Author: davidjohntooth

I noticed that it’s over twelve years since Passenger produced the iconic song LET HER GO ( 1.5 billion views on the internet). I remember hearing it for the first time as I walked through a large retail store in Birmingham. I immediately stopped and listened as the tune and lyrics took me back to bittersweet moments in my life, pivot points, that could have taken my pathway through it in different directions and I always wonder if that would have been an improvement or a disaster. Perhaps its best not to think to deep.

Some weekends late in the evenings I pour myself a glass of red wine, put on the most amazing headphones that my children bought me, link them up to You Tube and imerse myself in musical videos that take the years away back to when I was starting out in life with no sat nav to guide me and no post code to put in it. Winging it.

I was sixteen, in a cafe with a friend waiting for a plate of chips, he put some money in the juke box and pressed play, the robotic arm hovered over a disk then uneringly placed it on the turntable and the mixture that represented Bird Dog drifted to every corner of the room, searching for suitable host’s.

Twenty one Great Yarmouth, She Was Just seventeen;Forteen Rocking Through the Rye; Hunters hill open air school. The first time I heard the word Rock in music. Music is the most reliable timepiece; but if anyone has a spare rolex I am willing to use it as a back up.

Apart from the minute when you die there is another moment in time that if we live long enough will change how we are perceived and dramatically alter our existence.

It’s the minute that changes you from a 79-year-old to an eighty-year-old. Your car insurance doubles in price Travel insurance becomes so expensive that those lazy days spent in Cyprus are replaced by a three-day excursion to Ryle, but even worse you have to go off-peak when the sun is a distant memory from last summer; and this year’s sun has not risen. You no longer walk in a straight line which is like; manner-from-heaven to the police if you are pulled over as a suspected drink-driver.

Now for the benefits ……………………There aren’t any.

My moan is because my car insurance has risen from £374.00 to £754.00, I have looked on every website and the lowest price I can get is £540.00

L V, have a website, Age Co, that states they insure drivers up to the age of 110.00 when you try it and complete all the forms it states they no longer insure people over the age of eighty.

I complained to the management who said they have not updated their website yet, but don’t have to.

I said ageism is a form of racism; they didn’t reply, even if they reverse their policies I don’t think I will be accepted.

At nearly eighty Two I don’t consider myself as old and don’t live in the past,.

Just noticed the time and its past when I listen to my sixties music, must get the ear trumpet out.

This time it was my wife’s Uncle’s wife, ( Does that make any sense ) they had been happily married for a long time, although Les died quite a few years ago. Then Babera moved into secure accommodation in Torquay, it’s a nice town on the seafront but very hilly, not ideal for older people but it didn’t seem to prevent them from living there.

We stopped at Travel Lodge for two nights which was clean but basic. The staff were extremely helpful. The funeral was held at a small chapel on the edge of the town, the upside of the ceremony was meeting her son and daughter who we hadn’t seen for a very long time, Ailsa Cox had been a professor and wrote short stories, her brother had run a steel business and recently retired. It was nice to talk about past times; a sure sign of aging, because when your young you talk about the future.

We swopped Addresses and Phone numbers promising to keep in contact and I hope we do

It went as well as a funeral can and was held in a pretty Church in Fordingbridge Hampshire. There was only his Daughter, Grandaughter, my wife and myself, plus four carers from the home where he spent the last twelve years of his life at the ceremony, he had far outlived his friends and relatives.

We went back to the home and thanked all of them for looking after him, they had become his family and he theirs.

It was nice to meet my cousin unfortunately it was her Mother’s Funeral the last time we met and that was many years ago. The way I judge time now is that it speeds up as we age and now I am eighty-one it passes 81 times faster than when I was born.

In the first year of life, a day lasts forever.

Pennies Husband Clive King wrote the children’s book Stig of the Dump and it is still very popular.

I hope we can keep in contact more often even if it is through the Internet.

Israel may prevail in the war in Gaza but Hamas represents an idea that will remain in the minds of many Palestinians and the only chance to change this concept is to offer them a future, this needs to be implemented now, not only by Israel but by the international community. As I posted previously Gaza needs to be rebuilt with new hospitals and universities. And possibly a land of their own.

Wars aren’t always won with weapons but sometimes with psychology.

