so.. thats the weekend over...

And what a weekend.... a saturday, a sunday, and possibly part of a friday, depending on whom you ask.. me and Beard junior vacuumed out the Transit, watched a Clint Eastwood movie, and I was treated to baked bean toasties courtesy of Junior and Breville.... and news came through about Andy.. the prospective tent dweller.... Ebay has provided the tent, and a load of other gear (thanks, Pam McCormack!.. Odin will reward your generosity!) so, the great adventure is well on track to beginning... despite Morris Minor related malarkey... good old Alec.. The Beard has also got into the stride (well.. largish step, at least) of writing again, and Todd and Oslo are well on there way to literary stardom... and it has been a weekeknd (ish) of meeting new people and getting along with them.. first, big up to Lucas of Oakham, a very customer oriented chap from the now incinerated Oakham Co-op, who drivers mated for me on friday.. a great chap, very polite, personable, and with the same customer service bent as myself... given the choice of finishing the deliveries or getting back in time fro his lift home, he opted for the former.... so the Beard gave him the lift he had missed.... it was the least i could do.. he appeared to enjoy his day out of the hurly burly of retail... and seeing new places, even if they were new Parks, Braunstone and Northfields.... but new is new.. and of course, today I met a very nice young lady in tamworth.. and a fter a stroll around the Castle (home of the Ferrers of groby, among others..) a nice sunday lunch and a few drinks (soft of course....I'm with the poles when it comes to driving...) all my usual courtesy and discretion allows me to say is wow.... but more of that later..... until all our ouches turn to wows (cheers for that one Gary!), Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ime for ea....

The Beard has just noticed.. occasionly my "t" key fails to work... it took three attempts to get all these working.... until we all have tea for time.. Wisebeard salutes you.......................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

trust.. or lack of it...

now, the beard has always been big on trust... its partly the scout Promise that he made when aged eleven, and partly a possibly misplaced optimistic belief inn the general goodness of most people.. even though my wiseness does not extend to believing in altruism.. lets be honest, we may be ale to fool ourselves, but every good act we do is for some sort of personal gain, no matter how ethereal.. but i digress... what got me thinking about trust today of all days was a comment made by an aquaintance on internet relationships.. now, I think most of us, myself included, would have agreed with him.. basically, his point was that, even with the advent of webcams and such like magical parraphernalia, it is impossible to ever be totally sure that the person you're chatting to is who they say they are.. so much so that it led to this exchange...

" I'm chatting to a gorgeous blonde from Surrey at the mo.."
"How can you be sure that she's a gorgeous blonde?"
"Because she says she's a fat bearded trucker called Kevin.."
Which I think illustrates my basic point.. for lets be honest, there are a lot of wierdos out there... and it is very easy to pretend you're someone else... although lets be honest, thats what most of ius do every day anyway.. but more of that later... but that got me to thinking (oh gods.. NO!!!!) thinking logically (Forgive me Mr Spock!!) having a friend you know only through the old world wide interweb thingy is really very little different to having a pen friend.... so why are we so worried about it... why the lack of trust?? Well, the beard can see several possible reaesons.. firstly the speed of communication.. being very near instant, its far easier to be lulled.. and far easier to fail to spot any inconsistencies that in a letter would stand out on rereading... also there is the ease of access that email can give us.. lets be honest, just tap in your own addy, change one character, and send. chances are someone will receive it.. so where pen friends would get together through newspaper ads, school projects, etc, internet friends made through so called networking sites are vetted a little less... probably a lot less... which is not a good thing... but more than anything, I think its our basic mistrust of magic that gets in the way.. some marks on a bit of paper.. well.. we all understand nowadays how they came about.. writing is no longer the magic it once was.. but computers.. the web.. email.. as a slightly wiser man once said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.." and lets be hones, computers are still magical devices, the modern age palantiri if you like... crystal balls (and that could even be a literal description!)... and that makes the whole process magical.. and we've never trusted magic....either that , or we have some strange graphology gene that enabes us subconciously to analyse handwriting and therefore figure out what sort of person wrote to us.... I mean, for several years i wrote regularly to someone in New Zealand... now i never met her.. she could have been anyone.. even a man.. but that never crossed my mind... whereas it is in the forefront of most contacts i have through websites.. which is only sensible. but I shall continue to believe that people are who they say they are, until eveidence shows me otherwise.. as I've said, nearly all of us are just pretences.... so, unil we can all be who we are, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Appreciation of depreciation.. or something else... who knows....

