Mr Marmite: Thank you for your product, it has enlivened my morning toast for over 70 years.
Santa Claus: What can I say. You made my childhood wonderful, and you are still doing the same today.
Dairy Farmers: What would life have been like without Cheese, Yoghurt, and Milk for my cuppa.
Nicolaus Otto: Thank you for your 1876 invention of the Internal Combustion Engine. Having my first car changed my life completely, and driving still allows me the freedom to live 'out of town'.
Henri Matisse, Kitaj, Derain, et al: The pleasure these and so many other painters have given me is immeasurable.
Vignerons worldwide: A noble profession. Without wine at our tables, our lives would be so dull!
Poultry Farmers, Shepherds, Pig Farmers. and Cereal Growers: Bread, Toast, Eggs, Bacon, Shepherd's Pie, Roast Lamb. Need I say more?
Ted Heath (reluctantly): Ted oversaw the UK's entry into 'The Common Market' in 1973, allowing me to live unhindered in France for the past 47 years. All that has now sadly come to an end.
Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli: Certain music grabs you from the very first second you hear it. These two did just that.
Yeats, Woodhouse, Waugh, S Gibbons, Hardy, et al: I'm not a huge reader, but I'm rarely without a book on the go. So, thanks to all those who've written my favourites.
Logie Baird, Marconi, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and maybe Jeff Bezos: Some of the greatest inventors and innovators of all time. Without them you wouldn't be reading this, and I wouldn't have my laptop on which I'm writing it.
The Abbey, King's, and the West Surrey College of Art and Design: They moulded me, and made me what I am today.
And finally, my Family: Thank you for putting-up with me.
What a lovely post Cro ….. we don’t stop and think often enough what has made our life joyful and it’s mostly the smaller, basic things. I agree with your list and also the garden which has given me so much joy, especially during lockdown. XXXX
ReplyDeleteYes, I should have included 'Mother Nature', but occasionally I do swear at her too.
DeleteA very interesting post. Many of the things you mentioned would never have entered my mind. However, Marmite would certainly have been very near the top of my list. There are not many days in my life that have not been enriched by it.
ReplyDeleteMarmite is the backbone of Britain. It's what makes it 'Great'.
DeleteI have never eaten Marmite in my life. Judging by the small amount of shelf space it gets around here it is not the backbone of Britain in Norfolk.
DeleteI suppose you eat Sugar Beet sandwiches instead.
DeleteI think that is about right. My mother was not great on breakfasts. That's why Nutella is my favourite breakfast!
DeleteWhat about the Allied Forces for the defeat of the Nazis and victory in WW2 and the freedom we now enjoy?
ReplyDeleteI think that goes without saying. My list could have been endless.
DeleteIt seemed like a glaring omission and when you mentioned Amazon I just had to act.
DeleteLike so many people, I now look upon Amazon as an alternative shop. I don't use it very often, but it has become a very useful place to source things that aren't sold nearby. They are also VERY efficient.
DeleteYou misunderstood me. I love my Prime tv channel but when I saw your list and the things you included I felt acutely the omission of the Allied Forces particularly this week and the constant hounding of the British Army veterans in the news.
DeleteI entirely agree with you about the Army veterans, they've been treated like criminals whilst the IRA were entertained at Westminster. A disgrace.
DeleteI see, Rachel, that you too do not escape the "Godwin Principle". To spare you googling here is the definition
Delete"Godwin's law, short for Godwin's law (or rule) of Nazi analogies, is an Internet adage asserting that "as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler becomes more likely."
Hail Magnon and his, by necessity, many omissions what to be grateful for,
U
If Cro's list had carried on along the lines of Marmite and Santa I would have thought nothing of it but when he began inserting things like great inventors, school, and providers of food on his table the Armed forces became more and more of a glaring omission. That was all.
DeleteI know what you mean, Rachel. I had to reach for my smelling salts at Cro's gratitude to Marmite. If I ever (and I won't) wrote a list like that - tongue in cheek or dead earnest - I'd probably start with mentioning that I am so so so so so so grateful to my mother's egg, receptive, and one of my father's sperm, eager and faster than that particular sperm's competitor, at that particular moment in time, to result in ME. The miracle of life. Having said that, in my Oscar speech thanking all and sundry I might as well go back right to Adam and Eve, the Big Bang and the Vikings. And that Hitler's entourage (remember Godwin's Law) didn't kill my mother before she had a chance to meet my father. Ad infinitum ...
