A New Adventure

MallyGirl

After a fab 4 days in the garden over Easter and then returning to work to find myself in a bit of a lull with not much to do, I really am not sure I can last till 60. Mind you, if the lull continues then that might not be a problem I have to deal with I suppose! 55 is too aggressive as we need to see what life (and costs) are like once DD goes to uni in 2020 (at the earliest).
I am having to console myself looking at posts about camper van travels while waiting for ours to be converted.
I remodelled the spreadsheet looking at figures at 55 and it doesn't give us enough to do what we want. DH would never go for it.

JoeEngland

k6chris wrote: »

So dear reader, into my third week of the adventure and all is well, if slightly dull. I have found myself having an unplanned (but strangely enjoyable) time decluttering and getting rid of things on eBay and the like. This has the twin benefit of creating some money and making the house lighter. Other dull activities include the annual game of ‘no Virgin Media you are not going to put my monthly bill up by £xx a month’, which disappointingly took me 19 minutes to win this year. I have got rid of some old work shirts, bought some new trousers (the same as I already have of course) and decided that learning to touch type is too much like hard work, especially given you can dictate straight into Word. Ooh, made my first soup too!

In more exciting (but not very much) news, I am also in the throws of changing cars, in a kind of down-valuing but upsizing experiment which sees my mid-life crisis Mini Roadster making way for a (ahem) gold Volvo S80. It’s a long story, but it will be interesting to see how cost effective the long-term ownership of an older, bigger car will go. Gold? Horrible colour, but I don’t get to see it when driving and I figure the previous owner is unlikely to have been a boy racer! Also, I have not actually sold the Roadster yet – well it’s not really summer is it…. In doing all of this I also had to update my employment status for the insurance – so it would appear I am actually ‘retired’ after all!

In more exciting news, I am booked on a creative writing course, once a week for the next couple of months. It goes without saying that the most likely outcome of this will be I become a best-selling novelist (especially now I have discovered the Word / dictation thing). How difficult can it be after all? I will keep you posted.

Right, must dash, I have a water butt to clean and mend, then off to the tip, sorry, ‘recycling centre’. Very early days but not bored yet and not missing work one jot…and hey, I’ve bought a gold Volvo. #livingthedream

Is the feature of dictating into Word part of Word itself or via another piece of software? If the former, which version of Word is it?

greenglide

It seems not to be a Word facility as such but is a Widows 10 function. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4042244/windows-10-use-dictation

Ganga

mgdavid wrote: »

Completely agree; it's also about metabolic rate among other factors, people are different. I do no formal exercise whatsoever, and never have done. I eat like a horse and drink wine several days per week (while ensuring I have a minimum of 2 a-free days, as advised by a wise doctor many years ago). I'm 5'9", 75 kg, never ill and not on any medication.

I'm 70 this year and have no problem passing my annual race driver medical. However I build, maintain and fix my own cars so there's plenty of natural activity in that - a day up and down on the garage floor certainly tests how supple you are.
I'm lucky in that racing is much more than a hobby, it's my passion, and it involves motorhoming to various wonderful circuits in mainland europe so most trips become holiday breaks too.
Then there's the self-imposed discipline of planning and working to a deadline to get the car at its best in time for each event. That looks after the mental exercise too. The best bit about being retired is I will never again need to pull an all-nighter changing a gearbox because work travel prevented me doing it sooner.
Happy days.

There might be a clue in your name but what car/cars do you maintain/race,just curious:rotfl:

mgdavid

PM'd you ganga...

shinytop

I'm on the home straight now. Over the last year or so my exit date has been changing. First it was March 2021, then March 2020. After a significant (i.e. bad) personal event I decided October 2019. Last week I told my boss last week I was going in August. I'll be 58. I'm excited and a bit worried at the same time but definitely more excited.:D
Part time was discussed and quickly ruled out. I haven't got an exact date yet but we have a holiday in August and it would be nice to make it a permanent one;).

saver_ali

It's my husband's last day today. The thing he's most looking forward to is not having to sit at a computer every day and being a slave to email. He's a bit emotional about it all, and spent most of yesterday on the phone to soon-to-be ex-colleagues, but as a remote worker, he doesn't have the same camaraderie as in the "olden" days.

After he's dropped off his company owned equipment this morning, that will be it. We're off on a short cruise tomorrow, and then I have a list of jobs for him! 😀 It's not quite that bad, but we do plan to have a declutter over the next few months, and to do something with the garden.

He says he has had a book in his head for years, so it remains to be seen if anything comes of that!

I retired 4 years ago, and it has been brilliant, so I hope he enjoys it as much as me.

bugslett

Good on ya shiny top, it seems like miles away, then all of a sudden you'll be counting 20 more working days an thinking, that went quick.

Good luck to Mr ali, going on holiday straight away sounds like a good idea.

2 more operational days for me. I have something expensive to worry about, it should be nothing. Hoping it's just jitters after getting everything together to finish.

sheslookinhot

I'm thinking of retiring in Feb 21. This is when my FS/CA pension will max out. Last year it was Aug 21, on my 62nd birthday. God, seeing that age there makes me seem old, I'm not really. Of course, a golden cheerio would gladly be accepted at any time. Mrs Sheslookinhot has a few years work to go after me, so I keep telling her. Not sure if she's listening.

I would like to get off and backpack round the Greek Isles and separately cycle round Rhodes. Together we plan to walk the Compostila de Santiago and buy a motor home and tour from Portugal and round the north med countries. Over a good few years tho'. The NC500 in our own country is also on the radar.

In aeroplane terms, I feel I have started a gentle descent. I can't seem to get excited about much at work. It's all a regurgitation of improvement plans I was heavily involved in a generation ago. From knowing all our 700 or so staff to barely knowing 50% as churn increases and colleagues retire I'm starting to mentally retire with them. I'm sure time will fly.

I hope everyone keeps good health to enjoy their remaining work years and retirement

Slinky

We've accepted an offer on our house, so we're soon going to be relocating, which means I have decided that this will be my last working month. I have one last stab at selling my business, if that doesn't work, I'm just going to close it down. I'll be 55 next month, I may be working just a week past my birthday. Wish OH would give up but he wants to carry on working.


So I'm doing that thing several people seem to caution against doing, which is give up work and relocate to somewhere where we know nobody. Hey ho, has to be done, wish us luck.