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Simply..as rich as a queen....

31/1/2018

16 Comments

 
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Much as I love travelling I always savour that first night back in my own bed. When I got home from York I woke the next morning with my head still full of how life was for ordinary people in medieval York and I though how very rich I am.

I was lying in a soft warm bed in a room of my own (not shared with other people or with animals), between clean sheets of finely woven Egyptian cotton. I rested my head on a soft pillow of duck feathers which was made for me half a world away in China, and the prettily decorated pillowcase was sent from Vietnam. I was wearing a pure cotton nightdress decorated with embroidery and brought from India. A faux fur throw made in Britain gives an extra luxurious feel to the bed. What's more is that I have spares and extras of all of these goods, as have most of the people I know.

It was snowy outside but the room was warm without even a draught of cold air and I could adjust the temperature at the flick of a switch. A flick of a switch also produced instant light. No naked flames are needed for either the heat or the light. At 6 am I heard the huge snow  plough and gritter go by. An army of men and women are out during the night working to keep the roads passable. We don't pay directly for this to happen - or have servants to do it for us - but each pays a small amount according to their means.  The poorest don't pay anything towards it.

I go downstairs to a clean flushing toilet in a separate room for bathing. The waste is dealt with by sophisticated systems and invisible others, as in all houses, even the poorest. There are scented soaps and lotions and soft towels, and I turn on a tap for instant clean water, both cold and hot.

And this is all before breakfast!

My ancestors  would be astonished at how richly I live.

I am too when I think about it.
16 Comments
Mary
31/1/2018 05:36:09 pm

Isn't it funny that when one lists all the individual things one is grateful for, it becomes an embarrassment of riches. We are among the truly fortunate.

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Freda
1/2/2018 11:05:06 am

I wonder how embarrassed the super-rich are?

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Sheena
31/1/2018 11:28:30 pm

Thank you for that, Freda. I keep a three good things diary but an in-depth list like that really brings home how lucky we are.

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Freda
1/2/2018 11:05:49 am

What a lovely diary to keep!

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Julia
1/2/2018 02:57:52 am

Yes, indeed! And freda, since i have been working for a year on family research and getting to know the long-lost people, and their “stories”, how they lived, what they endured, the wars they fought in..a post like yours brings it all together in my mind..marys says it well too: an embarrassment of riches....and much as it is so stimulating and delightful to travel and enjoy luxuries elsewhere...how truly rich is it to LOVE to come home?

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Freda
1/2/2018 11:07:00 am

I've always said my own front door key is my favourite possession..

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Linda
1/2/2018 04:04:55 am

You are so right. We are fortunate indeed.
When I was a child, I lived for a while on my grandmother's farm. She had been a widow for years, and, I suppose, the place was neglected. She had one (cold) tap in the house - next to, but not over, the kitchen sink. There was heat from an Aga, but she baked bread weekly in an oven set in the chimney. The toilet was at the bottom on the yard, a small tin shed over a stream. No phone, no TV until much later. We played in the old mill, talked to the pig and chased the hens, picked veg in the walled garden. We walked the lanes quite freely and safely. My cousins and I were used to the way she lived, but looking back, it was hard. Hard with a capital H, and this is less than 60 years ago.
I would dearly love to send some of today's young people back to see how they would manage!

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Freda
1/2/2018 11:09:43 am

Linda what a wonderfully evocative description (touch of Cider With Rosie about it!) The freedom to roam must be one of the biggest differences.

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Gail
1/2/2018 04:25:23 am

I’ve had similar thoughts frequently. Nice way to start the day -with gratitude. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Got to go and savor my list now. Ps my car is better equipped (air conditioning, heating, tv, etc) than the houses my parents grew up in,

Reply
Freda
1/2/2018 11:10:41 am

Your car and your parents' homes - what a remarkable comparison!!

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Cristiana
1/2/2018 04:53:13 am

So true. We are so amazingly privileged.
This reminded me of the dollar street, have you heard of it? It's a website comparing how families live across the world in different incomes. Here is a video about it and some of the insights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvsAvvKeGhc

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Freda
1/2/2018 11:28:50 am

Thank you for that. Fascinating. I am wondering if the presenter is related to Professor Hans Rosling who is a hero of mine!

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Lucille link
1/2/2018 11:47:29 am

How well you have summed up our luxurious lives. I often think of how under-appreciated is our sewage system. And refuse collection which if it fails for any reason soon has us looking and smelling very medieval.

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Freda
1/2/2018 11:57:35 am

I'm often embarrassed at how ready we are to complain loudly if anything does go wrong...

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Julia
2/2/2018 02:16:52 am

Oh yes, lucille! There is nothing quite like a failed septic system when there are 10 visitors to our remote cottage, to bring us back to reality..and getting to know and accept each other on a whole new level!

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Susan Goulden
2/2/2018 09:31:53 am

But ... what have the Roman's ever done for us!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7tvauOJMHo

Love from Susan.

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