A Journey, a Test, and a Homecoming

Hi Everyone

Having spent the last seventy years staring at the road in front of me as a car driver, it is a rare treat to be just a passenger. One of those rare occasions happened this week when our daughter drove us across country with the added bonus that our trip took us across the Peak District National Park. Just for once, I was able to fully appreciate the beauty of our countryside, even though the landscape is currently brown and not the green that we are so used to, as well as the villages we passed through. It occurred to me that generations of people and families have lived and worked in this generally peaceful environment. Of course, there are no doubt problems for some, but compared to urban life it seems an attractive way to spend your days. The very next day I read that parts of the centre of Glasgow in Scotland are no go areas due to high levels of homelessness, drug taking and anti social behavour. Just over a century ago, Glasgow was the leading industrial city in the world, which has left behind a legacy of many fine buildings, parks and monuments for us to admire. Now a combination of industrial decline and the fact that Glasgow has taken in a high proportion of asylum seekers has resulted in producing a dangerous environment for many of its citizens. Many other cities across our country are no longer attractive places to visit or live in as they used to be. Perhaps what was described as “our green and pleasant land” is now a brown and not so pleasant land for many of our citizens to live in.

If you have got this far in this week’s Rubbish, you will realise that I passed my test to drive a car when I was seventeen. That was at a time when many teenagers had no access to a car, so I was fortunate to have the opportunity to learn in the Senior Partner's car that the Junior Partner just happened to drive. As you know, the Senior Partner was tight with money, so I never had a paid for lesson as the Junior Partner taught me to drive. When the test day arrived, I was warned to hopefully avoid Mr Walker, the leading test inspector, as he was more likely to fail me than any other of the inspectors. Of course it was the dreaded Mr Walker who I found sitting next to me. At the end of the test he informed me that I had passed and added that with experience I would become a good driver. In today’s world, a new seventeen year old driver will expect, and to be fair need to have a car of their own. For me it would be another eleven years before we could afford to buy our first vehicle, a Triumph Herald van that we bought for just £100. During those years we relied on our Lambretta scooter or a builder's van for transport. The Main Contractor and I had many memorable journeys on our scooter and some unforgettable family holidays in the builder's van. Happy days. 

One morning this week I switched on the tv news. Prince Harry, Megan and their children are coming back to live in the UK. That simple fact took up half the national news. Where are they going to live, is the King happy, which school are the children going to, what security arrangements are they going to have, and will Harry and William carry on the current feud of not speaking to each other. As far as the last point is concerned, life is to short, get over it. On a general point apart from learning the fact that they are coming back to live here, I do not care about where they are going to live etc.. Just allow them to have some privacy so that they can get on with their lives but will the media and press allow that to happen. Not a chance. I will leave it another few days before I venture to listen to the national news.

Just a Thought:

Village gossip travels faster than a tractor on turbo.

My friend got 8 out of 10 in his driving test. The other two people jumped to safety.

A family feud is when someone brings up something you said in 1994 like it was yesterday. 

Brian