Practical

Retirement has provided me with lots more ‘opportunities’ to practice DIY skills. No more excuses about being too busy, and – being at home much more – I’ve been increasingly aware of the shortcomings of our delightful property, all those little faults we overlooked when we bought it in 2015. And Lockdown? Why, the excuses were fewer still. The outstanding jobs have shouted at me like instruments in a trumpet fanfare…

Unfortunately retirement has not provided me with a suite of new skills with which to tackle said ‘opportunities’. Some of these I’m having to learn. Others have been a matter of desperate prayer…such as in The Sorry Saga of the Summerhouse and the Crumbling Concrete Challenge.

Another feature of retirement is, of course, that you get to help your children out. Or try, as in A Cover Story which featured my daughter’s car. Oh, and not all situations I meet are on my account (or my family’s). Sometimes you meet a stranger who needs a helping hand, as did the hero of A Tanker Driver’s Nightmare.

There’s a common thread, that each and every situation teaches me lessons for life, and – so I believe – opportunities to grow in faith.