November already...

Not that many people have actually visited the blog, but it has been a long time since the last entry. Mind you a lot has hapened too. Last week I managed to stick a chisel in my left hand and had a few stitches as a result - not an act of boredom you understand, just one of those daft accidents that 'other people' have. But this time it was me. A lesson learnt anyway, but not terribly significant.
Over the last few months a great deal has changed - In June I really did get to retire. On the scrapheap at 51? Hardly. It is like walking from the dark into the light, freedom, leaving the asylum, all those sort of things put together. The only problem is that it is so very busy. The sequel to PPP is still a collection of scribbled notes and mental jugglings, it will come about but not for a little while. Patience please.
Even the Honda I have bought to restore has barely moved on in its restoration. This will be some comfort to my mother if she knew of it (she has a passionate hatred of anything two-wheeled) but given that it has a very rare frame and will be something of a showpiece, it may well not turn a wheel on the road for years, so will be even less of a threat to maternal cares. Nice to be loved and not wished harm anyway. Makes a change to the way I was treated by 'the job' over the years on occasion!
The week leading up to the actual retirement date was spent on the Swan, a lovely Shetland-based sailing ship belonging to the Swan Trust. Shetland to Inverness, down the Caledonian Canal and out at Fort William, down the Mull of Kintyre and across to Bangor in Northern Ireland where I jumped ship and The Swan went on to Waterford for the Tall Ships Race back to Lerwick.
Since then I was invited to London to record some 'clips to camera' for a forthcoming BBC3 series called 'Bizarre Crime'. If they don't edit me out then you should be able to see my boyish features on TV somewhere around the end of this year or early next year. Minor and transient fame at last!