A Retirement Blog by Caree Risover

  Image by kalhh from Pixabay On your marks, get set ...Go! How many of us live life as though it is a competition or race? Every other phase of my existence has certainly involved the pursuit of ambition, striving for excellence and the desire to win (especially in the conduct of the contested court hearings my career was built around). I like to think retirement is different. Take Saturday for instance when divine retribution dictated that, as a natural consequence to the period of hot weather we had been enjoying, it would rain all day. Time, therefore, to pick up the paintbrushes and acrylic paint and check out my artistic side once more. Relaxation and enjoyment; life is not a battlefield, I told myself.  Then, the unexpected happened. Mid brushstroke, a veil came down over my left eye and I was staring at the canvas through a mat of tangled cobwebs. I had just suffered a very sudden posterior vitreous detachment. It is a common eye complaint ...

Phew! What a scorcher of a week it has been. Headed up by Doris, Pretty, Savage and Drab it appears that we now have the most extreme right wing cabinet since the Thatcher years, and, at the same time, temperatures have rocketed. I've read that hot weather can cause water retention, adding up to 5 pounds in body weight just at the point where you might want to squeeze into a bikini. Wherever is the justice in that? To counter the impact,  drinking more water and exercising are apparently the best remedies. I can't be faulted on either of those counts this week and with the sweating that accompanied an aerobics class on the hottest day of the year, I could almost imagine myself sylphlike and stretched out on a beach. Sadly it isn't quite working out like that. Instead it looks as though will power (or rather a lack of it) and a quick succession of crumbles as we pass from rhubarb and gooseberry season to what will shortly become the plum then apple period...

Forget the never ending Retirement Project. After five long months, this weekend marked the conclusion of the Ensuite Bathroom Project with a grand opening ceremony.  The youngest, paying a fleeting visit, cut the ribbon whilst a brass band (courtesy of Amazon Prime and the iPad) played in the background. We decided against filling the bathtub with champagne and instead opted to share a bottle of Prosecco, raising our glasses to the new shower and all who bathe under her.

The politicisation of the vegetable patch has been concerning me of late.  Without presumably any intention the current leader of the Opposition has succeeded in becoming synonymous with allotments, marrows and runner beans. Consequently the vast majority of the population is purposefully showing complete disinterest in the cultivation of their own vegetables, leaving that to veteran Labour Party gaffers. However, it now seems that the as yet unconfirmed new Prime Minister will, in his quest to leave the EU by 31st October, no doubt be exhorting us all to grow our own in an attempt to become self sufficient. Of course, he's not yet aware that if you live on a diet of cornflakes, ready meals and Cheesy Quavers, growing your own in a window box on your balcony will be nigh on impossible.  Forgive me, I digress, for in these turbulent times there is something very comforting in being able to wander amongst the seeds I have sown, now flourishing as plants. ...

Image by Positive_Images from Pixabay Now that summer is here, the County Council has taken to mending the roads, causing chaos and diversions. My morning schedule has recently been disrupted by a road closure necessitating a doubling in the length of my journey to and from the gym. Whereas this might have been tantamount to a total meltdown of sanity in my pre-retirement life, in the parallel universe that I now inhabit it has proven to be excellent news.  No, of course I have not forsaken the exercise classes as the cynics amongst you may have assumed. Rather I have travelled early before the roadblock has been set up, meaning that I have undertaken a 30 minute workout before my first class. Then, at the end of the morning, I have taken the leisurely detour home along winding country lanes, enjoying the wild flowers on the verges, the farmers beginning to cut the hay in the fields and an overriding sense of both achievement and calmness.  There really is no...

  Duntrune Castle on the North Shore of Lake Crinan, visible from the mooring Even in retirement, I still like my activities to be purposeful. It's over five years since I took the plunge and I still find it hard to simply savour "down" time. Historically there has been a series of sailing boats to provide good boltholes from the stresses of office life, especially when in days of yore the prospect of a mobile phone reception was extremely limited. Now, however, the need to escape the dreaded ringtone, text or e-mail has faded although by a quirk of fate the boat's mooring does seem to provide solace from connectivity. We were back on board last week. Yes the first experience of cooking and sleeping overnight on our retirement project. What can I say? Conditions were more primitive than we are working towards but we live to tell the tale. It was hard work with no running water, only one light operating, and what seemed like a myriad of essentials to c...

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay I went back to school today. Well that's not completely honest: it was a training course for parish clerks and chairmen. Still the atmosphere felt familiar; the conference setting; the paper, pens and lecturer; the questions and urge to get as much out of the session as possible. Fortunately it was an exercise of reassurance on my part although it was evident that this was not necessarily the case for everyone. Although some clerks and chairmen had clearly been in situ for many years, their ignorance of the contents of the Local Government Act 1972 (yes 1972, so no excuses) was shameful. Perhaps it’s a lawyer thing but I do like to get to the bottom of why and how to do something properly and the primary legislation is the first place to look. Just like school and the workplace, arrogance abounded. Indeed a couple of very pleasant chaps to my right informed me that their councils would continue to operate as to date, disrega...

Image by meineresterampe from Pixabay       I participated in my first outdoor Yoga session of the year this morning. In bare feet, grounding or earthing myself. Of course, it felt good. Grass between your toes always does, doesn't it? It seems, however, that grounding is becoming something of a cult with pseudo-science claiming that connecting ourselves to the Earth enables positive electrons in the ground below to stimulate and energise our bodies. In fact there was even an urban myth doing the round after our yoga session to the effect that there are parks in London that charge to allow you to stand and connect with the grass under the soles of your feet. If it is true then I do wonder if my back lawn could become a money spinner. Now I am not one for mumbo jumbo nor for what potentially seems little more than an old form of pagan worship. That said, there is no doubt that stretching slowly under the warm sun does wonders for your inner sense of calm, alo...

We have just taken advantage of a short spell of excellent weather to pay another visit to Crinan and our restoration project . However, as we undertook very limited, if any, restoration on this occasion, I have refrained from adding this blog post to the list of those dealing with the somewhat drawn out process that we have embarked upon. To get to Crinan we drive through the "Arrochar Alps" And also thorugh Inveraray  Driving up and for the first three days of our trip the weather was absolutely glorious with the temperature on deck hitting 29 degrees and even 27 in the cabin below. We don't  very often get those conditions in Scotland, least of all with a warm breeze too, enabling us to try out the new suit of sails. The last time we were so spoiled was probably back in 2014 not long after we had retired, the years in between being spoiled by an excess of wind or in the case of last year the boat being laid up whilst its new engine and windows were fi...