Month: April 2023

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Thoughts today

For most of my adult life I think I’ve lift for now. Maybe I am in the minority for that with so many investing for the future, ensuring their retirement is the best time of their lives. There is a lot of merit in that but, here is why I chose not to do it.

Way up there on the top of that list is that my mother died at 52. Her and Dad went down the route of saving for their retirement, buying a house and so on and yet, there she was. For her it didn’t pay off and how might her life had been different had she lived to the full whilst she could?

My nan would have got another 13 years out of her life in retirement though, she didn’t take the route of investment for the future. She remained in her council house her entire life and seemed happy. Nowhere near as stressed as the home owning elements of the family. Her husband, my grandad, he went at 67. He got just two years of retirement before he died.

A boss of mine had this huge retirement party when he left at 65 on his last Friday which turned out to be just that, his last Friday.

You may have gathered that what I am saying here is, to me, buying a house, going short, managing for most of my life didn’t seem to make sense, I just didn’t know what the future would hold.

I cannot say how my life would have been different if I had of gone the house ownership route. What differing opportunities I may have had and taken. Would I have picked up a virus in 2014 which would leave me disabled for the rest of my life? Maybe not.

If I did not invest for the future, what did I do?

Travelled mostly. My kids didn’t just read about Europe at school, they went there and not just the tourist places either. I know I got a lot out of that and I am sure they did too. Perhaps even a love of travel which will pass to my grandchildren, a legacy maybe?

My homes were always comfortable. Furniture was placed when it needed to be as were carpets and walls decorated. The kids grew up in lovely places despite all the family difficulties we were to face.

Sure, in the back of my mind there was always that question: What about when I am older and perhaps in need of extra love and support? I always imagined it would be like my nan. Always getting someone popping in, invited over for Sunday dinner, doing holidays with her children and never alone at Christmas. Sadly, it is looking like that is not going to happen to me but, it was my gamble to take and I would do it all again just the same.

Here and Now I still need to invest in my comfort. All the carpets needed to be replaced, many are over 20 years old. It was bugging me that they looked so horrible and were impossible to keep clean so, they are being done. I still feel the need to feel safe and comfortable in my own home. I know it is ‘only’ a rented place. These spends will gain me nothing financially but, that is not my chosen path. What they do now is to ensure my life is as pleasant as it can be.

The problem for me, having a much younger husband is that we differ in our outlook. When he retires I will be 83 presuming the retirement age remains as it is. I won’t have many years in front of me assuming I last that long. Investing heavily now for that future is too high risk for me. For him it makes perfect sense. In 20+ years he can retire in comfort to his country of birth still a relatively young man. It makes sense for him and yet, not for me. Sure, I could get lucky and live until I am 100 but, it doesn’t look likely given my health issues.

My children, they aspire to house ownership and I would always argue, if the salary is high enough that it’s not a significant drain on daily living and leaves plenty of saving room then, it’s good, long term it makes sense knowing that some day that mortgage is paid and that will be extra in pocket income. However, if they must struggle to afford it, I can only advise, don’t do it. Enjoy your lives and your time with the children whilst you are able.

Ultimately, we only know which case is right or wrong when we die. Only then do we know whether we made the right choice or not. For now, I have some amazing memories to carry with me, worth every penny.

I’ve included a gallery which only brings me up to 2010 with so many great times after that.

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Picard – A Great Conclusion

SPOILER ALERT

I have not enjoyed all of the series Picard with Patrick Stewart. Some elements I felt were ill judged and were simply not in keeping with television standards. The one I feel was so wrong was the level of tobacco placement in the series. Just about every episode promoted smoking with both the good guys and bad guys indulging. Alcohol was not far behind either.

Whether this was some ploy to make it more gritty I do not know. What it did was feel like they had a lot of sponsorship from the tobacco industry. Not a small amount from Jamesons Irish Whiskey either!

But, negatives aside, it was one of those series which gets us into the characters as the episodes pass by. Perhaps it might have worked had they skipped rather a lot of the episodes and compressed it into just one mega season. Looking back I feel several of the episodes just didn’t much matter in the great scheme of things. With just a little tweaking and maybe 5 more introductory episodes, they could have done it?

What did it have that I liked?

LGB content, very well done but, not the first attempt to normalise LGB relationships albeit, this time it was mentioned as a think and then, suddenly it wasn’t a thing again so no real commitment there.

Melding several different series together was a nice touch. Did I get all of them? The Original Series with President Chekov actually voiced by Walter Koenig, obviously The Next Generation, DS9 and Voyager. Did I miss anything?

