Since I took early retirement three years ago from being manager of our local Town Hall here I've enjoyed living the dream of getting involved in aviation, which was my late father's career. I'm a part-time volunteer at an aviation museum and also hold a private pilot's licence. I keep the cost of my flying down by mucking in at the flying school helping get planes in and out of the hangar and taxi-ing them to and from the fuel bowser for refuelling. Of course all this costs money. While my pension pays for life's essentials, I've set up my own part-time law practice (I qualified as a lawyer in 1975 but then made my career in public admin.) to pay for luxuries like flying and kilts. Like you, Dread, I find working for myself is very fulfilling and since I left a highly stressful Town Hall job I've quit the booze and much healthier for it.