Well it’s that time again. Comes around quickly doesn’t it? I’m speaking of my 800th retirement blog. As you would predict after 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 and 700, comes yes, that’s right 800, blogs. Most of them written by me. Who would have thought it? I’d like to get to 1,000 and then I’ll pack up, but don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. Certainly when I started these blogs back in 2013 (I think I’m right there) I had no idea or intention of going on this long.
In the beginning these blogs were a short term measure, designed to fill the void left by not writing anything on a professional basis – articles, chapters, books, he said modestly. They were a response to one of my best retirement questions – what do you want to have continue into your retirement from your working life, albeit in a modified form?
In that context these retirement blogs were perfect for me. I’d attended a Masterclass course at The Guardian by The Gentle Author who authors a blog Spitalfields Life. He was writing a blog a day so he was a man to be taken seriously, ergo when he said about 1,000 words was a good length for a blog, I took notice. 1,000 words just about matched my attention span. Also suggested was to release a blog about twice a week.
So 1,000 words, twice a week fitted nicely with my idea of the best approach to life being little and often. My plan at that time was to use my background in psychology and apply this to the challenge of retirement. And there was no doubt in my mind that retirement would prove to be a challenge to me, and I thought, to others. So this seemed a sensible synergy.
I reasoned there would be plenty to write about and, if I ran out of ‘psychological’ ideas, then life would throw up plenty more happenings on the way by way of inspiration. As it’s turned out over the years, the psychological aspect of the blog has indeed dwindled and the general, retirement life side of things has increased. To be expected I suppose as my career fades gently into the past.
The media has provided quite a few ideas over the last 100 blogs even though we only buy two papers at the weekend. There’s always my phone every morning if I can bear to confront the mayhem and misery that’s out there. That’s where an increasing number of these blogs first saw the light of day.
In the previous 100s two of my main retirement interests – music and our vineyard – have provided many topics /ideas for the blog. One of the things that is different in the last 100 is that the music particularly has figured very little in these pages. The reason for this is obvious. 2020 being the year of the plague has seen no musical activity in live groups. In the absence of me worrying about being shown up in front of some kind of audience, I have had no motivation to practice / play at home on my own. Therefore nothing to write about.
I have to say this has been probably my biggest disappointment of the year. Well lucky you, you say if that has been your biggest problem. But there it is and so these blogs have reflected this deficit. Of course this gap has been partly filled by topics generated by the aforementioned plague. A quick survey of this last 100 showed me that 21 out of this 100 had made reference to or were based on our virus. Whether I consider that to be a lot or not very many, I really couldn’t say. You may have your own opinion on this.
The vineyard has also filled a gap or two in the sense that one of my lock-down projects, with much help from my chum, PW, has been the establishing of a podcast (The Vineyard Years) based on the vineyard blogs. There have been 7 so far, one published about every two weeks. There’s plenty to go at so I can afford to be generous with their frequency. The actual written blogs have been slightly more problematic and tend towards the negative column both in recording success (none) and the fact that we weren’t allowed near the place for about 4 months so that made it hard to write about.
Also in the negative column are those blogs I would have written about our travels. That’s mainly Ireland (I think typically that visit would generate 4 or more blogs) and any hotel stays we might have managed probably again another 4 or 5 blogs). I didn’t think it was possible to have less travel-inspired retirement blogs but this strange year has proved that it is in fact the case.
In my world my health has probably featured a bit more and that may be reflected in these retirement blogs. No major procedures this year as there were last. Although many of the same symptoms that took me down that route. Just the unending struggle to keep my weight and sugar-levels down. Unsuccessfully in both cases. Can I blame the virus? Maybe. Generally I feel older, a bit more wobbly and out of breath but again I hear you say, well you’re bloody lucky then. Fair enough.
What I have noticed, and again this may be inevitable given I’m getting on a bit, is that I have written more ‘looking-back’, nostalgia type blogs. Might even have been one on regrets I have looking back. That’s a bit of a surprise because overall I’m not much given to regrets.
We’ve pretty much done the things in life we wanted to. Always the odd misfire but no, not many. Most of this looking back or reminiscing has been to countries we’ve visited or lived in. A four-part blog on America, one on Ireland and even one, so far, on working in Georgia. But all of these looked back on with affection rather than regret.
So there we have it, my review of retirement blogs, 700 to 800. No really big surprises for me. I’ve carried on through thin and thin. Some changes in topics, some topics have figured less but with other ideas taking their place. I suppose I should mention one big change, that this blog now regularly ‘appears’ on page 1 of Google and my apologies to those of you who think I give this too much credibility / importance. With it seems to come, if not exactly fame and fortune, then requests for links at best and trolls and bots at worst. Who knew all those years ago and to those of you who’ve stuck with me all these years, thanks. On to the next 100.