What do you do all day?

lisa110rry

Eureka! It involved some pork and whooping her from behind her Dad's chair, but done. We'll see what happens as it seems to happen in the night, or when in the house. I wonder what she might be allergic to?

TiddlyPom

Lesson learned, I had my first solo holiday around 5 years ago and was nervous before as you are. I had a fabulous time and found that people are happy to talk if you want company and you can get your own space too if you want it.
My first trip was actually over Xmas to get away from all the enforced jollity.

Katiehound

For tablets into dog think something irresistable!- any of the following might work!: cheese, cream cheese, sausage, hot dog sausage, raw black pudding, spoonful cat food. Any of these work for my girl as the tablets are so tiny. For worming tabs think- prize open clenched jaw (hers, not mine!) push in tablet and hold jaw closed stroking the throat!!!
Depending as and where the allergic reaction is vet recommended thin application of Sudacrem.(The redness on her tum caused by scratching)

moneyistooshorttomention

LessonLearned - I think that's precisely it - nail on head. The thing about having a role in life. I've often thought that mine may be the first female generation where some of us are in that position.

We've been able to manage not to go the husband/family route - whether by choice or circumstance. We've managed to cope (more or less well) as single people economically speaking. Now we are all reaching retirement age. Those of us who had fulfilling careers may find a way to do some freelance/part-time/etc work in that for a while. Those of us (like myself) who only ever had jobs that were means to an end (and have only too gratefully retired from them eventually) don't really have that option.

My role was "activist" for many years - in a variety of settings. I was thinking yesterday that it would be very difficult to do that role any more anyway in the remote location I am now in anyway.

2003 and the resultant Big Disillusionment that we could achieve anything with people like Blair around etc etc has "dampened my ardour" considerably. Shame in some ways - as one of the reasons I was looking forward to retirement was the freedom from personal worry about being sacked/not taken on for jobs I otherwise would have been/etc/etc that I experienced more than once as a "penalty" for being one.

So - yep not an activist any more. Not in a position to be a "family elder" (as many women are).

I'm more in the mindset of men that have spent many years having to do full-time work and never expected (as far as I can see) to be a family elder or the like.

Thanks for the website. I think I must have a google and see if there are any equivalent websites for men (and hope they don't revolve around typically male interests - like cars and sport) and I might get some useful pointers.

Goes off to google along the lines "retired male babyboomers/now lacking a role" and has distinct feeling I wont find any.:rotfl:

Maybe just put in a question "What do former activists (of the disillusioned variety) do in retirement?". :rotfl:. A "sweet little stint" in a charity shop doesn't quite cut it...:rotfl:

ancientofdays

Am beginning to think that partial retirement (like luvchocolate) may take a long time to work out properly given that we are so desperately understaffed and any reduction in my workload is through 'natural wastage'. And on the so called free days, I have been freelancing, which is something that I have been doing for as long as I can remember. It does help with the understaffing and also with cash flow as though not a single parent, I am the breadwinner. Still, the alternative would be actual retirement and am not yet quite ready for that change.

Gers

This is a most interesting thread!

I stopped working at the end of this March, aged 61 years. We had done the big move back north in autumn of 2013 and I took on an 18 month fixed term contract and told the company very firmly that I would not be looking to stay on.

Though I have a few years left before my SP kicks in, happily, money is not an issue. However, after a couple of months of doing no productive work I found myself fully relaxed an energised again. Now I have two casual jobs and one fixed term one, all back in education. None involve going to an office every day :j One is working online with a cohort of university students, one is teaching for two hours a week with six week stints and the other is travelling to education centres to internally verify assessments.

As the house needed a huge amount of renovation the added bonus of extra, if irregular, income is great. Work on the house is at the 'wish I had done that earlier' stage - for instance I asked the electrician who did all the rewiring over a year ago to put a shaver socket in the bathroom. Why it wasn't thought of at the time is beyond me!

Because we live in a remote area 'doing things' takes time and effort. Only one bus a day in each direction, and then only to the local village eight miles away, so a car is essential. Nearest town is 35 miles away and nearest city 85 miles. Living in a field by the coast is my dream, a dream which needs careful planning. I've booked tickets for the new James Bond film for Sunday matinee in Oban. I love my senior bus pass and railcard too, I'm off to Birmingham soon by train and then London the weekend after. Free bus down to Glasgow and first class rail fares all round. The senior railcard discounts makes it accessible.

