Friday 22 September 2017

I am a train driver


A sandy cliff-face on Middle Beach. Embiggen the picture and you will see that it is riddled with the holes of some sort of insect - maybe a large wasp or bee. It is so soft that you can endiggen your fingernails into it.

Usually when I go away for a trip out of town, I have a nagging anxiety about loose ends which remain untied that I have to return to, but this time everything was done. I had taken the fox and pheasant to the bronze casters the day before, and I was all set up to begin the badger on my return, and this is what I am doing right now.

A young woman who I have known since childhood (hers) asked me last night if I had any photos of them, and I showed her some on my phone. She said, "That is quite artistic, isn't it?"

In the days when I used to sometimes work off scaffolding, my parents made their last trip to see me in Bath. We drove past a scaffold on a building in town, and my mother said, "If you work hard and keep at it, one day you could work off a scaffold like that." It was then that I understood that my parents did not have a clue about what I did.

I showed a pen-pal a picture of the pheasant and he said, "Is this what you do?"

I suppose we all sometimes do not bother to find out how someone we talk to in the pub gets the resources to drink there - unless they are obviously wealthy, and then we do not rest until we find out how they made their money.

I have a friend who I spoke to every day for years, then one day he offered to take me flying in a light aircraft. I had no idea that he had a pilot's licence, so when we got into the little plane I had to convince myself that they don't just give anyone an aircraft without checking up on them prior to hiring it out.

Even those closest to me have no idea about my work - except H.I. The kids just seem to take it for granted that I just about survive from my job, but have never expressed enough interest in it to ask me any details. I know what they do and how they do it, but they would be hard-pressed to explain my work to someone else.

On a trip to Bicester Village one day, I stopped off at a client's Tudor house in Oxfordshire to discuss the colouring of a new bit of stonework on an ancient fire surround, because a tiny part of my field of activities involves disguising new stonework to blend in with the old.

Stepdaughter and H.I. were in on the discussion, and when we got back into the car to continue their shopping trip, Stepdaughter said (after over 40 years of knowing me), ""Now I know what you do."

When I think about it, I have spent several years trying to explain what I do to my client's workforce as well, and they have actually watched me doing it, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

24 comments:

  1. Nice use of Simpsons lexicon.

    Usually English people disdain the way Americans ask, "What do you do?" because they think it's our way of asking "How much money do you make?" Actually, it's a way of asking, "How, in a land and time when you have the autonomy and resources to do whatever you want with your life, have you chosen to spend your your days?" It's very philosophical and cuts out a lot of small talk.

    I am learning American sign language at a night class at a local college and in our very first class we learned, "What do you do?" (In ASL, You work what?")

    Having had my say, I am surprised that people don't find your work fascinating. Do you have your "elevator pitch"? That is, a 5-second description of your work? It doesn't have to describe every thing that you do, it just has to be interesting enough to make people ask for more info. As a writer, I've had to learn how do that to better market myself. Maybe you are too modest about your work and people make assumptions.

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    1. I am German, and I have always minded that for many American the second sentence into any conversation is: "What do you do?" To me it always seemed to be a question of measurement. My standard (and not true) answer was always: "I sell small sausages."

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    2. My answer was always "fuck all, how about you?" They never asked any more. I hate that question "what do you do?"

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    3. Hehe! You win, Rachel, your answer is even better than mine. 😀

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    4. Yours is more subtle than mine Iris, and easily just as good.

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    5. When I was doing general building work including masonry, people would ask what I did at parties, etc. When I told them I was a builder, they always assumed that I employed a lot of people by running a building company. I would correct them by telling them that I did all the work myself. I have always liked that I cannot be pigeon-holed according to class or wealth etc. I must saythat I like the idea of a small sausage salesperson.

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    6. Hehe, you could always see the wheels turning in people' s heads when I said it.

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  2. When I was stockbroking nobody actually believed that I was one so getting as far as understanding what I did never really arose. My mother never believed me at all until my firm were in the throes of a takeover situation and there was an article in the paper and I was quoted "stockbroker, Rachel.... said". My mother cut it out and framed it.

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    1. And admitted to me that she had never believed me until that point. I had been in the job 15 years.

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    2. She must have thought you were a professional liar.

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    3. She thought I was the filing clerk which is what I started as.

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  3. Isn't it fairly normal for parents to be more interested in their children's lives than the other way around?

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    1. Traditionally yes. I suppose it helps if you are a super-famous pop-star but your children treat you like any other boring parent.

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  5. I remember having morning coffee in the Pump Room with your parents.
    My father has no respect for - and very little idea of - what I do . The only family member whose work interests him is my son's because he owns a business. But he couldn't tell you what the business does.

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    1. My parents in the Pump Room? I don't remember that.

      I will reply to everyone else tomorrow. Tonight I watched 'If' for the first time. 50 years too late...

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    2. How ever did you not see that film!

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    3. I really don't know. All my friends talked about it when it came out, but I somehow missed it.

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  6. Up here in wildest Yorkshire it always amuses me that nobody knows or even seems to care what one did before retirement. It is all irrelevant to our doddering old lives.

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    1. It's the same in pubs. I quite like the idea of being treated for what you are, not what you do.

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    2. In Colorado, where Sasha lives, the question everyone asks is what outdoor recreation you do - hiking, climbing, biking, skiing, etc. You don't live there unless you're an outdoor sports enthusiast and no one cares how you support your habit.

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    3. Easy. In Boulder I am a tourist. In Britain I am a champion sportsman.

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