It’s late September, the sun is shining, it’s actually hot and everyone else is at work. This is when I know we have it right. No stress, no worries and now just normal retirement to look forward to.





The last tin of Farrow and Ball has been bought and used, the cottage is finished.


It has taken since the end of March to do the garden and decorate every room and for Christine to all the room ‘dressings’ at the end but it is now finished. We now have a cottage large enough to cope when Alec, Dave and the grandkids Joe and Amber come to stay.






So now we can look forward to doing the things we wanted to do when we retired and just maybe I can fit in a dew of those ‘I’ things. The golf clubs will need to be polished, the crown green bowls will need to found and more trips to the KC stadium can be planned.


And talk about project management, which regular readers will know I did at work for the past ten years or more with probably less success than this, we have finished today and what is about to start tomorrow the Ryder Cup and me at home all day with no jobs planned. That will be me in front of the plasma for Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then what, of to the Bahamas on Monday for a short break. My biggest problem over the next few days will be flicking between the golf, football Friday, soccer Saturday and super Sunday but I think I can manage. No room for house makeovers though. But then again we have finished so we don’t need them now, I must mention that to Christine.


This is when you know that you got it right to leave the stress behind. No more working away Monday to Friday, no more late nights or early mornings at work, no more mobile phones ringing all weekend, no more motorway traffic jams just sunshine and enjoyment.


It gets better Christine has just walked in with a glass of wine saying something about the sun being over the yard arm. A nice chilled Colombard, what more do you want on a Thursday afternoon.


The only problem I can see on the horizon is that Christine will be sitting in the Bahamas for a few weeks reading more House Beautiful or whatever magazines thinking about things to do or change when we get back. Rooms that at this moment are finished could well be in need of a makeover by the time we get back.


I am now busy, the Black Book has reappeared and I am making schedules and lists of things to do when we get back that doesn’t include decorating. Sometime while we are out there I must introduce the book to Christine again and try to stop it finishing up in the ocean.