Tag: social media

The best of people

I am not the world’s biggest Instagramer (if that is the correct collective term?) and have probably only 50 or so followers and likewise I follow only 50 or so people. However the more I grow to use it, the more I have concluded that generally you either get polite and positive feedback of what you publish, if it pleases the eye or entertains…and if it is the converse, then you are just politely ignored. At least that is my experience or maybe I have just been lucky?

I understand more now why Instagram has so much more appeal now compared to other social media such as Facebook, Twitter and even Linked In . These sites will produce frenzied reaction if what is presented goes against the view of the reader.

I like sunsets, I would like sunrises too if they could be more aligned with when I have woken up!
Every time I walk past these new borns, they are happy to pose for photos

Admittedly my Instagram publications are not controversial. Mostly photos of my local area when I am walking, overseas locations when I am traveling for work and animals at any opportunity! The occasional funny message or sign also gets in from time to time.

One thing to point out though…..I am no longer a teenager…that ship sailed decades ago. Had Instagram been around then, perhaps boredom, frustration or incredulity at the numerous photos I would have presented back then as a 14 year old train spotter would have provoked a response from even the most mild mannered reader.

On reflection I really do now ask myself why I spent so many hours, duly adorned in an anorak writing down train numbers. Thankfully it was a short lived hobby and at age 15 I turned my attention to girls.

Again let’s be thankful Instagram didn’t exist then too. My ‘beaus’ of those days may not have been happy for their 1970’s fashion and hairstyles to be preserved forever in the public eye!

To preserve anonymity..just a photo of their jeans

So back to today. Instagram let’s us share our world in images. A picture speaks a 1000 words. Let’s keep them as nice ones.

Geoffrey..the nicest dog in the world

Share if you dare

I travel fairly regularly by long distance train in the UK.

Previously I have always booked the ‘quiet coach’ where theoretically people are not supposed to have mobile phone conversations or talk loudly to each other.

Unfortunately the compliance levels are not so good and there are two camps. The first is very, very loud business people who decide to phone their PA, or colleagues or family and are the most indignant when it is pointed out to them (by me!) that they are in the quiet coach. Often they will remark, still very loudly to their caller …’I seem to be in the quiet coach ‘ as though

some alien Tele transportation process had unwillingly deposited them there, very much against their will. And of course that these rules are surely for other people, not important people such as them.

The other offenders are middle aged ladies on train journeys to visit family and I am far more forgiving of them as despite all the signage, they might not be familiar with the process.

So I grit my teeth as their call starts..”is that you dear?…Can you hear me?…I am on the train?…Yes it’s on time and I’ll see you at Kings Cross Station…” So conversation over I think? No chance…..they carry on “oh, I think I am in the quiet coach (Yes…you damm well ARE!!)…so I can’t talk for long” . There then ensues a 20 minute conversation covering all family medical, romantic and miscellaneous issues…probably negating the purpose of the visit at all!

Quite why they think the quiet coach is like the express lane at the supermarket as long as you have 10 conversation items or less!, you can use it.

So I have given up on the quiet coach..but I have decided what is now needed is a non-chatting coach. Not so much that others having conversations, conversations on the phone or face to face with consenting adults is an issue, it’s fine but don’t forget Abigail *, it’s people talking uninvited to me who are the problem! [ *Abigail was a fellow passenger on a train some weeks ago who had such an impact she featured in a blog post just dedicated to her.]

There is a time for sharing your work story, challenges or quest for information- but it’s not on my train. On a train journey earlier this month week an IT guru used all three hours of the journey and barely drew breath talking techno speak to me that would have put Bill Gates in the corner.

Barely a week later I then have a match-making mother sizing me up as a partner for her daughter…despite all the references I made to my wife, children, general contentment with my lot…she was undetered. On reflection perhaps I should have made it very clear I was not from a Polygamous sect… and able to add a another wife to my portfolio in case that was what she was holding out for.

And then, only two days later, the icing on the cake from another woman of a similar age….an interrogation…..although she told me she was a retired teacher from Devon…I am convinced she is ex KGB. She was relentless in her task…the more monosylabic my answers the more questions kept coming. Where do you live?, where have you been?, where did you stay?, are you married?, are you in a polygamous sect? (actually no, she didn’t ask that), when will you get home?, how did you get to the station?…no stone was left unturned, no aspect of my life was not investigated!

So come on train companies of the UK..non chatting coaches please. It will be called the Ask me to Share if you Dare coach!

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Forty today!

I started writing my blog just for fun a few weeks ago. And was somewhat intrigued this morning to see I have just had my fortyieth follower today…..not the dog in the photo (I only count the human ones😁)

For the serious bloggers out there (and I have the greatest respect for you) having achieved forty followers might be more pitied than celebrated! But for me, who thought nobody might read my words it’s a very pleasant surprise .

Anyway to the forty of you, I hope in some tiny way, I enrich your lives 3 days a week.

To numbers 41, 42 etc. looking forward to you joining in too.

Please do comment , share and like if you enjoy it. If it’s not for you I understand…as the saying goes ‘better to have loved and lost than never to have loved before’

With my best wishes to you all…….

Why this blog? Click to find out why I wite these

A dog’s life – Border Terriers know best

As another hectic work week ends for many and an equally stressfull weekend starts its time to take stock and be grounded.

With all due respect to other breeds and those of none, the humble border terrier seems to have got life under control and in balance.

They grab every chance to relax and sleep, enjoy the company of those other humans around them but also be content to lie on the grass and contemplate life without the need for electronic interaction.

As 21st century humans we are conditioned to measure ourselves on achievements that are often mere titles or numbers..sometimes at a very banal level.

This dog has no Facebook account let alone any followers. She confided in me yesterday she doesn’t know how to use Twitter and her photos won’t get any likes on Instagram.

Is she bothered…of course not when you can sniff the flowers, chase the occasional squirrel and in her words ‘don’t even venture near my space if you are a cat’ . Yes she said my space not MySpace. (For anyone under age 20 or so, not so familiar on the rise and fall of various social media platforms, MySpace was up there with Facebook..but now very much in decline.)

Maybe that says it all….

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