Many years ago, when I was a mere 21 years old, I hatched a plan that, had I been able to execute it, would have seen me retiring in a couple of years time.
With another birthday fast approaching and with rather more miles on the clock than when I hatched that plan, I’m sat drinking a coffee at an absolutely unearthly hour in a Welcome Break Service Station on my way down to Bracknell, smiling at how naive that hope was.
That’s not to say that things haven’t worked out well. They have. I’ve very little to complain about at all when I look at the way life in general has worked out for me.
But that still doesn’t stop me being just a little bit nostalgic for the golden age of the 1970s when as a child, I remember that one of the big concerns of policy makers was how people were going to occupy all their free time as the march of progress meant we’d need to work less, retire sooner and we’d all be richer! I even remember XTC writing a (tongue in cheek) song called “Leisure” about this “problem”. (OK, so it was a damning indictment of the Thatcher government really, but I’m not going to let little details like that interrupt my reverie. My blog, my rules and all that.)
I’d write more, but it’s now time for me to climb back into my metal box on wheels, head down the M40 and take part in a couple of conference calls while I’m doing it – all before the real working day starts.
I’ll see you all again at the weekend, assuming I survive another few hours …