It's No Holiday

near Lithgow

Well, actually, it is kind of like a holiday – retirement, that is. It all depends on how you define a holiday.

Of course I researched this – what is the definition of a holiday? The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says it is “an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in travelling”. Wikipedia says it is “a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work, are suspended or reduced”. If I go by the OED, then my retirement certainly is a holiday, because it most definitely is an extended period of leisure and recreation, even though it isn’t always away from home or travelling. But if I go by Wikipedia, it isn’t.

All the time I was working, I had this vague idea that when I retired, it would be like I was on holiday all the time. And according to the OED, I am. But it doesn’t feel the same, and I think it’s because my idea of what a holiday is has changed. Well, maybe it hasn’t changed so much as it has been clarified.

one of the waterfalls on our most recent holiday
near Leura

I have definitely come down on the side of Wikipedia. A holiday is really a break from doing whatever it is I do every day. When you are working, a holiday is when you don’t go to work, and do something else instead. But just because I don’t go to work doesn’t mean I don’t have normal activities that I occasionally need a break from. And that, to me, is a holiday.

Holidays are a total necessity. When I was working, I wasn’t one of these people who accumulated an enormous annual leave balance, or got a visit from the company accountant telling me to “at least put in a leave form, so we can pretend you will go on holidays”. I usually had to check I had a balance at all before I could go on my next holiday! In some cases, I think I actually owed leave days to the company. I really needed my holidays.

some steps on a walk we DIDN'T do
near Leura

I think I used to get into a real rut, heading off to work each day, doing the same things each day, week, month. The enjoyment wears off a bit. Taking holidays meant I could recharge my batteries and go back to work and “real life” with a renewed enthusiasm for the job. The time off was also a chance to take a step back and look at my working life to see if it was what I wanted, and if anything needed changing.

Holidays were also a chance to see things, go places, and do things that I couldn’t see, go to or do when I was at home (or work).

Well, guess what – it’s exactly the same in retirement. No matter how much I enjoy doing the things I do in my “real life”, I need a holiday from it sometimes. The days, weeks, months would all blur in together and become years, and whilst I wouldn’t dislike it, I wouldn’t be enjoying it as much.

Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely enjoy being retired, and am not looking for sympathy. I really am at the beginning of “an extended period of leisure and recreation” (see OED definition of “holiday” above).

the results from my most recent "real life" activities

But, my advice is to make sure any retirement planning includes holidays – real, specific times designated as holidays, when you do something different to the normal activities of your retirement. Retirement is not just the rest of your life being one long holiday – it can be so much more! 

The Best Laid Plans

I may have mentioned before that I like to plan. But sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Sometimes things can work out when they haven’t been planned. And sometimes, no matter how much I plan, it’s just not going to happen the way I want/think/hope.

The basil that I have nurtured since it popped its head up
over 3 weeks ago! It's sad.

Once again, the vegie patch is my best example. By the way, it is now after Melbourne Cup Day, and the tomatoes are still alive – this gives me hope that they might actually survive to produce those beautiful, tasty tomatoes I’ve been dreaming of. But that is beside the point. Where I have planned ahead, improving the soil, growing seedlings in the greenhouse, transplanting out into the vegie patch only after the 2^nd set of leaves have grown and in the season the packet tells me, diligently watered with seasol every 2 weeks, some plants just don’t work. Some go really well. Some just outright go and die. Some just don’t do anything much. But why? I’ve done all the right things, planned what needed to be done. Very frustrating.

The lettuce that is going well after a rocky start

On the other hand, I’ve had success where I was flying by the seat of my pants. Take the lettuce. They got planted before they were supposed to. One got dug up by a bird scratching around looking for nesting material, so I just shoved it back in the ground and hoped for the best. It’s thriving.




part of Ferntree Gully

I have another example. We had a day out last week (a Mid-Week Meander). It was my birthday, and I’d told Les what I wanted to do – the Ferntree Gully Walk, followed by lunch at the Bizzy Birds café in Rylstone. Les had it all planned, what time to leave home so we would get to the walk in time to have morning tea before we set off, allowing enough time to do the walk then make it to the lunch spot at a good time for lunch. All was going well until we got to Rylstone – café closed!!! What do we do??!! Picture me with a very disappointed face.

the steps out of Ferntree Gully - just
a little bit steep, but luckily not too many

Luckily there are other lunch options in Rylstone, and I’m not just talking about the pub (although I’m told it has a good bistro). We wandered up the street and found another nice little café (Café 47), in a huge building that is also a gallery space. We had a lovely lunch, and I had a quick look at the artworks on display. So, we discovered something new – that is what can happen when the plan doesn’t come together.

