Am I Lucky Or Does The Devil Look After Me?
Throughout my life, I’ve often been described as lucky and several times, positive things seem to happen to me by chance.
For instance, I met my late wife at Liverpool University, when I manipulated a scheme for students to get partners for one of the guild balls.
I ended up in Metier, after a chance meeting outside an opticians on Great Portland Street.
I’ve also been mentored well, by a lot of friends, who would never be described as conventional. Some sadly are no longer with us.
and I could give lots more examples.
Even on Monday, when I had the tooth exorcised from my body, I did the right thing, as it needed three hours and three dentists.
So is it luck or do some quickly weigh up the chances and make the right decision? I do know that my late wife would never describe me as boring and is that because I never throw any possibly useful information away from my brain. Since the stroke, I have lost some memory, like knowledge of who did this or that. But there is always Wikipedia!
As I don’t believe in any religion and believe organised religion is just another way to screw wealth out of the poor, then I can’t think that a devil exists either. Although after my last few years, it is more likely there is a devil, than a loving and peaceful god.
But then I’m a London mongrel! And they have more fight than a wagon-load of pit-bulls.
More Than One Wife
There has been a discussion on polygamy this morning on BBC Radio 5, after reports that it is increasing amongst Muslims in the UK.
As someone, who was with my late wife for over forty years and married for all but about two years, and know how hard work it is at times to sustain and keep reinventing a relationship to make it an undoubted success, anybody who wants more than one wife, is either insane or so weak that they can’t be bothered to make one marriage work.
As a taxpayer, who pays for all the mess, when it goes wrong?
I’m not saying polygamy and polyandry should be banned, but those that practice it, should pay directly for the consequences when it goes wrong.
I also think too, that the marrying of first cousins should be looked at. Two of my mother’s brothers married first cousins and although both marriages were successful and lasted until one partner died, my mother didn’t think it was a good idea.
My uncles didn’t have problems, but a doctor has told me, that in certain Muslim families it has happened so often, there are severe genetic problems.
On a practical side, surely finding a partner is a lot about the joy of the search. Marrying a cousin is just a cop-out that doesn’t challenge or stretch either partner.
I always remember a family in the 1950s, where two boys effectively grew up with the girl of a similar age next door. It was always expected that she might settle down with one of the brothers. In the end, she didn’t, as she felt it would be like marrying her brother.
Where We Bought Our Wedding Rings
Over forty years ago, C and I bought our wedding rings at Pykes in Liverpool.
Pykes Jewellers in Liverpool
The shop has now moved from Exchange Street East to Whitechapel.
Since the day I got married, the white gold ring has stayed on my finger.
Weddings And Rain
When C and I got married in 1968, it was a summer of terrible weather. We had the only fine Saturday in about three months, with lots of sunshine. One of C’s friends got married the next weekend and their much more expensive wedding was a complete washout.
So I was rather pleased this morning, that they’ve just announced that come what may, the happy couple will return from the Abbey in an open carriage.
After all, a little bit of rain won’t hurt them!
My Views on the Royal Wedding
I have been accused of not being in favour of the Royal Wedding. I have put up the occasional post, but not many.
Admittedly, I did send this message to a radio station that asked what you were doing instead of the Royal Wedding.
I’m going to IKEA and then to Waitrose tomorrow.
Don’t get me wrong, as I had forty years of marriage to a wonderful woman, so I wish the happy couple all the best. But then I do that to everybody, who gets married.
Andrew Marr Comes Clean
Having watched Have I Got News For You and seen what Ian Hislop has said since Andrew Marr has come clean over the superinjunction, I think that he made his statement just in time. I think if Marr hadn’t broke his silence, it would have been all over the place within a week.
This always happens in the end, as someone makes a mistake or perhaps sadly one of the parties dies and then it gets published.
These privacy superinjunctions may have their place in some areas, like the protection of children But in many places they are just being used by indivduals and companies to hide wrong doing. Or should I say delay publication, as inevitably that’s what happens.
It would appear now that the tabloids are looking for the next person to come clean.
There is also a serious side to all this. Read this article in the Daily Mail. One person, who has found a serious health problem with paint, has even been prohibited from talking to his MP. It’s getting to be all very Kafka!
The Mail is also getting its claws into Fred the Shred in this article. At one time the injunction said that we couldn’t refer to him as a banker.
I’ve just typed his real name coupled with the w-word into Google. You get a lot of very funny articles.
Superinjunctions have now created this new game of Googling the Internet to find out the truth. You usually can! The google Toolbar is particularly useful, as it knows the common searches. Let’s say I’m a sportsman, who say has been associated with a Z-list celebrity, but I’ve taken out a super injunction to stop my wife finding out and divorcing me, thus relieving me of a lot of my money and half my salary, which would mean I’m unattractive to bimbos. If I continually type my name and that of the celebrity into Google, I can check that no stories are appearing. But all I’m doing is making it easier for people to find the association.
You can run, but you can’t hide.
A Real Honeymoon from Hell
This is documented in The Times today. A couple called Svanström had to endure.
- The blizzard of the century in Munich
- A monsoon in Bali
- Bushfires in Perth
- Floods in Queensland
- The EArthquake in Christchurch
- The earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
C and I had a dreadful honeymoon and we suvived. according to the report, these Swedes are still getting along well.
Ex-Wife Exorcises Peer
This headline was in The Times today and concerns the ex-wife of Lord Taylor of Warwick.
It probably shows you should keep religion and politcs separate. In fact religion should be kept separate from everything.
Vengeance Plastic Surgery
Another article in the same Sunday Times as the hair article, also says that the biggest growth area in plastic surgery in the United States is post-divorce.
C would have understood that, although she would never have agreed with plastic surgery. Many times, she would come home from court and tell with relish a tale about a client, who in the process of ditching an apalling spouse, had really improved themselves. And it wasn’t just the women, although it usually was! In one amazing case, where a lady was getting divorced after forty years of marriage to a violent man, she told C, she’d just spent twenty pounds on having her hair done and another twenty on a dress. Sums she would never have spent before. She had also just booked a cruise in the sun. This case was also interesting, in that the husband had had a previous marriage of forty years that had also ended in divorce. If we had pre-nuptial psychological testing, some would and should stay single all of their lives.
The Anonymous Widower 