Life's rich tapestry?

Sometimes, life never ceases to amaze at its power to excite, shock or bewilder. This week saw the truly shocking and heartbreaking as well as the beautiful and heartwarming.

Firstly, the weeks work started with the distressing news that a serious accident had occurred over the weekend, on the road construction site where I work. For reasons yet to be determined, a young, 24 year old lad had been caught between the bucket and tracks of a large digger, which crushed one of his his legs below the knee. Sadly, after repeated surgery, doctors were unable to save the leg and had to amputate.

Now, I'm of the opinion that work is a means of earning money to fund the rest of your life's activities. Some have the added benefit of gaining some sort of pleasure from their daily work while many more have to endure a high degree of tedium and drudgary, day in, day out, just to 'earn a crust'. But whatever one has to go through in order to earn a living, the least one can expect at the end of the days graft is to arrive home with a full compliment of limbs.

God knows how this poor guy is going to come to terms with his new life. Hopefully he will get the support he deserves from all around him, including his current employers. My thoughts have been with him for most of this week and also with the the unfortunate colleague whose actions unwittingly brought about this unfortunate incident. Heaven knows how he is feeling too and I'm sure he will need just as much support to get over the trauma. If our employers corporate aims and trendy slogans mean anything, they will both get it!

On a lighter note, the previous weekend saw the latest performance of 'Enchanted', the singing group of 'young ladies' including my eldest step-daughter Anna-Ruth. These gals are getting quite a reputation in the East Midlands and if you check out the You Tube videos highlighted in the right-hand column of this blog site, you'll see why! On Saturday they appeared in a concert with the Loughborough Male Voice Choir in Kegworth.

The girls were outstanding once again as were the 'lads' from the Male voice choir.  In the opinion of my wife and daughter, the choir could benefit from some younger blood and guess whose arm was twisted?  Yep, 'fraid so! Thursday evening saw me going along to their rehearsal which proved an interesting experience, not least because it was difficult to determine quite where my voice lies. 'Bass' or Baritone - that is the question! It was a fun evening I look forward to more next Thursday! Watch this space for developments!

Actually, this may well spawn a new blog! Better keep 'Holey Schist' a Geology/Natural History blog I think.

Next up will be a look back at 'Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis', the OU course recently completed which threw up such interesting questions as 'when is a solid not a solid'! Answer to be revealed . .

Cheers for now,

Alyn.