True Flossie - former colleagues of my husband were made offers they would have been stupid to refuse - some retired at 55 (or even younger), on a full pension with a good lump sum. Some then went on to find work elsewhere and have done very nicely thank you.
One said he would have needed a hole in his head to have refused the offer they made. He went on to do a lot of voluntary work rather than starting a second career, which keeps him busy and means he doesn't feel so bad about the deal.

Stefan - you are never too young to start thinking about your pension. Honestly. The way things are going you could be in even deeper sh*t than we will be. AOW will be too expensive and pay less and less, and company pensions are getting worse all the time, so I'd start saving if I were you.

I saw John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers in Utrecht a few years ago.

I can honestly say it is the worst concert I have ever been to. They never acknowledged the audience, not even the front row, never looked at anyone but each other and it just felt like we were intruding in a private, 2 hour long, jam session. It was awful.

Charlie Musselwhite was on the same programme and was far more enjoyable.

That said no doubt my husband would go and see him again, even though even he didn't enjoy the concert in Utrecht.

My husband is going to see Jeff Beck on Wednesday .

My husband worked for a Research Council in the UK, and had a good solid civil service style pension to look forward too. No money while he was working but a worthwhile pension - to which he contributed btw.
However he didn't stay there, we moved here. Two jobs neither with a pension fund, and not enough time in the Netherlands for a full state pension means not a lot of dosh. Plus a house that is unsellable - the market here is totally stagnant, and we still have a mortgage to pay.
He does get a small pension from his research council job - we are saving that as it comes in. And we have a couple of insurance policies due to pay out when he retires, but the tax man will want his share of those.

My husband wants to work on past 65, not full time but on a project basis, and his boss seems amenable to that at the moment so that is one small glimmer of hope.
Meanwhile we are buying the things we will need, and are enjoying some good holidays while we can still pay for them. One major purchase will be a car when he retires - he has a company car now, and I have an ancient old Kangoo.
The K5 will be my last new camera I suspect so I am really hoping it is a goodie.

I look at my sons and worry about them. One has a pension but the other two don't, the oldest is self employed and barely scraping a living. His boat is his pension. The youngest still doesn't have a permanent job and he will be 30 next year.

But carpe diem chaps carpe diem! Worrying about the future doesn't help - it may never happen (Mayan calender and all that tosh :lol.

I generally have no trouble with the 'copied' function in Photobucket, under Windows 7, but sometimes it just doesn't seem to work (I had this also under Vista).

I suggest you highlight it, copy it and paste it here the old fashioned way.

Raising the tone of this thread somewhat there are some great photos from the Commonwealth games swimming pool on a Dutch newspaper site

Like Gareth I stopped at the Wiki page. That was bad enough.

I can't have a drink to get over it - I have to collect my husband from the station in a while - he's currently sitting on a plane at CDG waiting for take-off.

Enjoy your retirement Colin.


885 days till my other half retires. Maybe.
That means 885 days before poverty hits .

Big Brother is watching you

Lovely shot Kris.

We had one like that on Wednesday here. Unfortunately I had no where to get a good picture of it .

You can e-mail for information too. Have a look at their website.