What got me thinking about plans was a sign in the window of the café, saying that planning to have a bush fire survival plan is NOT a plan. It is a very timely reminder, given the recent fires in the Blue Mountains, and the onset of summer when we have had way less than our usual amount of rain. But this is one of the plans we just haven’t done. We don’t even have a plan for having a plan! I wonder why 2 people like us (both Les and I are planners) haven’t done this most important plan? We live in a place that has open farmland behind us, and if a grass fire came through there, we would be in trouble. Maybe I’m not as plan-obsessed as I think I am.

I don’t think I will ever be really comfortable without things being planned, but I’m not so stuck in that planning rut that I can’t appreciate the fact that plans can change, things don’t always go to plan, and that’s not always a bad thing. And sometimes, just sometimes, not having a plan can work too. Now I’m going to check out the RFS site for a bush fire survival plan.

the surviving tomatoes in front of the
carrots going great guns, then the peas
right at the back - all good

 

Retired, or Just Not Working

When I told my boss that I was retiring, he told me that I couldn’t retire, because I was too young! I wonder how much that was because he is just a little bit older than me? Anyway, it was a fairly common response when I told people. I wonder if the response would have been different if I’d just said that I was giving up work?

breakfast on our short break to
Bingle Tree Retreat

It seems that there is an assumption of age being a factor when we use the “R” word. If someone in their 30s stopped working and had no intention of going back to paid employment, would they say they had retired? Probably not, but I think the only difference between me and that person in their 30s is about 20 years.

At first, I really didn’t want to have those age-related connotations applied to me, so I fought against using the term “retirement”. I mean, I don’t think I’m old, and I certainly didn’t stop working because of my age. But then I realised that I hadn’t actually just stopped working, I’d done more than that, so why not call it “retirement” and see what happens.

one of the guests at the Taronga Zoo Christmas Lunch
- because we are retired, we can now attend!

Back when I was talking about Being Prepared, I said how there is a difference between wanting to retire, and just not wanting to work. It was as I was thinking about that difference that I realised I was retiring. So I suppose I should try to explain what I mean.

Many people these days have had breaks in their working lives. I’ve done it a number of times, to travel, as a semi-enforced break after being made redundant from a job (boy, that was DEFINITELY a case of “not working”), as a much-needed “time out” after a particularly challenging job. There are many other reasons, such as caring for children or the elderly, studying, or taking the time to devote to a passion. But none of these seem to be retirement. What is the difference?


a travel pillow, made for my niece, who is
off travelling to Europe

One of the differences, for me, is that I have absolutely no intention of going back to paid employment. I will be doing some volunteer work, so I may be working, but I will still be retired. Even if I do get some payment for something I do in the future (eg if I ever earn any money from the things I make), I will still consider myself to be retired. That’s a bit contradictory, I suppose, but it makes sense to me.

Another difference is that I’m doing so much more than not working. It was as I was going through all my reasons for not wanting to go to work that I saw it was time to retire. It wasn’t that I hated work – I didn’t. It was just that having to go to work each day was getting in the way of me doing things I wanted to do more.

winding some cotton into balls so I can
knit it into who knows what

If I was just not working, I would probably be bored to distraction, and not know what to do with myself. When I was thinking about retiring, I made sure I wasn’t doing it just because I didn’t want to work. If that was the case, once I’d gotten over the novelty of not going to work each day, what then?

So, I consider myself to be retired. It suits me. I’m sure it doesn’t suit everyone. If you are thinking of retiring, and it’s because you don’t like working, there is more thinking to be done. Think about what you are going to do if you aren’t working. If you end up just not working, you may well end up not liking not working! Then what?

What to Do?

