Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Look to the Future Now, It’s Only Just Begun #2

The word most applicable to my current job situation is "limbo": the company I've been working for has just been sold to a larger American outfit, the champagne's flowing, and there's the prospect of greater things - but will there be a job for me?? As a result of your enthusiasm yet lack of unanimity or wisdom concerning my previous post of this subject, I’m still not sure what my career is, and therefore feel constrained to offer a couple more possibilities for your consideration:

Cobbler

My next-door neighbour is a retired shoe-mender, and he's becoming quite an important feature in my life. After I planted 72 tulips in his flower bed – not so magnanimous as it sounds.... they’re going to be a joy for me to look at too, my own garden is full, and he did a lovely job re-soling my shoes – he wanted to adopt me as his son and teach me his skills. (He also may become my first student in my new English language school, so, respect.) Now, many of the best people have had dads who where cobblers: anguished homosexual fantasist Hans Christian Andersen; cynical 13th century snuffer-out of English parliamentarianism Pope Urban IV (mmm, thanks, Wikipedia); and Joseph Bloody Stalin. Errr, I’m not sure it beat much sense into any of them. Whaddya think?

Peasant

Ok, now we’re talking, and over here that should be easy-peasy, you’d think - and I love the soil, me. But ah you haven’t accounted for the social pressure I’m under. Here’s a story. I was once grovelling around in a pile of dirt in the garden - potting up some bizzy lizzies or some such nonsense - and my mother-in-law was watching me. I could see a thought travel across her face, and it was this: “I dragged my family up from the village into the town, for which permission we had to bribe and then lie to the Secret Police; my husband then actually wrote a letter to Comrade Ceauşescu describing our plight of 9 people living in one room, and after getting a reply we were given a flat to ourselves; then, 20 years later, I managed to buy a flat for my daughter in a new block by borrowing to the max from every single person I knew, ultimately a sound investment as money was worth much less after the inflation crisis following the 1989 revolution; now my only daughter marries this guy who wants to be peasant.... full-circle, wheel-of-life, bloody idiot, bad karma, why did I bother.

19 comments:

  1. Perhaps she was looking at you in that way because she could see that you really were about to plant your new flowers in a selection of Macdonald's drink cups

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  2. I think it was because she was cross that you were doing your gardening in your best Christmas shirt.

    (You can't get away with anything round here, you know.)

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  3. I see you as a Chauncey Gardiner type of person. Although |I feel you are more obsessed with Lady's Gardens than the real thing

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  4. Use your terpsichorean skills and be a limbo dancer, perhaps?

    I was up to my wrists in Compo-San most of this weekend too, there should be a delightful cascade of pelargonia down my balcony in a month or so (when I'm away on holiday), not to mention a slightly more jungly feeling in the bijou urban courtyard garden. That's what Easter is really about isn't it? Making things grow.

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  5. Now, GD, you already got the ultimate compliment (being compared to Chauncey Gardiner), so the only thing I can add is that being a cobbler still beats that other occupation. In my eyes, at least. But then I don't have a green thumb at all, rather the opposite.

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  6. worm, ah yes, but they do the job rather well and almost redeem themselves for having been associated with MacDonald's :-)

    Gaw, my word, people are actually remembering the stuff I put on here - I'll have to be careful!

    Camilla, oh you do do you? I'll have you know I'm much better endowed (with gardening skills) than that gentleman.

    Daph, I used to be a very able limbo dancer in my capoeira days, but now though I can get down I can't necessarily get up again. Making (and watching) things grow is great isn't it.

    Snoop, if that's the ultimate compliment then who needs insults?? I'm still not convinced about the cobbler thing though, I kinda feel it's been jinxed.

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  7. Communing with flowers and nature is surely a princely pastime?

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  8. The cobbler's reputation needs to be rescued and you seem just the man to do it. I would send you all my shoes, to get you started.

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  9. Cobbler be a cobbler fix shoes and in your spare moments make peach cobbler.

    You can never be adopted by too many people - but watch out for that Naomi Campbell - she'll just end up getting cross with you and you've already got someone who does that!

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  10. I don't think you can become a peasant - you are either born one or not. So it looks like cobbling is the way to go. I've got quite a few pairs of shoes in Budapest that need mending, so I'll bring them down for you to work on - once you've served your apprenticeship.

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  11. Susan, what a delightful post you refer me to there, though unfortunately I have no time to talk to my plants as I'm too busy shouting at the cats.

    Eryl, give me shoes! Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... (what came over me there??)

    Lulu, you're winning me over, particularly now that you've added peachy deserts to the mix. I'm not sure I'd want to be adopted by Madonna either.

    zmkc, you may be right, I never thought about it that way before. But please bring me your shoes now - fixing them can be my apprenticeship!

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  12. I know you'll be fine. If only my out-of-work grandson showed some of your initiative.
    I love your MIL - who needs a book with her expressions to read:)

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  13. Brit, I didn't know what that was before now - I think I'll try it!

    Pat, she is indeed an admirable and entertaining woman :-) Yes, I'm lucky, and I'll not starve.

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  14. You could be Romania's first English Flamenco Cobbler!

    All that heel-clicking will keep you in business for years.

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  15. Kev, heel-clicking would signify that I'm a remnant of the Austro-Hungarian empire and would get me summarily booted out of the country!

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  16. zmkc, fair enough. so bring me your husband's shoes instead :-)

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  17. Nut picker. This chap in Breb makes a living:

    http://www.leafpile.com/TravelLog/Romania/VillageLife/October/October.htm

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