Blimey, you're brilliant !!! Do yo do commissions ?
I'm looking for someone do decorate the downstairs !
fabulous! real talent! did you go to art school back in the day?
I was always torn between nursing and art...applied to UCH and Hornsey Art college...UCH interview was first and I was accepted and the rest is history..but have often wondered...
Bloody Hell Norm! Respect. It takes all of my effort to draw my pension:-)
Carol, yes indeed I do. Pls others. Maybe you like horses - see below;
Obviously Ive had a quiet morning here! so was doing some reading up on economies within Europe and came across many that state there is a lot of belief that the UK will be the major economy in the coming years.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9039871/why-britains-economy-will-overtake-germanys/
Vic...thats what I read as your post came up on my computer as the email came through...in fact twice it came through...then went to read it and it had gone! a ghost?...I agree
It was interesting reading the replies. We all have slightly different perceptions, but some very valid points. Doreen I think you have hit the nail on the head, everyone was the same (working classes) probably up to Thatchers time, when in a clever and divisive way, she urged the working classes to do the unthinkable, and buy their own homes.
I remember my dad telling me about a Godmother I had. She was considered very 'la di da' and that wasnt a good thing! she was apparently a 'social climber' and was castigated for it by her peers and no doubt laughed at by the middle classes she aspired to!
I am with Peter here and to some degree, Norman. Though I can look back and think all stages of my life were great, lots of good bits and the bad bits were short lived so I have never dwelt on them. Life today is fine, I would rather be 30 something than 50 something, but hey, the alternative to old age aint that great!
Bottom line....attitude matters hugely. I am very aware that I am a glass half full person, and I tend to be naturally 'happy'. Equally I am not blind to problems and nothing I like more than a bit of campaigning (my years with disability charities were very happy years)
You are right Norman about one of the problems of advancing years is not having things to look forward to, its the major cause of depression in the elderly.
wow Norman...do you draw these?
I read vast amounts to write what I do that probably very few people read BUT then somebody has to do it and I am game (or stupid) enough to be up for it.
Carol you could be right, but I think part of the situation is that certainly from my end of the telescope, one reason I believe us oldies (me in my mid-70's now) tend to look back is the simple fact there is more to look back on than there is to look forward to!
I certainly don't look back on a lot of my life - notably younger years in Britain with any sort of affection, and oddly it IS the only country (apart from France where I don't and never did work) where I never made a decent quid and certainly was very aware of the Xenophobia extended to even a returning expat!
However living here suits me, even though we live on very limited means, we have no debts, own our own house and car, and thus far good health. Struggling with finances is a constant mainly as and when an unexpected major bill appears, otherwise most are planned for.
I honestly couldn't see me ever returning to the UK and the last time I made even a vist to London, about three years back, I was staggered as to how expensive it was, and again how bloody obnoxious some Londoners have become - particularly on London Transport. The pig-ignorance extended to my wife by some characters on that perversely called 'service' deserved chastisement that unfortunately I am too old to deliver other than verbally which I did.
I am glad I have no cause to come back over, as I certainly have no desire to do so, but I accept that it can suit others, and so be it.
I am a ridiculous bookworm, both in the reading and the creating. I suppose it must be the advertising background where I tended to be a 12-month 'expert' on many diverse subjects according to the clients I was handling at the time. I seemed to always be reading up on something or other, which of course ultimately led to my current 'library' created for the Oz Publisher.
That in itself fed the history passion as almost all of it was advertising in the social conditions of the day. The subject matter led on to other things and notably in the case of the Two World War, so at the moment I am completely absorbed in WW1. Although I have only read a couple of contemporary memoirs so far, with Ludendorf translation the current one, I have been wading through and creating a downloadable library from mainly The Gutenberg Project which has been amazing.
If you want to see Nationalism at its most rampant, reading these books is a real eye-opener, as is the true tragedy of how so many poorly-educated young men were fooled, and worse by politicians.
That particular breed doesn't seem to change very much I fear.
OK I really should get back to these WW1 Fighter aircraft illustrations, only done 50 so far (to go with the 25 tanks, 22 Trucks and 40 Armoured Cars! Who's obsessive???
Must fly?
