Work out if you want to be a builder or a designer. A sourcer for the stone or an engineer working out how we'll be lifting it. Think about the construction and all the facets. You might have a passion for it all but think carefully after a long hot day lifting will you want to be the one pouring the pints in the pubs or standing sweaty drinking them. Some people know which role they want and if you say your the one holding the whip over the slaves stop reading now.
One of the things I learnt early on was when I was moving desks. One of the things people rarely did was pick things up. We would find all manner of stationery, pens, bands, paper clips, staplers, staple removers, right through to valuable things like luncheon vouchers and uncashed cheques. Some of the people I worked with would bin them and id be trying to find a home for them. I remember arguing with a removals guy over a £14000 cheque. He said it wasn't his job and I understood, I asked if it was cash what would he do. No moral debate there, I quickly realised, as finders keepers is the name of the game. He clearly didn't know how he could've cashed the cheque or spent the LV's.
I remember back then every year tech got cheaper. TV, radio cassette player, music centres and stereos, videos, you name it. So why do phones go up. Why are TVs now going up.
Life is like my pyramids philosophy. A little bit of learning how the rest of the world ticks. What does or doesn't make them tick. What building blocks would they use in their life to build pyramids. What order do you choose, what disorder do you accept
Plug the gaps later get 80% built was largely my philosophy. I always had various ways I'd do it and I wouldn't have had 1 million slaves helping. I liked to think how I'd do it on my own. My own secret lifetime's work.
I'd build it really slowly. A bit like cancer recovery.
In my first 10 weeks I'd be building my strength up. These blocks are heavy I'd say, then I'd sit on one. I'd start thinking and stretching. I'd remind myself of the job I did for Kenny Barclay and the Wood Mac GO, when reorganising the young street filing.
It's a long story, like all of mine, so I'll save it for another day. Essentially I did a three week job in one day because I thought about it in the pub for half the day. Tested it on day 2 and every morning thereafter. In the afternoon I went to the pub days 3-20. I presented my dossier on day 21 and was greeted with amazement by Kenny that single handedly I'd done such a huge task. I also didn't have to lift 600@20kg boxes.
Back to building pyramids and the recovery process. What I glean from the pyramids and me is there are short cuts but also there are hard yards.
First of all I have to get my strength up and now I'm finally winning the food v energy for walking battle. The internal energy v muscle fight. It was July last year I averaged 400,000+ a month and in march I'm going to break out of 200k and manage 300,000 steps thanks to many people not least Stu Simon and Rich.
So I'm back on my pyramids.
Luckily a discarded chariot with one unlucky loser hugging the wheel gave me an idea. He reminded me of St James, or Santiago as I say on the fatal-bananas camino blog. Not many people know this but the remains of Santiago were sent from Galilee in a stone boat and it washed up in Galicia. Who knew, well, story tellers knew. I'd always thought stone sank but not Galilee stone. It's like Galician slate. A quarter of the price of Welsh slate but the same geological profile.
Weird isn't it, how international markets for slate, as opposed to i-phones, works, but it does let you know how economies of scale function. The bigger the product the sucking of all resources, like a black hole. The market for slate is small enough that a smart man from Belfast I met on the Camino in villafrance del bierzo explained to me, he was not walking the Camino but was importing Galician slate.
I met him 12 years ago. He sold it for double the money he paid. They shipped it where the builders wanted it and it was a job well done. I'm sure it's still a small enough market that you could start the same business today. I know there are always materials shortages in the building industry as just in time leaves little flex for change in planning applications or laws. However, I'm too old for that but I might tell a young fella I know who might be interested. As you walk out of Bierzo you stumble into Trabadejo. Simon and I passed a wood yard one day. It's probably got a better name but it had plenty would. Galicia also has a lot of quarries cutting even more stone, although I wouldn't recommend shipping it in a stone boat, without a blessing or two and a real boat under it.
All of this helps me solve my recovery process problems. Like the pyramids it is one step at a time. I never paid attention but I believe most Pharaoh's started their gig as CEO with laying the first stone. Their hope that it would be finished in their own life time being the reason.
