Post by Dave on Apr 9, 2010 18:53:14 GMT
I expect I have said far to many times on here about my values, standards and principles and I’m sorry If I have gone on too many times about it for some. The problem with having so many is that I find I have to constantly check everything I do and say to ensure I live by what I believe, failure to do so would for sure end up with me being seem as some sort of hypocrite.
It’s a case of practice what you preach and a local vicar found that out for himself when he could not remember where he had left his bicycle. It was only during the Sunday morning service when he started reading out the Ten Commandments and got to the one that said you must not commit adultery, that he suddenly remembered where he had left his bicycle.
One thing I have firmly believed in is saying what you think and what’s on your mind, only there are times when you feel you can’t do that and more often than not, it will only be because it would serve no real purpose and might just hurt someone that you should not.
It comes down to judgement and asking yourself what would be achieved if you did speak out and just what the consequences might be and no matter how hard you try, you will never get it right every time.
What really is important is that you are always honest with yourself, not afraid to look inside at the things you don’t like about yourself and face up to them and do something about them. Far too many people won’t do that and just look to lay the blame on others for actions that were taken, or words said that really should not have been said.
If you can look inside and be honest with yourself, then you will always be able to say sorry when you got it wrong, done a bad deed you know you really should not have done and really should have know better.
I don’t know if it was just because I’m not very tall, go on then a bloody short ass, that I have always said what I have felt needed to be said, my voice is one thing that I have used to compensate my small frame that was never going to scare anyone off and make them believe it would be a wise move to back away.
For five years in my life I went against what I believed and ended up not only very unhappy, but feeling I had lost me the person and everything I stood for and every value and principle that I felt was my backbone.
Due to my childhood and my need to have a family and also do all I could so my children did not have to go through what I went through, ended up being the very thing that saw me lose who I was and become a person I no longer respected.
I should point out I’m not talking about doing anything wrong or anything against the law, I can proudly say I’m unknown to the police( accept that one up at Painmoor), no that might have been easier to have put right, learn from and then move on.
For the first ten years in my first marriage with the woman who is the mother of my three children things were fine and I was just me, much the same as I am now, always looking to make people laugh and also like me and not afraid to speak my mind.
Only in 1985 she got up to her tricks and because of what happened and with the family nearly breaking up and only didn’t because I did all I could to save it, discovered my Achilles heel, yes my children. For five years until 1990 I ended up saying sorry for things that she did and only because of the constant threat she would wreck it all again.
I was no longer a man as far as I was concerned and one day I just went as far back as I could go and knew I could no longer live my life being so untrue to myself and allowing someone to never ever be in the wrong, simply for the sake of a peaceful life and trying to protect my children from the childhood I had.
I did what had to be done and ended what was no more than a farce and set about restoring me back to who I was and that is why I hold on even more tightly these days to all the things I believe in, all the things that make me who I am.
I won’t sell or trade my rights to say what’s on my mind, what’s in my heart and that’s why I knew today I had to make the post I did and all I can say is its honest and its how I feel and for that at least I hope you understand why I needed to write what I did.
Well onto this weeks winner and what a top poster this man is, every post he makes is a joy to read and I’m so glad he joined us here on the TFF.
This weeks winner is Stefano, well done and thanks for all your great posts
A post made this week by stefano
I hate Easter. Why? Is it because it rains all the time, Tesco is closed for a day, I don't really like chocolate, and the roads are clogged with caravaners who have not had to pass any sort of test to take these dangerous contraptions on to our motorways, A roads, and even worse country lanes!
As annoying as all that is though they are not the reasons, and although it is a religious festival religion also has nothing to do with it.
Once again like other memories and emotions in my life my hatred of Easter is completely football related.
It started in 1963/64, my first season of supporting the Gulls. Easter arrived with a great sense of anticipation. We were up there well placed for promotion (having scored 33 goals in a run of 8 successive home wins) and we were looking forward to playing our promotion rivals Exeter City at St James' Park on Good Friday and at Plainmoor on Easter Monday. We were entering those games on a good run having lost only one of our previous eleven games. The Easter games weren't a disaster as such, a 0-0 draw at St James' Park in front of over 16000 and a 1-1 draw at Plainmoor in front of 13000, but for me that was the start of a dismal run in which saw us win only two of our last eleven games and slip well outside of the promotion places in sixth place. A season that had promised so much had gone rapidly downhill after Easter and our run in included an away defeat and a lucky home draw against bottom of the table Barrow. Worse still, Exeter got promoted.
The experience of that first season started me off with my deep suspicion and foreboding about the approach of Easter, and a few years later Easter of the 1967/68 season sealed it for me!
For me that Easter was a combination of excitement and adventure for me in a foreign land, countered by what I almost anticipated as being bad news from back home.