Believe it or not, I actually have a list of things I want to write about on this blog. Yes, that’s right, I’ve planned it. The trouble is I’m not keeping to the list! I find that a bit challenging, as I like being able to tick things off my lists – that way I can see that I’ve actually achieved something. And it makes me feel comfortable that I’m going about things in a structured, orderly way.

my list of things to do - on the craft room wall

The difficulty is that I keep on thinking of more things to write about, and I end up writing about what I want to write about at the time, instead of following my (not very) well thought out list. So when I decide that I’m going to write about something NOT on the list, I put it onto the list just so I can tick it off. That lets me pretend that I am still doing things in a structured, orderly way. Sad, really.

cotton, rolled into balls, as per list

But the same thing is happening with all the things I want to do in my retirement. I have a list (of course), but then I think of things that I want to do that aren’t on the list. And for some reason, I think that I can’t do them unless they are on the list. I don’t pretend to understand the way my brain works!

Where am I going with this train of thought? One of the things people worry about when they are going to retire is “what will I do?”, thinking that they won’t have enough to fill up the time, and that they will be bored. That was certainly one of the most common questions I was asked when I told people about my impending retirement. But what I have found is that instead of worrying because I have nothing to do, I’m worrying because I have SO MANY things to do, and I don’t know which ones I SHOULD do. The question is still “what will I do?”, it just has a different spin on it.

things I have on the go - cross-stitch, knitting, cushion cover
none of these are on the list!

This is impacting on my enjoyment of retirement. Back when I wrote about being too busy to be bored, I didn’t realise how it would affect me, that it would become one of the mental challenges I’m facing. And I’m really struggling with having a less rigid structure about my day. I was a bit premature when I said I’d decided that structure wasn’t important to me anymore.  I’m trying to change the habits of a lifetime, here, and that isn’t easy.

Wish me luck!

Mid Week Meandering

Sydney is a very busy place. Nothing is done slowly. Everyone is in a rush. Very few people take the time to stop and smell the roses.

I just copied this from the beginning of my post about MidWeek Escapades. The idea of that post was how I love doing things mid week to avoid the crowds.

Well, we have now moved to Bathurst, and we brought with us our habit of taking our little escapades mid week, so on Tuesday last week, we headed off for a day trip to Hill End. It was a lovely drive there. The weather was gloriously sunny and warm, unseasonably so, but I’m not complaining. Although getting into the country way of life, I have to say that the land looks very dry – we are definitely in need of some rain.


Hill End Information Centre

There isn’t much between Bathurst and Hill End, so we just took our time, meandering along the country roads, checking the sheep, cattle, and the amount of water in the dams. We also saw a few different sorts of parrots, some kookaburras, and ducks. No kangaroos, though, if you don’t count the road kill.

Information Centre car park - mid week

Anyway, once we got to Hill End, the first port of call was the Information Centre. It used to be the hospital – hard to imagine a town this small being big enough to have its own hospital. It’s in a lovely old building that has been restored, and is now also a museum.

Imagine my delight when we called into the Information Centre to see so few cars in the car park. The car park is enormous, so imagine what it must be like on the weekends!  I was so glad we had gone during the week.

First lookout of the day

We grabbed the brochure of the town that showed where the various sights were, and how to get to the lookouts. And off we went. At the first lookout, as you can see, we had no competition for space, and didn’t have to wait for ages to get the photo without people in it. Great!

It was the same deal everywhere we went – hardly anyone to get in our way. And we didn’t see anyone at all when we did the historic walk around the old gold diggings.

One problem, though. If we’d wanted to buy anything to eat or drink, or to browse in the shops, we would have been out of luck. Yep, those places were all closed. Maybe something to do with the fact that hardly anyone was in town?

We went back to Hill End on Sunday (oh…my…god – an escapade NOT mid week). We'd invited Mum to stay with us for Mother’s Day, and we took her there for an outing. Again, the drive was lovely, and the weather was gloriously sunny and warm(ish). But what a difference when we went to the Information Centre, and the lookouts. 

Information Centre car park - Sunday

Bird at the lookout - Sunday

As you can see, the crowds were amazing!

We then had lunch at the pub, and coffee at the café across the road. The Olde Wares shop was open to browse through.

Note to self – not everywhere is like Sydney. I think the people in smaller places DO take things a bit slower. And it pays to think carefully about heading off on a Mid Week Meander – consider if maybe it might be better to go when a few more people will be about!

