So, another week gone and, thankfully, without losing any more pillars of my past. I’m frightened to name anyone for fear of jinxing he or she but, suffice to say, Donny is alive and well …
Manny and I have watched one or two episodes of ‘First Dates’ of late. Surprisingly addictive but the star of the show is very definitely becoming the lovely French Maitre D. What a job! Love the fact that he always comments on the girl as she arrives to meet her fate. I think, in many cases, I would have turned right round: in fact, in most cases! That said, most of the pairings are well thought out and it is interesting to see how like is attracted to like – a polite way of putting it, shall we say. Thankfully, I am not a participant although Manny has suggested, more than once, that he put my name forward. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.
What is the world coming to, though? I noticed tonight that several of the hopefuls were little more than 20 yet spoke as if this were a last resort before being consigned to that shelf. Help! They are little more than babies but already life has robbed them of self-esteem – that’s if they ever had any. My view? One’s strength – or lack of it – is derived from one’s childhood; a happy, secure upbringing is a shield against the slings and arrows of life and, without it, one is totally vulnerable … and lacking in self-worth? Has the demise of ‘the family’, then, been a contributory factor in the need for Tinder and programmes such as this? I believe so. Social media, don’t you just hate it! The irony is that it has taken apart the ‘social’ in life and left us to the mercy of technology … It’s late, the wine is drained from my glass and I’m going to have to change ‘Monday, 8 February’ to ‘Tuesday, 9 February’! Until tomorrow …
Hello ‘tomorrow’! Not working today so happened to catch a bit Jeremy Vine and it just gets worse. One of his topics for discussion was advancing automation in the job market and the replacement of humans in favour of technology! So? Cheaper in that dispenses of the need for holidays and sick pay for starters. OMG! There was a guy on talking about automated transport and how, with the correct network in place, there will be no need for drivers; a world of roads ‘peopled’ by vehicles all controlled by ‘automatic pilot’… It will be like ‘Airplane’ on a massive scale!!
There’s more. The other topic was that of this expanding ‘Sugar Daddy’ website whereby students are paid by older, rich men for ‘companionship’. Wink! Wink! There are something like 2,500 signed up to this already and they use it as a means to fund themselves through university and pay off their student loans. Talk about low self-esteem! I am rapidly contemplating a life involving a Clumber Spaniel and a small holding on some remote island!
I, actually, set out with a view to discussing ‘eyes’ and their importance when it comes to attraction and the opposite sex – back to ‘First Dates’. I grew up with ponies (well, not literally in a Mowgli type way!) and, in the equine world, one looks for a kind eye. No different to humans really. The eyes are the windows to the soul: kind, humorous, intelligent or cold, arrogant and selfish, there is no disguising. For me, then, there is nothing to beat kind, twinkly eyes full of humour and intelligence and now I’m trying to think of somebody I know possessing the very same … I think Hugh Jackman has very kind, twinkly eyes and I saw Owen Wilson on the Graham Norton show the other night – he, too, has lovely eyes. Andy Murray? Now, his eyes
change: when being interviewed after a match, his eyes appear lifeless and unrelenting; away from the ‘office’, however, and he has the twinkliest eyes, full of fun. Yes, my kind of humour, dry and sarcastic. Thanks, Pop!
I remember going to our school dance in Sixth Form – back when we wore crinolines! Seriously, it was actually 39 years ago last Friday. No, we HAD moved on from crinolines by then … Anyway, my best friend, Morag, and I had been watching some programme prior to the big event and the girl must have said to her victim, ‘Has anyone ever told you you have gorgeous eyes?’ Well, as 2 naïve little 17 year-olds, we thought this was hysterical and must have dared one another to find an opportunity to say this at the dance. Would you know, the guy I ended up with – dancing, that is – had a glass eye!! Classic. Needless to say, I refrained.
You know, when I embarked on this blog business, I intended to make an intelligent contribution to something but, instead, I just ended up being me. Oh well, I just keep on giving!
Can’t sign off without a quote so, one minute …
‘This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.’ From Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’
Well, I’ve stuck to my side of the bargain. The same cannot be said for some who shall be nameless.
This is Trish signing off. As ever, nobody forced you to read it!
