Slow Living - Doing It Old Style!

Slowdown

@leftatthetrafficlights
Your supper looks delicious and healthy. Not sure my pizza and red wine would quite match up. 

A slowish day today. In the garden trying to determine the whereabouts of a leak in the pond, some pruning and leaf raking. Then a stint with the stained glass, a couple of crosswords and a film. 

Off for a walk along the Flitch Way tomorrow (a disused railway) by myself with a flask and a sandwich. Hurrah. 

Happy slow weekend all you little slow worms 😊

Florafauna

@leftatthetrafficlights the cold seems to have calmer greatly after an early night so it's off to the dentist I go at 9am for my 90 minute appointment! Your dinner looked lovely, healthy, tasty and colourful though @slowdown 's pizza and red wine sounded a strong contender as well. Going to potter downstairs soon to make a vat of tea.

Have a good day everyone and remember to keep it sloooooow 😁

leftatthetrafficlights

@Slowdown - pizza and red wine sounds good too! 😁 I hope you find your pond leak - it's a nightmare when liners do that 🤦‍♀️😔 I hope you enjoy your walk! 😁 

@Florafauna - I'm so pleased that you're feeling better 🙌 good luck at the dentist 🤞 

I have my grandbaby this weekend so have been playing trains, tractors and a variety of other things since 4pm yesterday! 😂 He decided to wake up at 6am this morning and hasn't stopped at all 😳 we're going out later to explore the local woods and build dens - I'm going to sleep well tonight!! 😂😂😂 

Have a fab day everyone!! 😁

Moorviews

It’s a beautiful but cold morning with a lovely dawn chorus going on. The sunrise is amazing; mauve and pink sky from the east facing window. 

@leftatthetrafficlights - I am seconding or thirding how delicious your meals look and sound. Now that I am virtually at the end of my mega purchase pre Christmas of root vegetables, cabbages and sprouts, I am looking forward to some fresh and lighter meals. Thank you for the welcome and the suggestion of going more hands off with catering for resident adult offspring. I am just going to ensure there is something in the freezer they can cook if there isn’t enough of what I am making and relax about it. 

@Brie and @Slowdown - thank you for sharing your beautiful works of art. 

@Florafauna - hope the dentist trip goes smoothly and that you have something nice later on. 

This week I had a lovely walk and time at the park with adorable GC. I help out DC sometimes with daycare when they are at work. It isn’t relaxing or slow but very special to be with the growing small person. Having said that, being with a toddler is an immersive experience and very grounding so I tend not to worry about any of the usual stuff. 

I am very affected by my diet and have reintroduced my favourite breakfast of a kind of shakshuka/ratatouille with chickpeas and an egg. It lasts four days and I just cook the egg fresh every morning. Otherwise, I like to have a fruity baked oats dish. I don’t like cooking in the morning but need a good substantial breakfast so I make things ahead and reheat. 

Each day, I have made time to read or do my crochet. Sometimes not until bedtime but it feels good to tick that box. We had an outing to look at camper vans and think about holidays and what would suit us. We do have something very small already but wondered about upgrading. It was just nice to investigate and dream a bit!
As I react to a lot of household cleaning products, I clean most things with bicarb, washing up liquid, vinegar or washing soda. Thanks to watching the energetic Nancy from Bake Off, I have also discovered green bleach and isopropyl alcohol. She has a lot of good tips on the gram. 

The discussion about retirement is an interesting one and feels like a huge step. It wasn’t difficult to come to the conclusion that it was right for Mr MV, however I still envisaged myself working. We have realised though, that to make the best of our time and be free of any work timetable, it actually made sense for me to retire too. I really wrestled with the concept but I know that I don’t have the energy for my work and all the other things that I would still like to do. Some money has been saved with not having the commuting but my husband definitely eats more often when at home and loves to have coffees and cakes when out and about. He is getting the hang of us taking a flask and homemade food though. We have less income than we did but a simpler life is very enjoyable. 

