Retirement Life in the Week Ended 15 December 2024
How’s it going for you guys? At the start of the week I thought that I was going to make a quick trip back to Essex. Mum and Dad needed to sign paperwork for their house sale. But it was not to be. Mum’s in severe pain at the site of an earlier hip operation. She can hardly move so I’m still here on Sunday without a definite date to go home. Reminder to self: Pack as if you might have to stay for a fortnight even when planning an overnight stay.
What I’ve Watched
The week started on a sombre note. The first people who agreed to buy my parents house pulled out. They hadn’t appreciated the cost of the upgrade that it needed when they made the offer. At least it’s early on in the process. I’m still on target with my initial plans to be ready for an influx of buyers after Christmas. Apparently there’s a massive flurry of property buying between Boxing Day and the New Year.
On the way to visiting my parents this week I watched this YouTube video on the train. My Mum and Dad’s house has a similar vibe to those shown in this video, solid brick built numbers with huge amounts of outside space. Theirs is one of the million plus Macmillan homes that were built to meet the post war housing crisis.
What I’ve Been Up To
My caring responsibilities have been intensive and even though I like to go for a daily walk as self care there were a couple of days where I didn’t get out at all. On one of the occasions where I did manage to get out of the house it was already dark and I combined exercise to a visit to the chemist shop to buy Senna tablets. All of a sudden my life has got terribly glamorious.
But I did spend a little longer than usual sorting out this website. Among other things I’ve got my Facebook and Instagram pages up and running. If you press the buttons on the right hand side of this page now they should work.
Even so I’ve made a decision to limit the amount of time that I spend on social media and won’t be advertising my online presence heavily. I’d prefer to spend my time writing posts and letting my readership grow by stealth. it’s not the prescribed way of doing things these days but fits in with my philosophy of using my time in the most meaningful way possible. Let’s see what happens with that approach.
What I’ve Been Eating
I don’t often buy pre-prepared food I don’t need to. Mostly what we eat is made from scratch as it’s normally cheaper and tastier. But I’m a little more reliant on ready meals when I visit my parents. I often eat separately from them just because it’s easier and doesn’t disrupt their routine. Normally I get something that I can pop in the air fryer or microwave. When my brother is around we treat ourselves to the odd meal out. A local curry house with friendly staff and delicious food has become a firm favourite.
To be honest I don’t often have time to buy anything to eat and drink on the train when I pass through Paddington, my gateway to and from the South West. I normally have seconds to spare on my return journey and have to wend my way through the first class carriages at the back of the train when it starts moving. But last time I had a few minutes and popped into Marks and Spencer. I fancied something healthy. Can I recommend this super virtuous offering which also happens to be extremely delicious too?
What I Bought
Ever the eternal optimist I came away with only one change of clothing and three pairs of knickers. There’s a high chance that I might not be able to return to Devon for Christmas. Fingers crossed for me that it’s not so. The laundry arrangements at my Mum and Dad’s are spartan. There’s really no way of drying anything quickly. So off I went shopping for clothes to tide me over.
I was really quite underwhelmed with what was on offer. Okay I managed to source the basics: underwear, leggings and another pair of what I wear as pyjamas, a vest top and velour yoga pants. But the other stuff was pretty overwhelming. What wasn’t shocking quality was very expensive. Even then I didn’t fall in love with anything. I realised how spoiled I’ve been with the impromptu secondhand shopping that’s serve me well over many years.
Luckily I found a White Stuff dress in a charity shop for £7. It’s something that I’ll actually wear for the long term . And then I decided to stick to what I know. I ordered tunics , all White Stuff again from Thrift+,, my favourite online secondhand store. The three items cost just over thirty pounds, even cheaper than stuff in bargain basement stores. I hope they arrive in the post before everything else needs to go back in the wash.
What I Found
You can tell when my life has taken a turn towards the mundane when I blog about what I found behind my parent’s fridge when I cleaned there. I was pretty pleased with this find. You might remember we planted some green manure a few weeks ago.
There was also this tin of olde worlde Zam-Buk ointment . I remember this stuff from my childhood. It was stinky. I didn’t realise that it was made anymore. Maybe it isn’t and has been lurking in the depths of my parent’s kitchen for decades.
What I Achieved
I came top of the diamond league on Duolingo this week. To mark the occasion here’s a picture of Paul on our last holiday in the Picos de Europa mountains. I ordered ‘sidra’ in my best Spanish and it came with this Heath Robinson device, allegedly to make it sparkly. Paul is happier than he looks. He was just concentrating on having a slurp after working out how to fill his glass.
Whenever I do get lucky with my score on Duolingo it isn’t because I do anything different from other weeks. My learning routine is pretty consistent. It’s just that I get put into a league where the others are bigger slackers than me.
What’s Been Going on At Home
Our bread maker broke. I think we bought it during lockdown for about sixty quid and it’s been used two or three times weekly ever since. I think we got our money’s worth. Here’s the picture of the first loaf from the new one. I missed out on its inaugural bacon sandwich.
Disclaimer
This post contains links to companies and organisations just because I’m happy with the products or services that they supply or I’m spreading the word about what they do. There may also be affiliate links to Amazon for books and other items that I am personally recommending. If you decide to make a purchase from them, I might get a little bit of commission at no cost to you.