A Retirement Blog by Caree Risover

We are working hard at simplifying our family meet-up for Christmas this year. It’s all going well so far and, once we’ve pulled it together and then recovered, I’ll be back here in a couple of weeks to discuss events with you. In the meantime, I wish all my visitors to this blog (frequent or not) a peaceful and happy Christmas and a contented New Year. Until 2019.....

The best laid plans don't always turn out the way you expect. I find that in retirement I can make sufficient time to prepare projects to perfection but frequently and regardless, through impetuosity or indolence, still plunge in anyway. Even when I do prepare, polishing to refinement is invariably a little too arduous. Take our recent trip to Madrid . I thought I had planned a faultless itinerary (with a Plan B for bad weather, tired feet etc..). We may have booked the flights on the spur of the moment but they seemed ideal, from our local airport hub via Schiphol in Amsterdam with KLM. The hotel I reserved a room in was centrally based in Old Madrid, near to a Metro station for transport to and from the airport and of historic interest itself being an old palace. However, there are some things you just cannot plan for (or maybe you can, with more time and research). In our case, however, who would have known that the time to catch our connecting flight would be reduc...

This time a week ago we were returning from Madrid after a far too brief trip, the aim of which was to sample the delights of the Spanish capital, especially the Museo del Prado and the Museo Reina Sofia.  Neither of the two art museums disappointed. In fact we left the Reina Sofia somewhat disturbed by the impact on us of the collection stretching from 1900 to 1982, from Modernity to Post Modernity through Cubism and Surrealism and the ugly period where war and conflict impacted on creativity with an emphasis on works by Picasso, Dali and Miro. It was fascinating to see before you the effect on art of historic events and whilst one of the most famous pieces is Picasso's "Guernica," the exhibition that surrounded it of the preliminary artwork and sketches leading up to and following the main piece was perhaps the most poignant and harrowing. How illuminating too to wander from Salvador Dali's realistic picture "Girl at the Window" to then encounter...