Well, I must say I'm finding this retirement lark surprisingly exhausting. For the past... oh... two years I've been saying to myself: well, I'll leave that [some un-urgent and time-consuming task] till I retire. And now here I am.So far - among many other things - I've: taken my mother to the doctor 3 times, visited South Queensferry with Mr Life, gone to the dentist, interviewed two letting agents on behalf of Daughter 2, partly tidied the study, cleared out my vase/flowerpot cupboard, taken a whole lot of stuff to a charity shop, spent a whole day in my mother's garden doing a major tidy, taken my mum to a drinks do in a distant part of Edinburgh, brought her back again, fed the family at various times, gone to an exhibition with Daughter 1, cleaned the fridge (I don't want you to think that this is the first time I've done this in 2 years, mind you - similarly the dentist), brought Daughter 1 here to make my blog prettier, weedkillered our and my mother's paths... and stuff like that.
Not very thrilling, but it needed to be done. And there's lots more.
Also what I've been doing, though, is fretting about this baby. I'm ageing visibly. Look, there's another grey hair. Here comes a wrinkle. Goodness me, the stress!
Sirius, meanwhile, has been having a bit of a snooze.
I think retirement exhausted my mother-in-law! Isn't it nice to be busy, though, and know that you are needed?
ReplyDeleteA lot of that activity is just unnecessary, Isabelle. Please readjust your attitude.
ReplyDeleteRetirement should be slo-o-o-o-ow and e-e-e-e-easy! Until the baby arrives, obviously.
This is exactly why you need to work out what YOU want out of your retirement, too.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that those cats are trying to set you are good example by all their cat-napping. But I too like to keep busy, and after all, someone has to do all these things! They don't get done all by themselves, do they?
ReplyDeleteof course, you need something to keep your mind and hands, occupied while you anxiously await the arrival...
ReplyDeleteIt is often said about retirement that "You wonder when you had time to go to work" and it is so true.
ReplyDeleteLOVE your new blog header! You haven't had as many pussy photos as you used to, but I suppose black cats are black cats at any time, and a few people might get tired of them...I don't.
Not sure if it helps any, but I'm running a daycare with my son's Boston Terrier. We take babies too. Your grandchild will be in good hands--
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kRagXaPmdc
It seems like the older we get, the less stressed we should become as our children begin establishing themselves in the world. Obviously, such is not always the case.
The challenge is to make some time for yourself and not become the odd-job person for others. I made a careful plan for the first few months of my retirement, but that was blown away when my husband was critically injured three days into my retirement. Eventually I had a second go at retiring, and now I'm careful to keep a balance. You have to work at it!
ReplyDeleteHm. Presumably the problem is, once you're retired, you're also available, in the nicest sense of the word. Write the word ME in your diary at least once a week!
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to find yourself doing all the stuff that no-one elses wants/ has time to do. I keep trying to carve out time for myself, but I'm still working on it! Unfortunately, the things we wanted from retirement - nice easy mornings getting up when we feel like it, and whiling away the time with lunch or tea out and a casual stroll round a local town or beauty spot - are completely ruled out by having to care for someone to their timetable. Difficult to do much whiling away time when you only have an hour or so between lunch and the next cup of tea. Take a tip from the cats, lounge around and daydream and look forward to that tardy baby!
ReplyDelete