Ups and Downs

This week has had its up and downs, so I’m feeling a bit unsettled at the moment. Actually, if I’m honest, I’m feeling a little lost, or disconnected. Let me try to explain.

part of my routine -
a necessary part of my day

We are trying to move to Bathurst, away from the rush, and anonymity, and anger, and crush, and isolation of the city. We have been trying to do this for some time, but have had a few obstacles in our way. Each time we make a little progress, something else happens to slow things down. And this past week was another of those where things didn’t happen when we thought they would. So that was a Down.

Because a planned day-trip up to Bathurst had to be delayed, we both needed to get out and DO something. So Les quickly found a lovely long bushwalk in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park that we could do. He is a wonderful person, because this bushwalk has an easy side-track that goes to a kiosk that sells cappuccino! So that was an Up.

see all the lovely grass trees!

 

 

 

 

The weather for the day we walked was fine – in fact it was quite warm. We did the hard part of the walk first – up hill from Bobbin Head to the Sphinx Monument. Then we could do the easy part at the end – along the creek back down to the marina at Bobbin Head, and the coffee shop.



It is hard to believe that such walks exist within the Sydney Metropolitan Area, because when you are doing them, you feel just so far from the city. My favourite plants (xanthorrhoea, or grass trees) were everywhere, some even with spikes.

lonely and late flannel flower

And I even spied a lonely flannel flower, which is my favourite flower – it is VERY late in the season. So this walk was definitely an Up.

Then my best friend had to cancel out of coffee this week, as she wasn’t well. And she is heading off to visit her Mum for a couple of weeks, which means that I won’t see her for some time. That was a Down.

But I still caught up for coffee with another friend. That was an Up.

And my regular Saturday morning exercise group was cancelled because the trainers had to go to Queensland for a funeral. That was a Down.


a goanna we surprised along the track

So my week was all about plans and routines going out the window. None of these were earth-shattering, and you would think being retired would mean that small things like these would be nothing to worry about – I mean, I’m retired, so just chill! But I think I may have mentioned (once or twice?) that I like plans and routines. Somehow they make me feel comfortable, and connected to the world. I try to go with the flow when the plans and routines don’t happen, but sometimes that is just beyond me.

One of the things about retirement is that to a large extent, I can do what I want, when I want. In theory, this could mean not having any plans at all, and just being spontaneous! But I’ve learnt that I don’t feel happy like that. I’m happier with structure. So rather than trying to force myself into being something I’m not, I’m learning to work with my little quirks. Now all I have to do is learn how to not get all bent out of shape when the plans and routines go missing in action.

And remember that one size definitely does NOT fit all when it comes to retirement. MY retirement needs to suit ME. And if the plans and routines don’t work out, I’ll feel lost, but I’ll still be here, and next week will be better (I hope).

Be Prepared

Being prepared -
having a camera handy when out and about

I like to Be Prepared.

Yes, I was a Girl Guide. I can’t remember exactly how long I was one for, but I do remember heading out for meetings once a week, in my snappy uniform. I probably stopped going when it was no longer something the cool girls did. Not that I was one of the cool girls, but I desperately wanted to be, so Girl Guides had to go.

But that is beside the point. The point is, I absolutely LOVE the motto. At the time, I didn’t really think about what it meant. I’ve just Googled it, and apparently (according to Wikipedia, so it must be right J) the first handbook for Girl Guides, How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire  says the motto is because you “have to be prepared at any moment to face difficulties and even dangers by knowing what to do and how to do it”.

Well, that may be true, but it sounds a bit dire and dramatic. For me, being prepared means I feel more comfortable, in control, and able to cope with what might get thrown at me. It enables me to feel comfortable that I’ve made the right decision. I can be a bit obsessive about it (some might say anal), and spend WAY too much time and effort getting totally prepared. But you don’t need to know everything in order to make the right decision, you just need to know enough to make a good enough decision.

 

Les is a lot like me when it comes to being prepared. You should see the work he does organising our holidays! Before our first holiday together, he even had our rest stops planned for days when we were driving. He isn’t as detailed now, but you get the idea on how he feels about preparation.

It can be tough writing a blog like this!

