A sense of perspective

Back at the end of 2005, early 2006, having left the RAF, I was living the life of an international playboy, one that was happy living in a mid-terraced house in Oulton Broad. But I had money in the bank, tasks to do; writing, taking photos, listening to the radio, and so on. So one month drifted into the next and all was fine and dandy.

But with no money coming in and the mortgage and bills ging out month after month, something had to give. And it did.

In the early summer, I can out of money, no money to pay the mortgage, and so far in debt they wouldn't help me.

Mum did.

She paid two months of mortgage, bought me some shopping and in the meantime I found a job delivering chemicals, not the best job, but a job and it just about paid my bills.

The point here is that when threatened to lose your home and all you have, things like football and other sport are unimportant. Which is why if you read some of my early posts I talk a lot about 22 men kicking a bag of wind about, because, that's what football is. Why it matter so much to fans is the be there, or to share in the magic moments.

It has been two weeks since football was suspended, three weeks since Norwich won that penalty shootout at Spurs, but already the pain of missing it all is fading.

I am used to there being no football. I don't really miss it that much now, its the new normal. I'm sure there are others for whom it is like losing a friend, but, in the cosmic scale of things, football, and footballers, don't matter that much. Same for pop stars, rugby players and the rest of society that has a skill others are only to happy to pay them a king's ransome for. And at the same time, we have seen how those we take for granted; nurses, doctors, delivery drivers, shelf fillers, postmen and women, people in the care industry just get on with their jobs, for the same crappy money they have always done, and yet it is these, for superstar footballers and commentors that are keeping the country together, eating and moving.

I only hope we remember this when all this chaos is over, that people the Government themselves saw little value in when it came to immigration policy, or a decade of cutbacks and 1% payrises for nurses, we pay people for what they have done. Rather than the very people resposible for austerity and running down the NHS, setting it up for failure, and yet are photographed clapping in support of our nation's carers last night. A few months ago they same people were clapping and waving order papers when they imposed another year of 1% payrises on nurses.

We must never, ever forget those who did great stuff in these days, and those who tried to con and spin things.

I will go back to watching football, and cheer when Norwich win, and be miserable when we lose. But it no longer defines my life. And it hasn't for a long while now.