The most important invention in your lifetime is…
No internet, no World Wide Web
Certainly not no mobile phones!
I’m getting old, a fifties kid.
None of this was then around.
Social Media, streaming films
Credit cards and ATMs.
Sat Nav and the GPS.
AI, nano, MRI.
The most important who can say?
Perhaps it was the microchip?
Without it would we have all this?
Describe your most ideal day from beginning to end.
I wake up full of energy
I had a good night’s sleep
I make my wife a cup of tea
And set out for a run.
There are no outings planned today
My time is all my own.
Along the river on my own
Totally in the zone.
Back for a leisurely breakfast
And watching garden birds.
Two good cups of coffee
While we plan our day.
Then maybe our allotment
A space where we can grow.
Time outdoors, the weathers good
And nothing has gone wrong.
We’ll do more than we thought we would
We’ll get into our stride.
We’ll look around see what we’ve done
And feel a sense of pride.
We’ll get back tidy up a bit
Then have an easy lunch.
Nothing complicated
Just bits to pick us up.
Then perhaps a journey
Somewhere up the Thames
Just somewhere to poke around
To walk or visit shops.
Back to get our dinner
Meat and home grown crops.
I will do the easy bits
My wife’s the brilliant cook.
Something on the telly
Binge something we have found
Then off to bed. Not too late.
A perfect day all round.
How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?
Births and deaths and marriages
Major Life Events
Relentless ticking of the clock
All these shape our lives.
Things that’ll flash before our eyes
As we come to that last breath
painful incidents passed from mind
Helped make us who we are.
We’re born into a culture
A class, a place in life
Parental influence guides us
Shapes us as a child.
And then there’s education
Where we go to school.
The friends we meet,
the games we play
How often we may move.
Youthful independence
The need to break away.
The circles that we move in
What we do for work.
Who we choose as partners
If relationships work
Whether we are faithful
Or painfully break up.
Having our own children
Watching them grow up.
Seeing our reflection
Wanting more for them.
Illness and affliction
Unexpected death
Mourning for our loved ones
Those that die too young.
Friendships that we make and break
People that we meet.
Whether we stay us we are
Or maybe step away.
Perhaps a mid life crisis
You’ll question who you are.
See that time is running out
And question what you’re for.
Finally you’ll get older
You’ll fight that change at first.
But one day we must all accept
That life comes to an end.
Life forms our perspective
Our views are bound to change.
If we just stay as we were
Then what’s it all been for?
Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.
I like to make ‘to do’ lists
But never look at them.
There’s things go in the ‘someday’ list
That somehow don’t get done.
They’re often correspondence
Letters I should write
But the longer that I leave it
The harder it will get.
There’s family I ought to phone
But leave it much too long.
If I were to call them now
They’d assume there’s something wrong.
They stay on my to do list
Though I draft things in my head
And then I’m left with deep regret
If I hear that someone’s dead.
I fail to make arrangements
For visits I should make
And then complain the calendars full
And we struggling for spare dates.
I wish it could be different
I’d be good and keep in touch.
I like to make ‘to do’ lists
But I don’t look at them much.
What’s your favourite thing to cook?
My favourite is a casserole
It all goes in one pot.
No struggles with the timing.
It all gets done at once.
Just select a meat of choice
Dice some veggies up
Top it up with liquid
Say cider, beer or wine.
Shove it in the oven
And leave it for a while
Serve with mash or maybe rice
And there’s no more to be done.
What do you complain about the most?
I’m not one to complain a lot
But what a time to ask!!
An awful British Airways flight
Delayed by thirty hours!
We left from Buenos Aries
13:35
I think that was on Thursday
I’m losing track of days.
We stopped Rio De Janeiro
Scheduled no surprise
But then they said get off the plane
And said for one or two hours.
We had no information
But checking on our apps
Our flight would be diverted
From London to Madrid.
A complicated picture
I’m trying to keep short
The word went round
Then they owned up.