DeleteU
Too much info'.
Delete"Too much info"? How where you conceived, Cro? And, more to the point, and in the spirit of your initial post, are you grateful to your parents in their moment of passion?
DeleteU
I was extremely fortunate in who my parents were, where they lived, and their attitude towards life, but I don't discuss their bedroom activities.
DeleteI was very concerned reading this post. It sounds ominously like a farewell. I really hope you are sticking around! Where would my breakfast reading be without you!!!
ReplyDeleteYou won't get rid of me that easily. I'm here for a while yet!!
DeleteAnd where is your being grateful for Ursula? You know the one who loyally keeps coming back despite some of your, sometimes, frankly outrageous (political) views and outlook on life; Ursula giving you a bit of grief in return though largely enjoying Haddock's, Billy, Freddy (sadly missed) and Lady M by proxy? Like Marmite you are an acquired taste. At least you don't come in a jar.
ReplyDeleteWas thinking of you the last two days what with England and France at loggerheads over at Jersey and fishing grounds. Whatever next? Cod wars between your country of origin and country of choice?
U
My 'outrageous' political views are those of the majority of middle-right thinking/voting Brits (thank goodness).
DeleteI shall be writing about Macron when my exasperation settles.
Good to be positive and have things to be thankful for
ReplyDeleteI was feeling in that type of mood.... until Ursula turned-up!
DeleteMy dear Cro, you'll be unlikely to come across a more life affirming, and enjoying it, person than yours truly. Doesn't mean I leave my thinking cap at the door.
DeleteU
'Confrontational' is your middle name. I post a simple piece about things that have changed my life, and you turn it into a platform for insults about my middle-of-the-road political allegiance.
DeleteThat's really nice. What an extraordinarily privileged life we have experienced, and it is not over yet. Hold on to your bonnet while things change exponentially in the next decade and beyond.
ReplyDeleteKeep your fingers crossed; things could even get better!
DeleteWe ought to all take a minute to make a list. It is good for the soul.
ReplyDeleteIt makes us realise how lucky we are.
DeleteLike you, I have a lot to he grateful for. Today it's coffee in sunshine by the sea.
ReplyDeleteWe're just grateful that we have a builder who turned-up.
DeleteLovely thank you notes Cro If you want a nostalgic read do try to obtain Marcel Pagnol's 'My Father's Glory and my Mother's Castle' - a blissful read about a Provencal childhood.
ReplyDeleteI know it well and the film is superb too.
DeleteI have never tasted marmite and probably never will but I am glad that it adds to the joy in your life.
ReplyDeleteI would say that about 50% of all British children were brought-up eating Marmite on toast for breakfast.
DeleteGawd that woman is infuriating
ReplyDeleteBut what’s worse is that she is predictably boring
The blog was , in my mind a light hearted bit of whimsy written without a sense of deep reflection or revision
Chill out
That was my intention John, but certain nationalities are not known for their sense of humour.
DeleteI wonder if Ursula is married? She sounds like a real catch!
ReplyDeleteI'll leave that to your imagination.
DeleteI would just like to thank John Cadbury and George Bassett.
ReplyDeleteIt was the great Mr Fry to changed Chocolate from a drink to a bar, so he should have been included. As for Mr Bassett; how could I have omitted him?
DeleteI would like to thank the academy. And for alter egos. I wonder what happened to the last one.
ReplyDeleteWhich academy? The RA? I had a painting accepted there once, and they dropped it; leaving it with a big slash in the canvas. They paid me £20 insurance money.
DeleteJoke. All the awards shows for movies and televisions always have the stars standing there humble in their recognized greatness and saying "I'd like to thank the academy..." 20 pounds. Seems a rather unfair critique.
ReplyDeleteYes, I should have understood.... lovey land. I repaired the painting (portrait) and it went to the person who'd commissioned it. It was later stolen.
Delete