Describe your ideal week.
No work
Plenty of sleep
Eat well
Drink plenty of water
No stress
No worries
No aggro
Find a money tree
Discover the meaning of life
Find the book that explains how to keep women happy 😊
It’s not going to happen is it? Oh well a healthy dose of the normal then.
Peace to you all.
What does your ideal home look like?
We’re looking at making our final move within the next 18 months. We’ve purchased new in the past and though the house was lovely we weren’t really happy as it was so “perfect” and needed nothing doing to it. We wanted a project, and 8 years later we have a nice house, though it’s not ideal and has been a drain on us both physically and financially.
We’re now exploring the new route again, this time more thought is going into it, we’re looking to move probably only a few miles from where we are as we have family here and we like the general area and I happen to work nearby and don’t want to increase my commute too much if I can help it.
Believe it or not, one major issue for not moving just yet is the feral cat we have in our garden, Tabs. When we purchased this house all those years ago, one feature in all the exterior pictures of the sale brochure was this cat posing in all the garden shots. That was “Tabs”. She wasn’t owned by anyone, and all the neighbours had a hand in feeding her, as the neighbours have moved on that has become our responsibility, and she is fed regularly by us in exchange for her living in and protecting our garden. And boy is she good at that. She is getting old now, dosen’t leave the garden much and is very much into her senior years. We don’t want to put her through getting a new set of “Carers” and leaving her to potentially getting neglected by new owners, so we have committed to care for her and see out her final days being looked after by us. Should she then pass away we will be here, we will attend to her and see she is looked after. Only then will we continue our search for an “ideal home”
Anyway, what is our ideal hone? To be totally honest we’re not looking for something outrageously expensive and inappropriate for just two people, we don’t want a ten bed mansion we simply want a nicely built and practical house. Three beds would be fine, one of those rooms to become a hobby / office type space. A small to medium garden that is currently a blank canvas for me to develop into a seasoned garden. The garden I have at the moment has taken six years to start reaching a maturity where it is kind of looking after itself and it is beautiful, I would like to do that again. We currently live on a main thoroughfare and the dust and pollution that creates would certainly not be missed. Yes a quieter area, more rural would be nice, and as this is a major route for emergency service vehicles, somewhere quieter without 24hr a day wailing sirens would be appreciated.
Quieter, peaceful, new, nothing more to be done apart from basic maintenance maybe with a garage would suit us down to the ground. The house we currently have I’m sure would be a good project for someone who has the time and money, but it’s not for us. We took the challenge on, and we learned a lesson. Been there, done it and got the tee shirt as they say.
The ideal home for us involves a simpler and more relaxed life. I think we deserve that and to be honest we are fortunate to be in a position to be able to do it. We’ve worked our collective butts off for it and we deserve nothing less.
But first off Tabs is our concern. There’s no rush.
It’s her house and garden as well as ours.
What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?
Getting up at god knows what ridiculous hour, getting myself out that front door and spending 8-12hrs earning an honest wage.
If I didn’t I’d have died years ago a raging alcoholic. It gives me purpose, and that alone ensures I have a life not just quality of it.
But I do detest working for the taxman, he alone does his best to ruin my quality of life. I guess I’m not alone there.
He really is a nasty bastard.
Takes his cut until the day you die….and some.
Peace to all, except the taxman.
If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?
I miss the stores such as Maplins (aka Radio Shack). When I used to go into town with the wife at the weekends she would go do her thing and I would go into and spend a lot of time in Maplins. For her it was like a kind of Man Crèche as she knew where she could easily find me ( don’t forget this was in the days when mobile communication was in its infancy)
Here you could buy individual electrical components, it must have been murder doing a stocktake. But I loved it. All the kits, all the ideas, and all the boys toys you could dream of.
I really miss Maplins.
I’d also love to have a store where you could get hold of good quality retro games, and equipment at a reasonable price, not at rip off prices that are currently being seen on auction sites. People really do have inflated ideas of the worth of items only a few decades old, they really are becoming the new antiquities.
So maybe the shop I’d like to own would be a mix of Maplins and a quality second hand store of memories. Somewhere the hobbyist or dreamer could walk into and spend a good while reminiscing, and maybe buying some stuff.
That would be nice.
What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?
Strategy? What a load of old tosh. if you have a strategy for your health and well being than you need to give your head a wobble as you’re over thinking it.
This is what the dictionary states:
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages ·
noun
noun: strategy; plural noun: strategies
- 1. a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim.”time to develop a coherent economic strategy”Similar:master plan grand design game plan plan of action plan policy proposed action scheme blueprint programme procedure approach schedule tactics set of tactics
- 2. the art of planning and directing overall military operations and movements in a war or battle.”he was a genius when it came to military strategy”Similar:the art of war military science military tactics generalship
- a plan for directing overall military operations and movements.”non-provocative defence strategies”
Here’s what I do though:
Not much of a list to follow but basically do what you want and don’t follow the advise of a fool such as me, or some other numpty on social media who claims to know the answers to life. ( A dimfluencer )
However I’m still here after almost six decades, so I must be doing something right.
Happy days all….
Are you seeking security or adventure?
I have security in particular aspects. My job and my relationship being the main ones.
