For years my friends said I should write a book about our adventures and situations we end up in. We are often referred to as the Griswalds (from the National Lampoon films) as perfectly normal situations spiral out of control without much warning or explanation, other than I rarely see risks in situations.

We recently watched the new Griswalds film as a family, about half way through my youngest son stood up and left the room saying “I can’t take anymore, this is too much like our holidays”.

There is a Youtube video channel where you will find, not surprisingly, videos linked to these posts where appropriate

https://youtube.com/@rareadventurers?si=kG3UBo55i88QMTyZ

So now that I’m technically retired I decided to make a start with a blog, and we will see where it goes from there.

Things that I plan to blog about will include:

Retirement – the challenges for someone who has been hyperactive all their lives, some coping strategies for someone who was a workaholic.

Adventures – we have lots planned but have already travelled the world, so I will cover those retrospectively with lessons from our adventures that will hopefully help others and make some people laugh, if nothing else.

Recreation – I do everything with a passion, which normally way exceeds my technical competence, so I dive into sport and other pastimes with unpredictable outcomes.

Experiences – I started out without much, carved out a successful corporate career before starting my own business that has survived for 25 years and left me in a position to enjoy life, there was fun and pain on the way that hopefully make for good advice for someone.

You might not have noticed, but the first letters of those topics spell the word RARE, this was the name of my first company so I’m resuscitating it for this project.

As my old boss at the BBC said when he heard the name of my venture, “Love it, kind of raw, meaty and edgy” and that pretty much reflects me, so I hope you enjoy the blog