I hope everyone had a good Easter, but excuse me if I say I'm glad every one is back at work now. Being retired I don't get Easter off so I don't see why every one else should. I lose out on each Bank Holiday! See "Retirement Planning Session 11 - Loss of Holidays" for further explanation.


Today I will be able to get back on the roads again and visit B&Q without queuing for a parking spot. And food shopping, the supermarkets were only shut for one day so why where they sripped bare on Saturday! Of course now we only eat wallpaper paste, vegatables and chicken, so shopping isn't very important. But what Easter did, is give me a break to think and to spend time talking to the family in the Bahamas.


Talking to Joe and Amber, the grandkids, I learn that they are going on an Easter Egg hunt at a friends but they mustn't say that the Easter Bunny isn't real because some of the kids are young and will still believe. Now Joe, Amber and the family normally spend Easter at our house and every Easter Sunday morning Joe and Amber have dashed excitedly into the garden to hunt for Easter Eggs. If there's no Easter Bunny who puts the eggs in the garden? Surely they don't believe Mum and Grandma (Alex and Christine) have sneaked out in their dressing gowns and dodged around the garden whatever the weather, hiding easter Eggs before they get up. Or do they...? I wish I could put the photographs here but I don't think my life would be worth living.


So we don't believe in the Easter Bunny anymore. It's been a very traumatic year because we also lost Father Christmas last year. Amber is ten and Joe eleven, and maybe they had doubts the year before, but this last Christmas they knew it was a little difficult to deliver all those presents around the world without a little help from parents.


Mind you maybe we all did well to keep them believing for so long when you consider that we went to Disney World when the kids were five and six and of course went to the Magic Kingdom. On the Peter Pan ride I mention that we are flying "We're on a track Grandad" says Amber. She's five remember. We watched Tinkerbell fly across the sky only to be told "She's on a wire" she's five and every time Grandma held back from a ride Amber would say "come on Grandma, I'll look after you". So maybe believing in Father Christmas for nine years wasn't too bad.


But can I say here that Christine still believes. She says that as long as Father Christmas keeps sending her presents she not prepared to write him off. Mind you by the way she is buying the Farrow and Ball paint I think she also believes in the Money Tree.



So there we have it. Father Christmas gone, Easer Bunny gone, they'll be telling me next that the Tooth Fairy isn't real. There is a downside to everything, especially growing up.