I reckon you have it in one Yabby. The nice thing about getting older (as opposed to old) is one values the simple in life and finds joy in what is often right in front of us rather than superficial entertainments.

Hasbeen and Foxy I share your love of books and secondhand books with notes attached gives something personal to a book - maybe a bit of each of our souls (in a good way). The best find I ever made was a $15 purchase in an old bookshop of poetic works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The best part was the inscription and date - a gift to a graduating student signed and dated 1885. Wow that was a grand feeling. Book was in good nick too.

BAYGON this thread has turned into a great discussion about what is important in life - which might be different for us all - but discovering what it is for each of us is all part of what makes life worth living. (I was going to say all part of life's journey but that sounds so twee and psychobabbly).

Hasbeen,
Yes, I agree with foxy, You should consider writing a book.

Your life sounds to have been most interesting. Quite outside the norm, so it should be documented. You never know, it might end up being swapped from Yacht to yacht and go around the world.

Dear Pelly,

You've said it so well.

This thread has turned into something very special.
I'm also enjoying reading everyone's experiences and
thoughts.

A few years ago I received a book as a gift from a
borrower. "The Complete Plays of Bernard Shaw."
Beautifully leather-bound, with gold lettering and
edging around the pages.
There was an inscription inside telling me that the
book had once belonged to a man born in 1882. I presume
it must have been a relative of the borrower who gave
me the book. I've read and re-read it many times,
and it's one of my most treasured books.

Dear BAYGON,

There's a book that was written by Gontran de Poncins
called, "Kabloona: Among the Inuit."
Gontran de Poncins spent 15 months among the Inuit
people of the Arctic. It was written in 1941 and he
ended up morphing from a "Kabloona" (white man) into
an eskimo. You can google the title. Or try
Amazon.com. If it's not the one you're after - I'm
sure you'd still enjoy it. It's beautifully written
and a good story.

hasbeen given the influence of books on your career choices it is just as well you didn't read murder mysteries you would have ended up either as a cop or as a serial killer.

I can't really comment on which country is the most boring, but to me living in the country certainly isn't.
I honestly can't imagine what it must be like, to be unemployed or retired and living in a flat in the city. What on earth would you do with yourself?
With a few acres, there is never any shortage of things that need doing, or should be done, or could be done.

Baygon, I don't know about murder mysteries, most of my reading is factual stuff. About the only fiction I read is science fiction.

I was just thinking however, that it's a good thing I didn't read about the Inuit. I have never been much good in the cold.