The Adlington Post

Over the past few months I have been talking with many members of Men’s Sheds throughout the North Island of New Zealand, as well as reading extensively on issues relating to retirement. The key themes apparent in my study of retirement issues are that a loss of purpose upon retirement after decades of responding to the manifold demands of work and family can make life appear to be meaningless. Faced with a loss of purpose and a lack of meaning can lead people to give up hope. A sense of hopelessness is often what precipitates a rapid decline in physical and mental health in retired people, and it may be noted that the loss of hope can be the final straw which drives people to commit suicide. In discussions at the Shed about retirement, Shed members often refer to the fact that their fathers and other older male relatives were often dead within eighteen month of retirement. Studies have shown that eighteen months of feeling “blue” (not even mildly depressed) can have a severely negativ

I have been busy uploading my images of my Feng Shui artworks to my new blog: www.energyart2000.blogspot.co.nz/ Nathan at the Men’s Shed has been helping me with ensuring that my translations and interpretations of the calligraphy and texts are correct. In addition, I am preparing to produce a new body of work based on the I Ching as well as images and texts in Adjit Moorerjee’s book “Yoga Art”.

I have been busy at the Men's Shed North Shore refurbishing some old tools, which I will take up to the Pacific Islands next year. The boys at the Shed have been helping me with donations of tools, as well as technical advice on woodturning, sharpening and other technical matters - thanks guys! www.pacificneighbours.blogspot.co.nz/ www.mensshednorthshore.org.nz

My chum Eric from the Shed and I scored some free metal for the Shed from a local demolition site. See more pix at my Shed blog: www.shedyarns.blogspot.co.nz

Over Easter I drove down to Tarankai to look after the sheep farm & campground for a few days while the Herberts attended a wedding in Wellington. On the way I came across a young goat which had very recently been hit and killed outright. Once gutted it fitted neatly into my spare chillybin, and neighbour Lindsay gave me a hand to skin it. I then hung the carcass in the woolshed for 24 hours before roasting the ribs - delicious!

Here is the meat haul mentioned in the Sunday Star Times article (below) the other week - this is my pile, I gave as much again away! stacked in the freezer

On Sunday 31 March the Sunday Star Times here in Auckland published an article on the tremendous waste of perfectly good food worldwide - and included an interview with myself: photo by Lawrence Smith/FairfaxNZ Diary of a Well-fed Freegan 0ne man's Waste is another’s dinner, and it’s not just about dumpster diving, writes Shabnam Dastgheib. AFTER SEVEN years of not paying for food, tools or art supplies, 63-year-old Martin Adlington has freeganism down to a fine art. He finds wine, biscuits, eggs, cheese, and bread and dips in a typical haul from a typical dive in a typical supermarket dumpster. He goes only when he feels like it and often finds enough to donate to large, hungry families in Auckland. This month, World Bank senior economist Jose Cuesta targeted retailers and consumers to find a solution to the world’s staggering food waste. A United Nations- backed campaign Think Eat Save estimates that in industrialized nations 300 million tonnes of food fit for consumption i