Capturing and controlling volatile stuff that is difficult to handle without damaging it can be achieved by a ‘decoy’ method in which the stuff is initially enticed into the large end of a cone-shaped enclosure. It is encouraged to move by degrees into the smaller end until its freedom of movement is so constrained that it can cannot escape and it can then be manipulated easily and safely.

I am deliberately using this method to effect my transition into retirement, and I have invented the ‘Prequel Procrastination System’ (PPS) to regulate and control it. Are you worried about making the change from a working life? PPS is designed to soothe and swale away all the anxiety and sting!

PPS depends on forward planning – all the virtue is contained in the long run up. Last March I happened to meet my boss at the security turnstiles  on our way into the factory and in answer to his courteous inquiry I told him that I was excited because about to book up my two-month RYA Yachtmaster course. This would necessitate my retirement in early October, said I.

This set a terminus so distant in time from the event predicted that for many months my job seemed to run along just as before, as the critical analyst in me – the person who looks out at my reflection in the mirror – gradually prepared me for the pain of parting from so many work colleagues that I count as friends.

PPS has a layered model, like an onion where each skin’s time envelope protects. I started this blog in the UK run-up – the few days between leaving the factory and my flight to Penang, Malaysia. I was already full of enthusiasm before boarding the plane, but now I am within the next, and indeed the last little envelope of time before my adventure begins. I am staying with my sister who lives here in Penang. I am practically bursting as I live through the short remaining time. It races past with extraordinary intensity, bright as tropical flowers.

As is often the case before the voyage, there are quite a few shoreside complications.