Last night the topic of conversation got round, as these things invariably (or possibly variably) do to housing.. and more specifically its purpose..... now, I starteed out foolishly mentioning Andy's proposed tent living (making the obvious pun that I hope he doesn't get yurt...) and we got onto the alleged fact that apart from the UK no one else seems to have this view of house ownership being more than about having somewhere to live.... I'm told that most people in Germany and the US rent, leading to greater mobility and flexibility... which makes sense to me.. one of the many things standing in he way of, for example Mr Trepolpen of Truro getting his dream job in Northumberland is trying to sell his house... relocation is much easier for renters.. or would be if we had a greater percentageof rented accomodation available.. of which more later.... especially in a supposedly depressed market.. now, to me, the housing market has long seemed cockeyed... why, I hear you ask? Well, I shall tell you, despite you not possibly even being here.. but thats philosophy, and beyond our scope (and indeed ken..) well, lets compare it with the rest of the markets we have.. except possibly Coalville Market, which is, to say the least, a bit shabby... but I digress.... well, if, for example, petrol was housing, we would be celebrating all the recent price rises, and demanding the companies artifcially hike prices if they got too cheap... but houses.. the exact opposite... which I find strange.. now, to thousands out there, lower house prices are a blessing.. as it means they may finally be able to get somewhere to live... and that is the crux of the matter... now, someone is going to point out that the petrol analogy is flawed, as one intends to use the petrol, not re sell it... so lets compare it with a car instead... we buy it, intending to resell it a few years later.. but everyone expects the price to go down dramatically.... and i admit that a lot of that is down to wear and tear.. but no one would expect the price to go up..... even if he car was mothballed, and never used, it would lose some value.. but houses.... apparently though, a house is an investment.. and thsi leads onto another of my favourite rants.. (and there are many of those...) a friend of mine has bought his house.. he has no intention of ever moving.. yet he worries that the prices are falling..... now if he intended to sell, I could understand.. but although he doesn't want to move, he's feeling pressured to actually sell, in case the prices fall further! This makes no sense , at least not to the beard.. he doesn't worry that the beans he bought last week are now cheaper.... if one doesn't intend selling, what matter the price of houses..... I thinka long time ago we lost sight of what bricks and mortar are about... keeping the rain off..... if we could get our minds out of the investment set, maybe the market would stabilise... and maybe if we became more like the flexible renters of Europe and the US we would have a lot less stress.... after all, you can't take it with you... and as for leaving it all to the kids.... well... by that time they should have their own millstones.... and having to work hard for stuff rather than waiting for it all to fall in your lap never hurt anyone... but then I am apparently bitter and twisted.... though cider and twisted suits the weather better..... but yet again I digress.. until we all have a roof over our heads, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Strangely enough...

Now, strangely enough, whilst pretending to be at work earlier today, The Beard had an idea of something to write on here, but as is the way of these things by the time i could pull over and make notes I'd forgotten it all anyway, so didn't bother... so it was probably something important and earth shattering.... but that may not be a bad thing... sometimes it seems that shattering the earth may just be the solution.. but I digress.... suddenly remembering where I was has taken me to the vagaries of that strange brainfellow memory, and its exactitude, or lack of it... I've probably written of this elsewhere, but I don't remember clearly..but memory isnot an exact science.. peopel tend to think of memory as some form of library, full of unchanging exact records of the past.. but looked at objectively, we can see that that is not so.... memory is very subjective, and fleeting.. the book analogy falls down quite readily.. if I want t find a fact in a book, I go to te book, look in the index, turn to the page.. but memory.. there is no easily found book, no internal reference.. in fact, often the more we attempt to remember something, the further away the memory is.. its like not knowing which book to go to and finding all the pages stuck together, and in a foreign language.. for instance, I'm often struck by the vague memory that once I knew a synonym for Hebrew that was in very common usage, and began with K....but as no one else does, it would seem I must discard that memory.. along with the memory of a seventh great ape (as well as the gorilla, orang, gibbon (not great, i know) Bonobo, Chimp and man...) and that of an extra big cat.. (lion, tiger, leopard, snow leopard and jaguar are all there... and knowing the puma to be a small cat(honest.. its felis not panthera!) what was the other...) Some american scientis (if I remember correctly!) did an experiment... on the day of the Kennedy assassination he asked what several of his students were doing.. and he recorded what they said..... then a few months (or possibly years) later, he asked thenm again.. each could remember vividly what they were up to when they heard he news.. it was like it was only yesterday... and eighty percent of them gave totally different answers to their original ones.. now, this may not seem like a big thing.. and maybe its not.. but we do have a problem.. if we can experience life and truth only through our perceptions of that life, then our memories become truth to us... and if our memories are fallible, then our past alters... my personal past, objectively looked at contains many of the same events as that of my friends.. but if each of us remembers that past differently, then which of those is the true past???? Did my past happen as I believe it to or not.. and as our reactions to present and future events are based in some way on what we have learned from our past, then how can we be sure that what we think we have earned is in fact what we did learn.... as an example.. \i met a man the other day who remembered me from high school.. he knew my name, and shared some anecdotes about our schooldays together.. I remembered a lot of them happening to me.. so what, you say?? well, I'll tell you, so long as you say please.... well.. we went to different high schools, and didn't meet up till college.... but we both remember the said events happening at high school, and I'm very sure that some of them did not happen a t college.... so, who was right? me, or him?? Am i living under the delusion that i went to a different school? Where was i? I forgot the point that I was making.. I said if i was smart that I would save up for a piece of string.. damn.. sorry... forgot for a moment that I'm not They Might Be Giants.... its happened before, but never mind.. suffice it to say, if its true that alltime is concurrent and eternal, and that it only seems to pass due to the inability of our nervous systems to comprehend it in its entirety, then we're probably alright.... if not.. well, at least you can breathe a sigh of relief that I haven't brought in Schrodinger's cat and the trousers of time.. which is a relief to all concerned.. so until we all remember waht we were going to say, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back home......