Yes, I’ve wandered from the point again.

Anyway, when we were looking at retiring, of course we had to Be Prepared (aren’t I a good little Girl Guide). Part of that preparation was reading suggestions, advice, and whatever we could get our hands on to tell us what we should do. I mean, we really want to enjoy our retirement.

We didn’t need to read all the stuff about financial readiness – we have a financial adviser who said we had enough money, and our own calculations (done using a much more conservative set of assumptions) agreed.

What we wanted to read about was what physical, mental and emotional preparation we needed to do. And it turns out there was a bit to do.


Getting into good physical condition
- Sand dunes at Kurnell

We had to be in good physical condition. Makes sense. Retirement is a bit of a waste of time if you spend it all being ill, or feeble, unable to get out of bed.

We had to really want to retire, not just not work – there is a difference.

We had to be ready for the emotions involved in retiring and being retired, and have strategies for dealing with them.

In future posts, I’ll talk about each of these in more detail. In the meantime, know that retirement is better if you are prepared for it. Here are some books we used to help us Be Prepared!


Brilliant Retirement by Nick Peeling

101 Secrets for Great Retirement by Mary Helen and Shuford Smith

What is Time?

Years ago, I heard, or read, a quote that was along the lines of “Time is just something we have that stops everything from happening at once”. I never knew where the quote came from, and even Googling it today doesn’t really clear that up.

The quote stuck with me, along with a lot of other seemingly useless trivial stuff. Anyone who knows me at all, knows that I keep a lot of that type of trivial shit in my head. My question is often “why?”. What is it about certain things that mean they stay with me, and others don’t?

Maggie doesn't care about time!

With this particular quote, it really struck a chord with me, because time seemed so variable. Why is it that a minute spent vegetating on the lounge is so much shorter than a minute spent holding the plank position? Why is it that an hour spent walking along a bush track is so much shorter on the way back than it is on the way there? Why is it that a year when you are 5 years old is so much longer than a year when you are 50 years old?

I think I can answer the last question – my explanation is that a year, as a percentage of your life so far, is HUGE when you are 5, but so very little when you are 50. I don’t really know HOW that explains it, but it feels right.

Having said all that, I know that I’ve spent a lot of emotion over the years beating myself up because I couldn’t do all the things I wanted to/needed to/should do. How many times have I said “I will do all these things once I have more time”?

Making these mug rugs WAS part of the plan this week

Well, let me tell you, retiring DOES NOT mean I have more time! What a surprise! I thought, simply by not having to get up and go to work would mean I would have more time. Ha! The amount of time is just the same – time is NOT variable.

But it still feels like it. This last week has seemingly disappeared. I had plans. I wanted to get things done. And I wanted to enjoy some quiet, relaxing time. But here I am, at the end of the week, and I feel as though all those days just went by without me noticing or paying attention.

As I said in my last post, I try to keep track of what day it is by keeping a diary (of sorts). And this helps me to know that I HAVE actually done things during the week. Now I need to be a bit more flexible, and simply go with the flow if the plans I have get changed, or the things I want to do don’t actually get done. After all, it isn’t as if the time has been wasted.

I see time passing with my growing Grass Tree

I don’t think time can be wasted. Time simply is. It passes. Don’t stress about it, I tell myself. I will try to spend time in a way that makes me happy. But I will still plan my time – I feel much more relaxed if I have a plan. My challenge is to not get too out of shape if that plan doesn’t actually happen.

There is always next week – maybe I’ll have more time then!

Permission to Do Nothing

Although being retired doesn’t mean, to me at least, sitting around doing not very much, it is OK to do pretty much exactly that, every now and then.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been racked with guilt whenever I’ve spent a day not being “productive”. But my personality traits mean that every now and then, I need to have some time out. So, I take those time outs, and then afterwards, feel incredibly guilty about it. I mean, really, I should have been cleaning the house because it is a pig-sty, but instead I sat around and read a book for the day. Or I should have been organising the next girly get-together because we haven’t seen each other for months, but instead I watched a rom-com movie.

a "non-worthy" pursuit - baking melting moments!

