Thanks Rosie and thanks Fred hope the boss didn't really take one off you

My long post was inspired by memories of my very good friend Smithy, I still miss him, he might have been a worthless work shy layabout to some but he was a very very good friend and a great man to have a debate with. As he used to joke, he had a brain the size of a Planet, he got that from the luxury of being able to spend vast amounts of time reading and from having a good education in the classics as well as a strong grounding in Engineering.

The number of times we were both skint (or at least I had a couple of quid and he was broke) and we would go into the pub and he would empty the quiz machine on my one quid opening stake is uncounted, I only ever helped out on the hard science questions he did most of the rest, we could drink all night on his winnings

I was sitting in Manila in 2007 when I received a text from a mutual old friend that I had not heard from in years, the moment I received the text from Linda I knew Smithy was dead, even though the text was just asking me to call. That was a very difficult night in Manila.

I still think of my friend often and I still have a recording of his 15 minutes of fame when he got onto "Fifteen to One" and got through to the last three on his episode of the show

He had a hard life on benefits but ultimately it was his choice, I think he got scared of the thought of real work after he had been unemployed for a few years and he also got used to the lifestyle, it is quite possible to get used to being very poor so long as you get the odd bit of relief from it now and then.

He was one of the luckier ones on benefit, there are many who have a much harder time and as I mentioned the real purchasing power of benefits is significantly lower now than it once was.