Daydreaming of the Future

What a pleasure it is to dream of the coming years, when I can grow old disgracefully, while naturally maintaining my ethnic roots even though living in the Phils. I am reasonably convinced that I can keep a certain essence of my background even while drinking Tanduay in place of Glen Grant and lager. Although in fact in my younger days it was Scotch and "heavy" that we drank, the change to lager coming rather later than my last longish period in Scotland.

I do fear that I will have to partake of some good old British food on occasion to maintain my happiness; much as I like certain of the Flip foods, I still suffer (as I do when having too much Chinese) from the feeling that an excess of rice can get a bit boring. Oddly enough the addition of a good mix of Tabasco does much to improve it so I guess we will be buying it in bulk.

But there are other things to do besides eat and drink, home karaoke is big of course, although personally I do not want to sing; which, in fact, is a major blessing to those around me. I will not bore anyone by repeating my selection as an official critic for singing lessons at junior school, suffice it to say that I am not the best at carrying a tune.

So perhaps I will instead have to join the dancing, at which Alice is splendid. However I am not totally assured of my abilities in that direction either. Still so long as one does not mind looking a prat it doesn't matter much.

A monkey's rule

I have forgotten which of the three monkeys avoided speaking evil but I do try to avoid disparaging people in this public blog; after all there is always the possibility (probability?) that one's feelings will change over time and yet I suspect remembering to go back and change the earlier winge is unlikely.

So I strongly feel that dumping on someone is not really sensible, although this bird obviously has plans that do not bode well for some poor soul. However writing in the opposite direction is obviously OK and so I should like to sing the praises of the extended family and the way in which family members support one another in Asia. We have tried to instill this feeling in Alistair and certainly he feels extremely close to his Philppine brothers. Equally, and much to my chagrin since I feel he should earn his treats, Mama recently told him on the phone that he had two piglets and so when he next visited he would get the sale proceeds and have a fair bit of spending money while there.

Well, I seem to be fully integrated into my family in the Phils and less so with those in UK, but since my retirement (although with a hope of short term work around the Pacific Rim) looms ever closer it is probably for the best that we will be in Cebu!

Busy busy busy

Yesterday we had a drive round various car salerooms, checking on certain 4x4s that are available both here and in the Phils. We wanted to check if Alice could easily reach the pedals since I am a little concerned about the lack of stability if she is using cushions to support her in the driving seat. Quite a fun time really, but how nice it would be if no attention need be taken of price!

I have always been attracted to open cars and have owned quite a few, but I suspect that the heat here, together with the comment above will ensure that we do not fall into the error of buying something inappropriate for my vast age. And the reduced resources due to the early retirement has made the choice limited to smaller cars in any case, although as Arbroath has shown there are open cars available that fit the bill in respect of size, if not on looking like a tosser.

When younger I had a vision of my retirement home but funds are tighter than expected and I have had to revise my expectations but I have investigated a few realtors and it may well be that a waterfront home in the Philippines is still on the cards.

In any case we will be happy together almost anywhere, with the probable exception of Boggabilla. After all one does enjoy one's wine!

Moving on

I have been very remiss of late and have failed to keep this thing updated, so it's just as well that nobody reads it! Things have been pressing upon me, what with thoughts of early retirement coming strongly when I discovered that my next move was likely to be in the Gulf on single status (I figure I have done my time there, been there, done that, bought the KSA, Omani & UAE teeshirts; and these days I am prepared to travel the world but only with Alice) and the urgent need to find a UK boarding school for Alistair as we aim for Cebu, and other matters all seemingly amazingly urgent.

However it is now time to have a few thoughts about nicer things, my wife, as we all know, is stunningly attractive, although one cannot be sure from this photo. So being able to attend on the second day of a mixed doubles match and see her and a charming Dutch guy get knocked out at quarter finals stage was a pleasure. Alice is probably not following good court etiquette when a shot such as shown here is a winner, since she has been known to do a little dance to celebrate a good point. A lady, wholly unknown to me, turned to me and said "She is so cute". How nice to be able to respond "We've been married almost 16 years and I still think that!".

But back to thoughts of retirement, we have not so many resources as I would like but if we cannot live like the rich in their enormous yachts at least we can do our own style of sailing, as we take our farm produce to market.

Personally I was thinking how nice it would be if we could make our own organic wine using the latest technical innovations to avoid the old fashioned methods of pressing the grapes. But I suspect that would lead me into a temptation that would be hard to resist.