So Long, Farewell

To anyone who has not seen The Sound of Music, the title of this blog will be lost on you. Let me give you a fuller part of the song:

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu
So long, farewell, au revoir, auf wiedersehen.

You can almost hear me singing it. What a treat. I was chatting to someone at the Creech Shed Cafe the other day. Having heard me speak online via YouTube during a Creech Baptist Church meeting, she can now hear my voice whenever she reads my blogs; poor lady. Perhaps you are with her in that, or you are now going to rush to YouTube (see below) and try and find that talk, just to hear me speak. Is that tumbleweed passing down Wellington High Street? I have been told that I have a very distinctive voice. There was somebody who used to say, “Hello Mike,” whenever I answered the phone. Perhaps I need to stop answering the phone, “Mike speaking.”

The reason for this blog, as I always have a reason, is to say goodbye to Wellington. Put those tissues away. Stop! Don’t jump off that cliff; life is still worth living. There is life after Mike. It may be a greyer and…. wait a minute, you don’t have to lose touch at all. I may be a million miles away, all the way up in the North East of England, but I will still share with you all. No, you had not got rid of me. I am still here by the wonders of social media.

We are moving to Hartlepool. I know, I also asked where it was when I was offered a job up there back in 2005. You all have no excuse; it has been in the news so much recently. But for anyone still puzzled; it’s in England. More specific than that?! OK, it is to the right of Durham and just below Newcastle. But whatever you do, don’t say that their accent is Jordy. They may sound the same to an untrained ear, but not to them.

Just like Scotland you can get your Mars bar deep fried in a chip shop there; why you would want to… The stotty buns, baps to me, are as big as dinner plates. My mum and her whole family come from the North East so it feels very cosy and warm; not literally of course, going back up there. On the subject of heat, when I first went up there in Winter 2005, I got out of the car, the North East wind slapped me round the chops and I got back in. I wouldn’t have minded so much but I hadn’t even been introduced to the wind; most rude of it.

Mind you, the local lads and lasses are obviously made of much stronger stuff than me. When I used to drive through the town centre to pick our sons up from the train station at night, we passed the Town centre clubs. All the lads and lasses were stood out in the icy winter winds in their summer wear. In fact, what they wore would be a bit chilly on a beach in Lanzarote. But they all looked happy enough.

Our new house is a beach front property. Given its location in Hartlepool, we will spend more time looking out at the impressive skies and waves. I am looking forward to writing while looking at the drama of it all. Best of all the house is accessible to start with and being made more so. We are moving from a house I can barely move in, to a home I will be able to fully access. I won’t know myself. Literally, I won’t know myself. I will see a bloke in the bathroom mirror and think; who’s that?

You may think I write for my own amusement a lot of people would miss me. Wait, I always tell people grammar is so important. Let me try that sentence again. You may think, “I write for my own amusement.” A lot of people would. Miss me? Language is so confusing. Someone on one of the disability sites said, that they were hanging around naked, instead of standing up transferring from their bed to their wheelchair. Wait bare and weight bear, confusing, eh?

So, my starting farewell, is really just a cheerio. I will be practicing extreme social distancing via my writing.

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More blogs at: howcaring.com

If you want to hear me speak, in the flesh so to speak: https://youtu.be/7tyQ-BX1lpY

(I start speaking about 53 minutes into the meeting.)