Being retired must give me a lot of extra time. I have taken out of my average week at least 20 hours of driving and 40 hours of work. So where's it gone? I still have a list of jobs in the Black Book.


I have just spent a couple of hours pondering where time goes and it strikes me it may go by me sitting here wondering where time goes. Anyone following this?


I think back to my working days and realise that when I was very busy (stop laughing ex colleagues - I was sometimes), work filled my day. When I was not quite so busy work filled my day. So really it's just Parkinson's Law that "Work expands to fill the time available."


Parkinson Law obviously applies in other areas as well, take room space. We have had a considerable extension added to our cottage and Christine collects glossy magazines to do with designs, furnishings etc. You know the sort, Country Home, Good Housekeeping, Ideal Home etc. and keeps them in piles around the house. Now for some reason I am not sure of this has an adverse effect on my patience. In fact they they drive me crazy. I try to move a dining chair and I can't lift it, it full of magazines. They are on every table and work surface in the house. But that's not the point. When we had less room we had fewer magazines now we have dozens. Parkinson's Law you see.


Making decisions, that's another point.

When we were both at work, decisions were not difficult. But now....
Take the issue of floor tiles. We need some for the Garden Room, The Kitchen and the Breakfast Room. We got sample tiles to lay down to see how they would look before placing the order. During our working life Christine would get the samples, pick the tiles and contact the fitters. Now we walk round the tiles, look at them from all angles, go back and get a different tile and then sit and ponder. We can't decide because we have too much time. Parkinson's Law again.


We have been back from our extended holiday in the Bahamas (I just keep mentioning that to annoy everyone) for over a week now and we have not made any progress at all towards the complete house redecoration we need. Parkinson's Law has taken over our lives with one exception 'money does not expand to fit the size of the wallet'. I need to create a project in the Black Book and get Christine's buy in, but that's for another day I am far too busy today.