What Do You Think I’m Like?

This question is inspired by earlybird, who sent me the link Sex secrets of the animal kingdom exposed, with the email subject line: This caught my eye and I thought of you.

Once I’d had a good laugh at that, I had a good laugh at the article, in particular the bit about hedgehogs which, unfortunately, I can’t re-post here because this is a family blog.

Earlybird’s email set me wondering, however: what do people really think I’m like?  I was going to ask you to tell me – without flattery and compliments – but it occurred to me that you would all have to answer ‘vain’, because it’s just a little vain of me to ask.  It would have been with the proviso, if you can’t say anything bad about me, don’t say anything at all, but I’ve chickened out of asking. 

So you can add ‘wimp’ to that.

To prove I’m not that vain, here’s a picture of me without make-up:

And with:

Just kidding.  I thought, if I showed you something repellant you might not be so frightened when you see this:

Umm…maybe you could add ‘deluded’ to your list.

Weekly Photo Challenge: (Boundaries)

Image via Wikipedia

NEW!  Weekly Photo Challenge: Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog.  To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)”.  This week’s theme is: Boundaries.

I was so tempted to title this blog exactly as instructed, but I wasn’t sure people would get the joke.

I’m no photographer, especially as cameras are pretty technical these days.  The first time I had a mobile phone with a camera, I tried to look through the lens part on the back to take a picture but couldn’t see anything and thought it was broken.

To take part in this new challenge, then, I will trawl the Hub’s catalogue for a photo that matches the theme and blog about it.

See these boys?  They are bound by their circumstances – you’d think: they can’t remember their parents working; they live on benefits on a council estate.  According to the Daily Mail they should be standing on street corners, doing drugs and petty crime and hating the world.

They don’t. 

One is at university; the other on a full scholarship at a private school and heading for university.  They are polite to their parents and help old ladies with their shopping.  Tory Boy has had some sort of job from the age of thirteen: he spent every summer filling in for the holidaying local paper boys and girls, earning a fortune.   He has been a language ambassador, a safe contact for bullied children, deputy head boy, college president.  He wrote and read the eulogy at the funeral of a dear friend.  He helped an MP get elected and this summer he interned in the Houses of Parliament.

Spud is a popular member of his class and even with his teachers.  He has ten-hour days and takes two buses to school and two back.  He was elected to his student council but didn’t stand for re-election because politics is all about ‘talking and talking and nothing gets done.’  He knows his own mind.

Motherly pride aside, my point is that the only boundaries we have are those we allow to grow up around us.  I don’t care what jobs my boys do, so long as they do it to their best of their ability.  Life is what you make it and anyone can rise above their circumstances if they determined enough.  History is littered with people who did just that.  There are no boundaries: only self-imposed limits.