Tag: dailyprompt

A Decent Life

Is your life today what you pictured a year ago?

Nothing unexpected

Pretty much to plan.

When you get to our age

That is all you want.

Anything from out the blue

Can only be bad news

Staying well and active

Is all we really want.

We do not have huge worries

Life is very good.

We will not win the lottery

Never enter it.

We’ve changed things in the garden

And how we grow our food

Had terrific holidays

And found great things to do.

But all of that was planned for

Nothing a surprise

I hope it won’t be different

Another twelve months time.

Our families are thriving

The grandkids growing up

Plenty things are changing

But nothing getting worse.

There’s things that happen round us

Things we do not like

Some of them are local

Some in national life.

But we’re ok we carry on

It will not get us down

We cannot go complaining

We have a decent life.

Learning to draw

What skills or lessons have you learned recently?

Self Portrait Attempt

They say that you must learn new skills

To help your ageing brain.

It opens up new pathways

And keeps your brain alive.

I’ve dabbled with new languages

My wife wants me to dance

But so far most relaxing

Is drawing; here’s a face.

It’s something I have never learned

At school it was not taught.

They’d simply give us paper, paint

And leave us to our selves.

But now I’m watching YouTube

The odd tutorial.

I find it very difficult

But satisfying too.

I’ve learned you draw

Just what you see not what you think is there.

You have to capture light and shade

To bring a face alive.

Faces aren’t the easiest

I can’t do eyes or nose

Never can make mouths look right

And can’t at all do teeth.

But it’s a skill I’d like to own

It simply fascinates me.

I like to watch how artists work

The subtleties they see.

South American cities next upon my list

What cities do you want to visit?

Santiago, Chile

I’ve been to many cities

Hope to see some more

Next up South America

Twenty Twenty Five.

Santiago, Chile

the first place we will fly.

Later on to Uraguay

Montevideo the coastal capital.

Montevideo, Uraguay

Visiting Ushuaia

Southernmost city of all

City of the snow capped peaks

A great place to explore.

Ushuaia – Southernmost City in the World

We’ll cruise into Antarctica

There are no cities there

Then up to Buenos Aries

To spend a few days there.

Buenos Aries, Argentina

We’re travelling most of January

Be away a month

Stick with us – perhaps subscribe?

And I will tell you more.

I hope they’ll say ‘a nice man’.

Tell us one thing you hope people say about you.

I hope they’ll say ‘a nice man‘

In spite of all my faults.

I’m not sure there’ll be more to say

When life comes to a halt.

I hope that they’ll know who I was

And it needn’t be explained

That they’ll think I had a good long life I’m not a tragic loss.

I hope they’ll tell the children

Some things I used to say

And share an anecdote or two

Odd things I used to do.

I hope they’ll kind of miss me

But not be awful sad.

I hope they’ll think a good man

And a decent dad.

My first day in Kano

Tell us about your first day at something — school, work, as a parent, etc.

Kano, Street Scene

My first day in Kano, 1973

First time out of Europe

For the younger me

Quite a revelation

So much life to see.

Six hour flight from London

And yet a world away

I’d often been a stranger

Lived a lot abroad

But Kano was quite different

To anywhere I’d been.

Getting off the aircraft

It was the heat hit me.

I wasn’t used to heat at night

It felt a little strange.

And then, to state the obvious

Well everyone was black.

They belonged, were all at home

And I the odd one out.

I was met there at the airport

By a British Council man

And drove with him

Through Kano streets

That first and memorable time.

It felt like 3D cinema

The picture on all sides

Bewildering, lively, colourful

Too vibrant to be real.

Handcarts, cars and bicycles

Motorcycles too

And of course pedestrians

With bundles on their heads.

There seemed no rhyme or reason

A bewildering busy throng.

The sights, the sounds,

the heat, the smells

Came at us from all sides.

Kano is spectacular

A city made of mud

Well baked in Saharan sun

It’s quite as good as bricks.

There’s modern buildings too of course

But none that looked like home.

I’m booked to stay that first night

in Kano’s Central Hotel

Unused to air conditioning

it is an awful row.

I don’t sleep well that awful noise

And strangely I’m too cold.

It may have been that evening

Or perhaps the following day

That I was persuaded to venture out

With other VSOs.

