Wow! Is it really 3 years since I last visited this blog? Well, there's a good reason for my return and it's simply this:

 For most of my career in Construction, my main function was to sort out the problems that invariably arise during erection and commissioning of process plants - in common parlance, I was a trouble shooter.

 I was pretty good at my job for 2 basic reasons - (1) a positive attitude, my belief being there never existed a problem that didn't have a solution, and (2) my quirky brain that, when faced with unusual conundrums, sought solutions by thinking laterally, ie outside the box.

This stood me in good stead throughout my career, but has become a bit of a problem in retirement. After all, there isn't a nightly news program goes by without reporting on at least one of the many problems facing society, be it social, political, technological, scientific, medical or whatever .... and then there's me, staring at the television screen, thinking all the while, "for heavens sake! Why don't they just do so and so and sort out the problem." 

Shouting at the screen doesn't seem to do any good, and enlightening my wife with my solutions to the world's ills might at best gain her approval and give me a momentary warm fuzzy feeling, but most likely will only elicit a "Sshhh - I'm listening to the program", and all my ranting of course, doesn't solve the problems out there in the real world.

Well from now on my wife will watch the news in blissful silence whilst dark clouds swirl about my head, and later on I'll rattle off my frustrations on this blog site so that you, dear reader, if you've followed me so far, can suffer the 'slings and arrows' of my discontent.