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
PUBLISHED:| UPDATED:
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 identiļ¬cation 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:
But as far as I am concerned the story of the week was that of the Samoan Airline that is charging passengers by weight:
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.
Must
go and do a bit more up the plot now but I can't resist leaving you with this:
