Talk about trying to keep too many plates spinning! At the moment I’m constantly swapping between jobs. Trying to keep my (financial) head above water and get articles written, pictures on my website or stuff on eBay and at the same time maintain a home-life whilst trying to keep fit! I’m not the only one of course – and I admire all those people who can do this whilst also looking after a young family (a cat’s enough for me), so excuse me whilst I have a 1st world whinge! That’s when perspective kicks in, isn’t it? You see your own little problems then look around at others and think – wow! I thought I was keeping plates spinning…

As I’ve not been occupied writing today and the weather’s been crap I’ve had time for a spot of decluttering. I’d forgotten how much stuff I’ve had packed away in boxes that hasn’t seen the light of day for decades. It’s those 1st world problems again – we hoard so much crap nowadays – because we can. We have that luxury, which is why when you’re travelling nowadays you pass so many old shipping container farms set up purely to store people’s surplus crap that they’ve run out of space for but refuse to let go of. At this stage of my life I’m trying to take a much more Buddhist approach to these things and letting stuff go. After all – I can’t take it with me…

The memories and experiences I want to want to keep I’m gradually digitizing – for two simple reasons. They’re portable and they don’t take up any space and one day I hope to be able to use much of what I keep in my writing. There’s certainly a few stories to tell when I have time but the ‘chunky’ stuff can go. Mind you, sifting through the ephemera from the best part of 50 years of one’s life can really take you back. Here’s one thing I found today…

Don’t try and draw too many conclusions from the ticket. The next year I was at the (in)famous Stranglers open air gig in Battersea Park!

Meanwhile, here’s the picture of the day, which is about the future, not the past and about how much the world’s changed in my lifetime. I took this picture of North Greenwich and Canary Wharf in London from the Emirates cable car traversing the Thames on the 20th November 2019.

I remember this area before any of this was built. I moved to East London in 1986 and lived just up the road in Bromley-by-Bow. I watched what was formerly derelict docks transformed into everything you see here – and the city of London beyond, which you can see to the right. The capital’s skyline’s still changing. I left a decade ago and there’s parts I struggle to recognise now! Will that rate of change start to slow now that we’ve cut ourselves off politically and economically from Europe – time will tell…

I’ve a favour to ask…
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