Well...that is a long and boring title, if ever there was. However I'll try to make it up in the text. You see I've been meaning (I've tried several times) to write something worth reading and I think the furthest I ever got was about 10,000 words. That is with one exception: I did write a short volume about my 'Gap Year' adventures, which you can find here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MUNICH-1972-Gap-Year-Adventures/dp/1095967819/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1DVYZ0FTDS0CS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Cg54A0gIQGs2UXxUQojciwoHJhPrJwAgXXRa8ggBbnM.nRKGmtnkMXBMv8qpbmsKh4VYuOvxPJV8yMOQIZXQmUc&dib_tag=se&keywords=munich+1972+gap+year&qid=1759736595&sprefix=munich+1972+gap+year%2Caps%2C91&sr=8-1
(I can't help noticing that that is one heck of a 'link', by the way. Anyhow it's just one click and you should be there).
So I'm almost certainly not alone in having made several attempts to write a book and fail. Let's face it I only managed 1 'letter to eldest son' unless you include this - and by this I refer to the actual blog post itself. If I am successful in producing enough to create an actual tome - well then I can claim an achievement.
Why today then? You may well ask and the answer will hopefully be answered in (ideally) the 40 or 50 thousand words which I am hoping will follow. Now at this point it might be worth a quick read through my preceding blog posts, but that isn't absolutely vital. Basically I'm driven to this by pure frustration, and a desire to avoid completely losing my sanity and my positive and (once happier) happy approach life: a sort of 'self-help' approach (and an inexpensive one to boot).
I am frustrated by modern technology: not because I am unable to use it (quite the contrary, in fact) but because frankly it is not fit for purpose. For example the internet is a fabulous tool, and one I thoroughly enjoy using when it works, but sometimes it does not work. Then, because of it's very nature (which I think is to take human beings out of the loop and make huge savings by employing many fewer people) there is nobody to turn (or talk) to for help. And as for 'recorded apologies'...
I am frustrated by politicians - that's probably a whole book in itself, but suffice to say that in dear old Blighty, my generation (commonly referred to as 'baby boomers') paid out taxes and our 'National Insurance' in the belief that we were contributing for the exact purpose of paying for our retirement state pension and our continued healthcare under the National Health Service ('NHS'). And we wonder why a politician by the name of 'Farage' is growing in popularity.
I am frustrated (almost beyond description) by current mores regarding such things as Freedom of Speech, (I used to love telling the jokes of Sir Les Patterson - the late Barry Humphries: once seen as bawdy humour, now regarded almost as a criminal act), the re-writing of history: an extreme example might be the censorship of the name of Wing Commander Guy Gibson's black Labrador in 'The Dambusters'. The dog had a name - and not a name which was specifically designed to give offence: ever read George Orwell, have you? I fondly remember listening to the late Sir Terry Wogan, who on one occasion spoke (rather eloquently and without a trace of bitterness) about how there are, in these modern times, people out there actively looking for reasons to be offended, and waiting to make that an opportunity to create some sort of havoc of their own.
And sadly I am frustrated by my youngest son who, possibly because of technology, smart-phones and the ability to kid himself that he has had friends (he is no longer under this technological illusion) is an alcoholic. What makes it so frustrating is that: when sober, the boy is a delightful human being and a pleasure to know and, of course, to love: when drunk his personality changes from great company to bombastic, bullying, very obvious lying and (in extreme cases, where I have actually called the emergency services for help because his capacity to behave as a human adult had been so badly compromised by the alcohol consumed) almost unrecognisable.
I have recently become a bit of a fan of a YouTube site known as 'Classic Album Review'. So as Barry Richardson (broadcaster and owner of that YouTube website) would say: "Let's get into it, shall we?"
PS Do feel free to contact me if anything here strikes a note: just be aware that I don't have a spare £20,000 to send my youngest son to a 'Betty-Ford-type-clinic' or similar, and please know I've encouraged him to use the established organisations who are designed to assist, but he actually believes he can do better without such. My GP surgery has, sadly (but not surprisingly) also proved to be of little assistance unless they can offer me and my wife some 'counselling'. Imagine how useful that would be!!!! (I'm already thinking what 'Sir Les's response might be...)
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