Today is Alan's first official day of complete and utter retirement. He's been getting his state pension since February but we had one last contract to honour for our company.
Now it's done!!
He went to back to base in Berkshire yesterday and handed in his secure laptop, his security passes and a few documents, and now he is a free man. Although he had worked for the same establishment for the last seventeen years he was, believe it or not, a contractor working for them through our company. But, as he has been there for longer than a lot of the full-time regular staff, he was given a lovely send off from his long term colleagues.
He also got a lovely gift of an engraved decanter commemorating the date, and a bottle of whisky to fill it with. Now lots of you know that he's an unusual Scottish man, as he really doesn't like whisky at all, so I am going to do my old trick of turning it into Blackberry Whisky and it will be ready to drink in a years time, when we will crack it open to celebrate the one year anniversary of his retirement.
We started our new here, there and everywhere, go at the drop of a hat lifestyle this morning and took ourselves to the coast for a walk along the prom, and then had a cooked breakfast in one of our favourite cafés. Before leaving for home we called into the Morecambe branch of Aldi to compare it to ours ... it's slightly bigger and has a slightly better range of stock, but it was freezing in there. They are one of the remaining stores without doors on all the fridges and boy does it make a difference!!
We chatted all the way home, in fact we chatted so much that ... for the first time ever ... we missed our turning off the motorway. Alan had chosen to overtake a convoy of lorries at the wrong time. We both burst out laughing and said 'it doesn't matter we're retired', yep, we have all the time in the world to do a thirty extra miles circle to home .
Thank you for all the comments on the last post, I'm glad that so many of us are on the same wavelength. To waylay any worries about me not posting anymore, after much thought I have decided that it's not the blog that is going to vanish in any way, it's all the restrictions that I have been putting onto myself and blogging about that are now lifted.
Yes, I will still be doing most of the things ... saving money, eating cheaply etc etc, after all I am now retired and with the titchiest of pensions until next May, so there's definitely no extra cash to throw around. But I am not going to let that change the things that I want to do or the optimistic mindset that comes with the freedom that not having to work brings.
There will be some changes, and hopefully you will enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed thinking about them. 😀
I will live my hobbit life happily ... minus the hairy feet!!
Sue xx
Enjoy every minute! I wish you both many more years of love, life and laughter together ❤️
ReplyDeleteThank you Angela, it feels like we've been practising this retirement lark since the start of the year, now we can make all the final tweaks to it and do it all full on. :-)
DeleteLovely post, so glad you'll be inviting us to share some of the time with you both as you enjoy the next phase of your life together. Also been there and done that regarding motorway exits and grateful that neither of us has Hobbit feet........although there's still time to grow hairy.......love and best wishes for a long and very happy retirement to you both, Elaine
ReplyDeleteThank you Elaine. After all these years of us zooming up and down many different motorways, it was so funny that we chose a one junction hop on one of our most frequently used stretches to go wrong on, we were in stitches!! :-)
DeleteEighteen years on and I can say retirement is the best job ever! Thanks for the Beatles earworm this morning-Let it be is definitely one of my favourite songs. Enjoy your retirement together and as fellow Scots, neither of us likes whisky. Catriona
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing you were reading back to the 'Let It Be' post ... sorry for the earworm, but it's a great song isn't it. We used to get so many bottles of whisky gifted to us for helping motorists in difficulties on the road in front of our Welsh house, it turned into a bit of a joke.
DeleteI hope that you both enjoy retirement and have many happy, fun times! Keep laughing! 😄
ReplyDeleteThank you Sal. We will always keep laughing, you have to don't you. :-)
DeleteYou go girl go….this stage of your life is there to be enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteThere’s an old saying that fits in well with your post - Retirement is not the end of the road. It’s the beginning of the open highway..
Well we are currently on the highway looking for our next adventure ... well Alan is, I'm having a bit of a chill. ;-)
DeleteHappy retirement to you both! I hope that you have a lovely time going forward. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Bless. xx
DeleteHappy Retirement to you both.
ReplyDeleteCounting down the days until Alan utters the words which every Retiree eventually comes out with: "how on earth did I used to find the time to go to work!" 🤣 😘
That day will no doubt come, in the meantime it's already ... 'I'm fed up, where are we going?' I think I need to make a list of places so I can be prepared. ;-)
DeleteFind that man a hobby - one which either benefits you or doesn't bother you! 🤣
DeleteA heartfelt and happy post, just enjoy all the wonderful times you will fill your retirement with, the constraints have been shed and the world looks rosy for you and Alan. Have you infused raspberries in whisky, can heartily recommend, hic😉. Jan in Castle Gresley
ReplyDeleteThanks Jan. If there's any whisky over after I've made the blackberry whisky I could do a small batch of raspberry whisky just for Alan, I really do not like raspberries ... but I guess it is HIS whisky. :-)
DeleteHappy retirement to you both
ReplyDeleteThank you Sooze. xx
DeleteHappy retirement - no more clock-watching. What a relief.
ReplyDeleteWe still welcome the weekends, even though they're now little different to the weeks.
To be honest we were bad at that anyway, so yes a relief. Owning the company does give you a certain amount of leeway. ;-)
DeleteWe definitely need to keep weekends different. I want to stop Alan food shopping on a Saturday or Sunday mid-morning, it's always so busy and noisy in the shops then. Us pensioners should shop mid-week. :-)
What a joyous post, I'm sure all of us readers of your blog are delighted about your blogging plans 😀
ReplyDeleteWishing you and Alan a marvellous Retirement x
Alison in Devon x
Thank you so much Alison. xx
DeleteI'll be very interested to hear how retirement - for both of you now - alters life in ways you may not have foreseen.
ReplyDeleteMy sister found her husband's retirement very hard to get used to as he took over a lot of the running of the house and the cooking, both jobs she'd enjoyed doing in her own way.
So will I !! ;-)
DeleteHappily we each have our own homes and do our own housework and cooking, so that will stay exactly the same.
Fabulous to be free of the clock at last, able to take advantage of good weather and to choose to stay at home in bad! Have a lovely time!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I cannot stay in bed once I wake due to my back. I have to try and get things moving again as soon as possible. But lazing around in PJs for a lot longer will be very welcome some days.
DeleteThank you Kirsten, we are hopeful of many lovely times and a few more spontaneous little holidays. :-)
We have come to the same decision as you. My husband is 73, 74 in January and has pension but I am the same age as you and have to wait until next May too. We recently decided we didn't want to keep catering until then so have now taken down our web site and are finishing at the end of the year. Our last bookings are in October, November and December. Just having made the decision is a huge relief. We have enough savings to tide us over until then. Enjoy your retirement as I know we will too.
ReplyDeleteThe relief when the website comes down is amazing isn't it. Happily our website came down many years ago when we stopped breeding pigs, then we put all our energies into the engineering business and it's one customer.
DeleteI hope all your plans come to fruition, it's a great feeling having a light at the end of the tunnel isn't it.
How lovely for you. FREEDOM at last 😁😁😁
ReplyDeleteI know!! We are really pleased that it is finally here. :-)
DeleteWhen I read this post I thought of Disney Aladdin (original with Robin williams as Genie) when Genie says he'd wish for 'Freedom, no longer having to go poof what do ya need? Poof what do ya need? Poof what do ya need? To be my own master' lol.
ReplyDeleteYou've definitely got ya freedom now.
Happy Retirement enjoy 😁🥳
Happy Retirement! I can truthfully say that retirement has been the best part of our lives. Enjoy!
ReplyDelete