I came across this article in the weekend papers a couple of weeks ago. I’m attracted by anything old age related now I’m seventy eight. This guy – Jared Diamond (never heard of him, I admit) – is 88 and looking pretty good I thought. The sub-heading caught my attention – writer, academic, committed to… Continue reading What’s the secret to old age?
Category: Happy retirement
Bookish in retirement
I can’t think why I don’t write more blogs about books given that I probably spend more time reading than any other retirement activity. As many of my retirement activities – walking the dogs, travel, dining out, working in the vineyard, even writing this blog have grown more restricted, books and reading have stuck with… Continue reading Bookish in retirement
Never give advice
I’ve never really been a big fan of poetry. I’ve tried to be but it’s not happened. I even have a section of this retirement blog dedicated to poetry but, as you might see, that section has but one offering and that many years ago. I had a friend who wrote poetry and I had… Continue reading Never give advice
I do like to be beside the seaside
If the above were true, which to some extent it is, then the last few years would have been pretty miserable. This last weekend was our first visit to the sea, since, well we couldn’t quite remember when. Certainly pre Covid which would make it 5 or 6 years. Not great for self-confessed coast lovers.… Continue reading I do like to be beside the seaside
DIY, no can do
Perhaps it’s inevitable that when you’re retired you look back at all the things you used to be able to do and can no longer do. Inevitable but stupid. An intelligent retiree focuses on those activities they can do and values / takes pleasure in those positives. Hmm, simple. That’s what I’ve tried to do… Continue reading DIY, no can do
It’s a puzzle
What specifically you ask is a puzzle after all isn’t retirement per se far more complicated than you ever anticipated? Getting old you always knew might be tricky but there’s tricky and there’s darn right perverse. Specifically the role of music in my life has been complicated all along and it’s only getting more so.… Continue reading It’s a puzzle
Friends, what are they for?
Well, what are friends for? The answer right now seems to be to do with helping me fill that musical gap / void left when I stopped being a part of the Folk Fiddle group*. I rather despaired that I would ever play any music again with other people that is. In fact I had… Continue reading Friends, what are they for?
Simplification, the way forward?
Given there is a definite view of retirement, mainly from retired people themselves, that, as they get older, their life choices become restricted ( I feel the world is closing in on me as one acquaintance put it), that deliberately limiting one’s own choices is perverse, to say the least and maybe outright foolish. I… Continue reading Simplification, the way forward?
Change of plan, really?
I’m not sure I dare even write this but here I go. And after all I’ve written over the last few months about wanting to return my retirement life to what I’ve persistently called ‘normal’, you might think I’ve got some damned cheek but as The Animals once sang many years ago, ‘It’s my life… Continue reading Change of plan, really?
Into 2024, what’s in store?
So here we are half way through January, 2024 and how am I doing in my continuing efforts to return to my life pre all my health problems of last year? What I’m choosing to call normality. You may recall that my carefully considered retirement life was made up of a number of deliberately chosen… Continue reading Into 2024, what’s in store?