A whole new life awaits us!
It is probably a bit soon to post this, but we are already excited by the prospect of Ken's retirement!
Ken has inherited a comfortable sum of money from his late mother, which leaves him in the position of being able to enjoy never again working for a living. At the age of 70 most people have long since quit work, but Ken kept on working "as long as the bills keep coming", as he put it. And now that the funds from his Mum's estate are being distributed this week, he can finish up work on Friday with no financial worries in front of him.
Everybody is asking us what we are going to do now. Well, for the immediate future - nothing much will change except that Ken will be at home instead of at work during the week! He is so glad to be leaving the rat race of Melbourne's increasingly chaotic traffic, although he says he will miss the cameraderie with his workmates, but that won't last long. None of them are close friends that he sees out of work hours, and if he wants to catch up with any of them at some time in the future, he can always call in at the offices.
So many retirees turn into Grey Nomads, and spent months/years driving around Australia towing a caravan. I couldn't think of anything worse, and Ken's health wouldn't be up to doing that anyway, so that is not an option. There are only two trips that we would like to do some time in the future before we get too old and feeble to enjoy them - a trip to Alice Springs/Darwin on The Ghan,
and a trip to W.A. on the Indian Pacific
We both love train travel, so instead of the stress of driving thousands of miles through desert country, we would put our car on the train, and travel in comfort! We may fly interstate to visit friends from time to time, but have no plans to do that immediately.
Ken is not the kind of person to sit and stare into space all day. He likes to be outside working in the garden, or in the aviaries with the birds. He has a few mates who have retired, and are already telling him to make a day to go for bike rides with them. And later on in the year when the weather warms up, he will want to christen his new fishing gear. There is a lot of work to be done around the house, so some of his money will probably go on painting the house, new curtains, possibly renovating the bathrooms and kitchen...anyway, we are in no hurry. His first week will be spent on his own for most of the time, because I have two days volunteer duty at the Embroiderer's Guild, and Friday at the opshop. I think he will need space on his own to get used to the idea of not working any more, so it's a good thing I won't be around for a few days!
Ken has inherited a comfortable sum of money from his late mother, which leaves him in the position of being able to enjoy never again working for a living. At the age of 70 most people have long since quit work, but Ken kept on working "as long as the bills keep coming", as he put it. And now that the funds from his Mum's estate are being distributed this week, he can finish up work on Friday with no financial worries in front of him.
Everybody is asking us what we are going to do now. Well, for the immediate future - nothing much will change except that Ken will be at home instead of at work during the week! He is so glad to be leaving the rat race of Melbourne's increasingly chaotic traffic, although he says he will miss the cameraderie with his workmates, but that won't last long. None of them are close friends that he sees out of work hours, and if he wants to catch up with any of them at some time in the future, he can always call in at the offices.
So many retirees turn into Grey Nomads, and spent months/years driving around Australia towing a caravan. I couldn't think of anything worse, and Ken's health wouldn't be up to doing that anyway, so that is not an option. There are only two trips that we would like to do some time in the future before we get too old and feeble to enjoy them - a trip to Alice Springs/Darwin on The Ghan,
We both love train travel, so instead of the stress of driving thousands of miles through desert country, we would put our car on the train, and travel in comfort! We may fly interstate to visit friends from time to time, but have no plans to do that immediately.
Ken is not the kind of person to sit and stare into space all day. He likes to be outside working in the garden, or in the aviaries with the birds. He has a few mates who have retired, and are already telling him to make a day to go for bike rides with them. And later on in the year when the weather warms up, he will want to christen his new fishing gear. There is a lot of work to be done around the house, so some of his money will probably go on painting the house, new curtains, possibly renovating the bathrooms and kitchen...anyway, we are in no hurry. His first week will be spent on his own for most of the time, because I have two days volunteer duty at the Embroiderer's Guild, and Friday at the opshop. I think he will need space on his own to get used to the idea of not working any more, so it's a good thing I won't be around for a few days!
posted by Gina E. | 1:12 am
2 Comments:
Sounds lovely, Gina ... I'd love to travel on the Ghan !! Hope Ken (and you) settles into retirement, and you get to enjoy much more time together xx
Oh wow, very exciting! Mr L really enjoys being retired - no second thoughts - while I occasionally feel a bit redundant in the world... but I cope... . I love not getting up at 7.20 and rushing about, especially on a beautiful morning like it is today. Out in the garden for me.
Those trips sound very interesting.
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