A good buddy of mine sent me this in email format – well worth a read. It’ll make you think.

Ah I remember them well Way back…. I’m talking about Hide and seek in the park The shop down the road, Hopscotch, Donkey, skipping, handstands, stuck in the mud, football with an old can, Dandy, Beano, Twinkle and Roly Poly, Hula Hoops, Jumping the stream, Building a swing from a tyre and a piece of rope tied to a tree, (If you live in Dublin the lampost) building tree-houses, climbing up onto roofs,Tennis on the street, the smell of the sun and fresh cut grass,Hubba Bubba bubble gum and 2p Flogs, macaroon bars and woppas, 3p refreshers and wham bars, golf ball chewing gums and liquorice whips,desperate dan and roy of the rovers, sherbit dips and mr. freezes,marathon bars and everlasting gobstoppers, An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune, chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe neopolitan

Wait…… Watching Saturday Morning cartoons…short commercials, battle of the Planets, Road Runner, He-Man, Swapshop, and Why Don’t You, Transformers, how do you do?, bosco, forty-coats, the littlest hobo and lassie, chucklevision, little house on the prairie and highway to heaven, Or staying up for Knight Rider, Airwolf or V when around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere A million midge bites, sticky fingers and mud all over you, knee-pads on your jeans, Cops and Robbers, Rounders,tip the Can, Climbing trees, spin the bottle, Building igloos out of snow banks Walking to school, no matter what the weather, Running till you were out of breath Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt, Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights, Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.Being tired from playing.. Remember that?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team, Water balloons were the ultimate weapon Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle I’m not finished just yet… Eating raw jelly, orange squash ice pops Remember when… There were two types of sneakers – girls and boys and Dunlop Green Flash and the only time you wore them at school, was for “P.E.”,! gola football boots It wasn’t odd to have two or three “best” friends, when nobody owned a purebred dog, when 25p was decent pocket money when you’d reach into a muddy gutter for a penny,when nearly everyone’s mum was at home when the kids got there,when it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents,when any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carrygroceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it,when being sent to the head’s office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn’t because of muggings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents ! and grandparents were a much bigger threat! and some of us are still afraid of them!!!

Remember when…. Decisions were made by going “eeny- meeny- miney-mo.” Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, “do over!” “Race issue” meant arguing about who ran the fastest Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in “Monopoly” the game of life and connect four, atari 2600’s and commadore 64’s, The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs It was unbelievable that Kerbs wasn’t an Olympic event Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a biro barrel pea shooter or an elstic band, Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable vitamins,Ice cream ! was considered a basic food group,Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true Abilities were discovered because of a “double dare” Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!!

Those were the good times – when we didn’t know what a mortgage was, or a what a looming deadline meant.

Last weekend I went to see my dad near Galway. This time I didn’t fly with my beloved Ryanair to Shannon but with Aer Arran direct to galway from Manchester. It’s a small ariline with small planes so I was hopeful to have a quick and trouble free trip. I did, apart from a 20 minute delay in Manchester on friday night (which is understandable) and a silly bitch on check in that made me check my small rucksack in instead of taking it on board. I quoted the size restriction from the website and that the bag was within those limits. Silly tart was having none of it. Some battles are not worth fighting though. All in all Aer arran scores 8 out of 10. From my Dads house to my office took only 4 and a half hours – amazing.