All the things that I did I put into one of two categories – worthy pursuits and non-worthy pursuits. Things like reading a book, or watching a movie, or doing a crossword, or making cards (ie all the things I actually enjoy doing) fell into the non-worthy category, or course! And if I did any of the non-worthy pursuits when a worthy pursuit was sitting there waiting to be done, I felt guilty about it.

But, not anymore!! Well, most of the time, anyway. It has taken me a LONG time to realise that there will NEVER be a time when there isn’t a worthy pursuit waiting to be done. And if I don’t do those non-worthy pursuits until there are no more worthy pursuits, I’ll never have any fun!

So, that whole way of thinking has to go out the window. No more “worthy” and “non-worthy”. Now there is “time-constrained” and “non-time-constrained”. By that I mean, things that have a deadline, and those that don’t. That has freed me up to be able to make more choices about how I spend my day, and not feel any guilt about what my choices are.

trashy magazines, courtesy of the doctor's surgery!

Today was one of those days where the planned things just didn’t happen. Bad weather meant my exercise class (Use It or Lose It, a wonderful class lead by Denise and Fred from Wellbeing Fitness) was called off (we do our class outside at Bicentennial Park). And the idea of heading out to visit a friend in hospital was just not going to happen. So, instead of tidying up the spare room, or mopping the floors, or doing the mending, I read a book and some trashy magazines. I pretty much only got off the lounge to make a coffee. Loved it!

The way I see it now, I only have one chance at this life of mine, so I want to enjoy it. And if that means doing pretty much nothing sometimes, then that is exactly what I’ll do. Those other, “worthy” pursuits, I’ll get to them tomorrow J.

Too Busy to be Bored

One of the questions I was asked when I said I was retiring was “Won’t you be bored?” The answer at the time was a slightly cautious “No, I don’t think so…I hope not!” The answer now is a definite “No! I’m too busy to be bored!”

Sometimes I think retirees fall into one of two categories – those who are bored out of their brains, and either go back to work, or fall into a decline (sometimes, sadly, they die before they realise); and those who are busy enough that they think “how on earth did I fit going to work into my life?”

Luckily, I’m one of the busy ones. I can’t imagine going back to work. I did try it for a short time, as I was missing some of the things I got out of work, but I found that it interfered too much with my other activities. My coming out of retirement didn’t last all that long.

Let’s take yesterday as an example. After some chores in the morning (I don’t count these as part of my activities, as they are necessary whether you are retired or not), I finished the crochet part of a top that I’m making.

 

All I have to do now is weave in the ends, and it will be ready to wear. Mind you, I’m not ready to wear it, as it has turned out to be a bit small (I’m new to crochet, so didn’t properly work out what size I needed to make). Luckily I’m in the process of getting healthier, so losing weight is part of the plan anyway.

Once I’d done that, I got stuck into making a birthday card for a dear friend. I make pretty much all my own cards now – I enjoy making them and tend to collect bits and pieces of tools, equipment, paper, cardstock, decorations etc (some bought new, some acquired from people who no longer use them, some improvised from other things), so it’s not a cost saving exercise, by any means!

Then I thought I’d do my exercise for the day (as I said, I’m trying to get healthier). Since it was Tuesday, it was my Strength andFlexibility day (I do it every 2^nd day), going along to the podcast from the UK National Health Service. It’s a good podcast to start out with (I need something to tell me what to do, otherwise I don’t work myself hard enough), but I’m going to try to find something a bit more challenging.



some shorts I made for when I'm doing my exercises

I’m also doing the C25K program, also using the NHS podcast. I do it every 2^nd day also. I’m on Week 4, and have been for 2 weeks! I’m finding it quite challenging, so won’t be looking for a different podcast. There are a zillion podcasts for this program out there but the hard part is finding one that has music that I want to listen to (I’m not into that techno-crap).

So I get home from my exercise, and decide that I want to try to knit another dishcloth. I’ve already knitted a few, using the WaffleWeave pattern from Deb at Homespun Living, but wanted to expand my knitting repertoire, and saw her lovely Baby Fan Dishcloth pattern. If you haven’t cottoned on (pun intended) to homemade dishcloths yet, give them a go. They are lovely and soft, yet still clean the dishes really well. So easy to wash (throw them into the washing machine), so you don’t just throw them out like you would the ones you buy from the supermarket.

