 |
| The first rose in my garden |
Being retired means I can lie in as long as I want to, then do nothing all day apart from visit garden centres. For my holidays, the world is my oyster. I could get a cruise to almost any destination in the world. I am doing something wrong. I rarely get to visit a garden centre, nor have I organised a cruise after my experience last year. Daily, I am rushed off my feet. Alice Cooper said, "The word does not exist in my vocabulary." Well it does in mine and one day it will come to pass that garden centres are high on my to-do list and then I know I will be truly retired.
This week I have been chasing my tail sorting out "stuff" for the community orchard and organising myself for my trip to Portugal. With only 24 hours in a day, it will be a close run thing whether I am sorted before I leave for my flight. My bag is out and half packed, I am making lists because that makes me look organised. I just need to make sure I don't leave my passport behind. At least I know it is still valid!
In addition to all the other stuff, I have played two tennis matches this week. Both have lasted over 3 hours for four sets. I have cycled a bit and swum over 400 lengths too. I suppose these are self-inflicted strains on my life and my left foot - but they do bring me joy. I sometimes wonder how I ever found time to work as well. Scary!
I also heard on the news this week that fewer people have a healthy retirement, especially as the age of retirement is edging up to 70 not far away from now. Apparently the UK is amongst the most unhealthy of developed nations where poorer people start to get ill at the age of 51 while more affluent people become sick after the age of 70. This discrepancy is a real stain on the way the government has used its resources and organised the country. I am sure this is a really big step backwards to the post war years when overall life expectancy was much lower. Perhaps this is a wake up call for younger people to take greater responsibility for their health and lifestyle.
Sadly future generations will not have the luxury of choice that us Baby Boomers have had. They will have to work longer and apparently because of changes in employer contributions, they will have less money to live on too. Mind you, I never really thought about what "retirement" would feel like when I was working. I just new that when the time came I would stop earning money. I grew up without central heating, walked or cycled to school every day, did a Saturday job, the TV was a black and white one that only worked for a few hours a day and people died of diseases that can be cured now. Despite this, I am one of the "haves" in this world and I won't forget that even when I moan about things that annoy me.
 |
| The delivery of boxes from B&Q. 30kg each |
I shouldn't complain about my lot but looking at these boxes, I have to plan a military operation to sort this out. I just have to co-ordinate the delivery of some bloody great boxes that contain the base for a flatpack cargo container to the orchard by asking for help from the fellow volunteers and then round up some extra manpower to move the free gravel in wheelbarrows to the orchard on Tuesday, Easy!!
However, this is not what retirement is!
