In MY defence, with regards to the last post (that is the last post that I posted on my Blog, NOT the Last Post as played by a rather dodgy bugler which I normally find less of a lament and more lamentable), I don't think I am eccentric. I think I am fairly NORMAL but the question is, am I normal or in actual fact Normal for Norfolk?
It is the perception of the person making this judgement that dictates the conclusion. As they say on all the 'Managing People' courses, there is no wrong or right answers, mind you they also say "what is said in these four walls stays in these four walls", yer sure! As soon as the meetings over they're straight on the phone to your Boss, "Boy has he got issues with you, he's slagging you off to me, to the other trainers, to the rest of the class and even the poor old tea & biscuits lady, anyway, just thought you should know...."
Back to the point, your perception of normality can only be based on what your previous life experiences have thrown at you. Once again I think I should clarify that by previous life experiences I didn't mean in the re-incarnation 'previous life' although if you were Henry VIII previously that might shed light on why you keep chucking your Kentucky Chicken bones over your shoulder and, perhaps, why you are not as patient with your wife as you could be!
I give you three examples, the first being the busker in Kings Lynn. This guy will be well known to ANYONE that has ever visited the High Street there. He is a man of some age, shall we say, and he plays the guitar. So far, so good. However there is just one problem with the act, it is not a lack of rhythm, far from it as the man shows great enthusiasm with regard to his strumming. No the main issue is that his guitar has no back to it, or front and the neck has broken off from what is left of the main body of the guitar forcing him to try to keep it in some way, at least, aligned. This is, of course, impossible so the neck flounders about as he basically plays 'air guitar' because there is about as much tension in the strings as there is in the elastic waist band of an old pair of Pavarotti's trousers.
Example two does his street entertaining in Norwich and he too has a guitar 'act'. There is a slight difference in that he uses a puppet to play his guitar. Once again you can not fault this gentleman for lack of gusto, no, when they were handing out gusto he must have pocketed his, then run around to the back of the queue and got double helpings, and then some. Ditto his confidence, because contrary to what many passers by see he clearly feels that his act is the business. The puppet is grey, I think it is meant to be white but like many a male teenager it has not seen any soap suds for many a year and as it vigorously plays the guitar there is only one thing missing........ Yes you've guessed it, the guitar. In short it is a dirty, scruffy, puppet 'air guitar' act.
My final example (No. three if you are still with me and frankly there is no earthly reason why you should be) is a lady of a similar age to the other two. Not a street act, but a shopper who whilst at the butchers counter in my store was victim to a young lad who run down the aisle and snatched her hand bag and run off with it. She shouted out in alarm and I ran out after him but he had already disappeared around a corner and by the time I got to the corner myself he had dumped the bag and was hurling curses at the lady who wasn't even there as she was still in my store. I figured he had got the purse, as is usual, and had dumped the worthless handbag. I picked it up and took it back to the lady in the store so she could see what was missing. It was unusually heavy, even for a lady's handbag, and I was of the opinion that she just may have left the kitchen sink out, but for all intensive purposes she had indeed taken the rest of the household items out to the shops with her that day.
Anyway I took the bag to her and suggested that she check to see what he had stolen. She was really not at all keen to do so, I explained that she would need to cancel any cards and that she needed to check if her house keys had been taken. Still reluctant to do so, she said that she would go out-side and check in a minute.
At a bit of a loss as to her reluctance the answer came quickly when a short, sharp bark echoed from her handbag. The game was up, as with an expression of guilt she opened her bag and a Chihuahua popped it's head up like a Stoat out of it's burrow. It emerged that she takes her dog everywhere with her, for the most part secretly, including to the hair dressers and even the library! I was obviously not keen to have a dog in my food-store but on the other hand, as she found that nothing had been stolen, a wry smile formed on my face as I had this image of the guy thrusting his hand into her bag to grab the purse only to be met by a snarling Chihuahua, which quite possibly gave him a hearty nip on the finger. You'd like to think once bitten, twice shy wouldn't you.
Normal for Norfolk? Well my perception is that all three could fit the label and yet the two guys may not be the failure of the 'care in the community' programme that they appear to be. They could, as my son points out, be very smart and even avant garde, ahead of their time (and mine) and be totally on the nose when it comes to street savvy. Whereas the lady that takes her dog everywhere she goes in the handbag may also have had street savvy, I think that she is the best example of Normal for Norfolk (NFN) by far, except that she was in Worthing, in Sussex, so I guess that blows NFN out of the water and we should re-evaluate them down south, especially the 'Strange in Sussex' mob!
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