They’re cancelling our flight.
We’re ushered out the airport
An awful taxi queue
Too many for the taxis
There were some who waited hours.
They put us up – a decent hotel
No complaint with that.
They fed us well so ok there
But didn’t tell us out.
They told us at the airport
We’d go Friday 7pm
We’d need to check in around 3pm
So leave at roundabout two.
We had some time in Rio
An hour or two on the beach
We liked it – would have spent more time
If we knew what would happen next.
We get to the airport 3pm
And just then get a text
The wretched flight delayed again
And now to 11pm.
So six hours in the airport
And at least two more to go
An eleven hour flight
If it leaves on time
We might make Saturday lunch.
I guess that these things happen
Some things can’t be helped.
It seems like there maybe weren’t enough crew
A pilot had gone sick.
But tell us what is happening
Don’t leave us in the lurch!
Such poor communication
It’s less than we deserve!
Write about your first computer.
My school had its own computer in 1963
It was a cause of great excitement
At least it was for some.
I couldn’t see the point myself
All it could do was sums.
It was a very big machine
And soon a famous one.
There weren’t a lot around just then
And almost none in schools.
So a school with its own computer
To some seemed really cool.
It was so big it occupied
A classroom to itself.
It took the whole of a science lab
With banks of flashing lights.
Something to do with binary maths
And lights flashing on and off.
They let us watch it do its stuff
Fed big numbers in it
Waited while it flashed and hummed
Spewed reams of paper out.
I couldn’t see the point myself
All it did was sums.
Our school had its own computer
It soon attracted fame.
It featured on Tomorrow’s World
The TV cameras came.
It caused a fuss
Bought fame to us
But all it could do was sums.
Read more about our famous computer here.
What are your favourite sports to watch and play?
There’s just one sport
That I still play.
For most I am too old.
You know that I love running
So we’ll leave that one alone.
Football was my first love
The obsession of my youth.
Law, Best and Charlton
My idols growing up.
I played a bit of rugby
We did a bit at school
But I didn’t have a feel for it
And barely knew the rules.
Our leisure sport was football
Our games would last all day
Memorably in Germany
When we’d won our World Cup.
It was when we moved to Twickenham
I caught the rugby bug.
The home of English rugby
You kind of get caught up.
The crowds that went to Harlequins
Would go right past our door.
One day I followed, took a look
And liked it right away.
There’s less a threatening atmosphere
The rival fans all mix
There’s physicality on the field
But off it there’s respect.
There are no boring 0-0 games
There’s jeopardy to the end
And so much happening on the field
You can watch it all again.
There’s different kinds of players
With different sets of skills
Though I prefer a running game
Ball quickly through the hands.
I still follow football
The universal game
But rugby’s now my favourite sport
And Harlequins my team.
I wished I’d understood it more
Back in the days I played
We just did what they told us to
We didn’t know the rules.
What would you do if you won the lottery?
If I won the lottery
It’d be a big surprise.
I seldom buy a ticket
So that’s the reason why.
The chances of you winning
Are really rather slim
I’d rather have smaller prize
But more chance of win.
Big prizes can bring problems
Bitter jealousies.
I’m sure you’d not please everyone
How ever hard you tried.
But if I were to win a sum
To do with as I pleased
I’d find ways to bring together
My scattered family.
Id love a special holiday
That we could all enjoy
My far flung sisters
Sons and wives
And of course their kids.
To have us all together
That would be my dream.
There’s reasons that won’t happen
Short of that big win.
What books do you want to read?
I like a book related to
places I have been.
Better still related to
places where I am.
Isabelle Allende is
who I’m reading now.
Her book Long Petal of the Sea
A novel of Chile.
I’d like to read some more of hers
A history I don’t know
Of South American exiles
And the Spanish Civil War.
I like it even better
As it’s partly set at sea
And features places
We’ve just cruised
South American seas.
Andrew Green's Poems 