Resurrection … Picard died from his Irumodic Syndrome which he actually didn’t suffer from and then was given a new body (aged to perfection). Data was likewise recovered from the files in B4 & Lore. Seems we cannot keep a good character down. In this section I feel I must also mention the Klingon Bird of Prey from Star Trek 4 and, of course 1701-D and … well, let’s look see because seeing this shows I did indeed miss out connections with other Star Trek shows

So, I missed ‘Enterprise’ amongst my linked series. Likewise Star Trek VI is there also with a little more DS9

In case you are not Trek enough, Worf was also on DS9 hence why I did not need to rely on the Defiant. The Dominion was also was DS9 and that is where the Changelings (if that is how it is spelt) were from.

Now, the important bit, important but, maybe won’t ever Happen. A new Trek series called Star Trek Legacy following the exploits of 7 of 9, Jack and crew as they boldly go. The final scenes of Picard hinted at it even with the Q popping in for good measure. Will it or won’t it?

REVIEW: Star Trek: Picard: “The Last Generation”
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Stop The Horse Racing Campaign

Recently protestors badly disrupted the UK’s biggest horse racing event in Liverpool. They are making the argument that horse racing is wrong, barbaric and many other such things for the horses which should be allowed to roam free as nature intended. That keeping animals for our pleasure, be it to eat or to participate is sport, is something which needs to be stopped. It is fair to say that these are vegans, those who choose to avoid all animal products.

I have some sympathy with them. On the surface it is fundamentally wrong to exploit another living thing merely for our pleasure. I feel that is agreeable to most as a concept.

Scrutiny pulls it apart though. Let’s look at other situations whereby we imprison animals entirely for our pleasure, animals which could survive in the wild.

Dogs, probably top of the list. Our species has been breeding their species mainly for our pleasure for thousands of years. They are predominantly used as family pets, still a form of incarceration. They are also used in racing, as enforcement animals, drug sniffer dogs for drugs and so on and, the huge ones, as helper dogs for the blind and deaf. If we have to free the horses then, we’ve got to stop what we are doing to dogs too. We cannot have it all our own way as surely that is the very point of the protest.

Cats. Mostly useless beasts kept in homes for our pleasure. I’ve never heard of a cat performing a trained roll so, just for fun and company then.

Rodents, rats, mice, gerbils and so on. Likewise, should we make it illegal to own them and release them into the wild?

They’re planning a campaign of ‘free the animals’ later this year which they didn’t deny would involve releasing zoo animals, giving them their freedom. Again, all lovely and fluffy but what exactly are they planning? Zoo’s actually run at the forefront of animals conservation. They breed rare species to release into the wild in effort to avoid extinction. Yet, the animals are still caged up, still not free and people pay to see them so, not much difference to the Aintree Horse then?

Ultimately, their aim has to be to have no more imprisoned animals.

There is another argument I heard them use. That it isn’t right to force animals to do things against their will for the benefit of people. They should be free to do what they want each day. I take that argument on board. I believe they referred to it as inhumane. Therefore, making another animal perform a task repeatedly every day just to survive is inhumane? Again, it sounds reasonable until I mention this one word … employment! Millions of us every day are made to do menial tasks in exchange for the means to survive. We can say no, of course we have choice and yet, do we really?

Should we go there with the whole vegan argument and how crazy stupid it is … let’s overlook that the food is just so crazy boring. We are talking vegan here, zero animal products so, get rid of those leather seats and belts.

For a start, our species is not herbivore. We never did graze the land and forage for berries. Indeed, thankfully we did not else we would likely not have absorbed the protein our brains have needed to evolve as we have to be debating such things.

But, let’s go with it, ban all animal for meat and by product production which includes milk and eggs of course.

Where do all those animals go exactly? Farmers still own the land and if they cannot keep livestock they’re not going to let their freedom fighting cows eat their corn fields! All those chickens, all they know how to do is breed. Pigs, sheep and so on, all roaming around desperate for food with all the fields they used to feed in blocked off because farmers need to make a living feeding vegans.

In short, my conclusion has to be that they are well meaning crazy people

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Excuses

The Range in Northampton

Consistently this store has made excuses for misleading price labels and maintenance issues.

Were it true that there was a shortage of available staff in the market, why are similar stores nearby having all the same issues?

It just seems to me that they are maximising profit over customer experience.

I used to really love the store, I still do feel the concept is excellent but, they just fall short on execution.

Is it a general lack of company investment, poor management or something else? I don’t know and, as a customer, I don’t much care either. All I want from a store is good products clearly and accurately labelled and enough staff to precent long queues.

It was telling that I went in there this morning, a Saturday morning around 10am and there was no one on the tills, just one person on customer services who I have to presume serves customers buying as well, on a Saturday! No wonder the store wasn’t busy. Now, they might argue that the staffing levels were right for the amount of customers. But, what if customers are staying away because their service isn’t very good?

One guy working there was complaining to a colleague that he was being told to do something and it wasn’t his job. I don’t want to hear that. As is usual, the item I was interest in was wrongly priced. But, I couldn’t ask those staff members as they were having their own private bitch fest about their employer. I spoke to Customer Services on the way out to be fed the standard line (the excuse) they’ve used for months, lack of staff.