Sorry I asked
Never mind you are here now. If that's what you call retirement what did you do before retirement?
I was MD of a Shopfitting & Property Maintenance Company, we fitted out (fitted up some might say) Sainsbury"s, Tescos, Aldi Foodstores, Phones4U, that sort of thing. If there is a Sainsbury"s or Aldi near you, chances are I (we) supplied & installed the checkouts, lights, display racking, etc. Quite boring it sounds, but actually very challenging. A Sainsbury can turnover millions of ££"s a week, so when we moved in on a Sunday night, & ripped the ceiling out, or cut a chase in the Sales Area Floor, it kinda got the adrenelin flowing, the thought of what happened if we never finished on time!
Planned Maintenance (so -called "Preventative) was an art-form, to get the costings right. We did several PSI schemes, including the first PSI Police Station - Ilkeston, Derbyshire, coincidentally minutes from my home.
And we did Landscape Maintenance, that was hugely interesting. Aldi GmbH & Co KG wanted bushes that did not grow! (Not growing means not cutting means low-maintenance costs).
We looked after the Chairman"s place, too, he had a Grange near Wirksworth, in Derbyshire, in 700 acres. He was wholly against wild animals, & wanted them all shot. He had bats, too (a protected species), & wanted them done away with, along with squirrels (eating his tree bark - they are in fact extremely destructive), badgers, moles, rabbits, "shoot the lot" he"d say. "Yes Guv" I"d reply, then do nothing. He spent £40,000 having anti-rabbit fence erected (it extends 18" into the ground, as they burrow under regular fences), but left the gates open, so rabbits could wander in.....
We built a half mile long dry-stone wall for him, too, that"s a real Derbyshire art. He rung me one day - "Tony, the cows are leaning over my new wall, get it sorted, they have no right to do that". "OK John", I"d say, thinking to myself I"ll send them a Memo. "Dear Nice Cow, hope this letter finds you well. Now, about John"s wall......"