Carol, I knew I had posted something. I was just trying to find an old post of mine & Lo! there it was. It said :- " Pete. Unadulterated it might be but I would remind you that I only repeat other peoples drivel. I never repeat my own drivel. I never repeat my own drivel. I never.......:-) "
Strange how it didn't appear here but was in my stuff. Getting on I may be but not yet senile:-) Is there a ghost in the machine?
I'm well over 50 unfortunately but realise life is great ! Ten times better than 10, 20, 30 years ago in my case. I had a good upbringing and made the most of my youth but my standard of life is oodles better now than it's ever been. Ok, health issues come into play but the health services etc are so much advanced. The past couple of years has seen me not having to struggle financially for the first time ever.
I recall my dad constantly implying his five years in the PoW camps were the happiest days of his life !!! Not the conditions obviously but the camaraderie which was the single most thing he yearned to to re-create but sadly never re discovered...
hmm...also...this is probably contentious, but having worked in elderly care and spend a lot of time with elderly parents and inlaws, there is a definite tendency to perceive life as less appealing the older we get. It is a rare older person, and I mean anyone past their 50's really, of seeing the world as better than it was when they were young.
My dad was brought up in poverty in the depression, but still talked about it as if it was a much better time than the 90s when they were relatively comfortably off. Admit I can see the 70s and 80s as a great time, but more for the great time I was having as a young woman, if I stretch my memory I can recall working in Personnel in a factory when the 3 day week was introduced and my boss was carried off by ambulancemen after having a breakdown, so sometimes I think its rose coloured specs.
Sure is tough Carol - many families are struggling to survive tho' some, with jobs are getting by.
My late wife did volunteer work for many years for the Resto de Coeur in our town. They were not short of customers to the food bank who rely on personal contributions as well as govenment help and the invaluable aid from larger companies who contribute weekly to the fund. The ham products company Madrange (Limoges) for example, donate a pallet of ham every month to the Haute Vienne coffers. Of course many families are too proud to apply for help from the food banks.
Food banks exist here already Brian, and if you look at the benefits enjoyed by many families in France, the benefit system is more widespread here.
http://www.english.rfi.fr/economy/20131125-one-million-people-get-charity-food-france
Of course not every town is booming, but having worked as a contract manager for the UK with RNIB, I am lucky enough to have friends from Lands End to John O'Groats, and what I am hearing is that there is a definite improvement in most areas. As I said earlier, here in the Dordogne, in a town which has done very well because of the number of Europeans who moved here, did up their properties and many started businesses is not doing so well. There are a lot of businesses that have gone to the wall,some having been around for over 20 years. Its tough for many people here.
Not really a bookworm nowadays but a few years back I enjoyed reading both The Benn Diaries and The Alan Clarke autobiography books - both clever chappies with diametrically opposing views but good reads all the same. Talk about a balanced read ?
Apolgies Doreen.....was half asleep when I posted that...way past my bedtime. I can only tell it as it is where I live. I have a lot of friends here who say similar to your brother.....but who have read all about the trials and tribulations of living in the UK but who havent been back for 10 years. Of course its not the same all over, but then where I live in France, is not the same as many cities here...Marseilles, the outskirts of Paris. Every country has problem areas. And yes there are food banks, parts of the north of England are having a much worse time than the south, but rumours of the demise of the UK are way off the mark. The UK is judged as being one of the countries that is coming out of the recession, it was stated it was almost back to where it was before 2009.
History is exactly that, as many interpretations as you like never make one picture... it is indeed the unfinished puzzle but that has its virtues too.
The monarch had that power, now the PM must go to her/him to ask for dissolution (it is an announcement tarted up. that's all - pure theatre). Anachronistic nonsense that should end. Yes, constitutionally a French president can resign as indeed de Gaulle did in 1946 and 1969.
There was a constitutional referendum in 1969. Reforms would have brought about decentralisation of government and radical changes to the Senate. Just over half voted against the reforms, so had about 4% majority so that the failure to bring about reform led to Gaulle's second resignation and end of his political career. Those reforms are still very much needed but the chances of the electorate ever supporting change are slim still. The younger, more worldly wise may eventually force it though, then the presidential powers will probably be reduced to make proper cabinet government the rule like elsewhere in most of Europe.