Retirement, it gives us old geezers (theoretically) so much time for reflection. OK, almost all of it, the results of this reflection, amounts to less than the proverbial hill of runner beans, but, well the opportunities are there. If you want them. Do I want them though? Welcome to retirement world, the land of opportunity…
Category: Learning new skills
Trying to increase my readership for my retirement blog
Oh what a tangled web we weave, even though we had no intention to deceive, with apologies to Robbie Burns, and all because, of a recent Guardian Masterclass course about increasing the readership of your blog. In line with my learning new skills as a retirement goal, I attend one course a year of the Masterclass…
End of term review (of retirement jazz workshops)
This blog is a bit delayed because Mrs Summerhouse made me rewrite bits of it because she felt they did not accurately reflect my character. Blimey. You know this retirement business is turning out to be rather weird in some ways. Well that’s the end of term and the year for my jazz workshops. Time…
Retirement and being a film director, part 2
Continuing the story from last week of my friend’s film director experience. I’m a little bit confused by the spelling – cineage or cinage – but never mind. let my friend tell his own tale. But suddenly came December and we had to choose three scripts written by ourselves to turn into three short films…
When you’re retired, you’re never too old to be in the movies
A bonus blog, unusually for me, published on Thursday for reasons that will be obvious as you read on. I met an ‘old’ lecturer (the one who wrote the poem) of mine the other week and he was telling me what he did to keep active in his retirement. I liked the sound of this…
Retirement and more all that jazz
This is a blog from the dark side, it’s writing as therapy, a bit of a whinge maybe, so if you don’t want to read a blog about a retired person complaining, don’t read on. Thing is I’m getting fed up with my jazz workshops – I went to one last night (Monday) hence this…
Jazz Report : keeping you up to date
What has this blog got to do with retirement? Well it’s to do with continued learning, what we used to call, when working, continued professional development (CPD). So continued learning as related to my jazz classes is the theme but, of course, learning, as I’ve mentioned before, comes with a price tag and that’s what…
Retirement, jazz workshop, effortless mastery: an update
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…
Vineyard 21 : Winter Pruning, not as easy as you think
If you’re not, yourself, a vineyard owner, you probably thought there would not be much going on in a vineyard at this time of year. The vines are dormant and so are the owners of those vines. Right? Well, as always in life, the answer is yes and no. In my last blog I told…
Retirement : is it really about setting challenges?
It’s hard this jazz business, no wonder so many of the greats self-destructed in their prime. And no that doesn’t include me. No, siree. Take Charlie Parker here, dead at 34, as just one example. Obviously, in my case, there were going to be peaks and troughs (although not as deep as being dead) in…