Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
22 November 2010
11:1381098If only you had your chance at life again what would you have done differently...I would have gone to RADA,acting school where I was offered a place, but my mother said it was better to get a proper job either the civil service or the priesthood.Having been married three times I would never change, all the women were and are super but maybe I would and should be more considerate to their needs.I would be less violent having hit lads first then ask questions later but that was mainly due to my being brought up by a Polish Air force Dad who spent too much time in POW camps.Drank less and had more kids.....lots more but it is some one elses turn to confess...
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Guest 657- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,037
22 November 2010
11:3981105Great topic Marek. To be honest there is very little I would have done differently, except treasured my parents more as I lost them at a young age, passed on a couple of bad relationships and paid better attention to my health. I (mostly) enjoyed my 26 years with the civil service and for the last five years I have been living my dream - writing, photography etc. I am blessed to have a wonderful husband and life is good. I am very thankful for that.
22 November 2010
11:4381107I really wish I had known that I could have been an archaeologist if I had worked at it (I thought it was way out of my sphere in those days).
I really, realy wish I had looked after my health better.
I wish I had been more careful with money.
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
22 November 2010
11:4781108Jeane
You do not look old enough to have spent 26 yrs in the civil service... but like yourself having been poorly one gets time to reflect and appreciate life

Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
22 November 2010
11:5281110Diana
I think we all wish we had taken better care of our health but when young we all thought that death happens to others not ourselves.As for money...who could forsee that life would become so expensive...
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
22 November 2010
12:3681117As the poet John Betjeman said, in an interview for the television documentary Time With Betjeman (February 1983), having been asked whether he had any regrets.
'Yes, I haven't had enough sex.'

Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
22 November 2010
12:4481118Bob
I forget to mention getting into hot water with you and then going before Farrage and being shipped out to Bangladesh ...good days
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,883
22 November 2010
14:4581134I have been very lucky all during my life so I can think of only one small self-indulgent change and would be to have more self control, so I could loose weight and keep it off. I do love my food that is the trouble.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
22 November 2010
15:2081139Younger days we all tend to have drank to much and i look at the money now i could have got together instead of being in pub day/night and the nightclubs.
speaking more with my parents one who departed this life sadly
maybe even took up the social work life job i got in the 80's which would have taken me to basingstokebut got married instead.
never know how far or what i would have been doing in that line of work had i taken up.
maybe come out of poltics as a cllr much earlier, giving more time for family.
not restanding in local elections the last time in may then having a bye election in Ajust tio please the labour party
theres just a few,,,,,,,
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
22 November 2010
19:0581200Cant really comment here as im only 28 but do have a few regrets in life that i wish if the clock could be turned back i wouldnt of done and i wouldnt of been such a whimp at school to allow to be bullied for the whole of my school years who knows where or what i could of been

Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
22 November 2010
19:2281201No regrets! Young and fit as ever! Following Orders! Forwards, March!
22 November 2010
19:5081213Marek, I so wish I had made sure my Father knew how much I thought of him and that I could have protected him from the outrageously inhumane treatment he had when he died in hospital in Ireland, in Wexford General Hospital. I feel able to name it as I was on the radio and in the local papers in Wexford campaigning after the event and many many people wrote to me sharing their experiences which were similar to mine. I notice similar stories are emerging about Stafford Hospital in the UK. At least I was able to stay with him and argue with and challenge the majority of the nurses and doctors who were appalling - only a couple of them were even close to humane - and support my Mother.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
22 November 2010
19:5781217i have bad memories of medical treatment in ireland, back in the seventies i ricked my neck, was in agony.
my hosts took me to this hospital in dublin that seemd to be staffed mainly by nuns, i think they were trained in sadism.
managed to get back to london later that night, had to get the locum out to give me some anti spasmodic drugs.
he was astonished that the people in dublin had not given me any.
Guest 667- Registered: 6 Apr 2008
- Posts: 919
22 November 2010
20:1981227I would have stayed in the Army for the full 22 years plus and not come out after just 9 years. Great life with great mates.
Other than that not much else happily married with a great family.
Then again I could be a politician with everything paid for me by everyone else.

22 November 2010
20:2181231Wexford General was especially bad - but the standard of "care" across the UK and Ireland is nothing to write home about. It is more luck than judgement when a decent nurse or doctor turns up.
Guest 645- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,463
22 November 2010
21:3181238Bern
So sorry to hear about your father I can't imagime the depth of your feelings about his treatment or lack of it.
As for Howard he has always been a pain in the neck
Harry my brother died very young following his time in N I at Long Kesh etc in the Hussars but it was something he always wanted to do but I miss his humour.
Keef politics are all the better for your very valued views.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
22 November 2010
22:0881240marek
usually people refer to me as a pain in somewhere further down than my neck.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
22 November 2010
22:2881243This is a funny one.... let me explain.
Have you heard of chaos theory, the concept of a butterfly fluttering its wings in Africa causing a typhoon in the South China Sea....
History in respect of our past is like that.
The decisions we make in life, what we learn from them and the consequences of those decision contribute a large part of what we are, our 'being' if you like.
Think - if, on one particular morning, Marek made a right turn when he left his home as a child instead of a left turn - he may well be a right wing Tory instead of a socialist.
So, how could I possibly regret not doing this or that, perhaps at school. If I had made a different decsion then I may not have met my first wife and my sons would not have been born...
So for that reason I will not answer 'If Only' but instead will make the most of the present my past decisions have made for me.
There - I got all philosophical.....
22 November 2010
22:4381245BarryW -

22 November 2010
22:5381247Life's too short, you never know what's around the corner, however when you look back at things you have to think did you regret them happening. I don't think I would change anything, apart from maybe working harder at school, I was lazy. We can only strive to enjoy the life we have and treat people you meet as you would want to be treated.