by
Frank Hatton

For those of you who are still engaged in the hurly burly world of earning a living, I offer both my sympathy and apologies for what may seem to be a complacent viewpoint of life in general, but, be that as it may, I frequently amble along to the local newspaper shop, and en route, I listen with appreciation to the warbling of the birds twittering their own version of what a wonderful world we live in, and at the same time I observe the local geriatric gentry doing whatever it is they do in their front gardens to keep the blossoms blooming, sometimes stopping to pass the time of day, and chatter about completely inane subjects.... often to do with what plants are performing well, and which ones are causing the brow to furrow. Doubtless, you will gather that this retirement thing ain't bad at all folks.

Now, we have to talk about the 'down side' of heaven. Quite recently, my dear wife reached her 65th birthday, and, as a gesture of appreciation, my daughter and her husband, presented her and myself with a couple of tickets to Disneyland in Paris, France, along with a third ticket for my five year old grandson, Jack. Can you imagine the joy and jubilation this gave us? Every moment we spend in the company of this beautiful little fella', is sheer bliss, and to have him all to ourselves for four whole days in the environment of Disneyland seemed to us to be pure delight. Particularly as he is now at the age when his conversation and questions are at the peak of entertainment!!! Fr'instance, just recently, he was reading a story in which he found the words, 'questionable', and 'reluctantly', and asked his dear old 'papa', (yours truly), to give him an example of the meaning of both. I explained the meaning of the word 'reluctance' as doing something you did not really want to do, but, accepted that it was inevitable and necessary. In my innocence, to explain the word 'questionable', I suggested that if I told him that he was to be bathed, he might question why it was necessary, so hence the situation was 'questionable'. Soooo, I would then tell him that he was dirty and needed to be cleaned..... He thought about this for several seconds, and then agreed that he would accept the answer, but, would go to the bathroom, 'reluctantly'..... A mind like that is a proverbial razor.

Eventually, the day arrived for our departure, and we travelled up to London Heathrow Airport to catch our plane. Now, at this point I must tell you that in my business travels I spent many, many years flying around this world of ours, and while I have never been comfortable on ladders and high buildings due to a morbid fear of heights, the prospect of being airborne in an aircraft has never ever bothered me, so, there was no trepidation whatsoever on my part. However, my dear lady wife has always been a trifle nervous about relying upon a few millimetres of aluminium separating her from the earth some 30,000 feet or so below. For instance, she always wants to sit at the rear of the aircraft,... this is based on the assumption that the advent of planes reversing into mountains is extremely rare,..... and she also asked me where the 'Black Box' is situated, this is on the basis that invariably, this section of the plane is designed to give the maximum potential for the survival of the said box, and she insists that I try to get her a seat directly above this object. Finally, she will only fly in the daylight hours, and this is a direct association with the fact that the birds do not fly in the dark, and as they have many more years of experience than mankind in the art of flying, she again insists that they must know more about flying than ourselves. I confess that when faced with this sort of logic, I find myself helpless to find a sensible argument.

In spite of these misgivings, we eventually arrived in Paris quite safely, and were transported to the Disneyland Hotel to begin our holiday. At this point the responsibility for administration perceptively moved from my wife and I, to the youngest member of the trio, and we did not even get the chance to unpack our bags. The immediate priority was to move out to the theme park of Disney, and within fifteen minutes of arriving, we found ourselves whisked into numerous rides, commencing with the 'Flight of Peter Pan', onto another ride with someone called 'Pinnocio', and from there I lost track of our movements, and just followed the leader. Hunger was the next realisation, and there then followed an unbelievable choice of fodder, which consisted of 'Fish Fingers', Chicken Nuggets', and other equally unpalatable and indigestible foods. In addition to the culinary adventures, we were also subject to continuos trekking in the equivalent of a commando training course, in and around the various sections of Disneyland, until eventually I began to feel that I could have easily changed places with one of Snow White's dwarfs in view of the amount of wear on my legs. The bonus on all of this exercise, was the fact that when we eventually made it back to our hotel room, our dear little soul collapsed like a punctured balloon, and slept without a murmur until the following morning.

Not that this was of any use to us, within minutes of his slumbers, my wife and I were equally anaesthetised. To cut the story short, the next few days followed a similar pattern, with our juvenile leader dictating the pattern of our movements, and we following numbly in his footsteps....... Those of you who have offspring similar to our own grandson, will recognise the pattern, and know that the joy and gratitude which springs from such an adventure, is more than worthwhile, and therefore read between the lines of this epistle and understand...... Others less fortunate will hopefully in time come to realise the chunks of life which they are missing, and look forward to the day when they can participate in these enjoyments.

Often have I puzzled over the objectives of this monthly missive, and tried to understand what it is that I am attempting to achieve...... my current thought is that my prime objective is to achieve a degree of happiness amongst the readers. If we have reached this aim then, I am more then satisfied, and my wee grandson has contributed his share of the joy. So, my friends, enjoy your life, it is the only one you will get, and has as often been said, it is not a rehearsal, and irrespective of your religious beliefs, your span is a short one when compared to the 1.6 million years man has been on earth,.....no man is an island, and we each have to relate to each other, so, let us hope that we will contribute our share of happiness and make our fellow man aware of his/ her duty to each other.

'til next time,
Frank Hatton

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