Greetings from Miami

Dear All at Millman Times,

This is a greeting from Miami. I am preparing for Thanksgiving with my family. The menu is turkey, apple pie, sweet potato and pumpkin pies and lots more food. The children then go to the park to run and get hungry and the adults subside in front of the TV and go to sleep. This is the plan.

Unfortunately, life is somewhat somber as we contemplate the economy. However, no one seems ready to conserve. Cars are still gas-guzzling, and the super-markets are full of food and customers. The conversation begins with the mantra - let us prepare for hard times.

In the meantime, all is well and we look forward to new and exciting times with a new president in the New Year.

See you soon.

Walter in Miami

P.S. Thanks to Veronica for her splendid teaching and communication skills, I am able to use the internet to say "Hello". It feels quite magical to type something and send it half way across the world immediately.

Happiness

Conversation overheard on bus.
Young man: "Belly full - me happy"
Old man: "Belly full and indigestion, me unhappy"

Homily

I am remembering the homilies of my youth, when the world was less complicated and advice was delivered from a worthy aunt, uncle or schoolmaster. I remember this example from a school master as spoken "My boy! The Lord gave you two ends to use, one to think with one to sit with. Success depends on which you choose: Heads you win, tails you lose." I have never looked back.

A writing on the wall

"It seemed to him that all the shops that served the native population - pharmacies, shoe-makers, groceries - were slowly and inexorably disappearing, replaced by slick boutiques and souvenir shops that catered to the tourists, filled with luminescent plastic gondolas from Taiwan and papier-mache masks from Hong Kong. It was the desires of the transient, not the needs of the residents that the city's merchants answered."

Quoted from "Death at La Fenice" by Donna Leon P.97 (1992)

The above paragraph is a snapshot of Venice... Does it strike a familiar note?

Beware the Joint-Venture

A tale told to me by an economist on the reality of the Joint-Venture.
An undertaking with the hidden and unknown.

A hen met a friendly pig on her free ranging walk in the farm yard and struck up a warm and agreeable relationship. They exchanged confidences and the hen confessed that she was dissatisfied with her lot. She was tired of laying eggs for the benefit of others, furthermore she was becoming unattractive to the resident rooster.

The pig was sympathetic but had no advice to offer. Eventually the hen had a bright idea which she discussed with the pig. The idea was based on the fact that he too was being exploited, but if they could join forces in something called a JOINT-VENTURE they would cease to be exploited and would both benefit in terms of production and profit. They consulted the tortoise - a wise old accountant who was skilled at setting up joint ventures and after paying the appropriate fees and filling in the relevant tax forms they were able to launch HAM and EGGS Ltd. A new concept in business to increase profit to both parties.

They soon had a large order to supply ham and eggs for a large business breakfast. The hen pushed herself to the limit and laid eggs overtime, doubling her usual output. The pig in the meantime, hardly spoke to anyone and became more and more morose. Eventually he confronted the hen to dissolve the arrangement. The hen was mystified. The pig tearfully explained that in order for him to fulfill his commitments to the joint venture he would have to lose his hindquarters and probably his life in the process.

Schooldays

My parents decided to send me to a boarding school as my father was in the navy, and to stay at the same day school was not possible as my mother went to where he was sent, eg, Malta and various other ports.

The school was a convent outside Torquay, and I went aged eleven. I was very happy there and was not homesick for one minute, and made many good friends, a few I still have.

At thirteen the war broke out, which cast a shadow on my life as I worried about my father at sea in the Atlantic, and especially listening to the wireless and hearing the dreaded words (the Admiralty regrets) and then breathing with relief when his ship was not mentioned.

We seemed to be fairly free from air-raids, though occasionally the siren would go and we'd traipse down to the shelters. I regret to say while the good nuns said the Rosary, we would tell ghost stories and frighten ourselves to death!

Though one scaring time was being in the middle of the hockey pitch and having to throw oneself to the ground as a German fighter plane suddenly appeard out of the blue and started to machine-gun us. Luckily he was not a very good shot, though I'm afraid he killed some people in the nearby village.

The only other time I was too close for comfort to a German plane was being alone in a classroom high-up in the school and hearing a plane engine, and looking out of the window and seeing the plane discharging its bombs. Unfortunately a hotel just down a country road from us which had been turned into a hospital received a direct hit and caused many casualties.

Little did I know that one day I would have a German son-in-law!

I wonder what his grandfather did in that war?!

Polly

Grumpy or Sane

Am I in touch with the 21st Century or not? I feel as if someone has pressed my "fast forward" button and all events are compressed. I am rushing and rushing. Why do I feel like this?

At the beginning of October I noticed a display for Christmas hampers in my local supermarket. "Ah" I said "the season is upon us". A few days later in the same supermarket there was another display for Halloween, complete with large pumpkins. My thought then was how inconsiderate of us to use an item for "fun" when some people would be glad to eat it. Finally there was another display for fireworks - another way to burn money.

I thought that we could have Easter in January, and put all the other holidays together - then we need not work at all. Life would be one long Christmas, Halloween and Guy Fawkes rolled into one.

Grumpy and Sane

P.S Please see www.disney.co.uk for more pictures and information about Walt Disney who created the character, Grumpy.