In between all that, I found time to do a couple of Sudoku (I have to keep my brain working!), catch up on my internet reading, research some books I want to get out of the library, annoy the cat (I have the scratches to prove it).

So, no, I’m not bored. In fact, the challenge is in choosing which of the many things I want to do that I’ll actually get to each day.

A truly joyful retirement!

Early, But Still Late

I was never a career-driven person. In fact, I was never a driven person in any way. I kind of just floated along, getting where I got to by accident rather than design. I admire people who have a passion in life and really work to make their lives what they want them to be. But I never really had that passion – maybe I never really knew what I wanted my life to be.

One thing I do remember wanting when I was younger, was to be retired by the time I was 40. Mind you, I was probably 21 at the time, and thought 40 was really, really old. I also thought that 40 was a long way off, so I had plenty of time to make that happen. How wrong was I!!



gum blossoms at our accommodation on a recent short break



Before I knew it, I was 40 and I hadn’t done anything to try to make retirement happen early. Where did all those years go? Oh, yes, I was living them! And what had I thought retirement was? All I was thinking of was that I didn’t want to be heading off to a 9-to-5 job in the City, that was taking up valuable hours when I could be doing the things I wanted to do, at the pace I wanted to do them.

For the record, I was just 50 when I retired. So even though it is later than I had thought when I was 21, it is still quite early. I’m hoping that I have many years left to enjoy this life – this joyful retirement!

I am really enjoying retirement. In a way, I think it is a good thing that I wasn’t able to retire at 40, because I don’t think I was ready for it then. I hadn’t done the financial preparation, certainly. But I also hadn’t done the mental preparation. And retiring without having done that would have been a disaster.

When you retire, you have to be prepared for a lot of changes. Suddenly a large part of your life is not there anymore. For some people, their work defines them, and without it, they don’t know who they are.

me in retirement? a sculpture at Wollombi!

For example, when you meet someone new, one of the first questions that will be asked is “so, what do you do?” and if you aren’t prepared for that, the answer for a retiree could easily become “nothing – I’m retired”. In your mind, that “nothing” can easily be extended to become the answer to “what AM I?”, not just “what do I do?”.

I mentioned in a previous post that Les and I had prepared for retirement. One thing we did was address this issue of “what am I if I’m retired?”, and to help us with that, we searched out books at the library, and articles on-line. But the thing we noticed was that many of those were aimed at people retiring at what would be considered a normal age (60 and older).

Are there other people out there who have retired early? Talk to me!

Just Maybe

Oh, what will I write about? Maybe I’ll write about what I do. Maybe I’ll write about what I think. Maybe I’ll write about what I feel. Maybe I’ll write about what I want. Maybe I’ll write about what my plans are.

Today I’ll write a bit about me. An introduction if you like.

Here I am, in my fifties, and still trying to work out what the heck I’m doing. Sometimes I wish I’d been one of those people who had a plan. But then that wouldn’t have been me. And it means that I’ve been able to go with the flow when things happened, instead of being upset because things didn’t go “according to plan”.

I am where I am because I didn’t have a plan, and where I am is mostly pretty good.

We (my wonderful husband and I) are only a few months away from moving from the city (Sydney) back to the country. We are both originally from out of Sydney, and now that we are not tied down to working for a living, we can get out again. We are not going back to our original towns – I’m of the belief that you can never really go back, as it’s never the same, and usually doesn’t live up to expectations.

We can’t wait to get out of Sydney. There is no such thing as peak hour traffic anymore – it is dreadful all the time! And the people seem too often to be angry, or sad, or frightened, and always in a rush. We want to be in a place that we can enjoy, that other people enjoy, and that suits the pace of life we want.

Luckily, we are in the position to be able to retire quite early, when we still have the health and energy to do the many things we want to do. I say “luckily”, but really, we have worked for it, and suffered a bit too. Being made redundant does add money where it is not expected, but it is not a pleasant experience, and knocks around your sense of worth.

So, we are moving out of Sydney, but still close enough to come back to visit friends, and the family that live here. We will also be closer to my Mum, so I can more easily get to her if she needs (it’s a 5-6 hour drive at the moment). And we can have a real vegie patch! I have the idea that I would like some chooks, but the wonderful husband is not too keen. We’ll see.