I used to become irritated by people who, once retired, rolled out the old cliché “I don’t know how I ever found time to work”. I am now trying my best not to be that person, although I can better understand why people say it. Yes, after 43 years in full time work, I retired in July this year. After a few weeks getting used to the idea, I can confirm that it was absolutely the right decision. Those of you with good memories will recall that I wrote in last year’s note, “In truth, I suppose I’m frightened to retire, but I’m really trying to get my head round it. I’ll report back next year to let you know if things have changed!” Well, things have definitely changed.
I started working with British Aerospace (as it was then) in November 1986 following an eleven-year spell at Royal Ordnance working at the Chorley and Blackburn sites (both now housing estates!). I enjoyed a varied career, including creating upgrades to the Illustrated Parts Catalogue for the first batch of Saudi Tornados, working on support planning for the European Fighter Aircraft (as Typhoon was known in 1988), development of business systems, supporting the Eurocopter Tiger bid into the British Army, developing and delivering a module for a course at the University of Warwick, a few years in resource management, graduate and apprentice recruitment and finally managing what became a Project Management degree apprenticeship scheme. Below is a collection of pictures from a very enjoyable last 6 months at work.
I retired in summer with mixed feelings; my heart wanted to stay because I really enjoyed my job and the people I worked with, but my head told me I had to leave and enjoy my retirement while still fit and able to do so. I can’t help but notice that the BAE Systems share price has dropped 25% since I left in July. Coincidence, you reckon? I think not.
As soon as I told the owner of my local bike shop of my intention to retire, he instantly said “Come and work for me”. I patiently explained that retiring meant not working, but he was insistent that he just wanted a bit of help on Thursdays, so I accepted on the grounds that there would be no contract; I would just be a mate helping out occasionally. I started in the shop two days after leaving BAE Systems and after 18 weeks, I have already worked 33 days (yes, almost two days per week!) and I love it. I am honing partially forgotten skills, learning new ones, meeting interesting people and I can pick up all the latest cycling kit whenever I fancy. The main task in November, at what is normally a quiet time, was to convert a couple of standard road bikes into electrically assisted ones. This was the shop owner’s idea and so far seems to have been a very successful venture, since he’s had dozens of enquiries and sold four machines already. I have ridden one of the prototypes and although it rides really well, it’s not something I want (at least not yet); it feels too much like cheating.
Geraldine has not yet retired, although she recently applied for redundancy but was turned down. I think she is resigned to working for a little longer in her main job, although she will still continue to act as a wedding celebrant after retirement. She thoroughly enjoys that part of her role, and she has now presided over the marriage of well over 300 happy couples.
I have been very fortunate to have enjoyed three international cycling trips this year. The first was to Spain in May, spending a week on the Costa Blanca (based in Calpe) soon followed by the Prestwick Cycle Challenge, an annual charity ride, which, although starting in Scotland, this year cycled across Ireland from Larne to Galway.
In addition to these, a couple of my cycling buddies had a desire to cycle up some of the climbs tackled on the Tour de France, and so just before the Tour in July, twelve of us drove down to the Alps and spent a week climbing the cols of Télégraphe, Galibier, Croix de Fer and Alpe d’Huez, along with a few smaller hills. It was a great few days covering well over 200 miles and climbing 31,400 feet. I was slower climbing the Alpe d’Huez than the TdF riders, but when I watched the TV coverage later, I noticed that none of them stopped for photographs, so that entirely explains why they were quicker ascending.
While Laurence and I were in Ireland on the Prestwick ride, Laurence became a house owner. He made an offer on a lovely house in Chorley in February and by June the deal was done. He has spent the past few months learning to cook, wash and generally look after himself, and has now just about completed decorating his bedroom, learning lots about DIY in the meantime.
Emily has warned him that his ‘honeymoon period’ will soon be over, predicting large, unexpected bills which are a corollary of home ownership. She speaks from experience having just forked out for a new central heating boiler in her house.
We have an untidy garage. There’s no defending it: it’s a fact. But now that I (allegedly) have all this additional time on my hands I have no excuse for not rolling up my sleeves and addressing the issue. I already have a workbench of sorts in there, but I can’t999 reach it because there are always bikes and stuff propped up against it and piled upon it. Consequently I decided to make myself a man cave in the garden. I bought a shed in June and I’ve just bought a load of timber to allow me to make a sturdy workbench along one wall.
I can then transfer all my tools from the garage and store them on purpose-built racks along another wall thus creating the perfect workshop environment (once I have installed electricity for light and power). Then, I can buy a bike rack for the garage and free up some floor space to make it tidy. I know, I know, a woman would have simply thrown things out and tidied the garage in an afternoon, but I can’t just discard stuff that might come in useful one day, and I needed a project… I’ll report back next year on my tidy garage.