I remember at school getting in the mini bus to drive through to Kilmarnock for a basketball match in the under 15 or 16's Scottish cup. An away game on a Thursday night. It leads me down so many avenues as I wonder whatever happened to school mini buses. Did one crash and then all schools lost the funding. Was it silly in the first instance to have a 2 hour drive to a game and then back. Are teachers just not prepared to do 5 hours extra unpaid work when they need to do a shift at Tesco to pay their mortgage. Does the price of a season ticket for a football team, a gym or golf club get in the way. So many things that I love the explosion of thought. I'm reminded of the play, Bible John, that Caitlin wrote and performed in. The subliminal message for me was we are all being so easily dragged down an investigative podcast rabbit hole yet back in the day we just loved dancing. We just loved to live it, breathe it and be ourselves for a moment. We weren't being sucked into a black hole which our minds were diving further without oxygen. We were filling our lungs and singing our hearts out. The play juxtaposed the 1960's with the 2010's beautifully for me. It's prophecy manifesting in the 2020's couldn't resonate any louder than during COVID.
We see all these things being magnified now as the nonsense of common sense or sensible economic theory pops up.
It's like politicians telling us how important competition is while they operate in a non competitive market place
They'll take money from various sports or art bodies based on some performance criteria, like a football manager changes a football team.
In the meantime we are all stuck with the same useless representation for 5 years. The public usually cry sack the bairns or sack the board but unlike football contracts they get a life contract with a peerage thrown in usually for bad behaviour. Fascinating career options if you want cash and have no morals.
If it's the latter there are numerous avenues as well as even more clumsily camouflaged cul-de-sac opportunities.
If it's the former buy a tent and go for it. Make sure you're a decent bon viveur and spend time learning how to mooch off others. Learn how to blag, borrow and occasionally steal. Embrace the zero hours and take payment in kind, especially if you've got a restaurant gig. Those leftovers can be quite tasty, especially that Mencia.
If you want both it's possible but you need a bit of compromise. If you do want to follow the money then you need to look at where you're passion lies then you need to look at the most lucrative expression of that passion and then you could possibly afford to buy a house one day.
If you love football but you know you'll never make it, you follow the money. Richest leagues need players. To get the best players you need coaches. To give the coaches the best material you need scouts. If you're the best scout coaching kids in an area where they are gifted you head to San Sebastian. Do your own work and research.
Do 5 years in the Basque country learn football and culture. You'll go far.
Similarly if you're a golfer become a caddie or a teacher of the next prodigy.
Find someone with mentality not just technique. Some of the best have had terrible swings but the power to produce. A belief system bourne of the confidence of plying their trade at the rightoments.
Who has the money and what are they buying. As you tuber Garyseconomics will tell you it's just assets. More and more gold, property and just assets.
I must finish that stuff on assets although Gary does explain why passive income does make it inevitable that in our society if we only tax workers income and leave investment income alone the path is clear. Don't work, don't pay tax and live off your savings that you inherited or your family stole 309 years ago.
I'm now off on another tangent and need to get back to recovery.
I often wonder when someone offered you a hand what they meant
Some people on the receiving end of aid think that they should do more of the same and that the person giving the assistance should buy into failing plans.
I'm reminded of driving offer one-way street into into in france when i got asked if i would this assistance i suggested the wave old is cars out my way.
The polite french speaking reply was the i was on a 1 way street heading the wrong direction so i would probably be well advice to do a utah my years my ears were blocked however and i could only see where i was wanting to get to
I foundation the kill industrial the time i find this week at my happens in the calendar street here here i would like to care for somebody in the care industry
Some good meaning attendant, friend or acquaintance can spot (or equally not spot) what my trouble is. If I'm driving up a sone way street, I'm rarely displaying signs of gratitude. My fixed reaction is to scold myself and anyone smart enough to point this error of my ways. It's not unusual as Tom would sing. Nobody wants the glaring errors of your ways pointed out especially when you hadn't seen them yourself.
Almost worse though is when someone perceives you need a hand in a way that is the opposite of what you need.
It is like the recent obsession to spend money on trading sickling cycle blades
There are more Cyclists who are economic migrants than the elite electronic bikes popularized by the wealthiest middle classes splashing their cash, or the drug bosses fitting out their workers with faster delivery vehicles.
There are the same number of enthusiastic cyclists as there's always been. Those who probably did a cycling proficiency badge in their youth or who's parents had them cycling around a playground learning rules and safety on the road.
The new breed of economic migrants are delivering food or just unable to afford public transport. A bike is a cheaper and largely more convenient form of transport especially in the city.
What beats me is why the bus isn't free. If we really wanted to slow down and reverse car growth, surely politicians should push for free buses not cycle lanes.
The fastest way to make it safer for cyclists is free buses as it will reduce cars. Yes buses can be dangerous for cyclists just as cyclists or pedestrians can be a danger to buses trying to avoid them.
If it's about fitness you do a lot more exercise walking and getting the bus and guess what, when it's raining most cyclists do go for the bus or car.
