I like to think I’m a man of many talents. I write books. I play guitar (a little). I can even juggle. But in this post, I’m going to pay tribute to another of my talents. One which, in the grand scheme of things, may not be so highly regarded. But one which I, personally, hold in quite high regard. One which I firmly believe helps to make the world a better place.

I’m a finely-tuned, one-man garbage disposal machine.

I had to say it at some point. It’s a cliche, and it gets a wee bit tedious, but I still can’t stop myself saying it. The year is running down.

Before I even blinked, it’s suddenly late October. And this can only mean one thing. With the end of the year rapidly approaching, one consideration rises high above all others. It’s time to think about the end-of-year vacation.

I was watching the telly the other day. Yes, I admit it. I’m old school. I still watch television on an actual television, rather than any of those new-fangled streaming devices. And, to prove how utterly old-fashioned I truly am, I actually watch television with commercials.

Anyway, there I was, sitting on my couch, watching the old telly, when I couldn’t help noticing a number of particular commercials (which actually doesn’t happen that often – even though the commercials are on, I tend to studiously ignore them – so I suppose the fact that I did notice them was in itself newsworthy).

Some people are picture people.

In my day job, I work with quite a few people like that. Some of them are graphic artists and others work in other areas of design. Their minds seem to always work in pictures. Whatever the concept, they always seem to be able to translate it into a visual form, often turning ideas into amazing pieces of what I could only describe as art.

I’ve been pretty lucky in my life. I’ve been able to do a lot of travelling.

When I was a kid, I got the opportunity to live in another country (the US to be exact) and also to travel through Europe. Not to mention visits to Japan and Hong Kong, which back in the ’70s were highly exotic locations. These were exciting experiences which definitely whetted the appetite for more.