In today's Telegraph there was an article about The Prodigy group which reminded me that I had quite a lot of rubbish which needed burning. So, I became a fire starter.

To be frank, I'm not really settling into my new status very well.

In the past, when I had nothing to do, that's exactly what I did - nothing! - and I've spent a lifetime being quite comfortable with the concept. Much as I appreciated a rest, it rarely lasted very long as I've always been fortunate enough to have enjoyed some sort of employment. So, the period of inactivity didn't last too long.

Now, however, the prospect is that it will last for ever.

My retirement started in November and, in the few weeks leading up to the festive season, there seemed to be plenty to occupy my time. Over the Christmas and New Year period, for example, I was reasonably active during my younger son and his girlfriend's (below) visit and this continued during the week when I was driving my elder son around on his recent UK tour.

Since then, however, I've found it difficult to become enthusiastic about almost anything. Even the 'new' accordion hasn't been played as much as I might have hoped because family and neighbours have been confined to their homes with various ailments - thus depriving me of the solitude which I felt was necessary (I certainly wouldn't enjoy listening to someone learning a musical instrument as loud as mine).

To add to my unease at doing too much 'nothing', southern England is experiencing a harsher winter than is usual; so, I'm not getting very much excercise. Roll on the spring when I can look forward to a few holes of golf.

There is a small positive to emerge, however, because I've managed to use the time I've on my hands to set about knocking some rough edges of parts my web-site. In particular (since I've just discovered how to 'crop' photographs) I've added or amended several pictures to the Military section as well as continuing with the Model Life theme.

Now that I've time to spare, I'm experimenting with eBay.

Here are the items I've put on sale up to now......

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/otidnev

Although I wasn't, initially, entirely enamoured with the idea when it 'hit' me, I'm just about getting used to being fully retired. One of the reasons I had been reluctant to try it out was the suspicion that, once you stop working, everything would grind to a halt. So, on that basis - and in order to eliminate the problem before it starts - I've set about finding things to keep me occupied.

I have to say that I've been extremely fortunate In that respect because my wife has been very supportive. She has started to teach me how to operate things like a vacuum cleaner and has subtly introduced a regime of remedial excerises such as cleaning windows from time to time and something called cooking. I dont want to sound too cocky, at this early stage,  but I've already learnt how to prepare cup-a-soup and I'm well on the way to mastering the techniques involved in making toast.

At the same time, I've tried to keep my mind occupied and I'm in the process of reorganising this web-site. I've already set about putting the Delivery Work content into the past tense, added some photos to the Military section and I'm incorporating a couple of travel journals I wrote some time ago (USA & Patagonia & Peru) into the site.

I've also decided to take up the accordion again. I did try my hand with the instrument about twenty years ago when my elder son gave me one soon after he went 'solo'. However, although it had been good enough to appear on TOTPs, it wasn't ideal for anyone wanting to learn from scratch and I was persuaded to buy a more suitable (and more expensive) one. However, although I was starting to become moderately profficient, my work at that time wasn't condusive to having 'regular' lessons and I put the instruments away - with the avowed intention of resuming the interest when I 'retired'.

So, having reached that milestone, I dug them out of the wardrobe in which they had been incarcerated only to discover that the 'new' one hadn't enjoyed the experience very much at all and would cost almost as much as it was now worth in order to put it back into working order.

Fortunately, my brand new friend, Mr Allodi,  agreed to take it in part-exchange for a more robust model and I'm going back to basics by re-learning scales and the principles associated with the bass buttons. Paradoxically, the Commotions's model emerged seemingly unscathed and, since there really isn't much point in having two, Lloyd and I are toying with the idea of selling it - possibly, by means of the new web-shop in his web-site.