A Retirement Blog by Caree Risover

After the potential grumpy old woman's mutterings in my last blog entry intimating a clear dislike of change or interference, I thought it was important to redeem myself today. At risk therefore of being labelled as a typical Guardian reader (I'm certainly not an active fashion consumer with a taste for designer labels but concede, without apology and as my retirement is evidence of, to inter alia liking to think I’m part of a progressive audience with a love of travel, art and culture), I just wanted to say how much I love the paper's new format, especially the Saturday Review and Travel sections. Who would have thought that I could ever read a newspaper in tabloid form?  It just goes to demonstrate that there are changes which I can still truly embrace and any apparent lack of positivity in retirement is not yet to do with ageing (I hope).

Readers of this blog will know by now that I enjoy modern art and sculpture and have spent many a day visiting galleries and exhibitions, admiring sculpture outdoors as well as inside. Whilst staying in the Lake District last week, imagine, therefore, my excitement to learn that a piece for a new exhibition called Lakes Ignite 2018 was to be installed only a half mile or so up the beck from where we were staying. Called Ordnance Pavilion, it has been created by Studio MUTT and is intended to acknowledge the impact Ordnance Survey mappings have had on our interaction with the landscape. Last year the Lake District was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site with the intention that this would help preserve and protect this beautiful English National Park with its rich cultural landscape. Lakes Ignite 2018 aims to celebrate this designation. Now I like art to surprise and leave a lingering memory or conundrum to puzzle over. This piece certainly did that but maybe ...

It is hard to visit the Lake District and not be reminded of Alfred Wainwright , the celebrated fellwalker and author whose Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells in seven volumes remains the leading authority on hill walking in the area. Whilst out in the open air last week many of his written thoughts also came to mind. The joy of shared experience and of the human sub-conscious perhaps, or an attempt to answer the most profound of questions that haunt our every moment. Wainwright's answer however, whilst illuminating, fell short of providing a definitive answer to that one word question, "Why?": "...more and more people are turning to the hills; they find something in these wild places that can be found nowhere else. It may be solace for some, satisfaction for others: the joy of exercising muscles that modern ways of living have cramped, perhaps; or a balm for jangled nerves in the solitude and silence of the peaks; or escape from the clamour a...

This post comes with a health warning: the title reads, "Disappointed by a Lack of Traction." That is "traction," not "attraction."  Okay warning over, what is Caree blogging on about today? Too old for acne, she can't have discovered another wrinkle, surely? No, let me say again this post is about traction or rather a lack of it.   There I was after a week of relatively mild weather thinking Spring might be just around the corner when boom another snowfall hit, all 3 inches of it and life was thrown into chaos. It must sound ridiculous for those who live in countries used to regular winter snowdrifts but believe me, it now only takes a couple of millimetres and it seems that the whole of the British Isles grinds to a halt. As I have written on various previous occasions, one of the great things about retirement is the ability to fit one's life around the weather. So much so that treacherous road conditions throw up two obvious ch...

 So today turned out to be my big day and after two weeks in the grip of an influenza like illness (as I've seen Australian flu defined) I finally returned to the gym. When working it was accepted practice to attempt to struggle on regardless and when you did succumb to a virus, to return prematurely often causing what seemed to be a resurgence or lingering of symptoms. That said, the company of others, a change of scene and an assignment to task the brain can work wonders at uplifting the spirit. In retirement, however, it is  easy to cosset yourself at home, break all contact with humanity and allow yourself to be nurtured slowly back to health. The trouble is staying in and warm, can become somewhat tedious after a time. Further, woe betide, if you allow yourself to fall into the trap of thinking that the older you get the longer these things take to shake off. With that mindset, I could stay in bed for months. So a little like returning to work, I decided to ...

I don't recall commenting on completing the dreaded tax return for a few years. I note, however, that when I did so in 2015 , I was buoyed by the possibility that age might bring a simplification of tax affairs. Well after spending all day filling in the online form, I am convinced that whilst my financial situation may have become simpler, the tax system and information required has surely become more complicated? Either that or the administrative burden of collating the detail required to answer the questions posed is so awful that I just blot it out for 12 months, let selective amnesia intervene and then allow myself to be overcome by shock and frustration when I sit down to insert the details every January. In a desperate attempt at escapism, I did do an internet search on excuses to put forward to avoid filing. Sadly it looks as though HMRC is stony-hearted on this score and such creative explanations as others have offered, ranging from "the dog ate it"(...

When you express appreciation it is of course because somebody has provided something good for you, an act of kindness or a compliment perhaps. When you receive it, then hopefully it is because you have done something decent for them.  I am therefore please to express my appreciation to  Kathy Gottberg of SmartLiving365.com who posted a brilliant entry recently listing a wide range of websites and blogs aimed specifically at retired people, most of which I had never come across. Do take a look and check them out. The trouble with so many great retirement sites written by retirees for retirees is that they compete in search engines with insurance companies, financial experts and others seeking to peddle their wares to the grey haired brigade. Buried at the bottom of the mountain, many just simply don't get the attention they deserve. Moreover the more I read, the more I realise just how many of us are on this  enormous adventure called "retirement" and, ...

Eventful or calm and peaceful, I never quite know how to describe that week beginning with Christmas and ending with New Year. Interspersed with periods of: family and togetherness, memories and resolutions, indulgence and even gluttony, activity and then indolence, nostalgia and reflection; it is definitely a unique time of the year. For us this year was different in that for the first time in modern history the eldest was at the opposite side of the world and not therefore with us to enjoy what have become our own family traditions. Even the beloved Boxing Day Quiz had to be deferred when he failed to rustle up an internet connection on the national park trek that he was undertaking. A quarter down, we still manoeuvred our way through the week, even managing an overnight trip to Hull before its reign as the UK City of Culture 2017 finished. Less than 80 miles away, it took an end of year cut off date to get us there. Who thought working to deadlines has no applicatio...