Tarpeena Tales

Some of you who look forward to my Tarpeena Tales are probably wondering why I have been so slack in writing them of late.

Well it's because of my  retirement and I am sending a word of warning to all you folks who are busy working for a living - make the most of the spare time you have because, once you retire, you wont have any!

I don't know how I found time to go to work for 37 years and raise some kids and watch and play sport with them decorate and build extensions on to houses, because ...just lately.... I have been flat out.

And none of those things have been done.

It's true the daily papers have been perused more thoroughly than in the past, the morning walks take a bit longer, probably because Trixie died and I don't have her edging me along,  true that the bike rides take  up a bit longer (but now I have found how to adjust the gear changer and  I can get up a bit more speed maybe they wont), true my darts average has improved owing to the amount of practice I have been getting, true Pay TV has added an extra sports channel and true that the car has clocked up more kilometers in its constant traveling to town for various reasons , always important at the time, and kids and grandkids need visiting or actually we need to visit them, but just the same I don't know how I ever squeezed in 10 hours of work in the old days.

Maybe, like John has said,  I squeezed some of those other things into my working day. He reckoned it was Malcolm's coffee shop in the store at Nangwarry, where the guys would come to catch up on all the latest football news and the paper would be read, the shopping was done over the phone and delivered up by courier and the bike ride was the journey to work and back but still I must have done things quicker then. You can see the way I have slowed down by the ever increasing gaps in the Tarpeena Tales. Mind you the world has sped up  and I blame the remote control. It's easier to change channels now and find something you like. And Broadband makes the internet faster so it's easier to find some good things on the net. I have 537 songs now of good music and music makes the world go round.

And John visited recently during Uni. vacation  and tried to improve his darts average so I suppose I do still play sport with my kids.

They say if you want something done then ask a busy man, well don't ask me I'm too flat out- like a lizard drinking.

Oh and  on drinking, that's another thing it - takes time to make a quality home brew. One has to look after  the hygiene ( of the empty bottles), the quality of the ingredients, be fussed over the temperature control, meticulous in the bottling and lastly but most rewarding the sampling and appraisal of the finished product. Then of course once you make a quality home brew people keep calling in to approve of the product and test your darts average out. They sound you out on the state of the nation and current affairs, mostly to divert you from flogging them at darts, and pay homage to Nuran's cooking.

Visitors are a regular occurrence once you have retired and the next door neighbour is a good bloke and he gets visited quite often. He also makes a quality home brew. .

It's no wonder I don't have time to write a Tarpeena Tales lately..... I have been so busy.

28.10.06