Happy Birthday Mum.
You'd have been 88 today if the vagaries of the British National Health Service hadn't let your diabetes run rampant. Lots of things have happened since you've been gone, some good things, though more bad. Terrorists have taken over the world, causing mayhem and madness wherever they so choose. You'd probably remember them from your time in London during the war, though they were called GI's back then.
I've just been out taking photographs and thanking the universe that you didn't pass on your photography skills to me. They'll probably invent an app soon that automatically crops off heads and frames feet in the shot but you could do all that manually, you didn't need fancy new technology to do it.
How would I even try to explain PC's, DVD's and smart-phones to you? You had enough trouble with the VCR. To this day I have no idea how you managed to record Michael Jackson's Thriller video when it was first shown on TV. I suspect you were trying to record EastEnders or Coronation Street on a completely different channel on a different day and at a different time, but I'm glad you did it, whenever I see that video now, it reminds me of you.
You did pass on your love of reading and your interest in crosswords for which I'm grateful, but you also gave me your short-arse little legs, which I'm less thrilled about. Your other great passion was knitting. I remember all the jumpers you churned out on your knitting machine, and the fights we used to have because I refused to wear any of them. You could never understand why a teenage boy would refuse to wear a jumper that was: a) made by his Mum and b) had a pattern on it so alarming even Val Doonican would have refused to wear it...but that didn't stop you trying.
Happy Birthday Mum, from your 40th birthday present. Yes, I never had any excuse for forgetting your birthday, did I? Some women get champagne and flowers, you got me instead, though looking back on my grunting teenage years, I'm sure you'd have swapped me in a heartbeat for a bottle of Guinness and a bunch of daisies.
Your loving son, Chris
XXX
Saturday 15 June 2013
Sunday 9 June 2013
Exam Cheer(s)
Sorry. My blog posts have been absent this week, all thanks to my ongoing struggle with revision for my political science exam next week. When I read the books they make perfect sense, then I close them and zoom, whatever I thought I knew just disappears, gone. Maybe I should just leave the books open and never shut them.
Yesterday I threw myself into...watching a borrowed copy of Underbelly: Badness. Today, however, after taking the DVDs back, going to the supermarket to get cat biscuits and having a nap, I really threw myself into it. No, stop laughing, I did, in fact I've just finished a revision session where I incorporated my new secret weapon, beer. (OK, yes, you're right, it's the same secret weapon I always use so it's not much of a secret, or much of a weapon come to that)
I'm not sure I can class it as performance enhancing, but I did just write four short practice essays in less than two hours. On the day I have to write three essays in two hours, though now I think about it, they have to be legible essays that make some sort of sense. Maybe there's a correlation between previous beer drinking and the fact that I can never close a textbook ever again?
I'm certain a calming beer before the big event would be a great way to settle the nerves but I think I'd be more inclined to stay in the pub than turn up for the exam. Maybe the uni would be okay if I arrived at the exam with a six-pack? Some people bring Tic-Tacs or gum, why should I be singled out because of a few beers and/or a hip flask?
We're living in a democracy and not an authoritarian state after all. Hang on, maybe something did sink in. Let's drink to that, cheers!
Yesterday I threw myself into...watching a borrowed copy of Underbelly: Badness. Today, however, after taking the DVDs back, going to the supermarket to get cat biscuits and having a nap, I really threw myself into it. No, stop laughing, I did, in fact I've just finished a revision session where I incorporated my new secret weapon, beer. (OK, yes, you're right, it's the same secret weapon I always use so it's not much of a secret, or much of a weapon come to that)
I'm not sure I can class it as performance enhancing, but I did just write four short practice essays in less than two hours. On the day I have to write three essays in two hours, though now I think about it, they have to be legible essays that make some sort of sense. Maybe there's a correlation between previous beer drinking and the fact that I can never close a textbook ever again?
I'm certain a calming beer before the big event would be a great way to settle the nerves but I think I'd be more inclined to stay in the pub than turn up for the exam. Maybe the uni would be okay if I arrived at the exam with a six-pack? Some people bring Tic-Tacs or gum, why should I be singled out because of a few beers and/or a hip flask?
We're living in a democracy and not an authoritarian state after all. Hang on, maybe something did sink in. Let's drink to that, cheers!
Saturday 1 June 2013
Uni. Almost done...for now
Just a few thoughts on my latest uni (mis)adventures.
I've a photography assignment due next week, so obviously it hasn't stopped raining in Innisfail for days. It can be sunny everywhere else in the world and it'll be raining here. Guaranteed. I'm starting to think I'm related to the Munsters or maybe the Addams family, as our house always seems to have a thunderstorm hovering permanently above it.
Maybe I'm just being too cynical and I'm looking at it all wrong. I should be thanking the universe for turning the backyard into a paddy field, it now reminds me of holidays in Vietnam and Thailand. If life gives you lemons...ah, forget that make lemonade nonsense...lets drink tequila!
Once my photo assignment's done, the only thing left to do this semester is to revise for my political science exam. Won't that be fun? I haven't chosen my elective subject for next semester yet, though it's a pretty safe bet it won't be anything to do with political science. You don't have to be Tom Waterhouse to work out those odds.
Driving to Townsville and back every week got to be a chore pretty quickly. Singing to myself to pass the time wasn't working so I thought I'd liven the journey up with an audio-book from the library. I chose Peter FitzSimons' Kokoda for my first audio-book, and while I can't vouch for it's historical accuracy, it was certainly a great piece of story telling. 16 hours and 50 minutes worth in fact, on 14 CDs, read by Lewis Fitz-Gerald, whose narration was excellent and brought the story to life. Loved it.
I've a photography assignment due next week, so obviously it hasn't stopped raining in Innisfail for days. It can be sunny everywhere else in the world and it'll be raining here. Guaranteed. I'm starting to think I'm related to the Munsters or maybe the Addams family, as our house always seems to have a thunderstorm hovering permanently above it.
Maybe I'm just being too cynical and I'm looking at it all wrong. I should be thanking the universe for turning the backyard into a paddy field, it now reminds me of holidays in Vietnam and Thailand. If life gives you lemons...ah, forget that make lemonade nonsense...lets drink tequila!
Once my photo assignment's done, the only thing left to do this semester is to revise for my political science exam. Won't that be fun? I haven't chosen my elective subject for next semester yet, though it's a pretty safe bet it won't be anything to do with political science. You don't have to be Tom Waterhouse to work out those odds.
Driving to Townsville and back every week got to be a chore pretty quickly. Singing to myself to pass the time wasn't working so I thought I'd liven the journey up with an audio-book from the library. I chose Peter FitzSimons' Kokoda for my first audio-book, and while I can't vouch for it's historical accuracy, it was certainly a great piece of story telling. 16 hours and 50 minutes worth in fact, on 14 CDs, read by Lewis Fitz-Gerald, whose narration was excellent and brought the story to life. Loved it.
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