Well it's tomorrow to be precise but I don't think that my mum will be looking at this blog this evening and I'm off out early in the morning so Happy Birthday Mum. Not too many people make it into their 89th year looking such a picture of good health and I'm very hopeful that I'll be saying something similar ten years into the future (if I'm still around to say it). We're always reading about how life expectancy is going up and up but when I look around I sometimes wonder whether those living well into their eighties and nineties have much quality in their lives. I'm glad to say that Mum is truly an exception to this. She's kept herself active with her laptop and iPad and always keeps up to date in her fashion sense without needing to dress like an OAP. Although she no longer drives she enjoys going out and about with her friends and I hope that her good health continues for years to come. We're going to see her at the weekend and look forward to finally showing her the delights of Suffolk in the spring.
I've had no contact with Instanta at all since we retired although I've kept up to date with what some of our old colleagues have been up to on Facebook, been to a few birthday parties and met up with Sales Director Nick (above) a couple of times when he's been working in the area. I knew that Nick was leaving but his departure was brought sharply into focus today when Paul from our old adversary Calomax sent me a press interview with his successor. Marion and I shared some very enjoyable times with Nick when we worked on exhibitions together in places as diverse as Birmingham and Dubai. He put in many many long hours and travelled thousands of miles in the years that he worked for us and his efforts greatly contributed to my writing Notes From Retirement today instead of Notes From the Office. We hope that he has a very happy and successful future career.
His successor is Graham Crisp. We wish him and his new colleagues every success.
After discovering a spacious compartment beneath the Prius' boot floor, we've managed to get everything we need into the car in preparation for our journey to St Andrews to set up the new caravan. We couldn't manage the bedding for the second bedroom but we aren't planning on any visitors this time. Otherwise we've got pretty much all bar the kitchen sink in there. I realise that the space in the compartment is where normal cars would have a spare wheel but the Prius designers deemed the weight of a spare to be inefficient for economic fuel consumption and if we get a puncture we're left with the prospect of either hoping that the emergency tyre repair kit works (it didn't last time) or waiting for the AA. I wonder if anyone has done a study to find out how much fuel is wasted and how many greenhouse gas emissions are created by recovery vans on call to Prius drivers with punctures. I'm tempting fate now. You know what the next blog will be about already don't you? Good job it's summer (it is Scotland mind).
It's not going to be too relaxing for the first couple of days. After getting everything in place we've got a bloke coming on Thursday to fit a TV aerial and then there's someone laying some paving stones as a base for the cycle store and then we've got to go and find some bikes to fit in the store when it arrives and is erected. My eyes glazed over when I saw the twenty pages of instructions for assembly. I somehow think that my tool kit , which came in a Christmas cracker, might not be up to handling it. It's a good job that Sarah's partner Duncan is a bit of a whizz with the DIY and they have all sorts of man things in their house like saws and drills and screwdrivers. Marion's dad once bought me a saw for a present. I think he was trying to tell me something. It did look kind of manly hanging there on the garage wall but it started to sort of blend in with the brick colour of the wall as it became coated in a thick layer of rust. I never did get an opportunity to use it but it was comforting to know that it was there if I ever needed to cut some wood (as you do).
We can't wait to see the family in Scotland. I read on Facebook that our granddaughter managed to put on 7 oz in just one week. It's quite handy Facebook isn't it? Although I'm glad that I'm no longer in the jobs market as I read today that a company has set itself up specialising in advising employers on job candidates' social media backgrounds. It seems that they will trawl the Internet for any salacious photos, pictures of you drunk at the office party, tweets that you made on the spur of the moment, weird religious views, racist remarks, off colour jokes. You name it, it could well come back to haunt you. There's going to be no privacy and even if you think your own Facebook pages are squeaky clean, what about that ex girlfriend who tagged the photo you texted in your own Weiner moment?
I had just about my first contact from Instanta Ltd since I retired in November today. Obviously something important had cropped up (Craig Buckley was inviting me to join the new football score predictions league). I was browsing the Internet to find a photo of Craig to accompany this snippet of information and was puzzled when I found the photo above. That's not Craig, it's Gavin Ford
See!
Those photos just go to show that the world is full of coincidence or maybe Gav's doing a bit of moonlighting under the name Craig Buckley.I've joined the league with a suitably appropriate name and we'll see if I can recreate the stunning form that took me to the top of the league many moons ago.
And finally on the subject of football. I can't believe the fuss being made about young Balotelli's performance at LA Galaxy. It was a friendly. He did a bit of showboating. If it was a cup final maybe there's room for complaint but a friendly? A player trying to be a bit entertaining? Heaven forbid. They'll soon beat that out of him.
