Just a quick note to let you know that I’ve finally updated Rich and Gail’s China reports. Apologies to them for my tardiness as I explained / excused earlier, their reports got spammed on my website so I had to take them down for a while and it’s taken me this long to catch up….
Puppies : We need a mantra
Is this retirement? Not quite what I thought it would be. We need a rousing exhortation or at least a comforting mantra – the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Will that do? I would say, if this isn’t the darkest hour, then we’re in for a very long night. We are not having…
How many times?
How many times can a writer start a blog with the words – this is not the blog I intended to write? Hopefully quite a few because I’m going to do it again. I had intended to write about goal-setting but instead I simply must write about my visit to the dentist Tuesday morning. This…
Thank God it’s over, over there
This is not the blog I intended to write but I cannot let this day go by without recognition of its importance. I have never set out to be gratuitously offensive in this blog which is why the ‘c’ word doesn’t figure. If swearing is required then so be it but only if the plot…
Review of 2013 : The Retirement Year
A happy new year to all my readers whoever and wherever you may be. I hope you are enjoying reading this blog, I certainly enjoy writing it. It has been something of a lifeline at a difficult time for me i.e. the first 4 months of what some people call retirement and others call the…
More on elderly parents and retirement
I’ve written before about my experiences in retirement of ‘supporting’ an elderly parent. Here are a few more thoughts. They are meant to be kindly although I admit they don’t sound that way.
My dogs can swim and eat vomit
The following is what was on my phone when I looked at it next day. It’s the ‘transcript’ of the text ‘conversation’ between my daughter and I when she found out from her mother that there had been a bit of a drama with the doggies. It made me smile, which is good, because jumping,…
Vineyard 9 : Review of the Year
I thought I would write a quick summary of this year for us and a few other bits and bobs. It’s been a year half in work and half in retirement. The vineyard was always designed as a retirement project so all is going well in that planning sense. I will finish this year’s vineyard…
Ghost story number 3 : Welcome On Board, Sir
Just to let you know I’ve published the latest in my series of ghost stories. This one won a short story writing competition. To read it go to the title bar above, click on ‘That which lies beneath‘ and choose this story. Hope you enjoy it.
Vineyard 8 : The Ties of Retirement
Can there be very much to write about the vineyard at this time of year? If we were a proper vineyard, i.e. one that had grapes, I’d probably be writing about our wine making exploits but we don’t and I’m not. I could write about one of my blogs being published in The Grapevine, the…