I have been slipping again by not making regular postings. My excuse is no longer the dreaded "writers blog" referred to in my very first posting, but a general too busy doing other things state of affairs. Like for instance spending most of yesterday afternoon out in the garage, in the freezing cold, clearing out years of accumulated junk.

I seem to have been this way before. It must be something to do with retirement causing a fresh look at everything. Either that or the need to find something to do to fill in all these extra hours at my disposal. Whilst I am certainly not in any way missing the requirement to work, I am still trying to decide just which way to take the future forward. I suppose that the reason for this blog is to help me identify something, something that I hope I will recognise when I eventually get to see it. Rather like taking your wife out shopping for clothes when you ask them what they are looking for and tell you that they don't know, but will do when they see it.

Back to the garage. Have been to the tip with a car full of "things" which presumably were kept at some point in the distant past because they might be useful. Some things I couldn't really say what they actually were, let alone what they might be useful for. But why should there have been many miscellaneous bits of wood from 6" long to 36" long and of varying widths and qualities. I am not a woodworker, and most of my DIY tends to be of the putting up pictures, a bit of decorating, that sort of thing; certainly not anything requiring part of the contents of Chippendale's workshop. Lots of funny bits of metal too, often I suspect, the leftovers from some self assembly furniture put together in the past. As nothing has ever fallen down I can only assume that these bits were never really vital.

Anyway, we can now get the car in the garage with ease and still get at all the "things" still remaining and which presumably at some point in the future will be useful. Probably I should have tried to sell my junk on e-bay. Probably it would have sold, and probably I would have found out what some of the things were.

Spam

I have just learnt something that I am not too sure I am altogether happy about. Spam (the sort you that clogs your arteries, not what clogs up your email) was first introduced into this country in 1941, which makes it the same vintage as myself.
I have memories of the product regularly being served up as greasy fritters together with equally greasy chips for our school dinners with mushy luminous green peas. Yummy! What amases me now is that it seems to be having a revival in this country with quite a big TV advertising campaign at the moment.
I have just found a Spam web site for its fans, but I just couldn't stomach delving too closely into the benefits of incorporating it into the diet. Does its revival have anything to do with increasing obesity in the western world. Perhaps it never really went away.