Adventure, nah I’ve done all of that, I’ve got numerous tee shirts to prove it.
For me it’s now comfort. I have it in my relationship but not my job. I have itchy feet in that aspect.
When I’m in a position to vacate this role I would have then found the comfort I seek.
It will come.
Patience young man….
Retirement beckons
How do you balance work and home life?
I must admit that I’ve not been very good at this for years but now I’m a strict advocate of separating the two. Every new year resolution used to be “ I’m going to work to live not live to work” but I soon ended up dropping that mantra.
So what changed?
Quite simply i just decided thats it, its all got to stop. Im paid for an 8 or 12 hour day nothing more and why should i give them more? They were taking over my life in return for no good will or recognition and i was just working myself into an early grave. How was that fair to my family?
Just a few simple changes:
It really is as simple as that. I sometimes sign on to be hit with issues that have occurred in my absence but thats just how it used to be and I’m now not wasting precious time at home worrying about work related issues.
It really is that easy. Go on change your work outlook and enjoy your life. Time is precious, don’t have regrets, give your family the easiest gift you can give them…
Your time and attention. They deserve it.
Have a great day.
What topics do you like to discuss?
To be honest I’ll talk about anything. The only things I try to avoid are religion and politics because both subjects can get a bit heated.
I also love talking about sports. Especially football and my local football Club where I’m a season ticket holder. I love discussing football with people who support other teams. I love to hear their points of view. We share anecdotes, we sing silly songs and we have a tribal atmosphere as such and this all provides hours of stuff to talk about.
I also love my hobbies. You probably already know that hence the reason you’re probably looking at this blog. You may have just stumbled across it and if you have, “hello” and welcome to the Foxes Den where I’ll try and fix things. I’m not always successful but I’ll get immense fun and enjoyment out of it. It all helps me keep a level head.
I’ll try to avoid talking about Work because to be honest it’s starting to get on my nerves now. I’m getting to the end of my working life, I’m looking forward to retirement if I can make it. I just hope nothing occurs in the short period of time between now and then. I don’t want to bore people about my work, i just try to keep people safe but you don’t always get recognised for doing that. You represent a big organisation and that’s it for you really, you’re no longer an individual. You’re just a number and I don’t like that.
I hope this answers the question that was originally put to me for this blog post as I’ve gone on a bit I must admit, but hey it’s 02:30 in the morning. I’m sitting at work waiting for the next job to come in and I’m contemplating whether to have another cup of tea
I think I’ll have that cup of tea. I deserve it.
I wish a happy day to everyone who is reading this. I hope you are successful in all you do, I hope you’re kind to people and at peace with your lot. Be kind to yourself as well because at the end of the day you are the most important person on this planet.
Take care
What job would you do for free?
I absolutely love the outdoors. In any weather you can throw at me, either torrential rain or the heat of the sun.
Any job being a custodian of the country side would suit me just fine. Clearing paths, building shelters, erecting fencing, or just picking litter, I’m your man.
I feel happy out there, totally stress free so why wouldn’t I do it for free?
Stay safe everyone
It’s just gone four in the morning, the birds are awakening and I’m stuck in an office in Leicestershire awaiting my next call out of this long night shift.
Despite weather reports being favourable it has been heaving down with rain for the past few hours , and it doesn’t look as if it’s going to let off at any time today.
This is pretty much a post about gardening, another activity I like to get involved in, and at the moment I have a project underway that was pretty much weather dependent.
I have begun the digging out of a small part of the garden in preparation for laying a small patio area. Our garden is pretty much clay based under the grass and to be honest as a result of that drainage is not brilliant. We never used to have issues with drainage due to there being 12 trees in situ that the previous owner had planted, he never looked after them and they became diseased. These sucked every bit of moisture from the garden and never gave us any issues with pooling water.
Fast forward a couple of years and those trees had to be removed due to the aforementioned disease, right down to the roots. Now during the normal British rain season ( most of the year ) we have pools developing around the garden. We are replanting a number of smaller trees but it’s going to be some time before they are drinking the quantities of rain water we usually get here in the East Midlands.
I chose this week to do my digging as it was forecast to be the driest week in a while and there was a sufficient chance of me getting all the digging done and getting the sub base in place before any inclement weather arrived.
I sit here this morning cursing so called weather forecasts.
I have been doing work between night shifts spreading it out and was so pleased with progress thus far. I removed all turf yesterday and today started digging out to about 15 c/m and started to level the area out. All excess soil was being spread around the flower beds of the front and rear garden so nothing was going to waste at all.
I stopped work on the garden at about 4 pm yesterday, well happy with progress telling the wife I had about another 2 days of work to do on levelling before we could start to get the sub base in place and compacted prior to paving, hopefully the job would be completed by next Sunday.
That’s not going to happen.
Looking at my security camera in the garden I can see that the patio area has now taken on the look of a pond and later today I half expect to see a couple of ducks taking residence.
The moral of this story is , weather forecasts don’t work. It’s not yet an art despite all the technological advances over the years.
Check progress here: The best laid plans and all that…Pt2
And don’t tell the wife when the job will be finished as she’s now got me tied to that timescale and I know now that is not going to be achieved.
I am a fool
Stay happy people. You are so special.
Foxes Den 
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