A Retirement Blog by Caree Risover

Voice of New Retirement is a report from Aviva and one of its key findings is just how happy retired people are. Well I'm living proof so I can certainly agree with that one. In fact retirement is so good that 62% find it better than they expected (or perhaps they just had low expectations!). The report suggests that happiness and fulfilment peak in later life and that those who are retired find greater contentment with their finances, health, diet, exercise and time spent with their family. Yes, I think that this blog can bear witness to all of that too. So there has to be a downside before everyone hands in their notice and joins the great retirement bandwagon and I'm sorry but the report addresses this as well. It's preparation or rather a lack of it. Alarmingly 27% of people nearing retirement have done nothing to prepare for it, financially or otherwise. Now that is distressing, those people are going to let themselves down in a really big way if they t...

In my pre-retirement life, being ill would have meant a need to catch up at work on recovery. So much so that getting out of one's sick bed and returning to the desk went hand in hand without any thought for rehabilitation That is not of course the case any more. Instead and in retirement the recuperative phase where you stay in and keep warm has been a splendid opportunity to catch up with Future Learn courses that had slipped during our recent trip to Switzerland.  Strategies for Successful Ageing from the University of Dublin is the name of one such course and there must be something about being ill because looking at pictures, in this case infographics, is always therapeutic. I have been dazzled by the statistics on ageing. It seems that the Boomer generation continues to be aptly named even in retirement, when you realise just how many members it has and how old they are all going to be very shortly. The great thing about being retired is not only does your m...

I know there is an increasing trend to live our lives online, bonding with and being consumed by technology to an extent never previously thought possible. I don't like it and have tried to wean myself off the iPad and Smartphone, concerned at an increasing habit of checking them perhaps as much as hourly. Imagine my surprise, therefore, to learn that looking at them 12 to 15 times a day isn't really a problem, let alone an addiction. The generation to which my children belong, apparently needs to check their screens at least ten times that level on an average day! That sci fi future we used to read about when we were young has finally caught up with us and the blur between man and machine is happening. On my return from Switzerland, imagine therefore my frustration to find my desk top computer invaded by not one virus but several, each transmogrifying into something more sinister, revelling in such dubious and threatening names as Palikan, DNS.Unlocker, and Reimage...

Now I am no railway buff but can there be a better way to travel around Switzerland than by train? With cog and funicular systems linking to the main valley lines, it is possible to board a train in Geneva and travel up and into the mountains. Mister E and I purchased flexi pass tickets before we left the UK enabling us to travel on trains, buses, and boats on four days in any thirty. Services are frequent, reliable and, save at peak times, uncrowded. The scenery is magnificent. We travelled alongside Lake Geneva and then climbed gradually through the Rhone Valley to Visp where we transferred to the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, ascending past avalanches and ever deepening snow to Zermatt.  There we emerged into the square outside the station where small electric taxis and horse and carriages wait to pick up hotel guests. From the village the railway lines rise higher still on the Gornergrat Bahn, a popular tourist ride and also an alternative route up and down ...

Call it stupidity, madness or a desire to self-destruct but, notwithstanding degeneration in the knees, a rotar cuff impediment and, of course, that sprained ankle , I have been skiing. Moreover it was only a year ago that I finally disposed of my long loved but rather worn ski boots, after resolving that my skiing days were over.  I last skied at Christmas in 2013 and I guess it's like riding a bike, you don't forget, even if the risk of breaking bones when you fall potentially increases. Fortunately in my case I am pleased to report that rather than crack, I still bounce! Getting back to the top of a chairlift in the crisp mountain air is truly invigorating but moving down the slope at speed (even if I was bringing up the rear of our party) was absolutely exhilarating. Two turns and my nervousness had almost dissipated. Four days and my right knee was wobbling along in a brace, screaming with pain and asking to be rested. Yes, Miste...

The end of another week and I can hardly believe that it's just over a week since we returned from London and less than a month since we spent a week in the Lake District .  When I was really busy at work, time seemed to fly.  So much so that I could never quite believe, when, for instance, the dentist sent me a reminder for an annual check-up, that a whole year had passed since the last appointment; it seemed like yesterday. Now every day seems to have so much activity crammed into it that time stretches out behind me and I'm actually surprised that events took place only a matter of weeks ago, instead of months. The changing perspective on time is, of course, a welcome one. I understand that the variety in my activities and lack of  a recognisable routine may account for this change, compared to the previous decades when the humdrum nature of work dominated. Whether the perception has a scientific basis or not I was unsure. After all I don't think Albert...

A dilemma frequently faced by Mister E and me in retirement is our choice of entertainment. We can agree on art exhibitions and even television documentaries but when it comes to live art or the cinema, we have, shall we say, a divergence of taste. So much so that last summer we bought a second television set (I know which household really survives on just one television these days?) in order, with my new found leisure time, to treat myself to my own choice of film or drama series, rather than the crime and terror which I am convinced dominate Mister E's viewing. In London last week we encountered familiar territory as we wrangled over which West End show to see.  "They don't do shoot-outs or car-chases," I maintained, as he wrinkled his nose at the thought of 'Phantom of the Opera' or 'Billy Elliott.' I am pleased to advise however that a compromise was reached and we both willingly went to see the first night of " War of the W...