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A Most Respectable Lifestyle
I suspect it depends a great deal on a person’s interpretation of Respectable, and whether it can be accepted for many different ways of life, or just from those in certain professions, and the former landed gentry but, as a child, it was a lifestyle which appealed to me. The fault is undoubtedly that of my grandmother – mother’s side – who talked of the old ways of the professional tramp, and the morals and standards some of them lived up to. How they traversed the country, seeking odd jobs and short-term employment in return for sustenance and a quarter to rest in, before moving on to new areas; unbound,…
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Fielding the Three Big Questions
There is a certain attraction to traditions, especially when visiting foreign lands, which draws tourists and others into a spiral of mixed feelings. On the one hand, it is good to see that the old ways are being respected and upheld. On the other the question of why people cannot simply let go, especially when it comes to traditions filled with outdated pomp and circumstance, costing the taxpayer a fortune without bringing them any benefits. Just as not everything which is new is good and worth pursuing, so it is with the old; there comes a time when traditions need to be consigned to the history books, taught in classes,…
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The Utopian Golden Age of Steam
Transport, especially trains, has a bad name. Some might say it is well earned, others that the comments and accusations, when taken in context of the whole picture, are overblown and unnecessarily damaging. The fact remains, things are not what they used to be, and many hark back to the days of steam, when trains were punctual and clean, as if they had lived those days themselves. Here, in a country where the punctuality of trains is always talked about as being perfect by those from other countries, things are as they have always been, and as they are in most other western nations. The trains and buses run, that…
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A Time for Thought and Reflection
At what age do we take a step back from life and ask what it is that we are doing, or what have we done, and has it all been worthwhile? Is there just one point in our life, or are there many? Do we just charge headlong into whatever is before us and see what comes and then, when it is all done and through, when we get to the other side, stop and glance back at what has happened? And, what is it that makes us stop and consider, reflect? There is a memory in my mind of sitting in a large classroom, surrounded by other young children,…
