Hopefully, lockdown will end soon-ish, so you will be able to see your friends and family again and travel and do all the things that you have been missing or planning, but in retirement you are going to have lots of time on your hands too, to do all the things that you never had time for before. If you are not careful, you could be bored with this extra time.
So, now might be the time to start planning for what you are going to do in retirement, or if already retired, what else you could be doing.
For the next few newsletters we are going to look at 10 things you could be doing in your retirement:
Number 1
Reread the novels that you read in secondary school
This for me would be Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth (I played Lady Macbeth in the boy’s school play, so I love this play), Far from the Madding Crowd and The Crucible.
Or how about looking at the BBC’s top 100 books that you need to read before you die:
https://www.listchallenges.com/bbcs-top-100-books-you-need-to-read-before-you-die
I went through this list a few years ago and I decided that I would read Wuthering Heights, which I really enjoyed, though it was dark, and the Great Gatsby, which I am still not sure about.
You cannot include watching films, you must have read the book, which is unfortunate as I have seen so many Jane Austin movies, but that is cheating!! I also gave myself a point for The Bible, as I feel that I have read enough and studied it enough to count it . . .
So how many of these books have you read?Â
Number 2
Grow your own veg
Now that the garden centres are back open, why not start by growing some veg from seed or from plug plants.
I have restarted my love of gardening and whilst I have not got back into vegetables yet, we are growing sweet peas, penstemons, delphiniums, forget-me nots, to name but a few, from seed. It is so exciting seeing them sprout. Alana, my daughter, has a pea plant on her bathroom windowsill and checks it every morning and night to see how it has grown.
I may also have told Simon about 10 times yesterday that my gladioli bulbs are sprouting in the garden!!
What are you favourite plants?
Number 3
Remaster old hobbies / Learn new ones
There are so many things that we tried out in our youth. Some that we hated that we realised wasn’t our thing – ballet for me!! But there were many things that we just didn’t have the time for or we stopped as other things took precedence. Or maybe there is somethign that takes your fancy now. There is so much choice: musical instruments, singing, sewing, pottery, woodworking, learn a foreign language: the world is your oyster.
I have started to play my flute again, having not touched it for over 22 years. My sound is a bit off and my fingerwork is a lot slower, but miraculously I still remember the notes and after a bit of googling, my scales. My favourite piece at the moment is Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor. It is so beautiful and not too tricky on the flute. I have it on an app called Tomplay that once I have practised it, plays along with me, giving me the other instruments. It is so much fun and gives me much needed ‘me’ time that is peaceful and calming.
