31 August ‘08.

(Waiting Miner Statue) – photographed in Dover on the 31st August 2008.

On the other side of the Atlantic a whole city is in throes of being evacuated due to Gutsav – here I woke up to a tranquil morning.  Makes you count your blessings.

Usual Sunday morning routine – a soak in the bath (I’m very primitive, no shower here) – then two boiled egggs, two slices of toast, coffee before a stroll down through town.  Dover is yobless on Sunday mornings; just ordinary people going about their business and very little traffic.   On this Sunday I did have an objective – the ferry terminal in order to book a crossing from Calais back to Dover for a fortnight Wednesday.   Part of a trip to Cologne by rail – the final details of which are still ambivalent.   The guy who sold me the ticket did me a deal for ten fifty which isn’t bad – friendly bloke too; good at his job.

Took the camera with me of course.  Dubious about taking any pics inside the Ferry Terminal so I resorted to some “effect” pics of Albion Place which is a terraced row beneath the East Cliff – towering chalk soaring immediately behind humble terraces and a pub.   Also took a few flicks along the Dover seafront, photographing statues etc. The picture featured here is of “The Waiting Miner” and is a commemoration of the four East Kent minefields which finally succumbed to politics and economics back in the nineteen eighties. Not the sort of thing you expect to see on the seafront!

Nipped into the supermarket on the way home, bought the ingredients for a shellfish salad and a bottle of Frascati – none of which survived my appetite for longer than an hour. Checked out my flickr account when I got in. Strange the wide variety of people you get linking you up sometimes. Today it was some young graffiti artist from Brisbane, Australia. Presumably he found the railworker pictures entertaining because he had been chased so often by their “down under” equivalents?

Alcohol at lunchtime has a soporific effect so I spent the next couple of hours asleep in the sunny bedroom; then read a few pages of “Jane Eyre” (one of my favourite books which I can read and re-read without ever tiring of it).

Upon returning to the internet after doing a batch of ironing I found some very helpful and kind advice from Tam in the USA about how to embed pictures onto this WordPress blog. The lady had actually sent me a short verbal tuition video on how to do it after I had explained that I had trouble following text instructions. It worked like a dream and I am most grateful! Thanks Tam!

It’s now ten forty five on Sunday evening, got to be up for work at six so I’ll be closing for now. ‘Night everyone!

30 August 08 diary.

It is the penultimate day in August.  Reports suggest that it has been the dullest month since records began here in south-east England and I can believe that it is so.

However, life for me, a bachelor aged 50 and living in a small two bedroomed flat in Dover is entirely satisfactory.   I earn enough to pay my bills, have a reasonable table, acceptable health and have trips up to London, Scotland and Europe periodically and no fewer than 37 days away from my job every year (not including those precious weekends). What quantifies happiness?  Happiness to me equals contentment.   Of course I would be even more contented winning a small fortune on the lottery but sticking to reality then, yes, life is largely okay.

This is my first post so let me tell you a little about my likes and dislikes. 

I like independence; I don’t like being under obligation.

I like silence; noisy neighbours, loud music, inconsideration I abhorr with a vengeance.

I like my own thing; nobody dictates to me what label I should wear, what I should and shouldn’t like and what is trendy and what is not.

I like to form my own opinion; media channels, newspapers etc are biased abominations for the most part.

I like to live alone; if the doorbell rings then it is an uninvited person. I don’t answer chance callers.

I am grateful to my family - I had good, hard working, working class parents and two older brothers who were never tyrants.  I enjoyed security and space as a child; I hated my high school days from 11-16 years and couldn’t wait to leave.

I tolerate and occasionally enjoy my job;  I have been working since 16 years old with one 6 month period of unemployment. I have a degree of independence in the job that I have been doing this last 8 years.   I deal with the public over the telephone.  I earn less than twenty grand a year but the job has perks. I have made no career progress but have tried being a manager twice and hated it both times.

I liked to travel – I’ve been very lucky and have visited most European countries, also Moscow, Canada, USA, India and Japan.   Favourite places (after UK) are Iceland and Japan.   As I have got older I have been more reluctant to travel having been targetted by pickpockets and having lost my confidence.  The world is no longer that big exciting place but is now a place of potential trouble.   I liked Iceland and Japan because of the sheer sense of security that I felt there.

I have no religious convictions.  When death occurs that is simply the end. My own opinion is that religion can be good as a code of standards by which to live a decent life; sadly it is too often used and interpreted by bullies for their own agendas and millions suffer in consequence and have suffered in consequence over thousands of years.

I am a worrier – in the back of my mind I am always expecting to encounter yobs on the street.

I am an optimist – I don’t see rain as a problem, just something that makes the grass greener and the countryside lush.

I like visual things – photography.

I dislike – the pulsating beats of other people’s favourite music intruding upon my own personal space. 

I love writing, looking at maps..dreaming.   I am sentimental and nostalgic.  I always hoped as a youngster that I would be in a long-lasting and fulfilling relationship.  That has never happened and, now, I wouldn’t want it.

So, hello, everyone, this is tmc50!

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