There were a couple of things that definitely needed to happen before I could retire, centred around finishing the landscaping around The Little House of Concrete and paying the lot off. Of course, that'd be a easier if I wasn't handing over $20 each week for a return cab fare and plonking down a fair bit more on the bar while I was out.
I was already drinking wine at this stage, but it was mostly sourced from automatic deliveries from a couple of wine clubs, reordered selections from those deliveries and whatever was on special at the liquor barn.
The first serious development after Madam arrived on the scene was to give her a Wine Society membership. I wasn't sure how long things were going to last, but I thought a TWS membership was a useful thing for someone who liked wine, and there were bottles of bubbly on offer to members who signed up new members. All in all I thought it was good value for the $50.
Hughesy's cellaring arrangements at the time comprised a stash of wine cartons under the futon in the living room, plus whatever whites I'd stowed in the fridge. It wasn't an arrangement that was conducive to long term cellaring.
Madam complicated matters by deciding that the fridge was for storing food and nonalcoholic drinks, so that brought the bar fridge into the picture, and that the futon had to go, which in turn raised the question of where I was going to store the wine cellar.
Fortunately The Wine Society had a special on wine racks, and I bought two 48-bottle units that were stackable, so it was a case of bye bye futon.
Changes in the faces I was running across at the QB and issues with the speed of service behind the bar eventually persuaded me that I'd be just as well off drinking wine at home, with corresponding financial implications as well.
It was around the time that I was starting to figure out the financial aspect of this retirement thing, anyway.
Southward excursions over the holidays were starting to come into play, and we got to the Granite Belt and the South Burnett before matters got to the point where Hughesy definitely needed to get out of the classroom.
That happened towards the end of 2005, and while I wasn't able to retire officially, accumulated leave took care of the interval before I could access my retirement funds. While the delay was negotiated I'd been careful to scale the spending back to my anticipated income stream once I'd retired, which is where the long term $10 per bottle average kicked in.
I could, I figured, afford $300 each month for wine, so that $10 average seemed about right. Careful perusal of The Wine Society monthly newsletter suggested that there'd be enough wines from there to round out whatever was on special at the liquor barn and the reorders from regular tasting dozens.
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