Tag: history

To be okay

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Hi, With the change of the calendar it’s now LGBTQ+ History Month. I’m seeing emails and a few folk with workplace backdrops advertising their support around LGBTQ+ colleagues. IMO, this is a good thing. I am… slightly torn on writing this post. I should say that this is absolutely not to knock the hard work anyone puts in to help raise awareness and foster a more inclusive community. Given the year just gone and some of the vocal minorities who want to push trans folk…. well, out of sight frankly, I think the help is very much needed. What I wanted to say is that looking back at history can be hard. My formative years were the 80s and last […]

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The shadows of statues

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Hi, In a small market town not so far away, there are plans to install a statue. Last year we saw a number of slave owner figures pulled down and cast aside. I must confess to a wry smile on seeing one being tipped into a river. The new statue is one of Margaret Thatcher and she – along with Sir Isaac Newton – certainly made their mark on history of the town. Mrs Thatcher was the first female prime minister, had multiple election victories, etc, and is also very divisive figure in the UK. The impact of privatisation, loss of the coal mines, and other social rulings have left deep scars that lurk within British society. Some proposed, some […]

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Giving back

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Hi, No midweek post last Wednesday as I was flagging somewhat After the very pleasant break over Xmas, it’s taken me a while to adjust to being in bed before midnight and up before nine. It seems the Jones Collective are quite the night owls 🙂 As much as the mooring sun is beautiful and the dimming greyness of a winter afternoon is a little bleak, then evening is when I switch on. Sure, there’s the post 8pm dip – perhaps due to a late tea – but I have to thing myself and the family, that we need to be up in the morning. For me to be creative, I need to be more rested than I am. It’s […]

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Ghosts

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Hi, I’ve heard it said that as you get older, you spend more time looking back than looking forward. Perhaps that adage needs a slight update for our current times: the less you can do, the more you look back at what you have done, and what you might do. So this last week or so, old memories of the dressing I’d done at home in yesteryear, and, moreover, that things have moved on. I was sat enjoying the sun last week in the conservatory and my gaze drifted over to a place by the shed. I think I spent an early evening setting the timer, dashing back to a plastic chair, and hoping to have some success in not […]

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Don’t make eye contact

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Hi, With a bit of luck, the Jones Crew will be working our way around Europe on our summer holiday. The thing is, I find that as I’m getting a little older, I worry a little more about the What If. of it all. What if we miss our flight? What if the hotel we’ve booked is closed? Just, well, silly worries really. As the Ever Lovely Mrs J would say, you only have to do one step. All we need to do is get to the hotel down south. Then, just be up on time to get to the airport, and so on and so on. I do my best to listen, but it’s not always easy. Perhaps it’s […]

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Nearly the end of the year

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Hi, I hope you’ve had a good Christmas and maybe you got (or gave!) some cool presents. Have you managed to polish off the remains of the left-overs and the metric tonne of chocolates? I think we may have had our first proper dinner today. Okay, it was homemade pizza, but at least it wasn’t turkey sarnies. That was tea 😉 With this somewhat funny time between Christmas and New Year, I thought I’d take this time to spread a bit of nice news. In previous years I’ve been running a Happiness Jar, and for those who missed this last time, everytime something good happens, I’d pop a PostIt into the jar and count them up at the end of […]

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