The industrious couch potato ...

What is a couch potato? Can a couch potato be ambitious?

In the Roaming Times latest retirement poll (see the poll here), people are surprisingly industrious. Sorting through the many replies, people tell of work, work, and more work. At least 80% of the respondents seem to positively welcome work; few seem like couch potatoes. Perhaps this is largely because these are people who like to travel: many are RVers, or wannnabee RVers, people who want to see this wonderful country of ours. And for many, it is possible to work and travel.

Some, no doubt, have mixed ambitions: they want to be industrious and couch potatoes at the same time. Is this possible?

This week on ABC TV, a man called Suresh Joachim sat in the lobby of the ABC TV building watching TV, and setting a new Guinness world record for - what else? - watching TV.

Culminating on the Regis and Kelly program, the record-breaker sat for 55 minutes of every hour - in full gaze of the public - for almost 70 hours, proving no doubt that it can be hard work doing nothing.

Joachim is used to hard work.  He has done it before: he has world records for not only bowling non-stop (100 hours), but also, balancing on one foot (77 hours).  Wow, can you imagine standing on one foot for 77 hours?

 He says his ambition is break more records. I'm loathe to quote Shakespeare's Mark Anthony, but, then again, why not?:  "Ambition should be made of sterner stuff".

Or, perhaps, Disney's seven dwarfs - "Busy doing nothing, working the whole day through".

One man's ambition is another man's busy doing nothing.

Perhaps, retirement, like standing on one foot, is all a question of balance.