OS Singlies - We Do It Our Way!

mum2one

I'm back, caught up now with the thread, and passport now gone back into the suitcase.

Quick update....
Managed 2 weeks in Tunisia, - even came back with reasonable amount of luggage, (43kgs) glad they didnt weigh the hand luggage!!

If DD was writing this, she'd be saying mums got 2 new boyfriends... not quite accurate, but nice thought...

No 1... Bit weird set up, entertainer at hotel, 15 yrs younger.... didn't help when DD asked him had he put his finger in the electric socket, (his hair looked like someone had stuck an iron on his hair and flattened it - side horns and front piece that was rock hard with gel), - he asked my advice on his hair, his clothes, everything.... then flings his arms around me and declares undying love..

We were some friends so some ngts we would watch the shows, DD always wanted to sit at the front - end of show there doing the team of 2014 (saga!!), he points, waves, then does heart sign, this woman sat next to me says oh is that the boyfriend....

Last day boiling hot - in and out of the pool, he comes into the pool we ended up playing ball with him, me, DD and 2 german kids, - who all thought it was funny that everytime I went to punch the ball back I had to hold my chest down..

No 2 (this was so funny)
I've been to the hotel for 8 times now so know a lot of the people, half way through the hol, a new photographer turns up, - he takes a photo of me and DD in pool (have to say it was a good one), brought it £2, end of ngt went and said gd ngt as it was by the doors - the kiss on the cheek - when I went to kiss the 2nd cheek, he goes in for a full blown snog....
He asked me if I'll wait for him, will I go back and see him, would I like to go for coffee, what time was I going on the Sunday (630am!!) did I want him to come and send me off...(NO)

DD summed it up as money (but then I'm skint), marriage visa (surely i'm not that desperate) and passport.... A penny to a £1 she is right....

It was a laugh, and at least I didn't fall for any of it, but the flattery was nice!.

---
The kitchen saga...
we moved out last Mon with the intention to be home on the Thurs... on the Monday we get a call we need the house till Fri... luckly the accomodation was available, - then the Wed get another call - the jobs more complicated we need the house for another week... go home Thurs... (luckly again accomodation available), - we had to come home to choose wall paper samples, go and source paint charts ourselves - then Tues we had a call - house wont be ready on Thurs can you can home Friday...

We came home Friday - apparently the workman had finished on Thursday, - there was big gaps between them coming and going, (neighbour had the key), - they've decorated the kitchen ceiling in the wrong colour, - theres a hole punched in the paper, and I have lost count at the number of surfaces that have got paint over them, - kitchen windows, back door, inner door from hall to kitchen, chewing guim/glue patches on the floor, cupboards....... You needed guess the phone call - 1st thing the insurers said - can you move out for the weekend, but we can't get hold of the contractors till Monday.....
Nearly every other day we were on the phone to the contactors, the insurers.... what was meant to be a 2 to 3 day job went to 10 days...

I need a holiday after all this....

Off out for a meal Sat ngt, the friends we went away with, its the husbands 60th and its family going, but they invited me and DD - but shes away on a school trip for wend, missing her already, - thou when they came back from holiday the husband was told he had been made redundant, xxx

calicocat

Sounds like you have had a good time Mum2one on the holiday...good for you.

On the be careful what you wish for front.....i think it unlikely that the type of ward , or location is not going to be good/likeable/suitable/safe......the service as a whole is turning into something not many of us like anymore. So , whatever i wish for isnt going to be the ideal . Its a case of what krap do i want to deal with next. There are lots of us hoping for redundancy it seems, how they work out who gets it i have no idea...or if they will do it for any of us.

Mothernerd...sound like you have had a lot to deal with recently

lillibet_dripping

On the subject of liking your job - did anybody see Sea City last night? The one with the cruise ship dancers?
That was me about 30 years ago - I loved every minute of it.


Had a few horrid jobs after that but my last job (before retirement) I also loved - teaching cookery in a primary school. Teaching and eating - what more could you want. I was heartbroken to leave that job, but having had a few gorgeous weeks in the garden resting my dodgy joints, I have to agree with the poster who said she was born for retirement.


If retirement were a job, I would be loving this one too - shame I have to have RA to go with it!


Going to a Summer Solstice party tonight. Just a few neighbours in the back garden with the Barbie. Tomorrow is our local country show day so will pack a picnic and spend the day with lambs, horses, gundogs and strapping young farmers!!

BookWorm

Goodness it's been busy in here overnight!

