A Place in the Sun

What can I say..............................

Hey Ho!

It's a Hard Life

It's a hard life
To be true lovers together
To love and live forever in each others hearts
It's a long hard fight
To learn to care for each other
To trust in one another right from the start
When you're in love

Ten days in to our visit to Paphos and, even for Cyprus, the temperatures have been well above the seasonal April average and set to rise by a degree each day until the middle of next week. It might be 28C in the shade but in the full sun it is more like 38-40C. It is 11.00 am here and I am writing this outside on the patio with the current semi-shaded temperature already 90F.

But, after all,  that's why we come and, of course to relax and lay around the pool all day doing not much more than read. There are only a couple of TV news stations and one old movie channel to watch but more importantly no BBC radio except through the internet. Knowing that I had no internet connection in this apartment, the second of our stay, last week I downloaded a selection of Desert Island Discs podcasts which I am gradually working my way through.

If you ever find yourself lost for something interesting to listen to and can get access to the internet download a selection of these podcasts at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway

These are my recommendations so far:

• Tom Sharpe - 1984
• Christopher Lloyd - 2000
• Bobby Robson - 1986
• Danny Baker -
• Dickie Bird -1996
• Graham McPherson (Suggs) - 2002
• Jonathan Agnew -
• Ian Dury - 1996
• Kenny Everett - 1993
• David Gilmour - 2003
• Henry Blofeld - 2003
• Spike Milligan - 1978

Like most places in Europe the bars here show wall to wall football but being two hours ahead watching the midweek Premiership and Champions League games are a non starter as they don't even KO until 10.00pm so today I am going to take the opportunity to watch the Arsenal v Manchester United match at 6.00 pm.

I'll leave you with this track from Ian Dury, who, when asked by Sue Lawley to give her a few lines that he had writen that he was proudest of, came with this classic:

Home improvement expert Harold Hill of Harold Hill
Of Do-It-Yourself dexterity, and double glazing skill
Came home to find another gentleman's kippers in the grill
So he sanded off his winkle with his Black and Decker drill



Hey Ho!

The "Un-retired" Employee of the Month

Much has happened over the last 2 weeks, and the story that has dominated our media to the point of saturation was the passing of the Iron Lady, bringing an interesting range of reactions from all sections of the community. Enough to say that she was 87 years old and had been in failing health for several months and if you're going to go - do it in style in a queen size bed in the Ritz! End of story - let's move on.

I am sure David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith have welcomed the media attention being moved away from the saga of the introduction of the long overdue and necessary Welfare Reform Act, a subject that is fast becoming my "Specialist Subject" having had to research, translate into simple English and publish the detail and timetable on the information portal MyAdviceGateway.

As many of you will know I have been spending a lot of time updating and extending this site which is, despite saying I would have nothing more to do with IT when I retired, something that I must admit I find quite enjoyable and rewarding, and I don't just mean the additional beer tokens which are currently being exchanged for pints of Brakspeares at the Lifeboat Inn, Lesley, every Friday evening to toast my new found benefactors at We Do the Words. 

I have also been producing two newsletters every month for them and have become a vital cog in the well oiled wheels of their organisation, such that, for the last 6 months, I have been voted "Employee of the Month"!

Which leads me on to another relevant story published last week:

           Boredom 'leads retired men to go back to work' with most returning within four years

• One in 20 men aged between 50-74 goes back
• The 'unretired' tend to be highly-skilled professionals
• Likely to take managerial roles for average of 20 hours

By Rosie Taylor
PUBLISHED: 03:20, 5 April 2013 | UPDATED: 09:02, 5 April 2013

Boredom in retirement is sending men back to work, a study has suggested.

Financial troubles and missing the workplace may also lie behind a rise in people becoming ‘un-retired’.

One in 20 men aged between 50 and 74 has decided to go back to work, according to research presented to the Royal Economic Society’s  conference in London.

The 'un-retired' tend to be highly-skilled professionals with at least one A-level or equivalent and an average salary of £50,000 at 2006 levels,

Most returned to some form of work four years after retirement.

They are most likely to take a consultancy or managerial role for an average of 20 hours a week.

Christopher Brooks, of Age UK, said many people ‘simply enjoy the identification of the workplace, so when they stop working they  miss it’.

So there it is - I am officially" un-retired" although I have not been offered that option in any "Occupation" drop-down menu yet!

For the last week or so I have been researching and publishing pages on "Family Life and Relationships" which has included the topics of Relationship Problems, Ending a Relationship, Divorce, Gender Violence, Child Abuse, Social and Community Care, Bereavement et al. This depressing subject matter has necessitated prolonged periods of recuperation at the end of each afternoon down the Fox, which has also hit the front page of the papers this week, albeit The Farnborough News:

Late night licence, not for me anymore!

But as far as I am concerned the story of the week was that of the Samoan Airline that is charging passengers by weight:

http://news.yahoo.com/samoa-airline-introduces-pay-weight-pricing-231150753.html

This is a subject that I know is very close to the heart of my mate Paul who, on flying back to Cyprus from the UK a couple of years ago, was charged excess baggage on his wife's suitcase. Of course Paul being Paul didn't accept this lightly and created quite a scene demanding to know why the rather rotund overweight gentleman checking in at the next desk wasn't paying excess baggage on his flight ticket!

I rather agree with him but can you imagine the queues at the check-ins if you have to weigh yourself and your luggage before boarding. Down to your underpants to make the weight - I think not!!

And taking about Cyprus, we are off to Paphos on Thursday for 3 weeks of sunshine. I will of course keep you updated.

The weather over the last 8 weeks has put us allotmenteers well behind schedule and it is only in the last few days that I have been able to get anything planted. Onion sets, early potatoes, broad beans and various seeds have been sown but after Friday and Saturdays rain they are probably all floating on the surface. Yesterday I overbalanced and placed my right foot in a bed that I had previously dug and rotovated. I sank in a bog up to my knee and when I managed to get my leg out found that I had left my shoe behind!

However the weekend before last Spring was in the air at Lesley. We went for a walk on the new beach at around 6 o'clock and witnessed what looked like a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock film.

They were, in fact not birds but ducks, and must have been returning to Pagham Harbour and points East for their Summer holidays. There was at least a dozen large groups each with more than 500 ducks in each and as they approached from between the IOW and Portsmouth they looked like squadrons of aeroplanes. Quite impressive!

Must go and do a bit more up the plot now but I can't resist leaving you with this: