How do you envisage the way to enjoy life when you're a "pensioner"?

[alp]

Colin: I used to be like you. Never have a meal outside unless it is covered more or less by Tesco voucher deal. But if you could work out that you could live comfortably, try to have a meal out so that you don't feel bound to clear the table, do the cooking and sometimes it's nice to be pampered.

When I was young, we had this cake with a yolk inside and I tended to leave it till last as I liked it most. One day, I said to myself, "Perhaps it's a good idea to live a bit for now. Have a bit of fun. One never knows if tomorrow comes!" I know it sounds absurd, but from time to time, it is nice to break the mould.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Thanks Esther; I do worry about Bron should I pass away first but I've done things to help her and we've talked about it. It cost us £300 a few years ago in order to ensure our wills were written in stone; we know only too well people would stab us in the back for an half penny especially my family of vultures who have already adopted my inheritance from when my mother passed away leaving a detached bungalow; Bron and I aren't really bothered about this because we expected it and we know the money won't make them (two brothers and a sister) any happier because they only live for money and possessions. Bron and I have been together 41 years and paddle our own boat never having had much help from anyone.

I mentioned neighbours never having taken a parcel in for us all the 30 years living here; I've received an email from our lady neighbour who is 80 miles away on a walking holiday asking if we can please watch out for a delivery tomorrow morning between 9 o'clock and 10 o'clock? It never ever lets up with people wanting favours from us and as the daylight lengthens and it warms up above freezing then all the charity bags start dropping onto our carpet through the letterbox and no end of visitors wanting money for one service or another; it's a crime here to get on because everyone wants a bit of our success; of course we'll take the delivery it would be childish to refuse but there goes my only full day of bliss in the workshop without interruption. If I go into the workshop and Bron has to visit the toilet guess what time the delivery will be?

We do have neighbours who will help in an emergency and are happy to do so but most of the year we see little of our neighbours because of the dire weather and we are all detached so are very private.

Bron and I have also discussed moving but we have our own little world here and our bungalow is home.

Thanks for your good wishes Esther and no you aren't being glum because eventually we all pass on but as you rightly say we need to plan up front a bit.

Thanks for your suggestion alp regarding pampering ourselves and occasionally eating out; if you read our local paper I wonder if you would feel the same about eating out; vermin infested kitchens etc don't appeal to us and it's surprising how many of these kitchens there are and these are the only ones that reach the local paper? On top of this if I accidentally eat anything dairy I could end up as I did in July 2016 hooked up to mission control in our hospital; I have food intolerance of dairy products; I'll never forget the three days I spent with tubes sticking out of me; it's been bad enough over the years suffering severe asthma for the first 11 years of my life plus lots of other things like major surgery for Crohn's disease also fractured legs and fractured rib; I'm very happy to remain home where Bron and I enjoy each others company. Please join the long queue alp of those who have tried to change us; no offence meant but why can't Bron and I be accepted as we are?

We have friends living 100 miles away who visit us about four times each year; two of these friends are retired brother and sister both wonderful people; they were brought up in their parents rented council house and when their parents passed on they remain to this day in the same house; neither has married; his hobbies are his allotment and watching his football team; he doesn't drive; she passes her time in the stores and out with friends she owns a car and drives. Both are happy and content and we would never try to change them; we're all different and have our own preferences. Retirement though can take on many guises from suicide through boredom to happiness having lots of hobbies. It helps to plan for retirement from an early age.

Good on you Esther; I too started work early but at the age of 11 when I was up at 5am for my paper round and on Sunday morning I had two paper rounds; a bag of sunday papers is heavy especially to a skinny weakling of a kid having just recovered from asthma and in those days it was a heavy bag hung from my shoulder unlike now with wheeled trolleys.

I'm going to settle down now to some quality time with my Bron watching the original series of Dallas; we're on series 11 now and we have all 14 series so still plenty to watch.

Have you planted more bulbs lately alp and have the bulbs you've already planted broken through?

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[alp]

Ah, sorry! I didn't remember that you have some health issues. I am not trying to change you or your beloved. I simply forgot that you have some health issues, making eating out a bit of a danger. Most of my bulbs have broken through .. and it's so nice to see snowdrops coming up and daff poking their yellow heads..

 

[marlingardener]

Our cats have retired. They are not quite one year old, but they have "retirement" figured out. They eat, play, get petted and cooed over, and nap. This is a cat version of retirement:

They also have two adult humans as "staff" to take care of any auxiliary wants and needs.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

email from our lady neighbour who is 80 miles away

80 miles away, that is not a neighbor, how do you chum up with someone 80 miiles away?

I consider a neighbor of one on our wee street. there are 15 houses on our street. My next door neighbor helps with feeding our cats when we are gone on holiday, all she has to do is walk across the lawn. We help when they are gone by making sure trash cans taken back and newspapers picked up.

My daffs are coming up and snowdrops are showing. If it would stop raining for a bit and dry up I can rake out some more leaves. but the rain will continue for a few more days. did lots of raking in the fall, but need to do more. have lots of trees.

Dinner out-- its a rarity we go out. But when we are gone on holiday we then go out at least to supper. We stay at a place that has a full kitchen and will go to the food store for breakfast and lunch fixings, bottles of wine etc. But I will do some search on line as to "good restaurants " in that area to try.

Again, I think its so sweet that you Colin have found Bron. certainly a wonderful love affair. hugs.

 

[alp]

Our cats have retired. They are not quite one year old, but they have "retirement" figured out. They eat, play, get petted and cooed over, and nap. This is a cat version of retirement:
View attachment 32729
They also have two adult humans as "staff" to take care of any auxiliary wants and needs.

I also have a retired stray in my garden. I think it's pregnant. Love the way you put it. The are savvy!

 

[alp]

I would say no if someone holidaying 80 miles away asked me for this favour. Or just say, we will try, but no guarantee. First time, do it. 2nd time, let the delivery man catch you. I am sure the delivery man will find some other household to catch the parcel. Life is too short.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Thanks alp; no problem at all; Bron and I are used to people not understanding how we can be happy and live the way we do whilst they seem to want to run away from their home and life; I think it's a case of being content and making the most of what we have. Have your daffs flowered yet; ours have flower buds but they appear to be rather shy to show their faces.

What a lovely picture of sheer contentment Marlingardener; thanks for sharing it. Dogs have owners cats have slaves and how true this is; a cat hasn't any loyalty because they always have a "plan B" and a "plan C" as backup; they will settle where its most comfortable and the best food is placed under their face; Our immediate neighbours have cats and the cats are forever round at ours being fed and pampered; we no longer have a cat but I've just returned from the supermarkets with around £10 of cat food and biscuits; I do this twice weekly and when we did have a cat our cat had salmon and we had fish fingers; you'll know all about this though with your own cats. We can't open our rear door without a furry missile flying in but we love cats.

Thanks Esther; yes our neighbour is 80 miles away but on a walking holiday although by email there is no longer such a thing as distance in order to pull our strings. I mentioned this neighbour had emailed from 80 miles away asking if we could take delivery of cat biscuits of all things this morning but last night it all became too stupid for words. Bron and I had retired for the night and we had just got comfortable in bed dozing off when suddenly there was quite a commotion in the street; at first we thought what a time to be moving wheelie bins around it being 10:35; at first we tried to ignore it but it carried on so I got out of bed and went into our front bedroom to look out of the window; it was a big Ocado van making a delivery; how wonderful he wasn't expected until this morning so I dashed into our bedroom pulled on my trousers and in slippers ran down to the street; the van had just pulled away but it being a closed cul-de-sac I stood in the middle of the street and stopped; "Are you delivering at #41?" no said he I've just made a delivery this being directly across the street from #41; there I was standing in the middle of the street in deep frost being perished whilst our neighbour on holiday would be warmly tucked up in bed 80 miles away; settling back in bed it suddenly occurred to me just what a stupid fool I'd been; it was absolutely perishing outside and had there been ice on our pathway I could have ended up with broken bones because I had run down in slippers.

This morning at 7:10 I popped round and attached a note to both front and rear doors requesting deliveries to be made to us; this will save Bron jumping up every time a vehicle comes along the street. Enough is enough and this will never again happen; it's one thing being a good neighbour but entirely different when we are being used like this; A couple of years ago I was to help this lady neighbour erect a garden fence; I ended up spending a full week doing the job whilst she suddenly had a golf tournament she couldn't get out of; 30 years here and not one neighbour has accepted a delivery for us; time to dig in say "NO".

For anyone about to retire please take note of my story because being retired and at home means no retirement as far as others are concerned; we retired in order to work for them free of charge of course at all hours. Life is indeed too short alp to be messed around by selfish people.

-3.5C (25.7F) and white over with frost; will it ever warm up here?

KInd regards, Colin.

 

[marlingardener]

For all retirees and those about to retire, I'd like to offer you a very useful word that never wears out: "no". When we are asked to do something time consuming, difficult, or just "I don't want to", we just say "no". No explanation given, and if asked, we reply we don't want to.
By the way, this does not work with cats.

 

[Upsy Daisy]

I know what you mean @Colin ...since hubs retired 10mths ago we have been constantly on 'call' to family and friends!!

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Thanks Marlingardener for your wise words; how strange that I can do complicated jobs but found it so hard to say "NO" I must practice this in future to see if I can become competent at it? Cats respond badly to NO by shredding furniture.

10 months into retirement Upsy Daisy is just the start; word quickly gets around and one job leads to another but bigger job.