Welcome back Mum2One - sounds like you had an interesting trip!

Ugh I have some chores that I have been putting off all week that I probably should do today but at the moment I can't quite muster the energy. More :coffee: is it then :rotfl:

On the plus side - looks like it's going to be another nice warm and sunny day :T

BW

if_at_first...

calicocat wrote: »

BW.....I have never had any 'plan', or organised career path either, and have somehow fallen into all the various jobs I have had over the years.

I think the problem has been that I just don't have that drive to push me when it comes to that. I have always been born to retire I think...lol....
.

I never thought of it that way before - but I think I was born to retire too! I started planning for retirement when I was 16, people used to think I was pretty weird. Can't think why

moneyistooshorttomention

:rotfl:

if_at_first... wrote: »

I never thought of it that way before - but I think I was born to retire too! I started planning for retirement when I was 16, people used to think I was pretty weird. Can't think why

Now that is pretty unusual:rotfl:

I never really had a Career Plan either (wonders if I would have had if I had been a man and/or younger generation??). I never thought on much beyond "Gotta have a job...gotta have an income" and I don't think the thought honestly occurred to me when I left school to think on beyond working into some point in my 20s (not that I was planning on "being supported by a hubbie"...it just didn't occur to me).

Daylight dawned at some point in my 20s that "This was for real" and I was going to have to carry on earning till retirement...but I don't know whether my thoughts went much beyond that then either..

For some years before I hit retirement age I was counting down the days.

Now I'm retired at last and thankful for that fact, then I think its reinforcing my view that the ideal situation is to have a part-timeish job/career that you truly love and would be doing by choice. I think, in my Ideal World, I would be doing paid work of my choice for, say, around 25 hours per week. The money would certainly come in very handy on top of the part pension I'm currently on and I guess it saves working out your own Sense of Purpose (which, obviously, as a retired person does hit home now). Probably more as a singlie in fact. Many retirees get their Sense of Purpose from being a grandparent or get it (more or less voluntarily??) put onto them by being a carer. I didn't want to be a grandparent and am only too thankful I'm not a carer (from what I've read about life as one).

Still cant think of that Ideal Job though at my age...:rotfl:

calicocat

Yay.......


More like minded people who were born to retire....i am not alone.....lol.

However I would do something a couple of days a week maybe ( or one) as MTSTM said...to give purpose, meet people, etc which is important as a singlie....unless there was enough dosh and a huge social circle that meant 'doing lunch' was a regular thing.

I was born to 'do lunch' too



If at first.......!!.....retirement planning since 16..!!......lol. You were definitely born to retire.

BookWorm

calicocat wrote: »

I was born to 'do lunch' too

Sounds like my kind of thing that :rotfl:

calicocat

All this talk of careers, work in general, and retirement is making me think about things.

For myself, although I have never realised it until now, but in some ways I think what we really want in life maybe doesn't change that much from being a kid. I have my first story books (my stories) from school that my mum kept.

I was aged between 5 and 7, and the theme never really changed much. All involved a tortoise (my pet at the time), or other animals...pic-nics in the woods or at the beach (doing lunch/dinner), me ordering the kitchen staff about what we could eat, planning parties and balls....and some kind of prince who gave me jewels etc and I had the life of Riley collecting animals for my zoo and big banquets.

I was quite stunned 35 years later when mum gave them me how like me now they really are.

In all the pictures, the animals were bigger than the people, which is meant to indicate what is more important to a person.....my brother was always tiny in any pictures....lol, the tortoise was about 10 times the size of him!!!...lol.


So, i'm wondering what people wanted to be/do as a kid, and how far removed from that are we all...or have we strive to do what we really wanted in some way?

As I got older I decided I wanted to marry a farmer....i never achieved this..or even got close and dated one.....but the animal theme and 'doing lunch', going out for meals, cooking has never left my head as to what's important to me.


Edit.....and the shopping for clothes shoes etc....the 'jewels'


What do the rest of us think?

moneyistooshorttomention

Calico,

I think you may well be on the right track there. My own memory until adulthood is virtually a blank slate, but I do recall that a childhood hobby of mine was collecting recipes. Don't know why...as I was never allowed to try them out by my mother.

The other possible explanation is that my mother was/is self-confessedly a bad cook and there wasn't much money for anything remotely interesting foodwise.

I tend to think though that that recipe-collecting was because I've always been interested in good food and the preparation of it though and would quite happily work on being a gourmet if finances etc allowed.