I don’t know if this is a false memory but I’m sure October, when we were kids in the 60s and 70s, was cold. We used to go tatty picking and it was wet and freezing. The idea of tatty picking now is rather quaint in the age of mechanism and this week has been glorious sunshine. We’d also have had several frosts by now. We’ve still got flower beds full of flowers like it’s still early September.
It’s only odd because life settles into patterns and long term disruption to those patterns makes everything feel out of place and ‘wrong’but there’s obviously nothing fixed about these things and climate change must affect everything.
I’ve been unearthing designs from what we call ‘the vault’ which is just an old hard drive. They were consigned there many years ago, probably because they didn’t sell but have now been resurrected.
It's a bit strange looking back through, where possible, 25 years of hard drives, like looking back in time. We started on dial-up and wee monitors computers using a Pentium 133 chip. I remember being told by a ‘business’ person that you couldn’t make money online and that it was just a fad. Banks were suspicious and weren't keen to give a merchant account to an online business, let alone let us process credit cards. They treated us like criminals and with zero respect.
So we bypassed them using World Pay and Paypal and they lost all the business we’ve generated in 24 years. They were so short-sighted and just were incapable of seeing the future. All they knew was how the past was and had no vision of how it might change. Ironically, all those gatekeepers have now largely been made redundant. For years we were credit-scored down for being self-employed. That tells you everything about the attitude of the industry at the time.
Anyway, the design probably won’t sell again but you never know, times and tastes change. The Professor Longhair design never sold a bean for years. Still hasn't in fact but I think it’s lovely. The same goes for many designs. I’m always guided by what I like and less so by what might be popular, which is probably why I’m not rich.
Meanwhile the warrant for the writ in my medical negligence case is about to be lodged in the court to get the proceedings underway. It'll take anything from 6 to 18 months to reach a settlement. Hopeful;ly it’ll be successful and settled out of court though I’ll take it all the way if I have to. If he’d got his diagnosis right, there was time to stop or minimize the stroke. Trouble is I’m from a ‘just get on with it’upbringing and taught not to make a fuss, so complaining about anything isn’t in my nature which is why I almost ignored it but that would have been irresponsible because he’ll misdiagnose some other poor sod if he’s not made responsible. Wish me luck.
