Just to prove that there is life in the old dog yet………
I might have gone well past normal retirement age, but I’m still capable of throwing a few words together. So creating a website was a BRAND NEW ADVENTURE. Having now “properly” retired (at the third attempt), I find myself with a bit more time to resurrect my previously moribund personal website.
I was doing a bit of consultancy, just to keep the brain going and the mortgage man at bay . That’s all finished now, but I occasionally write sales/technical articles for the specialist industry magazine RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE.
It took me quite a time getting used to this new post-full-time-work “lifestyle” ; it’s certainly a bit strange to be released from what was a full 5 days a week. My actual official retirement date from full time employment was way back on Friday 29th August 2014, but I had a big wodge (?) of accrued holiday to use up – so I went off to France for a while.
It seems hardly possible that I’ve been a wage earner for more than 55 years and been driving a car on a full licence for more than half a century ! Wow – that makes me feel old – where has it all gone ????
With spells In Coventry/Leamington Spa, Sydney (Oz), Tunbridge Wells, Winchester and the Forest of Dean, I suppose I can say I’ve seen the world – a bit anyway ! Singapore, Bombay (sorry Mumbai), Fiji, New Zealand, the Gambia, Scandiwegia and most of the European countries seem to figure too.
I’ve worked in the automotive, instrumentation/control and water industry sectors, but my stint in the railway industry has been the longest stretch – 24 years bar a few odd days. Heady times with Plasser UK, banging on plant depot doors during the privatisation period ( late 90’s ?) , drumming up business in the “new era”. Small plant stuff as well – oily hands all round. Fixing engines on portable rail grinders in Tesco car parks was one of my specialities. Then total involvement with the road/rail vehicle (RRV) side of things with Philmor and GOS Tool & Engineering Services Ltd – finishing up as a rail compliance “expert” and paper pusher extraordinaire.
Somewhere in this lot, I seem to have helped to produce a music mad, guitar playing male offspring (Sam by name), whose finished at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield (a degree in Song Writing and Music Production) and completed a Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course. Now a fully qualified music teacher ! He’s currently head of the Music Department (nowadays called Curriculum Team Leader, it seems…..) at The Corsham School – funnily enough in Corsham in Wiltshire – and enjoying it immensely, but HARD WORK……..
My BLOG is almost exclusively about holidays – lots more of those now that I’ve stopped working. It gives me a chance to play with new things like YouTube and iMovie. Ooooooooh ! Also, it acts as an aide memoire for when I get ancient, decrepit and forgetful in the future.