I have much more time for reading, travelling and having friends to visit. I volunteered for hospital driving but not been called on yet.

Life is good. I worked every day since the age of 16 and feel that I totally deserve this part of my life. My only sibling dropped down dead at the age of 56 and that's my lesson learned.

As an old song goes 'freedom is a sunny day'. This is my freedom and every day is sunny, at least in my heart.

lisa110rry

Katiehound wrote: »

For tablets into dog think something irresistable!- any of the following might work!: cheese, cream cheese, sausage, hot dog sausage, raw black pudding, spoonful cat food. Any of these work for my girl as the tablets are so tiny. For worming tabs think- prize open clenched jaw (hers, not mine!) push in tablet and hold jaw closed stroking the throat!!!
Depending as and where the allergic reaction is vet recommended thin application of Sudacrem.(The redness on her tum caused by scratching)

Lol, she's a small terrier-type mongrel and quite polite so it wasn't too difficult to do the prize open jaws drop in and stroke throat. The pork chop is to get her out of her bed behind Dad's chair. She's quite clever and knows something's up!

lisa110rry

Gers wrote: »

This is a most interesting thread!

Yes, it is, isn't it?

mumps

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

LessonLearned - I think that's precisely it - nail on head. The thing about having a role in life. I've often thought that mine may be the first female generation where some of us are in that position.

We've been able to manage not to go the husband/family route - whether by choice or circumstance. We've managed to cope (more or less well) as single people economically speaking. Now we are all reaching retirement age. Those of us who had fulfilling careers may find a way to do some freelance/part-time/etc work in that for a while. Those of us (like myself) who only ever had jobs that were means to an end (and have only too gratefully retired from them eventually) don't really have that option.

My role was "activist" for many years - in a variety of settings. I was thinking yesterday that it would be very difficult to do that role any more anyway in the remote location I am now in anyway.

2003 and the resultant Big Disillusionment that we could achieve anything with people like Blair around etc etc has "dampened my ardour" considerably. Shame in some ways - as one of the reasons I was looking forward to retirement was the freedom from personal worry about being sacked/not taken on for jobs I otherwise would have been/etc/etc that I experienced more than once as a "penalty" for being one.

So - yep not an activist any more. Not in a position to be a "family elder" (as many women are).

I'm more in the mindset of men that have spent many years having to do full-time work and never expected (as far as I can see) to be a family elder or the like.

Thanks for the website. I think I must have a google and see if there are any equivalent websites for men (and hope they don't revolve around typically male interests - like cars and sport) and I might get some useful pointers.

Goes off to google along the lines "retired male babyboomers/now lacking a role" and has distinct feeling I wont find any.:rotfl:

Maybe just put in a question "What do former activists (of the disillusioned variety) do in retirement?". :rotfl:. A "sweet little stint" in a charity shop doesn't quite cut it...:rotfl:

I think there were a lot of women in your position due to losing fiance or husband in first or second world war. I can think of some women, my MIL was one, married when he was on leave before Normandy landings, left a widow shortly afterwards and my husband never knew his father. I don't think she would have ever got involved with another man, she never had the chance to get past the newly wed stage (they literally had a weekend together) so he was perfect and no man could live up to him. I imagine that the proportion of men to women in that age group probably made it difficult to find someone else. Just guessing really but seems logical to me.

My MIL was certainly a campaigner till the end, she always had some cause or other on the go.

I can remember a couple of teachers at grammar school in the late 1950s early 1960s who were rumored to be in a similar position but from WW1, don't think either of them married and they were Jean Brodie types, devoted to "their girls." One in particular was so lovely, to earn her approval of your work was wonderful and I am sure that was why it was my best subject.

duchy

I think people often don't realize how vast a range volunteering can cover - most people think of working in a charity shop, helping older people with shopping etc.

Other more interesting things are out there - Last night on TV there was an item about the Royal Pavillion at Brighton and volunteers working with some of the amazing pieces they have there -our local Cathedral is currently looking for volunteers as guides (especially in the week )- as well as help transcribing some wartime diaries recently discovered in their archives. . Lots of environmental centres need help, as well as helping out in schools ,animal sancturies - the list is endless and both more solitery as well as more social interaction is available.