than an anchor around his neck.
We all like to feel valued; and what makes you feel more valued than someone paying you to do something .
So the over 65’s hang on in there, let’s face it modern work is unpalatable, if you are old enough to remember when coal mining was an industry in Britain you are old enough to appreciate that working with a group of unmotivated youngsters who all want to be managers in the next ten minutes, but who don’t want really want to do any work then you see that the stalwart older person who realises this work is a doddle is going to shine over the youngsters.
Added to that the crazy law that pays more for the old codger doing the same work as an 18 year old, I think it’s 2 or 3 sterling pounds an hour which is crazy as far as I can see and if they are 17 then it’s even less and they can’t even vote against it. Life is just plain unfair. Boo Hoo
Yet those of us who have been around a long time take it all in our very slow stride and the bosses like us because we don’t have boyfriend or girlfriend problems, aren’t on our mobile phones all the time, aren’t after the bosses job, are polite and not sullen, don’t use the work computer for searching for other jobs and don’t need a size zero uniform.
Yes , we over 65’s have our advantages and we intend to use them as long as it suits us
Trees; Lavender; Sun, Rain; All Life Forms ; Human Humour ; Animal Humour ; Human Hugs ; My dog getting excited when I get home ; Writing; Cleanliness, Showers ; Fresh Pyjamas, Slippers ; Tee-shirts ; Freedom ; Cooking Pots ; My computer(PC) ;My Phone(mobile) ;Being driven in a car ; Non-polluting public transport ; Quiet roads ; Growing plants and vegetables ; Digging the soil ; Using my dibber ; Understanding another person’s point of view; Dancing in the kitchen with my blue-tooth headphones on; watching my dog paddle in a stream ; fair and positive working conditions; communicating, ability to count to 30.😊
thenotsomightyom 