A retirement blog .... Well, I'm just over 3 months into retirement now, and only just starting to write about it! I've had a few reservations about this, which I'll try and explain.
The idea of doing this was to present retirement in a positive light. We have retired early (I'm just 60), intending to do all the things that work was getting in the way of. I know we have been lucky to have the finances to do that, which was one reason I felt a little awkward about the blog. We are planning lots of travel amongst other things, and I don't want the blog to be just one "look at me now, I'm in ...." and "off to .... next" after another. I talked this over with my son, who writes online, and his sensible reaction was, I don't think anyone you know begrudges you this. And when I said it felt too much like showing off, his comment was, well, that's what blogging is isn't it!
So here goes. Retirement for us is about going lots of places we've always wanted to but never had the time - and travel is much cheaper now I don't have to stick to school holidays! It's also about taking up lots of opportunities, like screen printing workshops, going to festivals, daytime concerts, as well as keeping in touch with friends, both locally and further afield. We also want to contribute by donating our time and skills - we are going to be volunteer youth hostel managers, and have already stewarded for Oxfam at 2 festivals this summer. There is so much out there to discover. It's the next phase of life.
So "retirement" is certainly not about putting our feet up and not working. Finding a better name for it has been a challenge. A colleague suggested "taking time out to pursue other interests", but the best idea so far has been Carpe Diem - or seize the fish, as we interpreted it!
Stand by for some positive post-work thoughts as we start seizing our fish.
