An Old Man’s Musings, Part Fourteen

Image by Jaesub Kim from Pixabay

First of all a thank you to all those kind Puffins who have expressed appreciation for my scribblings. I do not comment, I am not on Twatter and for some reason I cannot open the links to X on the site..Pas de souci.

Do I detect American spellings creeping into the comments which I don’t read?

‘The English in the colonies did not change. In the mid 18th Century actors in England started using affected pronunciation, which the upper classes imitated. This led to the British accent we know today. American English is closer to the English of the 17th and 18th Centuries. I’ve read that true 17th Century English is still spoken in Appalachia because there was little or no immigration into the mountains. That has probably changed since radio and TV arrived.’

I suppose growing old is better than the alternative :

‘That was when I knew that the folly of age is a contagion that spares no man, not unless he is fortunate enough to die young.’

Funny how you can pick up something and later discover how wrong you are. Somewhere, sometime, I saw or heard what I understood to be the phrase ‘Intimations of Mortality’ i.e. thinking more about death as you age. It is actually from Wordsworth’s Great Ode and is, rather, ‘Intimations of Immortality.’ a whole different slant. but I have a question :

Who stole all my days?

It’s really not nice,
This roll of the dice.
That doles out the days,
And works out who stays.

I feel so insulted,
I was never consulted.
I won’t know my own fate,
No one’s told me the date.

Will I be held in renown
As my days dwindle down
Or be just like those men
Who shine now and then
But never more spark

‘Till it’s off to the dark?

Was it you, was it him
Does it work on a whim
Was it those over there
I don’t think it’s fair,
I’m in a bit of a haze
Who stole all my days?

The debate about assisted dying is ongoing but I am broadly in favour of it. The problem is that it could be the thin end of the wedge for these demented arseholes who rule over us so there would need to be strict guidelines and definitely no mission creep. Looking after my first wife in her closing weeks I begged the doctor to give her a morphine overdose, I don’t know whether he did so.

I have lived in the middle of Swansea Marina for a year now. It is a lovely place only marred by occasional dog mess and some wind blown litter. Must be tens of millions of pounds worth of boats moored there. In the year I have seen very few boat movements (ok, it was a dreadful Summer) but the cost must be enormous. I lived on a riverboat on the Thames for a while and mooring and insurance costs were pretty steep.

It is an interesting place to live and though I understand it is not tidal the jetsam and flotsam seems to move around a lot. I note that one boat has sunk recently

I was mooching around W.H. Smith earlier and I came across a showcase of Parker pens. There was a fountain pen priced at £150. My eldest brother gave me a Parker fountain pen when I passed the eleven plus.

The pen today was not the same, but similar and the one I had was (presumably) gold. I have lost it somewhere along the way in my many house moves, think I last saw it about ten years ago.

I recall my maths teacher asking whether I had written my homework with a broom handle. Cheeky bugger!

Had an Amazon/Evri delivery early today, I managed to catch him before he drove away. The parcel was propped up outside the front door. I later received a ‘photo showing where it had initially been left. Bit hit and miss!

Have had a lot of Amazon deliveries in the past few days. One lady arrived with a parcel. Lucky I checked the address. She had brought it to the correct apartment number but the wrong building, despite the name plate next to the array of doorbells. Directed her a couple of hundred yards away, and she was British. Probably overloaded and under pressure. I understand the payment is low.

Having said that, it is a fast and usually efficient service and saves a lot of going to shops (which I hate with a vengeance).

Bought some bourbon for a change to see what it was like as normally I drink cheap Scotch with a little lemonade.

My only other near experience was sinking a bottle of Southern Comfort one evening when my brother came home from the sea.  I remember some of that night with fondness!

The cheap bourbon was not great, but hey, a change is as good as a rest.

Watching the President Trump speech it was incredible the difference to our stumbling, bumbling apology for a a leader. The Donald spoke without notes, did not miss a beat and was eloquence personified. I would take issue with his contention that America won two World Wars but otherwise, Bravo.
 

© Gillygangle 2025