My South Devon Youth League club of that time Newtor United were on an Easter football trip to Belgium. Quite an adventure in those days as it was not a case of jumping on an Easyjet plane at the local airport. We all made our own arrangements to get to London to meet, some including me taking the overnight coach to Victoria and others with a bit more money travelling by train to Paddington. We did all manage to meet up in London and then it was a train to Dover for our Townsend ferry (only a couple of months before their merger with the Norwegian operator Thoreson). Not roll on roll off in those days of course. Most passengers including our group were foot passengers and the couple of cars were lifted on to the deck by crane. Customs were something different then as well, with a full search of baggage on departure and arrival in both England and Belgium. So off on the high seas to Ostend, and then a short coach trip to our hotel in Bruges. The news from our local guide on the coach that the legal age for drinking alcohol in Belgium was 16 was met with great excitement and enthusiasm, so after a very brief look around Bruges we were off to the bars. I can vaguely remember a very enjoyable evening, followed the next morning by the realisation that none of us were fit to play football that afternoon. Most of us did manage to drag ourselves on to the pitch although one of our members (I won't name him for legal reasons but he was a NAGS boy, a very good player, and the shortest player in our team) couldn't even get out of bed. I don't remember much about the game other than suffering severe cramp through dehydration. So game over and all feeling a little better it was off to the bars again for a re-run, before wending our way back on the same tortuous route the next day.
So what didn't I like about that Easter? The foreign adventure stuff sounds ok, but it was the news filtering through our drunken haze from home that sealed my loathing of Easter forever.
The Gulls had been magnificent so far that season and were clearly destined to go up to what is now the Championship as Division Three (now League One) champions. We had been top of the table since the very first day of the season when a 3-0 home win over Southport put us top on goal average (as it was then before goal difference came in), and we just stayed there.
Coming into Easter we were on a run of only one defeat in our last six, a sequence that included three 3-0 victories including our televised Match of the Day game against second placed Bury when the BBC commentator famously said after the game "It just looks a matter of who is going up with Torquay now".
But whilst we were getting up to all sorts on our Belgian adventure, the Easter news from home was bleak. A 1-0 away defeat to Bristol Rovers who finished the season in 16th place was followed by an Easter Saturday 2-0 home defeat to Mansfield Town who were relegated in 21st place. We did recover a little winning 2-0 at home to Bristol Rovers on Easter Monday, but the Easter rot had well and truly set in and we then lost three of our last five games.
Hope everybody else enjoys Easter, but .... that's why I hate it!!
It’s a case of practice what you preach and a local vicar found that out for himself when he could not remember where he had left his bicycle. It was only during the Sunday morning service when he started reading out the Ten Commandments and got to the one that said you must not commit adultery, that he suddenly remembered where he had left his bicycle.
One thing I have firmly believed in is saying what you think and what’s on your mind, only there are times when you feel you can’t do that and more often than not, it will only be because it would serve no real purpose and might just hurt someone that you should not.
It comes down to judgement and asking yourself what would be achieved if you did speak out and just what the consequences might be and no matter how hard you try, you will never get it right every time.
What really is important is that you are always honest with yourself, not afraid to look inside at the things you don’t like about yourself and face up to them and do something about them. Far too many people won’t do that and just look to lay the blame on others for actions that were taken, or words said that really should not have been said.
If you can look inside and be honest with yourself, then you will always be able to say sorry when you got it wrong, done a bad deed you know you really should not have done and really should have know better.
I don’t know if it was just because I’m not very tall, go on then a bloody short ass, that I have always said what I have felt needed to be said, my voice is one thing that I have used to compensate my small frame that was never going to scare anyone off and make them believe it would be a wise move to back away.
For five years in my life I went against what I believed and ended up not only very unhappy, but feeling I had lost me the person and everything I stood for and every value and principle that I felt was my backbone.
Due to my childhood and my need to have a family and also do all I could so my children did not have to go through what I went through, ended up being the very thing that saw me lose who I was and become a person I no longer respected.
I should point out I’m not talking about doing anything wrong or anything against the law, I can proudly say I’m unknown to the police( accept that one up at Painmoor), no that might have been easier to have put right, learn from and then move on.
For the first ten years in my first marriage with the woman who is the mother of my three children things were fine and I was just me, much the same as I am now, always looking to make people laugh and also like me and not afraid to speak my mind.
Only in 1985 she got up to her tricks and because of what happened and with the family nearly breaking up and only didn’t because I did all I could to save it, discovered my Achilles heel, yes my children. For five years until 1990 I ended up saying sorry for things that she did and only because of the constant threat she would wreck it all again.
I was no longer a man as far as I was concerned and one day I just went as far back as I could go and knew I could no longer live my life being so untrue to myself and allowing someone to never ever be in the wrong, simply for the sake of a peaceful life and trying to protect my children from the childhood I had.
