Life and so on

Life sure as heck is complicated, is it not? I ask you. I think I am not stating anything too controversial with that remark, I am sure. Anything could happen at any given moment and we cannot see what is waiting for us around any old corner; that much is certain. None of us can see into the future and we just have to do our best with what slender measure of knowledge that we may think we possess about our situation, our lives, our position in the great chess game that we call existence. Wow, that is really deep, I hear you mutter in weary despair. Not so, it is just that you can never really be certain that anything untoward will not befall you when you least expect it.

Of course, this does not at all mean that you should huddle in a corner of your room, frenzied and anxious and scared to go out into the big bad world. No way, Jose!

That is not how life works. I love the old adage, fortune favours the brave, and so it is. But even the most courageous among us may find themselves in a spot of bother or hot water from time to time.

When that happens it is good to know there is something like Family Attorney Austin to fall back on. Legal matters can be troublesome but if you get the right kind of help it can make a huge difference, that’s for sure.

Warm and fuzzy

Where you live is important in so many ways. These days, dear friends, I live in a lovely country with a hot climate. Having said that, it still tends to get a bit nippy in winter at times. I remember my first winter here in the city when I was visiting with my erstwhile partner. We were tired, hungry and cold and even though it had been a nice sunny day all day long when the sun went down it became rather chilly and no mistake. We went to a pub and were quite pleased to find a nice blazing fire in a corner of the watering hole. It was a welcome sight for us weary travellers.

I used to live in merry old England and friends of mine had a fireplace in their comfortable home. It was very nice, even soothing, to warm up in front of the blazing embers on a cold winter’s day. It was just lovely to be quite honest. Central heating, though so much more practical, just does not convey the same sense of warm fuzziness, I think you must agree.

The same goes for wood burning stoves in a rustic country kitchen. These stoves just spell comfort and solid quality. Lovely!

Love is the drug

How many people really listen to what is being said, or sung, these days? I ask you. For instance, many people love the beautiful warm sounds of that Stranglers hit 'Golden Brown', but do they know the song's lyrics are actually about heroin and heroin addiction? 'Never a frown, with golden brown'. I once heard a theory that the Chinese introduced heroin to the West as an act of vengeance because of the Opium Wars and the way Western colonial powers subjected the Chinese people to opium dependency in order to make a fortune with the Indian poppy crops. Who knows? I have dabbled in some softer stuff but these days I have to day that I am very wary of anything that could lead to an addiction in whatever shape or form. Addiction is a horrible thing and it is a very nasty feeling to realise one is a slave to a mere substance. The mind plays tricks and is truly a very powerful thing.

When we least expect it, our strong resolve may crumble and we can give in to a longing for exulation and escape from everyday worries and cares. But real life is never far behind and you simply cannot run away from yourself no matter how fast you run. Your inner demons will outrun you until you manage to lay them to rest. Some people manage their desires and cravings for stimuli. I remember reading about William Burroughs but I never found that sort of life story very uplifting by any means. I focus these days on lighter aspects of life and a more wholesome approach to the big questions. I can but try.

Some remedies from addiction can work really well, so people should perhaps realise that there is help out there for those who need it. Take heart. Life is hard but also quite wonderful. At least that it what I like to think.

Telly man

I loves my TV. There, I have only gone and darn well said it. One of my favourite childhood yarns is one that my dear old mum loves to tell and it goes a little like this. When I was a wee little nipper of a lad, growing up in West Sydney, my mother would often be working the laundry in.erm..the laundry only to hear me laughting my head off in the lounge room. Naturally she would investigate at once and would find me parked in front of the television set, cracking up over the funny shenanigans of the Three Stooges. This was an early introduction both to comedy and the medium of television. In later years, fond experiences were to be had when the family had retired for the night with just me left in the lounge room, watching some odd Italian art film on one of the more obscure public telly channels. This, by then, was in Holland. I remember watching Amarcord for the very first time, in a darkly lit room, late at night, with no one around to see it but me. It felt like no one else in the whole world was watching those snowflakes twirl down at precisely that time.

Ah..memories. And I used to love some cheesy sitcoms as well. Not so much the American ones where they always had to include some moral imperative at the end but just fun stuff like Mork and Mindy, Family Ties, Happy Days.

My family also watched The Love Boat and Fantasy Island religiously. Lateron I came to appreciate Dutch intellectual talkshows as well, for instance those presented by the late Theo van Gogh, so brutally murdered for defending free speech and Western democratic ideals.

Of course these days you do not have to limit your self to the telly set. You can have your TV Online and access a whole universe of programming. Tis a brave new world out there, I tells ya! Even with the supposedly dumbed down nature of television, I still regard it as a sophisticated medium with, still, a great potential for broadcasting amazing content, online or otherwise..

Let us hear it for good telly. You just cannot beat it, that is my humble opinion and I stand by it even though I am sitting down while I write these lines. So there!

Horizons

The Greenies are coming. Hide, run away! I never imagined the philosophy of greenism and environmentalism would ever take off to the extent that it has. Back in the eighties the green mob were a few hippie reject and sixties throw backs that no one took any real notice of to be honest. They always seem to be ranting about something or other and it always seemed a very obscure obsession they seemed to be entertaining at any given time. Of course, looking after the planet's resources is not so crazy when you think about it and, as long as we don't have to go back and live in caves again and reinvent the wheel, it makes sense to look after our very own habitat as best we can. I do not think we should wreck our economy just to prove an ideological point though, but that is my opinion. The bills will still need to be paid and we can not all be professional protesters and subsidised activists.

But I have to admit that I hate pollution and I hate waste of any kind. I loathe people littering the streets and just not caring about how they leave the space behind for others who may come after them. I hate wasting food as well as that is precious. Of course, these days we also have ewaste and we will need to find ways to recycle and deal with our many electronic gadgets and computers. This of course needs to be done sensibly.

So, will we be heading for a Green tomorrow? I just hope we can find a balance between the attainable and the desirable. Mankind is hugely adaptable so there is hope for us. Let us keep our chins up, that is what I say!

Working

I work in a call centre. There you have it and no mistake. I have been working there for a number of months now and I have to admit that it is not a bad place to work, all things considered. My previous working life was mostly as a library assistant. I have worked in academic, legal and public libraries. I certainly do not miss working in a public library with the endless wrangling over little fines for overdue books. Bah humbug! To be continued, I'm sure..

Rain

How very strange indeed. I woke up here in North Sydney, not to the usual clear azure sky but rather a damp morning and a grey sky that weighs me down. Bah, dear readers. That is not what normally greets my sleepy eyes of a morning, I can tell you that for nothing. But, the nice weather is not far off and soon we'll be going swimming again in one of the many fabulous salt water pools.
Bring it on!