Our lady neighbour has a son not too distant away and she thinks the world of him even though we see little of him and when he does a job he makes a mess of it no doubt so that he won't be troubled again; the last job he did was to point some coloured paving flags; he arrived without sand so was soon round here to scrounge some then he made a right mess of the job defacing the flags around the joints; he erected a tiny 4' x 4' garden hut and was in a bad mood but still he cannot do anything wrong; the more complicated and bigger jobs have been coming my way. I really do enjoy pottering around and big jobs aren't any problem for me but time I started doing some for us.

I've enjoyed a few hours in the workshop today but not as many hours as I expected to put in; tomorrow is another day and I wonder what will be demanded of me between now and when I get out of bed tomorrow morning.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

One of these days I'll spend a full day uninterrupted in the workshop and I thought today was going to be the day?

I'm concentrating on a lot of wiring in the workshop and would like a bit of peace and quiet allowing me to get on with the job; at around 3:30 Bron came down and knocked on the workshop door she had our friend and neighbour Terry with her and she looked in a bit of a panic. Terry thought there had been some kind of explosion as one of his windows shattered; it turned out to be a Kestrel and it's prey that had flown straight into the middle of the window; this is a double glazed unit and there was a very large hole in the outer pane. Terry and his wife Pauline know Bron and I care for any bird or animal so obviously he rightly came straight across to ask our advice.

Bron and I accompanied Terry and below the broken window were both birds laying in the shattered glass; I went down and picked up the Kestrel which looked unhurt but it could have internal injuries and would be in shock; I then picked up its prey a blackbird which looked rather worse off it still alive but definitely stunned and in shock. I've never seen a Kestrel close up and what an amazing bird it is being so beautiful.

We now needed to keep these separated from each other but we don't have any big cardboard boxes. our immediate neighbour Carole though has a cat and a cat transporter so Bron and I went round to Carole's; excellent Carole had two transporters so a bird in each and they are now in our cool rear extension with a dish of water each where we'll leave them in peace and quiet to give them a chance to recover; tomorrow morning I'll have a look at them and hopefully we'll be able to let the Kestrel fly away but I doubt very much the blackbird will survive.

Living here on the exposed valley side we often get birds flying into our windows and it always upsets us because we don't like anything to be hurt or injured; it's always nice though when we can let one of these unlucky birds fly away unharmed.

I've just done another hour in the workshop but can't settle because of the interruption which has shattered my concentration. Will I manage a full day in the workshop tomorrow without interruption; I doubt it but as happened today I don't mind this kind of interruption in order to do a kind deed.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Upsy Daisy]

We've had similar happen here too @Colin ....we put some transfer images on our window as a warning that they a can't be flown through... works well

Please keep us posted on how they both do

 

[Colin]

Hi,

An update Upsy Daisy. This morning before breakfast Bron and I went to see our two guests and with mixed sadness and pleasure. As expected the blackbird had sadly passed away.

What a delight though to see the Kestrel still very much alive; we carried the transporter with the Kestrel and the blackbird right to the top of our garden; I placed the transporter on the ground and as Bron watched I opened the transporter door; nothing happened so I put my hand in and gently touched the Kestrel then the Kestrel took a few steps to be clear of the transporter standing proudly in front of us; this was one of those truly magical moments; the Kestrel just stood there so near to us looking us both in the face for about a minute then suddenly it lifted off taking flight across the top of the garden to clear the fence and it was gone. Absolutely brilliant; the Kestrel obviously hadn't broken anything it had just been suffering from shock so a quiet night made all the difference and we hope it has a partner to be reunited with.

Next job was to give the blackbird a decent burial under a conifer then return indoors for breakfast; it's perishingly cold again but at least the rain has finally quit.

Both transporters will be cleaned and the bedding washed then later this morning these will be returned to Carole with our thanks also later this morning I'll pop over to update Terry and Pauline.

Will I ever get a straight day in the workshop; I doubt it but I never begrudge breaking off to help anyone or anything in distress; it would have been nice had both birds survived. Terry and Pauline now need to get the glazier in to replace the sealed unit.

Thanks for your suggestion Upsy Daisy; I'm unsure about placing anything onto our windows because of the extremes of weather we get here; years ago I believe a number of car windows shattered because parents were buying their children "Garfield" and this cat would be attached to the glass using rubber suckers; another problem used to be doors with glass bullseyes; these bullseyes were the cause of a number of house fires acting like magnifying glasses with hot sunshine on them; a quick web browse; please see the links.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/87936/great-garfield-car-window-toy-craze

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...d-freak-accident-paperweight-causes-fire.html

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Upsy Daisy]

A mixed outcome, but very happy to hear that the Kestrel made a full recovery

What we use are the 'cling film ' type , easy to put on and peel off, and we place ours on the inside. The other alternative is to hang a Dreamcatcher type of thing at your window from the inside. Have a Google , some are very pretty. Maybe, together with your handiwork skills and Brons crafting ones, you could design and make one yourselves.
If you do then post pics please

Have a good day