I did what had to be done and ended what was no more than a farce and set about restoring me back to who I was and that is why I hold on even more tightly these days to all the things I believe in, all the things that make me who I am.
I won’t sell or trade my rights to say what’s on my mind, what’s in my heart and that’s why I knew today I had to make the post I did and all I can say is its honest and its how I feel and for that at least I hope you understand why I needed to write what I did.
Well onto this weeks winner and what a top poster this man is, every post he makes is a joy to read and I’m so glad he joined us here on the TFF.
This weeks winner is Stefano, well done and thanks for all your great posts
A post made this week by stefano
I hate Easter. Why? Is it because it rains all the time, Tesco is closed for a day, I don't really like chocolate, and the roads are clogged with caravaners who have not had to pass any sort of test to take these dangerous contraptions on to our motorways, A roads, and even worse country lanes!
As annoying as all that is though they are not the reasons, and although it is a religious festival religion also has nothing to do with it.
Once again like other memories and emotions in my life my hatred of Easter is completely football related.
It started in 1963/64, my first season of supporting the Gulls. Easter arrived with a great sense of anticipation. We were up there well placed for promotion (having scored 33 goals in a run of 8 successive home wins) and we were looking forward to playing our promotion rivals Exeter City at St James' Park on Good Friday and at Plainmoor on Easter Monday. We were entering those games on a good run having lost only one of our previous eleven games. The Easter games weren't a disaster as such, a 0-0 draw at St James' Park in front of over 16000 and a 1-1 draw at Plainmoor in front of 13000, but for me that was the start of a dismal run in which saw us win only two of our last eleven games and slip well outside of the promotion places in sixth place. A season that had promised so much had gone rapidly downhill after Easter and our run in included an away defeat and a lucky home draw against bottom of the table Barrow. Worse still, Exeter got promoted.
The experience of that first season started me off with my deep suspicion and foreboding about the approach of Easter, and a few years later Easter of the 1967/68 season sealed it for me!
For me that Easter was a combination of excitement and adventure for me in a foreign land, countered by what I almost anticipated as being bad news from back home.
My South Devon Youth League club of that time Newtor United were on an Easter football trip to Belgium. Quite an adventure in those days as it was not a case of jumping on an Easyjet plane at the local airport. We all made our own arrangements to get to London to meet, some including me taking the overnight coach to Victoria and others with a bit more money travelling by train to Paddington. We did all manage to meet up in London and then it was a train to Dover for our Townsend ferry (only a couple of months before their merger with the Norwegian operator Thoreson). Not roll on roll off in those days of course. Most passengers including our group were foot passengers and the couple of cars were lifted on to the deck by crane. Customs were something different then as well, with a full search of baggage on departure and arrival in both England and Belgium. So off on the high seas to Ostend, and then a short coach trip to our hotel in Bruges. The news from our local guide on the coach that the legal age for drinking alcohol in Belgium was 16 was met with great excitement and enthusiasm, so after a very brief look around Bruges we were off to the bars. I can vaguely remember a very enjoyable evening, followed the next morning by the realisation that none of us were fit to play football that afternoon. Most of us did manage to drag ourselves on to the pitch although one of our members (I won't name him for legal reasons but he was a NAGS boy, a very good player, and the shortest player in our team) couldn't even get out of bed. I don't remember much about the game other than suffering severe cramp through dehydration. So game over and all feeling a little better it was off to the bars again for a re-run, before wending our way back on the same tortuous route the next day.
So what didn't I like about that Easter? The foreign adventure stuff sounds ok, but it was the news filtering through our drunken haze from home that sealed my loathing of Easter forever.
The Gulls had been magnificent so far that season and were clearly destined to go up to what is now the Championship as Division Three (now League One) champions. We had been top of the table since the very first day of the season when a 3-0 home win over Southport put us top on goal average (as it was then before goal difference came in), and we just stayed there.
Coming into Easter we were on a run of only one defeat in our last six, a sequence that included three 3-0 victories including our televised Match of the Day game against second placed Bury when the BBC commentator famously said after the game "It just looks a matter of who is going up with Torquay now".
But whilst we were getting up to all sorts on our Belgian adventure, the Easter news from home was bleak. A 1-0 away defeat to Bristol Rovers who finished the season in 16th place was followed by an Easter Saturday 2-0 home defeat to Mansfield Town who were relegated in 21st place. We did recover a little winning 2-0 at home to Bristol Rovers on Easter Monday, but the Easter rot had well and truly set in and we then lost three of our last five games.
Hope everybody else enjoys Easter, but .... that's why I hate it!!
Far for it be for me to preach, but should any man of the cloth to commit such a lewd act with a means of transport he should be ex-communicated.