My work is highly secret

What have you been working on?

My work is highly secret

I can’t say what it is.

I’m deeply undercover

Hiding in plain sight.

I’ve given lots of hints on here

But they were just false trails

To lead you up the garden path

And put you off the scent.

I am like a chrysalis

I am not what I seem

One day I will spring to life

And you will be surprised.

You need to watch me closely

I suggest you should subscribe.

Focus on my every move

Guess what I’ll do next.

I can not blow my cover

So it depends on you

Watch me closely

Up your guard

Follow me on here.

I was first across the line in the London Marathon

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

I’ve run the race a few times

Of course I’ve never won!

But strangely first to cross the line

Is something I can claim.

The race I want to tell you of

Was nineteen ninety three

Eamon Martin won it

So he’s famouser than me.

Eamon Martin

I didn’t run the race that year

Was only helping out.

They started twenty five thousand

So needed lots of help.

We were finish marshalls

Stationed on the bridge.

In the days before the chip

Complicated stuff.

The runners all had bar codes

The ‘pluckers’ would strip off.

Put a hand upon a chest

And gently rip it off.

Then there’d be the ‘spindlers‘

Who put them on big spools

Then they’d be collected

And matched up with the watch.

So the pluckers and the spindlers

Had their different jobs

But we were ‘separators’

What would be our task?

We took them through the funnels

We’d each take through a batch

Get them to the pluckers

Who’d rip the bar codes off.

We’d hand over our batch card

And then go running back

‘Well done, well done,keep moving’

Was what we’d always shout.

A complicated business

We had to get it right

So of course we’d practice

Which is where I made my mark.

Before the race was started

We had a quick run through

So all the separators

jogged towards the line.

I was first to get there

So hand on heart can say

That year’s London Marathon.

I was first across the line.

Lazy, idle, work shy…. Such pejorative words!

Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive?

‘Lazy’, ‘idle’, ‘work shy‘

Such pejorative words!

They imply that taking a break

Means you are one to shirk!

I’d rather call them ‘rest days’

I’ll take less exercise

But doesn’t mean I’ll laze around

There’s other stuff to do.

Often it’s a ‘rest day’

Cos there’s no time to run

But they are often busy days

With plenty else to do.

Maybe there’s the odd day

When we’ll just hang around.

We all occasionally need a rest

To help us carry on.

But calling it a ‘lazy day’

Won’t appeal to me

Life’s too short.

How long is left?

I’d rather be active me.

As to being ‘productive‘

I’ve given up on ‘work‘

No more pushing paper around

We’re just producing food.

The Peter Principle: we rise to the level of our own incompetence.

When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?

The Peter Principle

I seldom think ‘successful’

It’s not a word I’d use.

We never get to where we want

There’s always more to do.

If you’re good at what you do

It leads to better jobs

But being good at something else

Won’t make you good at that.

We rise till we’re incompetent

Can’t really do the job

Leaders overstretch themselves

And struggle at the top.

Just look at the responses

You’ll struggle to find names.

So many say themselves or ‘mum’

But is ‘success’ the word?

Or else they mention Elon Musk

Perhaps he proves my point?

A man whose done so very much

But overstretched himself.

Have you looked at Twitter

Or what he now calls X?

He’s dragged it to the gutter

And you call that success?

We have the best of neighbours

What makes a good neighbour?

We have the best of neighbours

We couldn’t ask for more.

I can’t imagine better ones

Than those we have next door.

They‘ll water all our garden plants

Whenever we’re away.

We have a lot, so quite a task

And yet they won’t complain.

They’ll put the dustbins in and out

They’ll park cars on our drive

So it’ll look to passers by

That someone’s staying there.

Sometimes when we‘ve been away

They’ll offer us a meal

Really very kind of them

When we‘re travel tired.

Once we had a Heron

Come and raid our pond.

Our dear neighbours secretly

Popped in five new fish.

We will oftentimes to theirs

Or they’ll come round to ours

Or maybe we‘ll meet up to eat

At another place.

There always up for giving lifts

Have even offered cars

They‘ve lent us equipment

They sometimes borrow ours.

They take fantastic pictures

We share a love of birds.

We get a calendar each year

With glorious garden scenes.

