On Friday I made the comment that happy and positive people are much less likely to suffer from minor illnesses purely because of their attitude to life and the fact that they get less stressed and affected by outside influences.
This theme was taken up in a most unexpected way. I had been for a swim and was in the shower when I heard a conversation between two guys in the adjoining cubicles. It went something like this with the four letter words starred out.
"Remember old Charlie. Well the bugger's 90 next week.
"Really?"
"Yeah. He still swims three times a week. The ****** is always happy. Thas why he's lived so long. He never moans and just gets on with everything."
"Well he's had a long life."
"Yeah and I bet the old ****** has years to go as well."
So there we all were, stark naked and talking about positivity and happiness. Well they were. I, as usual, was listening.
I love positive and happy people. I would like to surround myself with positive and happy people. They enjoy life and it really often is a state of mind, although outside influences can obviously make you miserable.
And I'm writing this from the comfort of being retired. Everything I do nowadays is voluntary and that really makes a difference.
In my last couple of years of my full-time working life, I was pretty stressed and pretty miserable. I couldn't see the wood for the trees to use an old expression and it was making me a negative person. Since retirement I am much more positive in my attitude to most things but now realise that work/employment takes up a major part of your life and can, at times, be pretty unbearable. It's easy to re-assess life's values when you take work out of the equation.
If I could give one piece of advice to my younger self it would be "keep out of politics." All organisations are bogged down in politics with a small p. Avoid getting involved and keep your head down. Get on with your own job and ignore what's going on around you.
Of course that is all easier said than done. But generally positive people are happy people.
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I mentioned in yesterday's blog being in Coke House (pronounced Cook) at school. Don and Bridget Williamson sent me a description of the house from the Norwich School website which I really should have thought of. So here it is:
"Coke House was founded in 1945 and is named after Sir Edward Coke, who was Speaker of the House of Commons and Attorney-General under Elizabeth I and was Chief Justice under James I.
Coke was a zealous prosecutor of Sir Walter Raleigh (“Thou art a monster. Thou hast an English face but a Spanish heart”) and of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. He is attributed with coining the phrase: "the house of an Englishman is to him as his castle". He laid the foundations of his family’s great wealth and is without doubt one of the most influential legal minds this school has ever produced.
Cokesians are expected to make the very best of their individual academic, musical and sporting talents, and to use those talents both for their own improvement and for the betterment of others. While inter-house competition is enjoyed, co-operation is highly valued, fairness is paramount and winning is a consequence of hard work.
Much of Sir Edward’s influence lives on today and, in some small way, this House follows his lead with a balanced perspective, an open mind, and a determination to do what is right."
This is of great interest to me. I like to think that in some very small way I have upheld the ethos of using academic, musical and sporting talents for the betterment of others. You may or may not agree but I'm going to leave that one there, although my life has centred around both music and sport and, to a lesser extent, academia.
At least this information has given me another label. Former pupils of the Norwich School are known as Old Norvicensians. Now I can add Cokesians to that.
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We get hundreds of cruise brochures a year. We seem to get at least one every day. They must be struggling to fill places on cruises and think that glossy brochures will do the trick.
Sometimes though it's easy to rumble the companies. One brochure we received yesterday broadly promised BOGOF (buy one get one free). Taking a look at the prices rather suggested this wasn't such a good idea after all. It seemed a case of
1/ work out a price for a cruise.
2/ double it
3/ announce this is a BOGOF.
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I have mentioned on numerous occasions that music can rekindle a mood or remind you of a time or something specific. We had lunch yesterday at The Pigs at Edgefield (spending a Christmas present voucher) and they were playing some decent music including Kings of Leon's Sex on Fire with the line Your Sex is On Fire. I can't hear this now without singing "Your Chip Pans on Fire" by the Everly Pregnant Brothers which I mentioned a few days ago.
Amongst the pieces played was "Invincible" by Muse which has words that seem to fit the way the Ukranians are standing up to the Russians.
Don't be afraid
What your mind conceives
You should make a stand
Stand up for what you believe
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we're invincible
That song was also the piece of music being played at Yarmouth Hippodrome Circus a few years ago that made our granddaughter scream. We had to take her out just before the interval. Admittedly it was noisy. Now she loves the circus. But I always associate that song with that event.
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My photographs today are of Blickling - the last stop on our few days in North Norfolk. We got our times mixed up. Getting there around 3 pm we went for an hour's walk around the park and lake before going into the gardens with our annual passes only to find they were just shutting. We were able to take a few pictures but soon realised that, despite the weather being very warm, it is still only the end of March and longer hours at National Trust properties don't usually start until the beginning of April. I think the present warm temperatures are lulling us into a false sense of security.
I hope you enjoy some of my photos of the park etc.