A golden rule of social media must be to never post under the influence. On this occasion I am going to write what I am feeling now - ha!
It is the end of a long day. A 6 am start - a midnight finish. Got back to my hotel at nearly 8pm. A quick shower - dinner etc and time to relax.
I have been to see Chichen Itza today. Chichen Itza now represents the outstanding remains of probably the leading city of the ultra successful Mayan people who dominated the huge Yucatan Peninsula and more besides a long time ago.
Chichen Itza has been voted as one of the 6 modern wonders of the world. It is an arbitrary list but the only one on the list I had not previously seen. Look up the list.
I have never been particularly motivated to tick off the list - it has sort of happened - but nonetheless it is something to reflect on.
This is the bit I want to write. I don't think I have ever been to any of these modern wonders or natural wonders and not sought out a quiet spot and thought about my mum and dad. Usually it is a bit of an eye water. What I am thinking is how fortunate I have been. How proud they would be. How loving they always were. How lucky we are to be baby boomers - children of the 50's.
My parents were born in 1929 and 1932. They were brought up in the terrible 2nd world war. My dad had a very unsettled childhood because my grandad was too old to fight but was a gunnery trainer - a Sergeant Major based in Dover where my dad was born and they moved around a lot - eventually to Exeter. My beautiful loving mum was blitzed in Union Road Exeter. My mum's family lost their house.
My mum and dad were clever and hardworking but they they never had the opportunities we had. My mum never went abroad. My dad only went to Germany on National Service. Only the year before I was born did rationing end. There was a chronic housing shortage after the war because so much was destroyed. My first vague memory is living in what I now know as Victoria Street. The norm then was for young married couples to live with parents and in -laws until they could get a place of their own. Eventually my parents got a council flat in Hill Rise Whipton and I can remember when my youngest brother Mike was born at Hill Rise. He is 64 now. Our parents both died far too young.
I get very frustrated by the victim culture - the victim mentality - the snowflakes. I have some idea of the sacrifices my wonderful parents and grandparents made for us. They were so loving. They gave everything for us to have opportunity. I am a 100% beneficiary. Anything I have done - what my 2 brothers have done - what our kids and grandchildren have achieved without any doubt has the important roots in the tree my fantastic parents and wonderful grandparents planted and nurtured.
My particular thought is my reality when growing up was to see books with exotic pictures of the Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China - Chichen Itza etc - a million miles away. A fantasy world away. Amazingly - incredibly - fortuitously I have somehow seen them in the real now. It doesn't amount to a lot in the grand scheme of things but it means a lot to me. It has been a memorable day.
And I look around. So much of what my parents generation achieved is being taken for granted - squandered. Wake up Britain.
I better not rant I guess ! xxxx
M
