Reasons to be Cheerful - Part Two!

So, yesterday, I left you with something warm, non? The wonderfully wise questions put to me by stars in the bloggy firmament all... And for fear I was rambling trop (moi?!), I thought I would leave un petit morceau over until today... Hope that meets with your approval, mes dahlinks...

And the fabulous Dotterel had the sheer nerve to put this to me:

'If Hitler had one, Goebels had none and Schubert was blessed with three, what was the score after extra-time under Duckworth-Lewis calculations?'



I know from old episodes of Dad's Army that the character Pike sang, 'Hitler has only got one ball...' So I think I know where you are going with that one, Sir, and I'm not going with you, unlike Kathleen Ferrier, perhaps!

Lovely Jo at Reasons to be Cheeful , 2, 3, asked me, "What is the most important lesson you have learned in your life?," but if that's too hard I have another "Red or white wine for the party?"

Jo, I shall answer no probs, my little bloggy tinder-box - Red or White for a party? Always both, that way you satisfy all tastes...

And My Most Important Lesson... Lots of lessons about love of my son, and yet so much of that is instinctual and maternal, if that makes sense...



I will be totally honest, that I was a good girl all my years in various offices - Imagining that if I worked hard, eventually I would be recognised and someone would haul me up into a better position, to reward my best efforts... I finally learned that if I wanted to get on in life, and didn't want to play cliquey office politics and be false to myself, I would have to do it wholly under my own steam... I had gained some self-confidence following a successful secondment abroad, and when some opportunities for promotion into another office cropped up, without waiting for anyone's support to 'go for it', I applied, was interviewed and got my promotion. Within a comparitively short space of time, and having waited years for my first prmotion, I applied for, and received a further promotion to the level I am currently relatively happily working at...

My advice to anyone would be to say life isn't a meritocracy - If you are good enough to want a job, go for it... You don't have to play corporate games, and you needn't wait years to be recognised as a good worker, as I did...

Next in the horses' stalls is fabulous Carma, who asked, "At what point in your life were you at your happiest and if you were to go back to school to study something, what would it be" (I've combined 2 questions into one!)"

Wow... That first one is really tough...



If I had the chance and the fees, I would love to go back to college and get a degree in Creative Stained/Leaded Glass Arts... If you'd asked me earlier in life, I would have probably have said I should have studied Psychology, instead of Modern Languages, as I did... And when I get old, I think I might do my Masters of Arts, this time in English Literature through Open Learning, if that's possible then... Great questions, Carma!

Lovely Meredith at The Things We Carried, wondered thusly..."Now, why have you not written of your parents? If the question is not too personal, you have intrigued me".

I can't really say why I don't write about them... Bits and pieces of their lives and their sayings often come to me when I am scribbling here... I am very sad that that they are no longer walking beside me; For my mum to 'tuck in a wing' when we promenade together, and for them to give me hugs and help guide my still-faltering steps in life... I loved them dearly, and yet (like so many mothers/daughters), my relationship with my mum was a tad more complicated...

In essence, I am afraid to open the floodgates that hold back my love for them and the immense sorrow that they are no longer here... I hope that's answered your kind questions, dear Meredith...



Finally, sweet and precious Braja from the more than fabulous Lost and Found in India, asked me where I get my inspiration from...

I have an incredibly butterfly mind, m'darling. I read a lot. My former colleague, himself a senior Police Officer, always said that I would make a good detective, and he joked that my middle name is Google... How did he know?

I love art and history, and literature, and just bold, bare knowledge, without it even leading to qualifications... Anything that interests me, I devour it... As a result, I know a lot of nonsense about nothing in particular... Jackass of all trades and mistress of nought indeed...

So, I get inspiration from art and writing, TV and media, and sometimes even the weird pictures someone has posted to Photobucket can start me thinking about what I might write...

I am inspired by what I am curious about in nature and my strong sense of being connected so, to the earth, and to the countryside that surrounds me, wherever I may be roaming...



You know I adore music, albeit I mainly blog in silence, with only the clitter-clatter of the metal tippy tappy, and GJ's occasionally less than silent screams to accompany me, so my wide-ish ranging love of notes on lines keeps me in buoyant fettle...

Finally, Braja, I love people, like you, and the life-beauty which people expose here in Blogland, and that inspires me to keep going, to attempt to touch lives, and to always try to make a difference...even if it is only a little one...

That's very important to my life. To make a difference. I know it's a cliche, but it is so easy to do, and it costs nothing. Recession busting even... Make a difference, mes dahlinks... Hey, you know you're already doing it...