Marty

So we're on page 2,013... 2013 was the year I reached retirement age here in Ireland, and was forced to give up my job in Community Development. The position was paid for under a grant from a semi-governmental organisation, and one of the rules was that no salary could be paid to anyone that had passed the official retirement age. That was odd in a way as, for the last four years before I retired, the bulk of the funding was towards supporting the surrounding rural older community, and putting in supports to enable them to stay living independently in their own homes, instead of being transferred to old folks, or nursing homes. But there was nothing I could do but accept the inevitable retirement with as much grace as I could muster. My biggest worry when I did retire was that I would find myself with nothing to do all day, and perhaps just lie in bed late each morning, and then simply veg out on the settee when I finally did rise. Thankfully, that didn't happen, and I often finding myself complaining nowadays that there simply aren't enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to get done. I've my garden to tend, my old, new house to get into shape, my voluntary work (much, but not all, of it involving organisations providing support to the LGBT+ community), wonderful scenery around me to explore and photograph (although that has been curtailed somewhat recently due to Covid), and... and... and the list goes on and on. I'm enjoying life that much since I retired that whenever anybody asks me how I'm finding retirement I usually respond with: "It's the best thing I've ever done. I should have done it years earlier!" (Of course, having the financial security of a couple of pensions certainly helps.)

Ah now, ma fée espiègle... Stop making fun of your wee brother. He can't help being the way he is. Scorn not his simplicity: (All joking aside, every time I listen to that song I finish up with tears in my eyes...)

I normally use my laptop for GA, running Windows 8.1... I just tried using my Samsung smartphone, and still could only see the circles, each with a horizontal line inside instead of images. I then booted up a fairy new Windows 10 laptop that actually belongs to a voluntary organisation that I am involved with, thinking that maybe whatever protocol was being used for the images may need a more up-to-date operating system than my own laptop has. On that one, I saw the letters-gibberish that Gary reported... I suspect the problem lies somewhere else...

Same to you, bro! And many of them.

And noses that keep growing and growing...

Sleep well, young Drew.

Yes, but @Bucket1 lives in Australia, so is ahead of us in time.

Hey, Drew! Happy New Year's eve.

Well, it's New Year's eve here in Ireland... Let's hope the new year turns out better than the old. Good night my friends.

Anybody else just seeing circles with a line in each one, instead of real images, in Sherye's post? A little similar to this:

Just as long as I don't get blamed again for your weather, ma fée agaçante... We had a dusting of snow this morning, and the mountains still have a wintery look to them.

It's only the living room door, not the one at the front or back of the house. It doesn't actually lock, as a turn of the handle either side retracts the latch to open the door. And I don't mind late night visitors at all, at all. Depending who they are, of course.

All good here, thanks. Yourself? Just finished removing the metal strike plate on the frame of my living room door, and putting thin cardboard spacers behind it before screwing it back on. The door latch actually "clicks" into place now and holds the door shut properly.

I just hope I don't have to get everything I wake up with chopped off...

You must have been utterly devastated, Albert!

Greetings, young Albert!

For the year that's ending...

You dear lady are a bit fickle. You've been regularly bouncing over to Albert's to be fed. Tried to move in with Marty but Ireland has COVID restrictions in place that prevent that. Likewise your move to Gary in Canada was stymied by the closed border. Now you're travelling to the Upsidedown because things are hot at Bucket's. The way she likes to spread herself around, perhaps ma Sherey should change her name to Margarine...

Did ma Sherye not turn up, and you had to eat her portion as well?

Hey, Drew! Everything good down your way?

And if you do, I'm sure it will be every bit as good as the photo. And also if you do, bro, I'd be honoured to let you use the image, copyright free, on the front or back cover of the book when it is published.

Here's a photograph I took six years ago this evening of the sun setting over the Irish Sea off the northwest coast of England, as I was descending from a ramble up Clougha Fell, a western outlier of the Pennine Chain that runs up the the middle of northern England. It is one of my most viewed photographs on Flickr.