A Retirement Blog by Caree Risover

I have generally considered myself  to be healthy and my retirement lifestyle equally so. I exercise daily; eat a good diet; don't add salt to my food; don't drink much; have never smoked; have no obvious stress triggers; have even lost half a stone in weight since finishing work although, like many people, several more pounds won't be missed. Grief, I sound so boring! Anyway, I was a little concerned by my hospital visit at the end of July when the nurse checked my blood pressure. I could see the reading on the screen and, as it seemed high to me, I did ask her if it was okay.  "Absolutely fine," she said but that didn't exactly allay my fears. After all I had been sitting in a waiting room that could easily have passed for Obesity International and what if mine had simply been the lowest she had seen all morning? The result has been nagging on my mind, so on Monday I called into our surgery and had the Practice Nurse take another readin...

Sultry Scotland is a little like Sweltering Yorkshire; neither sounds completely convincing. Nevertheless, between all the cooler spells and torrents of rain, we have experienced them both and have trekked from one to the other following the sun and inevitably ending up with thundery showers. In Scotland where the temperature on the sea loch was 26 degrees at 9.30pm one evening we have made some more progress with the retirement project: installing the 12 volt plugs and replacing a foot operated sink pump and buttons for the cushions in the saloon berth, the inners of which had literally rusted into dust. At the moment, however, we are awaiting the manufacture of new mattresses for the forward cabin. For the time being two consecutive nights aboard is proving to be the maximum length of our fortitude as, not only are the current beds playing havoc with our sleep patterns, but we are waking with aching backs and, of course, by Day 3 it is generally pouring down anyway...