Sad to hear the news of Graham Taylor dying. For those who
do not follow football he is the former manager of Watford, Aston Villa and
England. Sad because his story coincided with my childhood and it always makes me feel melancholic when
someone from my childhood memories dies. I remember Watford getting to the semi-finals
of the FA Cup and John Barnes, my absolute footballing hero when I was at
school, starred for both Watford and then Liverpool. He also performed in the
Anfield Rap, a quite hideous song from Liverpool Football Club. Of course, I
bought the record. Taylor became England manager when Bobby Robson quit following
the Italia ’90 World Cup. He took us to the European Championships in ’92,
retiring Gary Lineker in the process, and then failed to get us to the World
Cup in ’94 from which he resigned as coach. It was an unfortunate time for him
as England manager, seeing as how there was very little talent coming through
for him and most of the team from Italia ’90 were retired or injured. Taylor
was depicted as a turnip when Sweden beat England in a qualifying match, he
never lived that down, and the despicable paper never let him forget it. He
seemed like a gentle man, with good grace and it is a shame that his voice and
opinions will no longer be heard on BBC Five Live football commentary.
2017 has so far been rather short of deaths, perhaps 2016
was one of those years when everyone seemed to die. I hope that this year is
far more positive. For me I have started the year not doing one of the things
that I said I would do, stop drinking. I said on New Year’s Eve that I would
stop for a couple of weeks but so far have been very bad at doing that. I blame
work, but then if it wasn’t for work it would be some other reason. I have
succeeded in quitting smoking for the umpteenth time, and this time the quit
factor is permanent. I can’t believe how expensive it is to smoke, a packet of
fags now costs upwards of £8, so you are more or less losing a tenner for
twenty smokes. Yet I still see youngsters and young mothers smoking, how can
they afford it, I couldn’t and I earn a pretty decent salary!
Salaries are over-rated. It comes to something when a person
in the city earns my yearly income in less than a month. It’s disgusting, and I
wonder if we will ever reach that Star Trek utopia of not having to deal with
money any more. It would make the world a far better place if money no longer
existed and we didn’t have to trade any more. But what would we do? We are not
at a stage where we can travel amongst the stars so we would have to find something
else to occupy our time. Certainly no wars, humanity should be done with those
by now. Perhaps we could all take up sewing or something. Just think a world
without money would mean a world without poverty and starvation. We all cater
for each other and each person can have the finer things of life. I suppose we
cannot rid the human race of greed though, so some will get more than others.
It’s tricky, this no money lark!
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