So much going off this last week it’s difficult to know where to start. It’s feast or famine isn’t it? Don’t know where that expression comes from, the bible probably, but wherever it came from, it’s right on the money about my retirement life at the moment. I get bored if I’m in the same place for more than 3, or 4 at a pinch, days. But can I get the balance right? No, I cannot. The pendulum, to mix my metaphors, rarely stays in the right place. I move from boredom to a retirement life wildly out of control, or so it feels.
This last week has been over-active, and I know this to be true because I lie awake in the night and go over my whole list of worries (some of which wouldn’t make the list in the day time), in a cyclic fashion. Round and round that is. I work through the list and then start all over again.
I worry about my sick friend, about relationships with old friends who we’ve kind of been reunited with due to our sick mutual friend. Perhaps this should put the rest of the list into some kind of perspective, sadly it does not seem to do so.
So, for example, I’ve been worried about going to taste our wine, still in its barrels but mature enough to pass judgement as to whether it’s worth carrying on with. This will be the first time we’ve tasted it. You’ll have to wait for the next vineyard blog for the results and subsequent developments (of which there are many). I’m just telling you I’ve been worrying.
In the meantime we’ve been having all this hot weather which may cause the vines to believe it’s time to bud. That’s fine except that what will happen is that the frosts will certainly arrive and freeze their little heads off. Big problem for the harvest. But then I start asking myself do I really want a whole lot of grapes like last year with all the complications that it is causing? We’ve been away from the vineyard for longer than usual on account of being busy, so we don’t know what we’re going to find when we go up there this weekend (or the weekend that’s just gone by the time you read this).
And on the subject of wine, I’ve offered my friend a case of it (should it be any good) if he will produce a Facebook page to promote blog. And I even manage to worry about this. Do I really want my blog to have its own FB page, do I want to pay for it? How much etc. etc.
I’ve also been trying to organise our Irish holiday. This has involved a whole set of decisions we haven’t had to make before. These on account of the fast ferry (which we prefer on account of not wanting to leave the pups in the car for the three and a half hours the slow ferry takes) not sailing on our usual dates. Apparently they’ve chosen this time of year to take it out of the water and do whatever you do to boats when you take them out of the water.
To cut long story short this has meant, after much debate, travelling a week earlier than we planned. On this date the fast ferry is still sailing or whatever it does. This, in turn, means I need to find, and book, 4 more hotels prior to arriving at out holiday cottage in Kerry (our usual residence). Booking is not a problem but finding 4 more dog-friendly hotels definitely is. There aren’t that many of them. Far less than in the UK. I have heard the explanation that the Irish regard dogs as working animals and not pets and therefore should not be allowed in hotels or pubs either. Well fair enough I suppose, it is after all their country. But it’s caused me all kinds of trouble this last week. If you want to complicate your retirement life then get a dog or better still, two.
Monday nights I reserve for worrying about my jazz performance. I like to think of Monday nights as exclusively for worrying about that. The rest of the week is open to all-comers, of which, as you can begin to see, there are plenty. And I can’t even begin to write about other bits – my health and internet spams. Maybe another time I’ll tell you about them. I’m just putting them out there – a bit.
As you will see from Last Friday’s photo blog (we enjoy doing this form of blog on a Friday), we were in Whitby, Sandsend meeting up with old friends and then a night in a hotel in Scarborough. That was last Thursday. Even that was ‘interesting’ although admittedly the ‘interest’ was of our own making. England cricket were playing and doing well. Irritatingly the hotel did not have Sky Sport and the reception on my mobile was poor and variable. So just at the most crucial of moments I would lose the signal or whatever it is one loses (including own’s cool) at these moments. Same problem on Mrs Summerhouse’s phone and her iPad. I ended up about 10 o’ clock at night standing in the courtyard of the hotel in my pyjamas hoping that none of the other guests came along. Fortunately the hotel was fairly empty and I got the result and England won. I’m just saying if it can be complicated it will be.
And in such ways a retired person shapes his or her retirement life. Ha. There’s one thing about this blog that helps. Yes, true it can be an additional source of worry. What will I write about this week type thing, but mostly it allows ‘writing as therapy’. And I certainly feel better for getting some of what’s in my over-active brain out onto paper. Well not paper but you know what I mean. And that is my thousand word retirement blog for this week. If anything else happens before I go to press I’ll try and add it in but I think that’s probably enough.