I’m never quite sure how it is

They mark you out as new.

Perhaps it is the pallid face

Or something in your walk

But every beggar in the town

Makes beeline straight for you.

I did not know the money

Certainly had no coins

But embarrassedly looking

Was enough to make it worse.

You must be surreptitious

Or just not give at all

For any hint that you might give

Will just make things much worse.

There were happier

more impressive sights:

The grace, the colourful clothes.

So many in traditional dress

Respecting who they were.

Two years of happy days spent there

But won’t forget my first.

Friends, Romans, bloggers lend to me your ears.

Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?

I’ve never been a thespian

And strutted on a stage

But as to public speaking

It’s rather more my thing.

Friends, Romans, bloggers

Lend to me your ears

If speeches are what’s needed

Then I will have no fears.

I can’t do conversations

Or circulate in rooms

But can do public speaking

However big the crowd.

Presentations, workshops

Conferences and such

Or even in a pulpit

Once I used to preach.

I find it so much easier

To be the one in charge.

I’m not lost for things to say

I’ve carefully prepared.

I will not fret upon a stage.

That’s never been my thing.

But if a speech is what you want

I will be your man.

Still Running!

What are your favourite physical activities or exercises?

It always got to be running

How ever often you ask

It doesn’t seem so very long

Since you asked us last.

I’m still an old man running

It’s what I like to do

Though I’m an age when people ask

Are you running still?

Yes I am still running

It makes me feel alive

You stay home with your aches and pains

I’m off up the road.

I’m still running because I can

I can because I do

I’ll still be running while I can

If that’s ok with you?

Use it or lose it’s my motto

And I’ve not lost it yet.

See no reason for stopping

I’m only seventy two.

A list of skills that others have that I could never match.

What is something others do that sparks your admiration?

To catch a likeness done in oils

Or in a simple sketch

Or paint a scene on canvas

That takes away our breath.

To play most any instrument

To draw from it a tune

To lift the spirits, change our mood

Or make us want to dance.

To change a game by sleight of foot

Or maybe sleight of hand

To manufacture winning moves

When all had once seemed lost.

To move us with well chosen words

To lose us in a book

To write scenes that we won’t forget

Or phrases that will stick.

To understand machinery

And know why things are broke

To have the skill to mend a thing

And get it back to work.

To be a conversationalist

Set others at their ease

Know when others need to talk

And let them know they’re heard.

To see the worth in others

Know how to draw it out.

To be a patient teacher

Conquer others doubts.

To unify a nation

And give it common cause.

To find a common purpose

That is not based on war.

To fight for those who are weaker

To champion the poor

Respect the views of others

And have an open door.

The most tip top Top Cat

What’s your favorite cartoon?

Top Cat is the character

That does it for me.

“Top Cat, the most effectual

Top Cat, who’s intellectual

Close friends get to call him T.C.

Providing it’s with dignity.’”

Followed his adventures

On sixties TV

Benny, Spook, Choo Choo

All of the gang

Officer Dibble

Thwarted again.

“Top Cat

The indisputable leader of the gang

He’s the boss, he’s a VIP

He’s a championship

He’s the most tip top

Top Cat.”

And he will have you laughing

No disputing that.

He’s master of the alley

A most amazing cat.

Thwarts poor Officer Dibble

In no end of scraps.

“Yes he’s the chief, he’s the king

But above everything

He’s the most tip top

Top Cat

TOP CAT!”

Catching wretched colds!

What could you do less of?

A thing I could do less of

Is catching wretched colds!

Dreadful sneezing, all bunged up

Or worse a runny nose.

You can’t do what you want to

You’re miserable as hell

And everyone will hate you

Case they get one as well!

I’ve taken all my vitamin D

A substitute for sun

Wrap up well when I go out

And make sure that I’m warm.

As for other vitamins

I’m stuffed with fruit and veg

You can’t say as we grow the stuff

That we don’t eat enough.

Whisper it quite quietly

But perhaps I do too much.

It seems I don’t get injuries

But coughs and colds and such.

Forgetting that I’m 70 plus

I push myself too hard

I fail to get the balance right

And end up off the track.

Thankful for the vaccines

COVID and the flu

I only get a sniffy nose

Never anything worse.