Making the Grade

Welcome to a dry and cloudy South Manchester in the United Kingdom. We are now sadly descending into autumn after a very good summer. The good news is that for me summer will return briefly when we go on a cruise in the Aegean Sea at the end of September, visiting several Greek islands and also a day in Turkey (my third visit there). 

I’m looking forward to that. 

Let’s five in with some Sunday Stealing shenanigans. This week it’s a little different in that I am expected to grade myself on various things. The grades are A, A-, B, B-, C, C-, D, D-, F but I am going to add E and E- because that’s what we have in the UK. 

Also, I always hated being graded - I even hate grading myself because I will invariably get it wrong. I will probably reread this post in a year's time and panic that I was so easy or so hard on myself. WHat a neurotic mess I am. 

• Happiness

B

I am generally a happy chap but I could be happier, hence the B. There is room for improvement but most of it is out of my hands. These days when I turn on the news and watch what is happening in my own country and the rest of the world, I feel like a little bit of my soul is being chipped away. 

In the UK we have the rise of the extreme right, led by the arrogant, bigoted, Trump wannabee, Nigel Farage. In the US, Donald Trump is slowly destroying the country from within. In the east, Vladimir Putin shows no sign of ending the war in Ukraine. In Israel there is a humanitarian crisis that shows no sign of ending. 

That said, I was elated by Farage’s visit to Congress this week. He went over there with the intention of putting the UK down, comparing my country to North Korea. 

What a total prick he is!

Instead, he got more than he bargained for, as you can see from the video below:

Jamie Raskin – I applaud you for showing us all exactly what frog-faced Farage is; an arrogant, bigoted, disruptive grifter. Let’s just hope that people in the UK see him for what he is. 

• Being a decent human being

B

I am a decent human being but there is always room for improvement. Nobody is perfect, least of all myself, and I know exactly how I could improve.Will it happen? Maybe, but not if Captain Procrastination has his way. 

• Being serene (calm, peaceful)

B

I am a calm and laid back person ninety percent of the time but there are times when I loose my cool. This usually happens when I am watching the news or listening to people talking bullshit on social media and in the newspapers. I am improving though because had you asked me a few years ago when I had to endure the likes of Boris Johnson as my Prime Minister and the fallout from the disaster that is Brexit, I would have given myself an E. I am trying to find inner peace and I think I am getting there. 

• Kindness

A-

Again, there is room for improvement but I think I am a kind person deep down. I like to be kind and helpful – I get a buzz out of it. 

For example, on my walk a few months ago, a woman ran past me and as she did, she dropped her purse. I called her but she had earbuds in and she couldn’t hear me. I called louder and she just ran on having not heard me at all. Now she was clearly a keen and dedicated runner because I watched her disappear while I decided what to do. 

I thought, “Sod it,” and I ran after her. 

Now I haven’t run for many years but I am quite fit, given that I run five miles a day. I had to almost sprint to catch her and, after several minutes, I did. I didn’t want to tap her on the shoulder so I just ran right past her and stopped, holding out her purse. “You (gasp)(gasp)(gasp) dropped (gasp)(gasp)(gasp) this” I said trying not to sound like one of those perverts who used to breath down the phone. 

She was so grateful and thanked me for being such a kind person. 

I realised then that while I can still run a little, I’m not as fit as I used to be. There will be no fun runs, couch to 10K or marathons in my lifetime, that I can tell you. 

• Anger management

B-

I hate getting angry. Paradoxically getting angry makes me angry because I hate to lose control. When I see a truly angry person I avoid them completely and I would rather walk away. However, as I have said repeatedly, while there’re people like Nigel Farage in politics and people like Donald Trump in the White House, I will still get angry. I can’t help it. 

• Creative thinking

C

I would love to be more creative and I know that I can be. I recently read a decent book on how to spark your inner creativity and I found it really interesting. When I read stuff about creativity, it highlights the fact that I am not there yet. However, I think it will be interesting to explore this further. 

• Modesty

A-

By giving myself an A- for modesty, am I being arrogant and not modest at all? 

Is this a massive oxymoron? 

Actually, I do consider myself to be modest. I don’t boast about my achievements because I prefer to portray myself as an ordinary guy, which is what I feel that I am. I am Mr Average in many ways (blog post on this coming soon) and I always feel uncomfortable blowing my own trumpet. When I was working, people used to tell me to boast about what I had achieved. I’ve always felt uncomfortable doing that. Does that make me modest?

• Being an original

C

Like I said above, I am Mr Average – just like any other 62 year old retired British man you would see walking down the street. There is nothing special about me at all. I am not a pioneer in any field, I don’t stand out as “the original this” or “the original that” and I’m happy with that.

• Knowing yourself

A

I know myself really well. I know my limitations, I know what I like and dislike and I know what makes me happy. 

• Being true to yourself

B

In the past, when I was more insecure and shy, I used to try to strive for friendship by going out of my way to please other people. Sometimes that was fun and productive but on many occasions it wasn’t at all. Nowadays, I just do things for me. Don’t get me wrong, I will sometimes go out of my way to make others happy but I do so on my own terms. I’m too old to live by other people’s rules and standards. What’s more, I don’t expect other people to do that for me either. 

• Getting along with others

A-

I like to think that I am a nice guy and generally I get along with a lot of people. I always make an effort even if I dislike the person. I always greet people with a smile, no matter who they are and try to make them feel at ease. I am absolutely certain that there are people out there who don’t like me but that’s okay too because I probably dislike them too. 

I just tend to avoid those people anyway.

• Liking yourself

B

Yeah – I do like myself but when I do something stupid I curse myself relentlessly. This is fun for other people to watch because it is genuinely funny. I used to do this at work when I had messed up , much to the amusement of my former work colleagues. I hate it when I break things accidentally or lose my keys. There is room for improvement though and I should learn to forgive myself for petty things like that. Such behaviour is usually very short lived though and I can see the funny side of most of it. 

• Admitting your flaws

B

Regular readers know that I list my flaws all the time. I have done so in this very post. Usually I try to make a joke about it because I love self-deprecation. It doesn’t mean that I hate myself at all; on the contrary I think admitting your flaws, preferably in a funny way, actually endear people to me. I’ve made many a person laugh when I have described how inadequate I am at doing certain things, or times when I have totally cocked something up. It does happen, so why not enjoy it? 

• Self improvement

B

I am on a quest for self-improvement but there are lots of things that I need to do to achieve what I want, hence the B. For example, I am trying to teach myself to play the piano and yet I know that if I dedicated more time to this and practiced more, I know that I would improve. That said, I do try to spend some time tickling the ivories every day and limping through difficult songs (well difficult to me anyway). This is the latest thing I am wrestling with and I am about 80% of the way there. However, it has taken me ages to crawl to this point.