Retirement Life In The Week Ended 8 December 2024

Yes! I’ve managed a full week in Devon without having to visit my parents in Essex. I’ve relished staying put and being a proper homebird. And yes, I’m been quite productive. Here’s what I’ve been up within a ten mile radius of our house.

What I’ve Learnt

I’m halfway through reading Deep Work by Cal Newport. It discusses how our connected world has taken away our ability to focus on meaty tasks that demand more of our time and concentration. Although it seems to be targeted towards working people I’m still finding it relevant for retirement life. I might write a longer piece about the book when I’ve finished it.

One of the topics it focuses on is the amount of time we waste by endless scrolling on our phones. I’ll ‘fess up and say that I’m not immune to this. I’m up for decreasing the amount of time that I spend wasting time and motivated to make more of my online visits meaningful. .So inspired by the book I’ve instigated two simple procedures this week to help me cut down on screen time.

• As a consequence of my role caring for my parents I need to stay pretty connected. But this gives more leeway for mindless scrolling. So I’ve scheduled in mini breaks away from my phone. I’ve stopped taking my phone everywhere I go. If I pop upstairs or downstairs in the house to do a quick chore I’ll leave my phone where it is. If anyone has contacted me while I’m away I’ll get back to them within a few minutes so no harm is done.
• I’ve moved social and news sites away from the front screen on my phone and into folders. They’re now hidden away out of sight and out of mind. This makes me consciously think when I use them.

Now these ideas seem piffling but’s it’s amazing how they’ve have made a difference to my online behaviour in just a week! I’m spending much less time descending into a pit of media gloom. I’m sold!

Preparing For Christmas

I’m a sucker for a real Christmas tree. I treat them as a cut flower and love the way that they perfume the house with their pine scent. We went to a local grower to choose one this year’. My son and his girlfriend, our lodgers in a loft, made a rare trip downstairs outside of meal times to decorate it after we brought it home.

Not for me a themed fir where I go out and buy different coloured baubles each year. I’m sold on an ever evolving look, where pretty trinkets are gradually amassed and the tree gets more and more gaudy each year. If you look closely on my tree you’ll find some decorations from the likes of Sainsburys and The Range that have been bought in the sale after Christmas Day. But I’m more fond of the more artisan items and tend to focus on buying just one or two those annually these days.

So if you look closely you might spot a fused glass seal in a Santa Hat from a little store on the Lizard Peninsula. There’s charity shop finds, gifts, things Louis made when he was a Cub Scout. I think that my favourite is a wonderful fabric turkey from Fine Cell Work, a charity that supports prisoners and ex offenders through the medium of sewing.

This year I only bought one decoration for the tree. I’m a big fan of Grayson Perry and supported the Royal Academy of Arts by buying ‘Red Alan’. He’s a homage to the exhibit created by the artist that represents his childhood teddy bear.

And More Christmas Prep!

We made our Christmas puddings this week. Yes I know, we’ve left it a bit late. Some of you will have got yours done in the middle of summer to let it mature nicely. But we’ve got a secret to make sure that it’s totally tasty on Christmas day.

We’ve stuck religiously to a Mary Berry recipe apart from one teeny tiny detail. Instead of the paltry three tablespoons of alcohol that Mary suggests we’ve used a slug or two more. Okay perhaps there’s half a bottle of Soberano in our fruit mix. I love the Spanish brandy that we bring home from our travels. It’s so smooth compared to French brandies of a comparable price i.e. cheap! Of course it would have been rude not to have helped ourselves to a generous glass each while the fruit was steeping. And of course we won’t be driving anywhere on Christmas day after the dessert course.

What I’m Wearing

Yes I know that it was a few weeks ago that I mentioned the big oversized hoodie that I wear throughout the winter. But for Black Friday, the makers of the proper posh ones, The Oodie, had a 50% off sale. I just couldn’t resist and bought this one. My son’s girlfriend and I have decided on the name of its colour. It’s got the definite feel of a magical cloak about it so we’ve decided on Wizard Blue.

It’s better quality than the knock off version that I bought on Amazon that’s lasted me out for three winters. This one has a thick fleecy lining and proper elasticated cuffs. I can vouch for the fact that it’s extremely warm. I fell asleep in it accidentally in bed and woke up feeling as if I’d been in a sweat lodge.

For this reason I’ll be keeping my tatty old maroon knock off version. It’ll been useful too when I’m doing grimy tasks. Even though my Oodie is machine washable it’s definitely going to be kept for wearing for best.

What We Bought That I Didn’t Know That We Were Going to Buy

The idea of buying a couple of Ekornes Stressless recliners for the living room has been on my mind for a while. Now these chairs complete with their footstool can come in at over three thousand pounds each when new. As such my little plan was going to be staying well within the realm of my imaginary world. Until that is I mentioned it to my partner Paul.

Within a week he’d sent me a Whatsapp message. He’d found a couple of the recliners on Facebook Marketplace for £200. We viewed them in elegant surroundings outside a storage unit. We then followed a bloke to a petrol station to get out the cash to pay for them. Isn’t it all sounding a bit salubrious? Here’s one of the chairs in my living room. You might notice that it’s not in mint condition but it’s ever so comfy to sit in. I think that we’ve got an absolute bargain.

But that’s not all. I’m not going to tolerate a couple of tatty old recliners in my living room for ever. So we’ve also bought a leather recolouring kit. I’ll update you once we’ve completed the makeover.

What I’ve Cracked On With

You may remember that I started to mosaic a door number for my Mum and Dad’s new bungalow. Well I’ve made progress on it this week but it’s not at a stage where I feel that I can ‘show and tell’. Perhaps it’s a good thing that the move was delayed so I’ve got plenty of time to finish it.

I’ve also been preparing signs for my own house so that they can be hung outside. One is our house name that’s going on the gate and the other is this welcome sign that will be positioned by the front door. So that the fixings aren’t in plain sight I’ve carefully removed a couple of tiles on each piece and popped them in a safe place. I’ve then drilled holes using a feisty diamond drill bit. The backing materials are floor tiles and they aren’t easy to make a hole in.

The mosaics are now ready for Paul to fix in place. He doesn’t trust me messing about with the structure of the house! Once he’s all done I’ll replace the tile I’ve removed and regrout them, shrouded those screw in a cloak of invisibility!

What Arrived in the Post

The solicitors have been busy again. At the end of the week I received a bundle of paperwork relating to the sale of Mum and Dad’s house. So the stint where I can stay at my own home is over. It’s back to Southend on Monday to help them complete and sign all that legal gubbins.

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