Moorviews

Enjoy your weekend with the grandbaby! @leftatthetrafficlights

Floss

I'm loving the discussion about retirement; I'm 60 in a couple of months and had 6 months off work last year following breast cancer surgery and treatment., which has completely changed my views on work & retirement. Since then I have paid off my small mortgage and am paying that money into my private pension pot so I can quit my NHS role at 63. I enjoy my job & being with my colleagues, but my line manager is a bit of a challenge and I'm finding it quite frustrating. I've only been with the NHS 5 years and I think it's that experience from local government & industry that is influencing my frustration. 

The dilemma I have is whether to walk sooner and get a less-hours less-demanding job for a few years, or stick it for 3 more years for the extra bit of pension. I think I need to do some more sums and look at what income I need  rather than want, and then see what jobs there are...

zcrat41

Interesting reading all these comments on retiring. I’m a good 20 years off that but we employ quite a few part time staff of retirement age. Most of them have had previous bigger jobs but wanted to step back and just do something easy that you don’t have to take home for a few hours a week. 

I’ve made carrot and coriander soup and fresh bread this morning whilst the kids are doing their homework. Dh is off out with a friend this afternoon and I’m hoping to light the fire are read and play games with the kids before pizza and gladiators this evening. Love Gladiators, feels like I’m back in the 90’s!! 

CRANKY40

I used to be a civil servant so I have a government pension. I took a career break when I was widowed and then left after that was up as my son was still young. I get a widows pension from the MOD and my son gets a dependants pension until he finishes education (he's in uni).

I have taken my civil service pension early as my son is disabled and me being available to drive means less of a struggle for him to get to uni. The way I calculated claiming my pension was to assume that I would live until I was 80. I then calculated the money I would get if I claimed it at 55 (lump sum plus monthly payments for 25 years), the money I would get if I retired at 60 and the money that I'd get if I retired at 67 all until my 80th birthday. Surprisingly the 55th birthday came out as a winner. I still didn't claim my pension until I was 56 but it was definitely more of an informed decision than if I hadn't done the calculations. Obviously I have my widows pension to soften the blow to income until my state pension arrives. 

What I did do before claiming my pension was go back to work when my son was old enough and still at school. Not as a civil servant though, I went and washed dishes in a local cafe for 4 hours a day. It was bliss. The other staff were friendly and when my shift ended I walked away on the dot without worrying. There was no pressure to clear a caseload, no targets other than enough clean dishes for the cafe and none of the Sunday dread of anticipating Monday morning. 

I hope this info helps when considering options 😊

Florafauna

Hello Slowies, back from the dental bone graft. It's all gone OK and I'm on the sofa resting, watching telly and knitting. Have a coffee that I'm letting go tepid before drinking. 
I have decided that I'm going to retire this year from my crazy job in education. I love it but it's very stressful also. I don't teach but work in a Pastoral role. My colleagues are great and I love the kids but am thinking I have timed out.
Me and husband are also discussing the option of moving nearer family. Think he'll retire and I will chug on in a very part time low stress job for a couple of years 

Wednesday2000

My husband is off work sick at the moment and may be retiring this year if he gets medical retirement and if not will return to his job until 2026 and retire then. It is worrying thinking about running out of money. I have read a lot of posts on here about retirement and I have read financial articles, but I think we won't know what life will be like until we are in the situation of being work-free and retired. It seems like a lot of people on this forum live on fairly small amounts after retirement, but still live nice lives by being frugal.

I was feeling ill the past couple of days after I had my filling. I was feeling sick and had a headache. The dentist said it was a reaction to the anaesthetic. It has been so long since I had a filling and I don't remember if I had this type of reaction before. I feel okay today, although I need to get in some steps today and tomorrow as I spent most of yesterday in bed. I did finish off another book on my kindle when I was in bed yesterday and I did a 10 minute meditation I found on YouTube too.

I had a smoothie and toast for breakfast. I bought maca powder a few weeks ago and I read that it is meant to be good for menopause so I am going to add some to my smoothie every day. I am in perimenopause at the moment  and now using HRT patches and a vitamin supplement so I am going to add maca too. It does taste nice, slightly like butterscotch or caramel.

I am going to have a shower, go for a walk and then start another book.