Skip to main content

My wife's poem about me reaching 70 (ugh)

70 YEARS YOUNG
At last my hubby’s seventy – though hard for us to see,
He went bald at forty, yet he’s aged so gracefully.
Less Jerrer’s the Rave, more Jerry the Mellow, what will the future bring,
He might stop shouting at his screen or even start to sing!
 
The youthful signs keep showing, they’re honestly quite clear:
He dresses smart in Loakes, and splashes cash around with cheer.
The biking leathers are long gone, now it’s Gant and Charles Trywhitt—
Yet once a year as Elvis, he still looks quite the tit!
 
He’s been a tech adopter, plugged in right from the start—
On TikTok, X, and Facebook, a true social-media tart.
He podcasts, doomscrolls, and watches documentaries all year
And now walks around the house with speakers permanently in his ear.
 
He’s always been a twitcher; he can identify all their calls,
And he forages for mushrooms – from penny buns to giant puffballs,
We’ve had them in risottos, pastas, sliced and fried on bread,
Although when following Heston Blumenthal he almost wound up dead.
 
He claims he doesn’t drink much, yet Grappa is his pride,
With Guinness, wine, and whiskey often sitting by his side.
A cheeky cider, IPA—he’ll sip them just the same,
And thanks to Sky Sports now, he’s glued to every game.
 
And when it comes to rugby, his passion never thins,
His heart is always loyal to the mighty Harlequins.
Through triumphs and disasters, he’ll cheer them loud and strong
For Jerry and his Quins the bond will always be lifelong.
 
His DIY’s notorious, “legendary” some might say—
Sean’s flat is full of holes and still hasn’t sold today.
Our shelves are far from sturdy, beware a tumbling row,
And even flatpack furniture can fill him full of woe.
 
But worst of all are water leaks—they haunt him night and day,
With plumbers on the speed-dial and buckets in the way.
So if you’d like to give him joy and make his birthday great,
Tell your kids to skip uni and become a plumber’s mate!
 
 
Snotbucket will soon have company—three Snotties came before,
And Grandpa’s grown less grumpy than he was in days of yore.
He builds Lego for hours, and reads The Tiger Who Came to Tea,
And hums along with Bluey and Miss Rachel on CBeebies.
 
A loyal husband, father, brother, uncle, son and friend
His kindness and his humour seem to never find an end.
So raise a glass to Jerry, for seventy years well-blessed
If seventy’s the new fifty, let’s all enjoy the rest!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

To kill or not to kill.

Had an interesting discussion with a Muslim friend today about the ethics of killing. Could it ever be morally justifiable? Abrahamic scriptures, especially the old testament, are awash with murders and killings, some sanctioned by the prophets and assorted mouthpieces for god. Some killing is even mandatory. For example all Jews are instructed in the old Testament to kill everyone belonging to the 7 Canaanite tribes for example - Deut 20:17 , or to slaughter Amaleks, especially their children - Deut 25:19 . So accepting for a moment that these draconian instructions were written in times when tribal leaders had fewer options available to them with respect to managing miscreants and maintaining some sort of law and order, I suspect that most people today would agree that killing people is a bad thing and should not be condoned except under extraordinary circumstances. My friend and I then proceeded to try to list those circumstances. We started with self-defence or perhaps protecti...

Phillips screws - yes I'm angry about them too

Don't get me wrong. They're a brilliant invention to assist automation and prevent screwdrivers from slipping off screw heads - damaging furniture, paintwork and fingers in the process. Interestingly they weren't invented by Mr Phillips at all, but by a John P Thompson who sold Mr P the idea after failing to commercialise it. Mr P, on the otherhand, quickly succeeded where Mr T had failed. Incredible isn't it. You don't just need a good idea, you need a great salesman and, more importantly, perfect timing to make a success out of something new. Actually, it would seem, he did two clever things (apart from buying the rights). He gave the invention to GM to trial. No-brainer #1. After it was adopted by the great GM, instead of trying to become their sole supplier of Phillips screws, he sold licenses to every other screw manufacturer in the world. A little of a lot is worth a great deal more than a lot of a little + vulnerability (watch out Apple!). My gromble is abo...

Review of the world's first AI product launched in 1988 - Tome Searcher

I am tired of reading and hearing statements by press and politicians alike that companies like OpenAI (the creators of ChatGPT) started the AI revolution. Just today, with the announcement of the Stargate data centre project, the BBC's Verify (?!) website stated "OpenAI kicked off the AI race in 2022". I'm not claiming that a little company in London called Tome Associates Ltd, of which I was a founding director, started AI in the 1980s. There were already plenty of people exploring it around the world at the time. Indeed a project called Logic Theorist, developed in 1955 by Newell and Simon at the Rand Corporation in California, is probably the world's first AI application. But to the best of my knowledge, Tome Associates were the first company in the world to launch a commercial product based on AI... which subsequently met a resounding blank look from everyone we showed it to. People were fascinated, but confused about what to do with it (don't forget Tim ...