When my Food for Thought pard Nancy Leson confided to me that she was taking a six-month leave of absence from The Times I predicted that she'd be climbing the walls within a month. How wrong I was.As you'll hear in this week's installment she's having a ball catching up with stuff around the house, hanging out with her kid, seeing friends and in general doing all the things she hadn't time for before.
Toward the end of this week's chat she asks me what I would do with six months off. I told her I'd do all the stuff I already do in my off hours – cook, play poker and do ... okay, botch ... the occasional home improvement – only more of it. All that stuff is enjoyable but still doesn't add up to the general fun of doing radio every day. Which means my retirement plan is still to die before I run out of money.
Actually I am taking some time off this week but it won't be for leisure activities. I'll be fetching and carrying for my wife the Lovely & Talented Cheryl DeGroot after the installation of Robo-Knee II. Sure, it's nice that we can still get parts for her, but if it's anything like the last time around it'll be like caring for an infant – with the vocabulary of a brown-shoe Marine.
How about you? If money were not an issue what would you do with six months off? Noted leisure-time expert Peter Gibbons shares his experience here.
"The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not."
– George Bernard Shaw