Near my beloved 90 Mainyard there is the GIGANTIC swimming pool that was left there when the 2012 Olympic Games moved on. As well as walking past it a lot thinking ‘now I have joined I really must go in there’, #Babybernie has a swimming lesson in there every Thursday.
We do it on this day because I look after him on Thursday’s. Yes I only show up to work four days a week amazingly I get more done in four days than I ever got done in five days. Think about how much time you spend kicking the tyres at your place when you could be causing trouble with your child.
Just to be clear, before I start sounding like one of those smug arsed entrepreneurs I like taking the piss out of. I have only just worked out how to make it work. If I spend the day focused on #Babybernie and wonder around without my phone everything is great. On the days when have not worked hard enough they day before I really pay the price, so I have learnt to bust my gut so Thursdays can be clear, in fact this is one of my key intentions for 2015 – WORK IN WORK TIME – ONLY. The rest of the the time is – REST of THE TIME. I am more creative, spot more things and all around the cheery mindful chap I strive to be when my head is in the same place and the rest of me. Plus I love playing Lego and Thursdays is a great day to do that.
So, anyway there we were on our way back from swimming and #Babybernie has the ‘fuck me, mate – I am starving after that swimming lesson – pasta NOW!’ Sensing the opportunity for arriving home with a sleeping child I immediately cave into his demand to go into the bridge cafe in M&S in Westfield and order a children’s pastas that comes with a huge pile of drinks and healthy snacks, of course being parent in M&S who has just taken them swimming in the Olympic pool I order a latte.
We sit down and wait for our food and talk about all the trains running up and down outside and how the orange one goes to Hackney and the red one goes to Epping, food arrives and we tick in. I look up and see this.
The picture in the background is now Seal singing Crazy, it is a father clutching his dying child – the child has the Ebola Virus. In HUGE letters it spells out an appeal for funds for to help these people.
I sip my latte.
The people on the chairs by the window who are bathed in the light from the giant video wall laugh and take the piss out of each others shopping as they sip their lattes.
The screen stops and begins again. In slow motion the pain and agony of the man on the video wall unfolds and his friends rush to help him.
Somehow we have normalised that it is ok to play video walls of people in more shit than us in shopping centres selling more shit than we need.
Somehow it is TOTALLY ok to glance over and watch another human being crumble while we sip coffee. I am a little staggered that I am still drinking coffee and thinking this and then drinking coffee again. I look at #Babybernie and consider what I would do if anything happened to him, every time he falls over I wait to see what happens and for a split second where he decides if he is going to cry or just get up and keep going I am paused for a second as thoughts of did his nose bone just disappear up inside his brain and kill him?
Of course this never happens, he is bullet proof and very confident, in fact he only cries when he is tried AND not getting is own way, like his Dad.
I am not sure who I am annoyed at, it certainly is not the man on the video wall, I am all for us helping our fellow human beings. However, I am really starting to question where money goes and how it is spent and who really needs it – also who really needs that much?
How can people like David Cameron suggest to us that measures for austerity are essential while wearing Richard James suit, Oliver Sweeney shoes and a Charles Tyrwhitt shirt – maybe he could pop into M&S for a suit and turn the tide on the UK’s economic policy?
Sorry that does sound a little A-level politics. I am not there yet, and by writing this I hope to get nearer what I mean – I am finding it very hard to reconcile and ignore the imbalance in the world and our lack of tolerance with each other. Much of my agony is around waste. Not ‘throwing stuff out’ or ‘not recycling’ I mean making the bloody thing in the first place, and if we need to put a giant video wall to to save people and also sell to people there is huge disconnect for me there.
What do think?
Disagreements welcome.
