One of the joys - and sometimes I think that there are very few!- of getting older is that by definition you know so much more! After all you've been on the planet a long time, seen lots and heard lots - which of course must make you so much wiser!!!!! And the older I get the more I feel that I have something  to say, something to pontificate about. And, of course, by definition, as I am also very wise, so I must be right! My wife has a technical term for it - she says it's called being a grumpy old man or a sad old man! Can't think what she means.

But, whatever, I can bang on about a myriad of things - the government, education, young people, the dumbed down society of the 21st century, the celebrity culture, football, the nature of mankind - you name it and I've got a view on it!

However, that, I hope will only form a small part of this blog. As I have grown older I've also, I hope, learned to appreciate people with whom I've come into contact, places I've visited, things that I have been lucky enough to experience and do in my life time. Hopefully these things will form  most of what follows.

I'll start with one of those. Partly by chance the other day I came across the blog of Vicky Linde. I taught Vicky many years ago when she was about 10 and haven't seen or heard of her since. What a joy to read her blog - the things that she aspired to, the things that she was doing, her work, her concerns, her pleasures. It was a timely reminder that in a world full of shallow comment and perhaps rather dubious people there are still many, many young people who have something meaningful to say and they say it in an inspiring and thoughtful way. Thank you Vicky - you've inspired me to set up my own blog!