Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
portrays the interpersonal skills of a log. And all that fits nicely with his preference for
enjoying his own company, exclusively. Equally, when forced, he is able to squeeze out a
reasonably engaging smile and become charm itself.
During his latter years in business he enjoyed the support of a large administrative
team who idolised him. Since retiring, the poor dear has had to cope with a secretarial team
of just one, and that's me. He finds this entirely inadequate, of course, and frequently re-
minds me of my shortfalls.
On the other hand, he is the most generous man I have ever met and I adore him. He
will help anyone in genuine need and can fix absolutely anything and everything. He also
sobs pathetically all the way through soppy movies whilst bear-hugging the long-suffering
cat.
My own career was spent in marketing, or
flower arranging
as Jack likes to call it.
I then moved to personnel (
shrinking violet arranging
), which unfortunately involved re-
dundancy and early retirement counselling. This process inevitably led to the stock phrase
'So, how will you spend your new-found spare time?' which was often met with staring
eyes and a look of outright terror. I felt so sorry for those poor souls for whom work was
everything and home was a transitory place to be avoided, especially during school holi-
days.
But none of that for us. Our time was admittedly loaded towards work commitments
but, at home, we would enthusiastically plunge into our two main passions, golf and shoot-
ing.
Our involvement in hunting came from an interest in precision-shooting. We invested
in high quality equipment and, using stationary and clay pigeon targets, absorbed ourselves
in improving our levels of accuracy. Soon we had acquired a reputation for being 'decent
marksmen' in the local farming community and our pest control activities developed from
there.
Like most people, neither of us enjoy killing things for the sake of it. There has to be a
proper justification, and the process has to be humane. In other words we shoot for a reas-
on, and never just for sport. Neither of us has ever knowingly wounded an animal. We have
only ever taken shots when we are certain of an instantaneous kill.
Other diversions for Jack include an obsessive interest in anything to do with DIY.
This particularly involves taking broken things apart and rebuilding them. For me, it's
gardening, 'training' our dogs (ha!) and several failed attempts at living off our land. Whilst
the produce reaped from my postage stamp sized vegetable plot was never going to fill our
freezer, I love the idea of self-sufficiency. And I continue to be deeply proud when filling
a tiny space on our dinner plates with something home-grown. Edible or not, it came from
my
veggie patch.
Our disparate interests inevitably give rise to critical commentary. Jack is a hoarder
and there will eventually be a limit to the number of machines he can stuff into the family
