A Retirement Blog by Caree Risover

  When you are working so often busyness, stress and fatigue are held up like an award of honour displayed proudly on your chest. In reality they are debilitating and in due course exhaustion can lead to burn out. There are still occasions when I feel overburdened but unlike my pre-retirement days it's so much easier to remedy the situation. This week, as well as all the cleaning up from last week's disasters and on top of my normal schedule, I've put myself under pressure by seeking to dig over, compost and re-mulch the garden whilst the sun shines and before the clay soil turns once again to something that resembles concrete. Contemporaneously I'm trying to build in a variety of self watering systems based on wicking and capillary actions. There are seedlings to transplant and pot on, as well as more seeds to be sown directly into vegetable  beds. It's a race against time and it feels like I'm losing. Nowadays I know that the most important things in life are

 At Action for Happiness one of the 10 keys for happier living is described as resilience or the ability to cope constructively when circumstances conspire against us. Needless to say Mister E and I have been practising our resilience skills in droves this month. The initial trial of our skill-set began as cool weather dominated towards the beginning of the month whereupon the boiler decided it was an opportune time to fail. At least retirement gives you all the time you need to contact the man who services it and to liaise as to an early date for repair. After staying away from local hospitals since December , I was convinced we had finally broken the 2022 jinx. However, it turned out that the boiler wasn't the only thing in need of  urgent attention when my G.P. referred me to the emergency eye clinic with a suspected retinal tear and of course the timing clashed with that boiler repair, leaving Mister E shuttling between hospital and home.  Of course, sometimes I can now be so r

  It is the first day of May and obviously I began it by washing my face with the dew on the May blossom from the hawthorn hedges before taking my place, ribbon in hand, by the maypole on the village green. Yes, I have been idly dreaming but sometimes there is a pang for the old traditions that persisted for centuries until we all became a little too sophisticated and learnt to prefer the immersive entertainment of the television screen. In our local market town an ancient charter still upholds the right to hold a May Fair in the High Street for 4 days. For hundreds of years I have no doubt that its main purpose was to trade animals and hire itinerant agricultural workers. Today it is a noisy funfair, allegedly encouraging pickpockets and petty shoplifters into the centre whilst creating mayhem for the traffic flow as a consequence of road closures. It does, however, serve its purpose in getting people to congregate and mix whilst bringing smiles to small children's faces. I guess

  Here in the north of the country we are suffering from a typically miserable (weather-wise) Bank Holiday weekend. Temperatures have struggled to make even double digits and it has rained almost continuously. Pretty much what I was trained to expect whilst working but, despite the flexibility that retirement brings, when you are conscious as to how far behind the garden is this season, it is potentially frustrating all the same. Moreover, I say that as somebody who, in retirement, claims not to "do frustration." Mid week it was a very different picture, the sun shone brightly, we had blue sky and although it was certainly not warm, it brought spring into the step as well as confirmation of the season. I've spent all winter looking forward to such days. They certainly impact upon behaviour as the need to nest-build and declutter strikes. This last fortnight we've been seriously affected, deciding to redecorate our bedroom from floor to ceiling. Is it just me or do ste

  What I really love about retirement are the opportunities to take up so many new challenges. Today was no exception when I participated in my first session of Tai Chi. It may be classed as a martial art but judo it is not. When the instructor asked if anyone had any previous experience, a friend volunteered that she had watched Kung Fu Panda. Unsurprisingly he told her that would not help! Instead it was an hour of weight shifting, stroking sparrows' tails and turning large imaginary balls between our hands, all to a soundtrack of birds singing.  I entered the studio with no preconceptions (I didn't even know if we were meant to wear shoes or not) and left it calm but enthused.  Lesson 2 is on Friday. Somehow I doubt if we shall progress to exercising with weapons which I understand can include spears, sabres and fans. Instead the emphasis is on learning a set sequence of moves, working with internal energy whilst slowing the mind, breath and movement of limbs. As we get olde

   I have been put on notice that my name will shortly be removed from the Solicitors' Register  unless I pay the paltry sum of £20 to cover administrative charges incurred by the Regulatory Authority in complying with data protection requirements. Since I retired I have remained on the roll albeit in a non-practising capacity, although and until now no fee had been levied for the privilege. At £20 the sum is nominal but frankly is there any point if I love retirement so much that I have no intention of ever returning to practice?  Apparently, so long as my name is on the roll I have the benefit of being able to vote in Law Society elections, something I have never done since retiring. I can also make use of the Law Society's premises in Chancery Lane which I have actually visited in retirement, but only once. I will continue to receive regular professional updates and the online copy of the professsion's magazine. I'd be lying if I said I'd never glanced at them in

  Oh dear, where have I been for the last month? Can you believe that one small baby grandchild would have occupied so much of my time? Well not quite, but all the travelling to see her coupled with an equally lengthy journey in the opposite direction to carry our pre-launch tasks on the Retirement Project have taken their toll. Mainly I suspect because train carriages and motorway service stations have to be amongst the worst harbinger of germs in existence. Couple that with a breakdown in immunity levels due to the cossetted nature of coronavirus lockdowns and the lack of social-mixing, and I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever be safe to let out again.  On our last such trip, I set off feeling really well following a back and shoulder massage the day before that had finally got rid of the uncomfortable knots that had been building since the gym team decided that my demographic should all really be raising our strength levels by lifting heavier weights. A great idea for build