I stopped working a year ago, so it’s obviously time for an Annual Retirement Review. It’s time to discuss my achievements of the past year, areas that need improvement, my goals for the next year and training requirements. I think the main challenge for any newly retired couple is adjusting to spending more time together…
From the sublime to the ridiculous
I rarely have the opportunity to use this phrase literally and without exaggeration, but the time has definitely come. Last week I attended two live events that could not have been more different. I still haven’t decided if I’m actually retired or if this is a phoney retirement, but that’s another matter. Anyway, my retirement,…
But will this coat see me out?
I can remember my Nanna buying a new coat and saying with some satisfaction “I think this coat will see me out”. I don’t think she meant out of the front door, I think she meant out of a more permanent door. I was impossibly young at the time and thought it was an embarrassingly…
That dress
No, not the black leather barely-held-together-with-safety-pins dress that Liz Hurley wore to upstage Hugh Grant back in the 90s, I’m talking about the current dress sensation. Nearly every time I go out I see a woman wearing the identical long white dress with black polka dots. Unlike Liz’s black leather number, this one couldn’t be…
In retreat
On Monday I retreated. I went on a ‘contemplative day’ based at a religious retreat in London’s East End. What I was doing on a religious retreat when I’m not religious and have very little to retreat from I don’t know. In fact, I was so worried that people might think I had spiritual aspirations…
My twenties replayed
There are definitely aspects of my current life that remind me of my 20s and you may wonder how, considering that I’m decades older, no longer working and not even living in the same country. This is how: I am not looking after young children and therefore am serene and well rested. I am filled…
Cheap date
I was a bit worried that retirement would turn out to be a very expensive proposition. The theory is that you spend less in retirement because you no longer have the expenses associated with work, such as smart clothes, the daily commute, coffees and lunches. This is a good theory, but it doesn’t apply to…
How it all began
First I stopped working. I didn’t think of it as retirement as such because naturally I’m far too young for that. It was more like ‘resting between engagements’ the way actors do. Although my husband had decided to take early retirement and really had no intention of going back to work, I felt that I…