Yes, Friends, do YOU know any so-called 'retirees'? Or anybody who has ambitions in that direction, thinking into the future, maybe 10, 20, 30, 40... [All right, we get the idea! - Ed] ... years from now?
The press are currently full of stories about these lively "old codgers" and their crazy plans for the 'acres of spare time' looming seductively both ahead and to the side of them, which is nice! Onion News, for example, has a 'basinful' of them, just in this morning's edition - see page 94 !!!!
Well, I hope those stories have given YOU some ideas about "things to do" in YOUR years of leisure, which are probably beckoning at you seductively, whenever you have some of your more reflective moments!!!!
And the range of activities merely hinted at on the paper's iconic page 94 certainly bring a smile to the 'crinkly' faces of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in the semi-arboreal paradise of Liphook, Hampshire, that's for sure!
As per usual, we're taking our near-daily walk over the 'hallowed turf' of East Hampshire Premier League 'giants', Liphook United, just as American Airlines Flight AAL80 from Dallas, Texas thunders overhead on its way up to London's Heathrow Airport, right on time, as always!
Kudos, "American" !!!!!
my wife Lois and me this morning, as we take our near-daily walk over the
'hallowed turf' of Hampshire Premier League giants Liphook United,
as American Airlines Flight AAL80 thunders over our heads, which is nice!!!
Retirement stories are certainly in the air today, even in the Radio Times, would you believe (!), which this week carries a 2-page spread about ex-Monty Python's Flying Circus star Eric Idle's life in Provence in the south of France: Eric and wife Tanya seemingly took over a ruined French farmhouse 50 years ago, and have been thoroughly renovating it, which is mad!
And Idle hasn't been 'idle' since he moved to France (no pun intended!!!!) [Why did you say it then?! - Ed].
He's also somehow found the time to write a book about his life in France entitled "Idle in Provence: A Brief History of Thyme", which the magazine is reviewing this week. The book also details visits by his celebrity friends: pop stars like David Bowie and Beatle, George Harrison, to name but two, which is heart-warming!
(left) Ex-Monty Python star Eric Idle, and (right) photos of some of the many
celebrity guests who have graced Idle's French estate: David Bowie and George Harrison
And the old 1970's "Monty Python" series, in which Idle starred with his four fellow co-conspirators - Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, John Cleese and Michael Palin - was certainly never short of celebrity admirers over the decades, we read, which is illuminating!
The star-spangled list of celebrity Python fans includes: Orson Welles, Elvis Presley (who apparently called everyone 'squire' after seeing Idle's iconic "nudge nudge" sketch); also Harrison Ford, Paul Simon, David Bowie, Carrie Fisher, Robin Williams and various members of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and The Who.
Many of these illustrious representatives of 'the Great and the Good' apparently gratefully accepted Idle's invitation to "drop in", and to take advantage of the anonymity of his life in the French village of Cotignac, amid "the total, and utter, indifference of the locals" (!).
Idle himself has also had his share of accolades over the years, we read, in the review in this week's Radio Times. In 2005, he was voted "the 21st funniest funny-man of all time" by fellow comedians. And his self-penned song "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life", is now officially 'the most frequently requested song ever' at UK funerals, which is a nice tribute!
And as a postscript, Idle told his Radio Times reviewer, Ed Greenby, that he'd like to be buried in Provence, "but only when I'm dead", which seems a sensible precaution (!).
Kudos, Eric!!!
(top, centre) flashback to the iconic series "Lemming of the BDA", in which
Idle starred as maverick special dental investigator [Brian] Lemming, here solving the landmark
case of a rogue dentist (Terry Jones), and [below] Yours Truly in my iconic commemorative T-Shirt
10:00 Meanwhile, here in Liphook, Hampshire, Lois and I certainly don't have any trouble filling our retirement hours with so-called "leisure activities", to put it mildly!
Our only question is, "How did we ever had the time to go to work, back in the day?", which is mad !!!!
flashback to 2006: my 60th birthday and the day we both retired -
little did we know what we were both letting ourselves in for !!!!
Certainly, today, we've got more than we want "on our plate", and next Monday's meeting of the U3A "Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers" group, led by local retired schoolteacher Joe, is preying heavily on our minds currently - no surprise there!
And Lois and I have another busy morning today (Wednesday), reading about the Fall of Troy after the 10-year Greek siege, thousands of years ago, around 1200 BC to be exact, as described by Roman poet Virgil.
What madness, isn't it !!!!
my wife Lois and me at a kitchen table covered with our Latin books - what madness!!!
As poet Virgil memorably recounts in his epic poem, "The Aeneid", the Greeks spent 10 years besieging the city of Troy, seemingly with no hope of ever taking the city, until they came up with a cunning plan - pretending to give up their siege and to sail home to Greece, while really just hiding on the nearby island of Tenedos, just out of sight of the Trojans.
(left) map showing the city of Troy, in present-day Turkey, with the
nearby offshore island of Tenedos, where (right) the Greek Army, after pretending
to give up their siege and sail home to Greece, secretly hid on the island, out of sight of the city
However, when they set sail, the Greeks also famously left behind them a massive Wooden Horse, placed just outside the city as an apparent offering to the Goddess Minerva, but mainly designed to intrigue the Trojans.
The Greeks had anticipated that the curious Trojans would be bound to take the Wooden Horse through the gates into their city, for closer examination maybe (?) or perhaps just as a souvenir of the 10-year war (?).
Unknown to the Trojans, however, the horse was secretly packed with Greek soldiers, ready to jump out when the Trojans least expected it.
(left) the huge Wooden Horse that the Greeks left behind when they pretended
to sail home to Greece, and (right) the Greek soldiers exiting the horse after the Trojans
had wheeled it into their city for closer examination, or as a "souvenir" maybe (?)
Luckily we don't have to speculate too much, because Roman poet Vergil tells us the whole story, and from the Trojan viewpoint, too, which is handy!
And Dear Reader, Lois and I would be grateful if you'd just take a little time to check our English translations, but only if you know Intermediate Latin - "No 'time-wasters' please!", as people say!
Oh, and postcards only, needless to add!!!!
In this passage we see the Trojans' joy when they think the Greeks have at last given up the siege and gone home.
Yes, at last the poor Trojans can step outside of their city after 10 years of being "cooped up" there, with only limited opportunities for having fun (!). At last, also, they're free to wander nostalgically, and to meditate with pleasure, for example, at the sight of the places where the Greeks had once had their encampments etc etc, now seemingly abandoned, chanting (in Latin) "We nailed it!!!" or something similar!
But we also see the Trojans' puzzlement at the huge Wooden Horse, that the Greeks seemingly forgot to take with them - a simple "packing error" perhaps? Lois and I often leave vital things at home when we go travelling: the charging plugs for our phones, for example, which is really annoying!!!!
The passages also give us a graphic sense of the Trojans' essential naivety, gaily wheeling the Wooden Horse into the city, seemingly innocent of the fact that it was packed with Greek soldiers hiding "
in the stomach and very bowels" of the so-called ''Horse".
Later historians have tended to criticise this naivety on the part of the Trojans, claiming that they fatally missed some of the most obvious signs of the Greeks' trickery -
the sound of giggling coming from inside the Horse, for example, an idea first suggested by US writer/historian Woody Allen.
But what a crazy world they lived in, back in those far-off days!!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz !!!!
