Short days - I like them

I was at work on Easter Monday but it was so quiet and the weather was so sunny, I was never going to manage a full 8 hours in the office. Keith was first to crack - he called me and said did I fancy a few holes of golf instead of squash this evening? "Of course - when can you be there?" 4-ish he said, and so it was - Malcolm joined us - we were only 3 in number anyway as Richard is on hols and this is Harry's month on (in Equatorial Guinea), so doubles would have been out of the question.

When I think about it, a number of friends and former squash, golf and football partners have either moved away or are working overseas now. I guess it's because of the very international nature of the oil industry and the opportunities it provides. Dave Williamson retired financially from BP last year after over 34 years service but immediately found a job with BG, based in Reading but with the project in Brazil, so we only see him now every other weekend at most. Ken Page has been working out in Abu Dhabi for over a decade now and Nigel Meany has been away for years - initially in Kuala Lumpur, but now Dubai.

Harry Salter is month on, month off in E.G. but he, like the 3 others mentioned above, at least maintains a house in Banchory and we see them all fairly frequently when they come back. Others, like John Taylor, Bob Cooper, George Cox and John Davies moved back down south when they retired - although we see the latter 3 at least once a year on our Summer Tour golf trip (Harrogate this year). In fact, John Taylor - probably the most gregarious of all of them - is the only one that keeps no regular contact with the rest of the group. He and Jane now live near King's Lynn in Norfolk but seem to want to keep themselves to themsleves.

Then, there's the retirees - Les Gray is spending more and more of the year at his house in Vilamoura and returning to these shores for briefer and briefer periods. Bill Miller now spends the winter months at their house in the French Alps, ski-ing his life away. Even when he comes back here for the summer, he still takes a summer trip back down to France for a couple of weeks and then follows that with trips to USA - his daughter lives on the East Coast and his son on the West Coast. Incidentally, Bill is also the only pensioner I know, who, almost 17 years after his retirement from BP, still manages to buy a top of the range, brand new, BMW every 2 years. Mind you he was in charge of H.R. - and, in those days, 80 was the magic number in BP - if you were 50 years old and had 30 years' service, you automatically got offered the whole package - lucky sods!

There's lots of others who've retired - Syd Freeman will shortly be celebrating his 70th birthday, 10 years after his retirement (also from BP); Rob Pollard - whose 60th party we are going to on Sunday; Jas Bhagrath - although this was partially forced on him by his heart problems and the new hip he needed; Archie Cook, who still keeps himself busy with his son's housebuilding business in Edinburgh and frequent trips to L.A. to visit their daughter and grandchildren (one and a half of them); Dave Edwards - regrettably forced on him by the onset of vascular dementia - and he just turned 60 a couple of weeks ago; Peter Street; and Keith Gray, who is counting down the days until retirement in a couple of weeks' time.

And then there's Richard Simcox - not retired, but not exactly grafting either. He's been on the brink of selling his business a few times, but he's still got it, albeit some of the management now also have shares. Richard's typical day is rise at 9:30, get to office by 10:30 - 11:00 am, lunch, then back home to watch the racing on TV - and that's when he's not on on one of his many trips and holidays.

Do I sound jealous about all these people? Perhaps a little, but I can't really complain about my lot - I enjoy my job, have a lot of freedom, but, financially, it would be nice if the markets recovered and my pension investments at least regained their former value - you can't even get any kind of a return now if you put your money in safer vehicles like bank accounts, so what are you supposed to do? Financial freedom, if you can get it, is good for the mind and soul. Financial worries, which everyone has when they're younger, can drag you down pretty quickly.

Anyway, enough of all that. I had another short day today - a meeting with Norwegians at Francis' house at 10:30 am was followed by lunch at the Old Mill - mince and skirlie - then back home just after 3:00 pm. Nobody at home, so, after answering a few e-mails, I just caught up with some of my Sky + recordings and downloaded some music and a couple of audiobooks. I haven't really been listening to the books on my travels and have quite a few building up now, so I decided to terminate my subscription, but only after I used up the last of my entitlements by downloading John Grisham's The Partner and Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.

The music I downloaded was Gomez - A New Tide. Anyone want a copy?

That's enough for now - hope you like the new archive photos on the blog. Looking forward to watching the footy on TV tonight - and then tomorrow, it's Fraserburgh in the morning, followed by golf in the evening.