Old Admirals

There's an Al Stewart song with lines that go "The saddest thing to be/Old admirals who feel the wind/And never put to sea". I remembered this line on the bike this week feeling the pull to cycle and cycle. I cycled to Altincham, on to work, on to Dee's and back home about 22 miles. I felt a bit cream crackered(!) afterwards and a bit sore in the legs the next day but good to do.

My dad was a sailor in the Second World War but he never wanted to mess around in boats afterwards apart from the odd fishing trip and a couple of cruises up the Norway coast - which he called his 'spiritual home'. When he retired at 65 he did very little apart from taking over cooking from my mum, she hated cooking, he enjoyed it it was a shame it happened so late on. But he said he didn't want to weave baskets or stuff like that. So his 25 years in retirement seemed pretty dull to me.

That frightens me! I want to carry on feeling the wind and putting to sea. I mean doing stuff that I love. My fantasy retirement is doing even less of what I don't like and even more of what I do, all within what is possible.