A Retirement Blog by Caree Risover

Well summer has definitely arrived and with it soaring heat and humidity. The daily variations in our temperature never cease to amaze me and to the extent that differences of 10 degrees celsius are not uncommon. So this week we are being treated to temperatures in the twenties, last week there were days when they failed to reach 14 degrees. Mind it is hard to be satisfied and I'm quickly learning not to plan retirement around expectations of the perfect day; the British climate hardly knows such a thing! So today I regret that after completing a fitness class and a gym workout, I had to declare the day too hot for anything productive and took instead to a reclined position on the garden lawn with a glass of water in one hand and a book in the other. Moreover and for one nasty moment I thought about the luxury of an air conditioned office.  All those years when I have spent summer trapped inside an office building and suddenly I am lured by the fantasy of a cool environment...

The world can be a dangerous place and the headlines today only added to the fear with news of terrorist attacks in France, Kuwait and on tourists in Tunisia. In retirement do you take the view that you want to travel regardless or are you circumspect as to your destination and even to the extent that you stay in your home country?  Is it better to be cavalier and argue that when you have come as far with your life as retirement, nothing is going to stop you continuing in the way you want?  Alternatively is it more sensible to cower at home, examining the world  from the safety of your computer or television set? What about the risks of flying compared with driving to the supermarket or gym, and is staying at home really safe anyway?  Ultimately it is not of course what statistics (or the FCO's website) say, it's how you feel about the proposed journey and destination. Unfortunately my professional training taught me to see the pitfalls in everything....

I have finally planted my vegetable patch after first giving priority to the flower borders . Save for onions and potatoes which are growing rapidly, it is currently a mass of neatly groomed earth hopefully nursing seeds that will shortly break through the surface. When working I had to put up with most temperatures in order to tend the plot, drawing the line only at digging in the rain. In retirement I was, therefore,  looking forward to the scope to spend my weekdays in the garden. Now either the weather has been particularly cold and windy this year or alternatively I am becoming very choosy but this week I have had to pull myself up short, don a fleece and get out there after realising that if I wait for the thermometer to hit the mid teens (celsius) and the sun to shine too, I might never get all my seeds sown. Now they are in, it would be easy to imagine that I have induced a state of heat and drought to descend upon the North East of England. However, after s...

I know, I can hardly believe it myself, but today marks a full year since my last day at work. Do I regret the decision to retire? Of course not. Yes to begin with there was a learning curve and given my time again I really would have worked harder at retaining an element of fitness pre-retirement, but I can say in all honesty that I just love being in charge of my life again to the extent that I can choose what I want to do by the week, day or even hour. Obviously not everything has worked out the way that I had envisaged. For one thing, I had not realised how active I would be in retirement compared to being office bound and indeed just how much time I would spend on my feet whether it be for physical exercise, walking, shopping, on holiday or even household chores and gardening. Looking back I certainly did not expect to factor into my weekly routine so many exercise classes or to have taken up Yoga and Pilates. Conversely I had been concerned that when at home an...

At Lochranza we saw Oyster catchers with their unique shaped beaks and red legs as well as black guillemots which in the UK are very much limited to the West Coast and islands of Scotland as well as Northern Ireland.  A shag passed us in its low flight over the ocean and on land we saw red deer grazing their way through the village and regarded as a pest by the local people.  Leaving to head east on Wednesday and then southwards to Lamlash we heard our first cuckoo of the year and noted that even if we were well wrapped up against the chilling sea breeze, seals were basking on top of rocks in the sunshine. Unfortunately we had to wait for our next mooring to gain any benefit from the sun's heat as on our voyage southwards the sails blocked out its rays and my layers of fleeces remained intact. We were just commenting on the fact that we had not spotted any dolphins on our trip when the tell-tale noise of air being expelled through the blow-hole of a cetace...

Last Monday (8th June), Mister E and I seized the opportunity of what we understood would be a calm weather window and set off on a four day voyage. Our time away was limited by a dental appointment for Mister E and a family party on Saturday evening, and the plan was therefore to round the Mull of Kintyre and spend two days on Gigha before returning to Troon and then home. The one thing I have learned about sailing over the years is never to rely on that weather forecast and that everything is always at least twice as cold, wet and windy as we expect. Hence I can only blame our lapses in preparation on the fact that it was our first outing this year. I should, of course, have gone with instinct and taken a hot water bottle in addition to my heavy duty sleeping bag, inner lining and blanket. Instead I had to rely on socks and multiple layers of clothing to stay warm in bed. I also assumed that two towels would be sufficient when of course in the absence of perfect conditio...

Mister E and I made a trip to Durham last week. It is somewhere that I have visited frequently throughout my life, but this was the first occasion on which I have used the Park and Ride facility. As retirement is the time for new experiences, instead of heading into the City to trawl the multi storey car-parks for a space charged by the hour, we parked the car in a spacious outdoor facility adjacent to the motorway from where we were able to head into the centre by bus. Amazingly there was no charge for parking and whilst there is a fee for the bus ride, Mister E who holds a senior citizen's bus pass (I am still too young and as the age for eligibility keeps being postponed may never  qualify) was even exempt from this.  All in all we found the process most convenient and will not hesitate to make use of it again.  Although next time I shall make a much better effort at remembering where I have placed the return bus ticket and so spare myself the embarrassment o...

When I first travelled to Greece in 1979, English was not so widely spoken and all signs were, understandably, in Greek. Now it is rare to see even a road sign that is not translated into the Latin alphabet, as used in English and most other European languages. To make my life easier for travelling around Greece, I dutifully learnt the country's alphabet with its false friends like B which is actually a V, or P which is in fact an R. It was invaluable, especially when it came to deciphering the destinations of the buses that we caught repeatedly.  Apart from a few basic words, however, I have never mastered the language. Somehow when you travel somewhere and everyone appears to speak such impeccable English you are very discouraged and end up telling yourself that it is hardly worth the effort.  It has, however, always been my intention in retirement to learn more foreign languages and in light of the fact that it is one of the most widely spoken languages in the w...

I have been busy painting recently. Unfortunately you will recall from a previous blog post that decorating was  one of those chores that was left for retirement. Although I do actually enjoy painting there was just never the time to do it and the thought of being disrupted by "getting a decorator in" never appealed. Now there are walls aplenty to paint and theoretically heaps of time, except that there are still other activities competing for attention. Speaking to the youngest on the telephone tonight she told me that she had been staying with a friend whose home was nicely decorated, the implication being that it was not like ours.  Hmm, maybe it was a little over ambitious or even plain silly to leave such a momentous task for so long, in the naive hope that, once we had a little time, we would quickly sort it. In fact I have an overwhelming feeling that our home could become like the Forth Bridge and when we get to the end, it will be time to start again ...

I went to a Ladies' Charity Lunch today; the first time since ceasing work. What a relaxed and lovely occasion it was. It took place at Rockliffe Hall where a glass of Prosecco, friendly company, a delicious meal and a moving speaker all combined into a memorable event. Best of all I did not dash there from an office and I did not have to return there either, nor undergo the macabre punishment rendered  these days  for "taking a lunch break" (even when a working lunch) of making up the time by working late. The event was in aid of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and Angela Baker, otherwise known as Miss February and played by Julie Walters in the film , recounted the story of the Calendar Girls' phenomenon. She had us in laughter and tears, often at the same time. It is astounding to think that the idea for a calendar could ultimately lead to raising over £4 million to date for research and which in turn has helped, we were told, increase survival rates ...