Meccano

Just watched James May's Toy Stories on the BBC iPlayer, more specifically the one where he builds a bridge out of Meccano.

I'm not as old as May actually no where near, I'm 20 and in junior school I remember playing with and making loads of stuff with Meccano.

This show made me remember once when I borrowed Meccano from our schools toy library. I took it home and spend all evening making the thing. After what seemed like hours and a lot of sweat I finally made the Meccano. I ran downstairs to show it really proudly to my dad and he shrugged me off. I ran back upstairs and threw what I'd just made with tears running down my face. On the way up the stairs I heard my mum shouting and scolding my dad.

Later my mum came upstairs to come and praise me for what I'd made and she saw that I'd thrown it and broken my work of art and she hugged me and said my dad didn't really mean it.

All throughout the episode of James May's Toy Stories I kept on recollecting this memory which I had forgotten about. The worse part of it is that I still haven't earned my dads true acknowledgement after 13 plus years making many different things.

I would like to say that I don't really care about what he thinks but in all honesty I admire what my dad can do with his own hands and I want to be able to show him that I can do the same and earn his respect so I'll continue to try and one day he will acknowledge my hand working skills and ability.

Christmas is Not a Holiday

It's Christmas. That time of year when you get a couple of weeks off education and put your legs up. Unless of course you're a uni student, you most likely won't be putting your legs up and relaxing but more likely to do the opposite and work hard and get stressed because of the all important exams and assignments they give you. That's what the universities like to call a holiday.

I've got two exams and an assignment all of which I have to do or hand in January around the same dates too.

Knowing myself I probably will put everything off until the last minute and then promise myself it won't happen again. Obviously I don't want it to happen.

Older People with Headphones

Riding the train to and from uni throughout the week there's one thing that really intrigues me and that is seeing the older lot wearing headphones usually iPods/iPhones but there are the odd other MP3's.

By older lot I mean the 40+ lot who have got some grey hair. I've always seen technology as being more embraced by the young and in the past haven't really seen the older generation embrace technology so much. Maybe it's something to do with Apples 'hip' advertising that makes them feel young again.

I also sometimes wonder what an old man will be listening to. I seriously doubt it's R&B or punk rock, for some odd reason I picture them listening to some opera or Mozart or listening to some audio books, which would really be an interesting evolution from reading books on the train. I just use my iPhone to read the morning news instead of the daily Metro, this way I don't litter after reading the newspaper.

Maybe I should take off my own headphones off and ask next time I see an old guy.