My mom’s brother died this week at the age of 104, just missing his 105th birthday on the first of January. He always thought he would die at a young age, but perhaps he was hoping to live his life far beyond 104. He was still mobile until a few weeks ago but gradually dropped into a deep sleep before slipping away.

He achieved far more in his life than many people. Born in Balsall Heath, a slum area of Birmingham, in a back-to-back-house and one of fourteen children, of which only five survived.

George served as a medic in the army, then studied and became the principal of a major Hospitable in London.

So what do I remember most? Well, it was his voice. It was the sort that was easy to listen to and went well with his sense of humour.

But it was his party- trick that impressed me most because if you gave him a three-figure number, then a lower three-figure number he could take one from the other instantly without knowing how he did it.

Regarding the convention that has been formed to discuss the dangers that A Is may present in the future. It consists of diplomats, important people, and of course some of the world’s greatest brains.

It’s very comforting to think that they are taking precautions just in case A Is may present some type of threat.

It is quite possible that the conclusion when all the talking ends will be that there is no present danger.

Of course, if they had studied the small print at the bottom of the invite they would have realized that the invites were sent from an AI.

The New Beatles single

But there are some benefits from using the latest AI innovations because a new Beatles record has been produced and it sounds quite good. It is obvious that this system will also be used not just for musical reproduction but also for historical events. I wonder where this will lead the human race.

The conflict that is ongoing between the Palestinians in Gaza and the Jews reflects how little Humanity has progressed since the start of our journey of evolution and if history is a true reflection of this timeline then we have not changed the killer instinct that we once needed to survive.

Maturity does not always come with age and for many, it may never arrive. While the atrocities inflicted by Hamas are almost beyond belief so is the retaliation by the Jews.

This situation may never have happened if Israel had helped the Palestinians in Gaza to build innovative cities and workplaces, to fund proper education for the children. Of course, this lack of long-term planning is not restricted to the Middle East alone, in fact, this is the reason that the world has seen a dramatic rise in migration. If your prospects where you live are so dire then it makes sense to move to somewhere that offers a better life.

So we come back to the keyword which is one used so often in the UK by many politicians, Leveling Up, but of course, it’s only a word, and who in their right mind would want leveling up if it meant a lower standard of living for the people who already have the best things in life. But who in their right mind would want to endure the circumstances that are happening around the world.

Who would commission using concrete that has a lifespan of thirty years RAAC? Well like many problems that are only found out many years after implementation, we will never find out, but whoever it was I bet that they or the organization they represented have made vast profits from its use.

It will cost billions to trace and correct all the buildings it was used in and if a roof or wall collapses and kills whoever is underneath it no one will ever be brought to justice.

At the moment all attention is being focused on Schools and Hospitals but I wonder how many houses have this in their foundations. And don’t expect insurance companies to pick up the bill.

The pub known as the Crooked House was recently burnt to the ground in a suspected arsonist attack, If you do nothing else this weekend look on YouTube at the way a ball or coin appears to roll up a slope when inside it.

I note that the Russian president has hosted the leader of North Korea in an attempt to obtain an arms deal. Kim Jong Un chose to use a bulletproof train for his journey and not a plane. A very wise decision and I hope he continues to use this type of transport because we all know what happens to most couples after the honeymoon period.

While out walking last week I met a friend who I had not seen for many years, He was a great Badminton player and I rarely won a match against him, while it was nice to see him again I remember him as a young man and as you age its sometimes nice to retain those distant memories.

His name was Graham Bell, and His nickname was Ding, There was a lad at school with the name Littlewood, we called him Splinter, A friend at work had the surname of Bates, you will have to work out what his nickname was.

So, the leader of the Wagner group has died in a plane crash with preliminary evidence pointing to an explosive device integrated into a crate of wine. This is a terrible thing to do; how could anyone waste a crate of wine, Prigozhin would never have considered looking for an explosive in such a sacred place. Still being Putin’s chief he must have noticed the Russian leader only drank cans of Lager.

Sir Michael Parkinson died recently and although it’s many years since he last presented his talk shows I will miss them. He attracted many interesting people and it was always a must to watch to see people with different lifestyles.

The leaves on one of my clematis have started to fade a sure sign that winter isn’t far away. I really hate winter as the finger on my left hand which was partially straightened turns black due to reduced blood flow. Hope it doesn’t drop off like the leaves.