Looking Forward toWinter

Hi Everyone

When we were kids, I remember that you could buy Ostermilk, which came in a large tin. I have no idea what the contents of the tin were like, but the tin was a prized possession. With that tin, a hammer, a length of string or wire, and a nail, we could make a winter warmer. With the hammer and the nail, we would make a series of holes with two holes in the top of the tin for the string or wire to form a handle. Having prepared the tin, the next task was to collect paper, sticks and a match so that we could light a fire in the tin. Once the fire was established, we would swing the tin round with our arm until it glowed with heat. On the cold winter days, we would play outside all day in the snow with the heat from our winter warmers. There is a point to all this Rubbish in that last winter, when our winter fuel allowance was cancelled, I was horrified to find that the Ostermilk tin was no longer on the shelf in my shed, so I was relieved to learn this week that some or all of the fuel allowance could be restored next winter. Thankfully the Main Contractor can store away the thermals, electric blanket, the fingerless gloves, the bed socks and my woolly night cap. For the children of today there are no Ostermilk tins, but in any event, most of them will not be allowed near a hammer and nail, and they would have little enthusiasm to play out all day in the cold and snow. Sadly, the bedroom with the play station and the smart phone has taken over for many of them.

Not long after I started my working life, a work colleague told me that the object of life was to get from sixteen, the age when most people started work at that time, to sixty five as painlessly as possible. Looking back, I think that he was pretty good at it whereas I probably failed miserably. One day the Senior Partner asked me why I had not become a bank manager as the man down the road was now retired on a comfortable pension and had not yet reached the age of sixty. I thought that it was a ridiculous question as I had already been working for twenty years. Whatever she thought, can you ever imagine me in a pinstripe suit and tie with a brown leather briefcase, sitting in the same office for almost forty years so that I could retire early with a comfortable pension. Ok, my career path did not give me a painless life, but it gave me a life and well travelled experience among real people.

My first boss was what I would describe as a lovable rogue. He had so many things going on in his life, mostly ok but some dubious, that prompted a man who worked with me to remark that he thought that one day his head would burst. Fortunately, we did not work in the same office, so I was never in mortal danger if it suddenly happened. In the White House the main man in the Oval office is being conned by Putin, seems to be at war with Harvard University, is falling out with the EU, has the crackpot idea of converting Alcatraz from a very successful tourist attraction into another federal prison, and is dealing with Israel, Ukraine, Greenland, Mexico and Canada not forgetting his weekend golf game. If I were a staff member in the White House, I would be standing away from him as far as possible, just in case.

Just a Thought : 

My friend was chatting up a lady in his local pub this week, Apparently, she was a police sergeant and her name was Tina. Anyway, she invited him to stay the night at her apartment, which he did. The next morning she offered to cook him a full English breakfast. He declined the offer saying “It’s ok, don’t fry for me Sergeant Tina”. 

After that, I think that you will agree that is enough Rubbish for this week.

Brian