We’re three weeks into my jazz workshop term*. I missed week two on account of making a space for new bookcases, going to IKEA to buy them, then putting together the two bookcases, manoeuvring them into place and then filling them with the books that had been piling up on the floor (I have a…
Retirement and a mission statement
Before I retired, I was working, yes, it’s true, seems hard to believe but it’s a fact. One of my responsibilities, as a member of the Senior Leadership Team as it was grandly named, was to develop for the psychological service a mission statement. Very fashionable it was then to have a mission statement, I…
Retirement blog : 200 Up. As Seen on TV
I started writing this blog pretty much at the same time I retired in September, 2013. It was my attempt to continue writing, albeit in a totally different way than that I engaged in when I was working. In the absence of any professional writing which was an aspect of my job I really enjoyed…
Retirement: Trying to take control and failing
This was not my planned retirement blog but I needed a bit of therapy. If you’ve read any of these blogs before you will know that I like the idea of taking control of life in general and retirement specifically. I am somewhere between an everyday planner and a control freak, I admit it. Always…
Retirement : A dog’s life?
How fragile life can be, you potter along complaining about life (and retirement) and something happens to bring you up short. I wrote a blog a while ago asking the question should a person/s get a dog or even two dogs when they retire? With hindsight the answer, or at least one version of it,…
Retirement and the need for an office
I wondered if I needed an office. I realise that many people will find this a puzzling consideration for a retired person. After all not everybody who worked even had an office. I myself spent most of my working life in schools. When I ran this half-formed notion past Mrs Summerhouse she laughed fit to bust….
Retirement and the old tape deck
What is it about retirement that makes you get things mended? You don’t, well, it must be me then. This story begins 36 years ago when we lived in the USA. What a bright land of plenty it was for a 30 year old Brit and his family, all glitz and gloss (and I don’t…
What’s best for retirement? Many activities or one?
Time for a little lightness in this retirement world. You will need to wait to the end of this blog to find out the significance of the image on the right. I recently received the ‘message’ below from a friend in Australia, where else you will say when you read it? It set me thinking, although…
Yoga 5 : Start the New Year with a strong energising posture
The fifth in the series of yoga activities from Mrs Summerhouse. This one is called Virabhadrasana or The Warrior. This posture stretches the whole body and wakens up tired and stiff joints.
Problems and possibilities : Part Two
One of my more serious / advice type blogs. It refers to many of the topics I’ve written about before and regard as important to a happy retirement including this very aspect, hence the title. Read on. There may be other times in a person’s life when the possibility of making a new start presents…