Quote of the week

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chaumi

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Every now and then you'll read through something where a couple of sentences will make you stop and take it in.

This one from the piece in the RP around Robin Dickin handing over to Harriet Dickin....

"I've managed to make a living from racing from the age of 14 to 69. What a way of life. What a lucky, lucky person I am to do something I love and am passionate about."


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It made me think it might make an interesting thread.

PS Good luck to Harriet Dickin for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years hopefully.
 
Nice. I always think the people who have it made in this life are those who do for a living what they would otherwise do as a hobby.
 
I think I was lucky as I always had jobs I enjoyed. Life cant be great if you have to work somewhere or do a job you dont like just to be in work.
 
I did enjoy my original job as a design engineer until the early 80's when due to a lack of investment and in my opinion a deliberate government policy to destroy manufacturing industry caused my job to virtually disappear.
 
walsworth said:
I did enjoy my original job as a design engineer until the early 80's when due to a lack of investment and in my opinion a deliberate government policy to destroy manufacturing industry caused my job to virtually disappear.
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An apprenticeship, Walsworth? Who was it with? And what did you end up doing?
 
The best job I ever had was as summer relief janitor in local primary schools, on a couple of occasions in my own old primary.

Terrific remit: open the gate at 8am, check the exterior for damage (broken windows,etc), patrol the interior and hang around for the day in case any parcels or workmen came.

Then at 4.45pm another quick patrol inside and out, lock the place up and that was it.

I had the use of the staffroom with cooking facilities, radio TV etc. (which, naturally, I had to release from their imprisonment in a store cupboard) and the sports facilities.

All it took was a phone call to some mates and we'd have side-offs in the gym or games of badminton, etc. None of us were smokers and respected the place enough not to drink or smoke or make any mess.

And, of course, a kip on the couch any time I felt like it.

All the big July sports stuff on TV: the Open, Wimbledon, racing (occasionally managed Goodwood if it fell a wee bit early), etc.

Four weeks for about £100pw tax free (because of the rules back then, I only paid NI). In equivalences, that was better pay than my father was on as a Rolls-Royce engineer who was by then on less than £4k and a lot more than when I started teaching two or three years later (I think my starting salary as a teacher was about £3,600pa.)

Happy days.
 
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Funny how it can often be the 'simplest' job that gave the most satisfaction when you look back (satisfaction being a broad term, of course).

My happiest times were when driving a BT van around Heathrow Airport fixing dial phones and corded switchboards with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers in my pocket. For 90 quid a week if memory serves correctly. My dad got me that job, and when I went for the interview I did not even know how to wire a mains plug!

PS The Ladbrokes on the Bath Road was visited regularly, needless to say.
 
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An apprenticeship, Walsworth? Who was it with? And what did you end up doing?
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I started a general engineering apprenticeship with Geo W King of Stevenage in 1964. The company made hoists, cranes, conveyors etc. and was taken over by Tube Investments and eventually asset stripped in the mid 70's.

I then went freelance as a contract draughtsman for the next 25 years or so, very much up and down as regards wages. Finished up getting a hands on job in 2002 as a Building Services Engineer, which really was a glorified handy man, until retiring a couple of years ago.


 
walsworth said:


I started a general engineering apprenticeship with Geo W King of Stevenage in 1964. The company made hoists, cranes, conveyors etc. and was taken over by Tube Investments and eventually asset stripped in the mid 70's.
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I would imagine there were many in similar positions back then. It sounds like you may have already had a reasonably lengthy(ish) retirement. I hope you have been able to enjoy that.
 
My favourite job ever, during the unemployment crisis in early 80s was as a docker in Dublin port. Those of you who have met me will realise that I'm not built for manual labour, but the characters I met were absolute golden.
 
I would imagine there were many in similar positions back then. It sounds like you may have already had a reasonably lengthy(ish) retirement. I hope you have been able to enjoy that.
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Only retired two years ago, and that was due to ill health.
 
chaumi said:
Does it feel like yesterday? Might only be me, but time seems to speed up/disappear quicker as you get older. Stuff from 45 years ago feels like it was yesterday!
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Doesn't it just! I retired over 5 years ago and the time's gone in a flash.
 
chaumi said:
There must be some mechanism in the (ageing) brain (maybe evolution related) that contributes, but I can't quite put my finger on why that may be.
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Just like a long holiday, first couple of weeks go slow and easy, but the last week speeds past like lightning.
 
chaumi said:
Sounds like we have an expert translator for the form cards on the next TalkingHorses trip to Longchamp or Sanlucar de Barrameda!
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I had never heard of Sanlucar de Barrameda before I went there in February. It's a special place at the very mouth of the Rio Guadalquivir, but the racing, only happens in August (Note to Laytown: you are not the only official race meeting in Europe taking place on a beach). Have you been to the races there, Chaumi?
 
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No Grey, but it certainly sounds like a visit (in August) would enhance a Spanish holiday. It's gone on the mental 'must try to do this' list (it's a long list)
 
barjon said:
Just like a long holiday, first couple of weeks go slow and easy, but the last week speeds past like lightning.
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I heard something about this recently on the radio ( also wondering why as school days dragged when I hated my school whereas ... ) , some scientists think it is based on time as a percentage of time already lived. So a year in the life of say a 12 year is a larger percentage than a year in the life of someone who has lived 50 years. The smaller the percentage, the faster time appears to 'fly' .
 
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