I said I needed a project, but in essence, all I need is a schedule; I can’t simply do nothing, and so I have been trying out different things to gainfully fill my days. One early failure was to volunteer as a helper at a couple of triathlons in August. I have never competed in such an event, but a company was advertising for helpers and I thought, ‘why not?’. The first was marshalling on the cycling stage of a long event in Yorkshire and that’s how I came to be standing alone on a Sunday morning on a street corner in Sedburgh. This involved a 5am start and a three hour stand in the rain shouting directions and encouragement to passing competitors.
All the other volunteers and officials seemed to know each other well, but hurtfully, didn’t seem to want to get to know me, since I was comprehensively ignored. Even when I was left in charge of the refreshment area, they managed to do so without actually asking me; they all just walked off and left me alone for an hour.
The second event (I’d signed up for two before attending the first) was better in that it was closer to home and I did receive good instructions, but the weather was atrocious. This time I spent five hours stood in very heavy rain with barely a word of thanks. I subsequently decided that I do not need to volunteer for such events to fill my time.
Instead, I have been out cycling more. This year I have already covered over 4000 miles and climbed over 9 times the height of Everest.
I received a framed poster of 75 of the top cycling climbs in the UK for Father’s Day and so I’m methodically ticking them all off. I have already ridden many of them over the years, but I want to do them again so that I can count them officially. So if the weather’s fine, I will head off with my bike to tackle a climb or two. The next trip’s planned for mid December, when I’m taking a punt with the weather and heading off to Keswick. Plenty of hills up there!
I know some people who have a bucket list, but I don’t. Firstly, I don’t like the term, and secondly I feel that if I wrote down all the things I wanted to do before a point in time, this wouldn’t really allow me to change my mind about things, and adding to the list could create a problem with priorities. So instead, I am letting serendipity play a hand, taking up interesting offers that come my way, or making loose plans of things I fancy, but not fixing things too firmly. I ‘managed’ my career in the same laissez-faire manner
I’ve just booked accommodation for a pal and me to cycle the Hebridean Way in May 2019. It’s a while off, but May is the best time to visit the Western Isles and co-ordinating diaries can be tricky.
We cycled round Fife in September so that I could see the Kelpies and the boat lift at Falkirk, visit St. Andrews and cycle across the Tay and Forth bridges.
We also have an embryonic plan to fly to Barcelona and cycle home, or perhaps cycle to Northern Spain and sail back from Santander. But I don’t want to write such things down on a list, because I don’t want to set targets I might fail.
Gee and I are both enjoying our garden, although I had several failures in the vegetable plot this year. The only successful crops were onions and a magnificent courgette plant which has only recently died off. However, my trees are growing splendidly with many over 4m high and they are now very visible on the horizon when sitting by the house. The ground beneath them is gradually becoming less boggy, which was one of the reasons for planting them in the first place and the flora and fauna there are flourishing.
Sadly, my neighbour who once held house gigs has stopped arranging them (the numbers of attendees had fallen off, making them uneconomical) so we’ve had to find our own musical entertainment. We aren’t doing badly, with 8 concerts so far this year, and a further one in December. Our preference is to see little-known artists at small venues, although seeing Jake Bugg at King George’s Hall in Blackburn doesn’t really fall into that category. We saw him recently and could not believe the rudeness of the audience.
While he was singing, we could hear a constant murmur of people chatting in the auditorium, not just near us, but all around. Additionally, the majority of people seemed to be watching him via their mobile phone screens, and others were repeatedly pushing through the rows to get drinks or whatever – if I stood up once, I stood up 15 times in a 60 minute concert. Is this normal now or am I just out of touch? I suspect that both may be true. As you know, I do enjoy a good whinge, but I feel that finding things to moan about is becoming much easier. I’m going to have to learn to chill (as they say) and just go with the flow.
I’m sorry to report that I had a comprehensive grumble after a short break in South Wales. I have enjoyed many visits to Village hotels both from work and leisure and never having seen the Gower Peninsula, in the summer I booked a three-night break at the Village Hotel in Swansea. We were offered an ‘inclusive meal plan’ at the time of booking which seemed great value, but when we arrived we realised that we had to select our meals each evening from a small set menu which never changed. The first night wasn’t a problem, but on the second evening, when I was told that I couldn’t substitute a starter from the a la carte menu, even if I paid the price difference, I became understandably annoyed. The hotel was lovely, but ordering food became more frustrating with each passing day, so when the manager wrote afterwards (in a form email) to check how things had gone, I reported to him our tale of woe to which I didn’t even receive a response. So I took to TripAdviser and published the full details of my complaint (and its lack of reaction by the manager) to a worldwide audience. To date, this has been my most read review! Serves ‘em right!
I hope you enjoy a lovely festive break, and I would love to see you in the coming year. Check beforehand that I’m not out gallivanting, though!