And as the fairly great Carter USM said, the only time i get homesick is when I'm at home.. but I think that goes for a lot of us...but the beard that is wise has survived yet another summer camp, has actuially unpacked, and is back to the land of typos and wierdness... or even weirdness.... Lincoln keeps changing... but then so does everywhere... Beard junior had a great time interacting with literally thousands of Scouts and Guides from all over the world.... and he also got chance to see more of his family... and made a birthday cake.... old friend became reaquainted, nee friends were made, dates were blinded (in a manner of speaking) and all sorts of malarkey, which culminated in a wild round of the hokey cokey at shortly before midnight, and the beard being told off by a guide.. but more of that later... but the greatest news is that one of my greatest friends is moving away.. to London of all places.. long ago the beard imparted the following wisdom... that it is far beter to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb, than it is to be near the top of one you don't.... so he has jumped from the ladder, narrowly avoided breaking his legs, and begun the long climb up the rickety old wooden ladder of teacher training.. and good luck to him... i know he'll succeed.... i am wise after all.... now we all know that london, that seaported funk hole of cowardly kings from long ago, is a fairly pricey place to live... and on his combined income of incredibly little, the poor guy was looking forward to starving in the gutter amongst the homeless before completing his course. but luckily for him, his scouting experience and a natural resourcefulness has found an answer... he will camp... who needs a flat or room when the good will of the Scout association and a tent will do the job better... and to those who don't envy him the winter months under canvas, just remember that winters used to be a lot colder.... and many people even now, in cold areas such as siberia, and Mongolia live in tented accomodation, or huts that we would deem unsuitable for even our mild weather.. which I think is one of our problems in te modern world.. we expect too much.. now I for one would be quite happy living in a self built wooden house, similar to a lot of sports pavilions I've seen.. but i am weird... to me, the roof and walls would be sufficient.. the actual look of the place is immaterial.. as i believe i've stated before, a couple of old railway carriages in a field would do me nicely... but most people expect things that in my youth would have been out of reach.. central heating, lcd and plasma tvs... new carpets every couple of years... we thought we were lucky getting a house with a fire in the kitchen as well as the lounge! we never even bothered about having frost inside the windows of our unheated bedrooms.. and look at cars.. my Cortina in 1983 counted as luxury. high backed seats, wood dash, two tone paint... nowadays people expec aircon even in non luxury cars... but i digress.. the point is that these expectations serve not to improve our lives, but to increase our dissatisfaction with it.. but why should this be? well, we always strive for more... thats a human survival technique... but that drive has been, in my opinion, channelled in the wrong direction.. but by whom? for what purpose? well as my old dad used to say (and probably still does... ) if you want to find the criminal, just look for who benefits... chances are that's your culprit.. so who benefits from our dissatisfaction? well.. i shan't answer that.. part of wisdom is allowing others to draw their own conclusions.. but suffice it to say there is no way I'll be buying any televisions until my old cathode ray tube goes pop.... but back to being admonished by under 16 year olds... a strange experience but one possibly familiar to those of a scouting or guiding bent.. it occured whilst sitting watching the sun descend before ligths out....its one of the best times at camp, as its the time when many of the young people actually let go, and talk properly, with no bravado or pretense... I shan't reveal any secrets, but suffice it to say, its amazing how well the bonds strengthen... as I was told many years ago by a young guide, apparently it is helpful for them to have someone to whom they can talk about things... someone who they see as a friend, but older and more experienced ( and hopefully wiser) than their peers... someone who isn't their mum or dad.. I'm sure we all know that feeling.... and looking back my old scout leader was such a person.... someone basically whom they trust and feel comfortable with... now this session was going the way of most of them, when one of the Guides (for our scouts were camping alongside some very good guiding friends of ours) said to me that I was a bit naughty.. when i asked her to expand on this statement, she and her accomplice stated that it was very obvious that the beard fancies their leader, and that i shouldn't, as she's married... now, as the beard values truth above most things, this attraction was not denied... but as I stated.. I fancy Nicole Kidman.. and she's married too.... and I was surprisingly supported by another Guide, who simply stated that one can't help to whom one is attracted... which is true.. and it was finally agreed that it would only be wrong if either of us did something about it... and as an honourable beard ( and wise!!!) I have no intention of making a move on a married woman... but i hope that my scouts are as protective of their leaders as those guides re of theirs... but I digress... its late, and I ramble.. both blogs will be keeping everyone updated on the subject of capital camping.. among other things..but until we all lower our expectations and increase our happiness, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!