Bygone Days

Perhaps it is the depressing feeling of a Monday morning that is making me feel a little sad today. No reason to really, after all every day for me is a weekend day!! I think it has something to do with the photo I have used in this post. It is a photo of me in the 1980’s with little Amy in my arms. She is not really related but I think of her as my honourary Irish grand daughter. Today she is on the other side of the World serving in the Royal Navy. I often follow her comments on Facebook, and from them I see little has changed since my naval days. In my time we had a God given right to complain (it was called dripping) about all and everything the Navy served up. I remember many times whilst ashore, old timers would strike up a conversation about their time at sea. They would tell us how easy we had it compared to them!! they would tell us this was the best time of our lives. We usually listened politely, buy the old guy a pint then moved on to scoff at his remarks once out of earshot. It seems today nothing has changed, sailors still complain about everything and like myself fail to realize just how good life was/is. Today, I’m that old timer and I’m bursting to tell Amy and her shipmates that this is the best time of their lives. Strange how we come full circle and then look back on the past, sometimes with regret. I don’t have any real regrets but sometimes wonder if I could have taken better advantage the opportunities that were there. It is one thing to say, yes I’ve seen the World, but when some one asks what I thought of a particular place-city-island or even a mountain. Most sailors would reply (including me) great pubs, beautiful girls and a smashing run ashore. But did you see the Taj Mahal??? The what? oh you mean that big building on main street, yeah I think I passed it coming back aboard in a rickshaw. How many of those wonderful opportunities and sites were wasted.  Ah well, nothing to be done about it now, time to shake myself and get on with the day!!! But I hope Amy reads this!!!!!!!