I suppose it is inevitable that the pandemic should bring about plenty of surprises. How could it not, it was new to us all. It’s true that our surprises have been of a fairly minor nature but they surprised us none the less.
I’m not sure whether retirement itself is supposed to be a time of surprises or quite the opposite. Does life get duller and more predictable or does it offer up little twists and turns that keep us on our toes. And I suppose more to the point, and it is a point I’ve made many times in these retirement blogs, which of these two polar opposites would we wish for? Excitement or predictability?
I’ve thought about this a lot and I’m still not sure. Or maybe the question is how do we achieve the balance between the two extremes and what does that balance look like? What’s the reality of a balanced retirement life? I thought about this as I considered the current balance in terms of surprise versus predictability.
For example when we looked back at what the pandemic had served up, we were surprised by how little bothered we were by all the restrictions. True we didn’t travel anywhere but we made the most of our home turf. We were surprised by how sanguine we were that we coped without pubs and restaurants and the like. It’s a fine line between sanguine and bored is it not?
Back in 2020 at the start of the first wave I was amazed how I took to DIY type tasks. Taking great pleasure in using all those bits of wood / screws, nails, brackets etc. stored in our garage for months even years and whose storage I had been berated for as taking up space. How I smiled when they all came in handy in the pandemic.
So yes my enthusiasm for DIY was a pleasant surprise but then the next surprise was that we did nothing DIY-wise in the second or third wave. Until this last weekend and a visit to the Derbyshire cottage. And to prove it a photo below of the newly prepared and painted outhouse doors and gates.
It was all prompted by visiting the ancestral home at the weekend and being reluctant to go out into the Derbyshire Dales on account of them being busy with tourists. So we stayed at the house which was fine but it meant we had to find something to do, hence not planned, so DIY revisited.
Another area of surprise is about to come back to haunt me I fear. And that is my music. If you’ve read these retirement blogs before you will know that I am more than surprised about how little music I’ve played over the last couple of years. There have been no public performances of either a jazz or a Celtic nature. Until now.
This is likely to be a short blog about my retirement life because from tomorrow, Monday, it is the first jazz summer school in two years I suppose it must be. I can tell you now I am not looking forward to it. My self-confidence has never been high where playing music is concerned but after a break of two years it’s non-existent.
For the first time in all the years I’ve been doing summer school we’ve been sent the tunes in advance. This should of course be a good thing, it is a good thing in a way, except seeing what we’re going to be playing and in the original format, is a tad scary.
If only I’d played more, practised more, I wouldn’t be feeling quite so nervous right now. But then it’s so easy to be wise when it’s just too late. But given I’ve known about summer school for several weeks I can hardly complain that this has taken me by surprise and if I didn’t want to cause myself stress, I could simply have not signed up.
Anyway by the time you get to read this I will have completed my first day. Time permitting I might just have an opportunity to give you some feedback of how my approach to my retirement life is working out, this week at least.
Do I avoid these challenges and risk being a bit bored or do push myself / stress myself out with the potential payback of feeling I’m making the most of my retirement time on the planet? Maybe day one of summer school will give me some idea and if it does I’ll tell you about – briefly at least.
PS There’s a lot going off in the vineyard as well.