At Christmas their‘s a party

They invite more neighbours round

We‘ll all join in with Christmas songs

And conga neighbours home.

They are always there for us

But also so discreet.

They won’t invade our privacy

But offer when we need.

Maybe learn to tango…

What could you try for the first time?

Maybe learn the tango

like an Argentine

We‘re off to Argentina

and I know my wife is keen.

I’ve tried most stuff I wanted to

And often on my own

But dancing as a couple

Is not my kind of thing.

I like to dance, I’ll jump about

Dad dance to extreme

But tell me where to put my feet

And I am all at sea.

It’s not a dance I’m keen to try

It wouldn’t be for me

But I should try to please my wife

And not act selfishly.

My hobbies are quite solitary

To run or else to write

We do stuff in the garden

But I’m mostly labour there.

So learn to dance together

Proper ballroom stuff

Not what appeals to me

But I should try for her.

It is a little scarey

Poor memory, two left feet

But you can’t learn unless you try

Perhaps it’s time I did.

I try to go gently in the world…

What principles define how you live?

I try to go gently in the world

And not to give offence.

To not be inconsiderate

See others points of view.

I’m conscious that I’ve made mistakes

And others will as well

So I try hard to be tolerant

But know I often fail.

I hope I am not boastful

And avoid the sin of pride

I hope that’s am thoughtful

And try to do what‘s right.

I won’t be quick to anger

Or easily take offence

Settle quarrels quickly

Lest you feed a grudge.

That wretched book

What have you been putting off doing? Why?

I have a list of things ‘to do’

That never get ticked off.

Top of the list the wretched book

That I will never write.

You must have heard

about my book.

It‘ll be the Next Big Thing.

I haven’t quite begun it yet

and likely never will.

You can’t say it’s a failure

If you don’t begin.

The way to keep the dream alive

Is think perhaps you will.

My mother always said

That she would write one day.

That’s a tale I told in verse

Because she never did.

But as to writing fiction

That is still the dream

But I haven’t yet got round to it

And probably never will!

Two years in Nigeria – a long, long way from home.

When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?

When did I feel grown up?

I’ll need to have a think.

It comes with independence

And living on your own.

You could say as a student

I started to grow up.

I lived away but shamed to say

Would still take washing home.

I’d come home to play football

So often back weekends

But kind of living on my own

And learning from mistakes.

But when I finished college

At the age of twenty one

I volunteered, two years abroad

A proper break from home.

Two years in Nigeria

A long, long way from home.

This was in the seventies

So only letters home.

Back then you couldn’t FaceTime

E Mail hadn’t come

Phone calls cost a fortune

So much that I made none.

So that’s real independence

And you are on your own

Two of us shared a government house

In Kano, far from home.

The house came with a steward

Which kind of blew our minds.

We weren’t used to servants

But to sack him too unkind.

Ali was the greatest

He’d cook and help us shop

But we were his employers

And so I guess grown ups.

It was such a different culture

Colourful extreme

It felt at first like a film set

That none of it was real.

We learnt to live a different life

We learnt how to adapt.

Kano was a special place

It helped me to grow up.

We rode around on motor bikes

The first I’d ever owned

To own a driving license

Is a fairly adult thing.

Our jobs were quite responsible

For kids right out of college

Filling in for Nigerians

All off to take degrees.

I got more from Africa

Then it ever did from me.

A brilliant place for growing up

The best time of our lives.

It won’t go to a cats’ home, it won’t go to the dogs.

If you had a million dollars (£764,840) to give away, who would you give it to?

Seven sixty four thousand

Eight hundred and forty pounds

A decent sum of money

I’d have to spread around.

I’ve inherited nothing

I’ve just had what I earned

I want to change the pattern

Have something to pass on.

So a handy million dollars

You don’t say where it’s from?

I’d pass on to family

Split between my sons.

First a decent sum for each

To help with household bills.

Just to help them out a bit

And on an even keel.

One son has three daughters

The other has a son

I’d use the rest for trust funds

To give them all good starts.

Higher Education

Is what I’d want for them

But not weighed down

By student debt

I want them to get on.

It won’t go to a cats’ home

It won’t go to the dogs.

Caring for my family

Is what I will do first.