Still on track ? 17 4 27 (15) 25 1 29

17 4 27 completed 17 4 30

Of course in my field of work I got to make lots of presentations, and sometimes addressing quite large audiences... One such occasion was when together with my new Research Director, BT as I used to refer to him, I was to make a presentation to the top brass of this tea company, one of the top two in the UK at the time and my presentation was to be delivered to a collection of their Tea Tasters who were paraded as demi-gods, because they were central to the success of the company’s blend of tea and because most of the time I wasn’t of a level to meet such exalted people, our top customers at this kind of level, plus many of their own Research and Development people when I was given the task of delivering the results of some of our own tea preparation studies which, would you believe, showed that tea strength was greater from a tea-bag than from loose tea, that is to say a somewhat contentious proposition?

But in my private life I was always very poor at speaking in public...

Like when I was 60 and had my first Birthday Bash for 39 years that is after having a bash in my honour when I was 21 though that passed off without my or anyone else making a speech, I anticipated that I would be expected to say a few words... And so I did: something I thought about for weeks before. The only reason I wanted to have a bash at all was because my Ma had had one when she was 80 when I was 54 and I thought she won't be around to have another when she would be 90 so now when she was 86 she and my sister took up my suggestion and arranged a bash at their local Liberal Club in my honour when twice a year I would travel to UK to visit her: an easy enough job because it simply meant booking the premises for the night in question and then sending out invitations, the Club putting on a buffet and of course the bar taking people's orders for drinks as usual.

So when my elder brother made to address the gathering I prevailed upon him and delivered my speech instead, probably the first of my life, when I said how everyone present knew I loved climbing hills and how lucky I had been in my life because I had my mother to accompany me on the smaller foothills of my life and then when I had grown up I had A-E my wife at my side...and "how many of you present have enjoyed being on the hills with me, and how I hoped you will continue to join me as I descend from the heights in the life I have left..? And that was that, with the two women in my life both present. Afterwards someone told me Gregory my sister's second son of three and 4th child of all whom were present had commented "How depressing?" no doubt thinking how it would be all down-hill thereafter..? 

Later when my wife, A-E followed suit and decided she too would have a 60th birthday bash I thought long and hard at what I would say on that occasion: the biggest private occasion we ever put on with maybe 120 guests when I felt constrained to make a second speech... On that occasion I told how when I met my wife we exchanged many of our first words to one another in the first language of the country in which we now reside which was neither her first language or mine, and how she soon began to confine herself to speaking my language but that when we married she didn't tolerate my poor command of English for long because she chose to return to college to read English Literature Philosophy and History, after first becoming a State Registered Nurse, an SRN, in both her native Scandinavia and in UK. Then I went on to tell the gathering how I never met anyone like my wife before who had so many names because the people gathered in many cases knew her by different names: for example her family knew her by a pet name derived from her first of 3 Christian names, which I never used but from the outset preferred the un-abbreviated form, then when we lived in England she started using her second name because her first name was too foreign for Brits who would mispronounce it all the time: on one occasion someone addressing her as "U-know" when then couldn't remember to say "I-know"...

But today as I was walking round the town mulling over stuff going on in my aging life my thoughts turned to my last opportunity to make a small speech when I reasoned it would be to my life long best friend yeah you've got it my wife, A-E again. I had already reasoned a long time ago that I should predecease her because 1) I am 4 ½ years older; and 2) as she reminds me from time to time how the age difference is just getting bigger and bigger, hahaha

The serious point however is that I should like to tell her how she has been my one true love and how I sincerely believe her to be the most beautiful woman I ever cast eyes on: that "I am going to take my leave of you, but I shall be waiting for you to join me in our joint grave"... Now neither of us is particularly religious in the usual sense of believing in an after-life of one kind or another but there has been an understanding that one day we would be buried as opposed to being cremated and lie side by side in the same grave like her parents for example. They even had their grave-stone engraved with their names and dates of birth with only their death dates to be added later. So far we have not gone to such great lengths, but who knows what the future will hold.

How I consider I have had a long and successful life and how she has been central to my being so fortunate with her at my side propping me up and always supporting me these past 50+ years...   

Epilogue 17 4 30

When I decided to put these thoughts down on my blog file I thought I should leave it there in draft form in the belief my elder son will come across it when at last I am dead and gone, so he can decide whether to make it known or otherwise to my dear wife, but writing it as I have without too much detail I think I can share these thoughts with you my readership for who knows if I don’t return home from the hills in a month’s time it could be my parting blog from my pen..? hahaha Have a good start to summer everyone for those of you living in the Northern Hemisphere: here it has been snowing these past  2 days…