Retirement (or Last of the Summer Wine)

Sorry to hear you are not in 'top form' Philip, so thank you for keeping in touch with us. I am sure many more bacon butties will be waiting for you when you are ready.

Sorry you're buggy. Happy that you've got something nice to compensate. I only had a mild cold this year but I've been kept perky learning all about battlements. Crenels, merlons, machicolation, spiral stairs, draw bridge and portcullis design. BBC4, Yesterday and YouTube are supplying answers to my questions and keeping me entertained at the same time. Get well soon.

Hi & thank you Helen, This was the poor quality picture that I tried to upload earlier which is part of my original post. I cannot hold my cam-phone steady to record a clear picture, leave alone a paint brush. It's a BMMO 36seater about 1952, used on many Nuneaton & Rugby routes into Coventry. "Hold tight"

Hi Philip , sorry you're feeling ill, I had a similar bug last November and it just refused to go away. My advice is keeping warm and Lemsip (other cold treatments are available), it worked for me. On a different note, I've now joined you. Yesterday was my last day of work after 29 years at the University of Warwick (probably some sort of record nowadays) although I don't officially leave for two more weeks as I am now on holiday. All I've got to do now is stay reasonably fit (hopefully the walking and cycling will help) and stay financially solvent. We're just in the process of getting quotes for a small extension with a downstairs bathroom so hopefully we can stay where we are for a reasonable length of time. I might even manage to make it to some Wednesdays at the Belgrade.

Hi & thank you, It's aching & weakness which is the main issue, I don't actual feel ill anymore. I might though if Pam hits me over the head with her rolling pin if she catches my trying to escape outside. I did a couple of upgrade courses at Warwick in the late eighties & early nineties. Loved it. I have always been well occupied in retirement, both paid & voluntary, but all paid stopped in 2012. Being a bit down like now, is hard because I need at least the walking exercise. During most weeks, I walk an average of twenty miles, but being housebound since last Tuesday I have become very sloppy. So the sooner am out & about the better all-round. I cannot wait to be wanting a bacon butty more so than eating one. The day I am drooling for a butty, I will be so happy.

Hi all My new "West Midlands Combined Authority" (formerly Centro) bus pass arrived this morning, so I hope to stay alive until my birthday in 2021. That was efficiently done. I received an email last Tuesday, which I completed without delay, & whoopee, my new pass has arrived safe & well.

Philip, I joined the University of Warwick in the same year as City won the FA Cup, how times have changed . Pleased you enjoyed your courses there, I may even have been involved in some of them. Keeping fit and healthy is something I have always done and I'm concerned whether I will find the will power now I am no longer working. For the past few years I have walked five miles a day whenever possible (I even bought myself a fitbit to help) and also cycled eight miles to and from work on weekdays with cycle rides most weekends, it was helped by the fact that I walked nearly three miles a day as part of my job. I hope to keep the walking up but the cycling may have to fall by the wayside during the week. The only problem is that after a couple of days without cycling I start to get itchy feet and can't wait to get on a bike. So I'll have to see how it goes.

Hi all Happily, retirement is not all about the business side of pensions & so on. Other physical around the house issues come into play as we realise that some jobs that we used to do, aren't so easy or in some cases to do them is risky both to ourselves & others. Pam & I have always enjoyed our garden space, as odd shaped as it is living at the end of a cul-de-sac. I was on a bus coming home from Bedworth one day, when I saw a couple of gardeners working hard on a very untamed plot. The next time I passed by on the bus, I was amazed at the transformation. A couple of weeks later, I was passing by the same spot when it happened to be their scheduled gardener day, so I got off the bus, walked back to have a natter with the gardeners. A man & wife team. They gave me their business card which I then later shared for discussion with Pam. Their web-site was plain & straight, with no hyped miracle cures. I had seen what they did, so with delight I asked them if they would sort us out in our garden. That was one of the best decisions that I have made of late. For a couple of years now, they have been coming twice a month in the growing months, slacking off at the beginning & end. At the end of last summer, I asked the gardener, with a view to us getting older, what he would do if this was his garden. You see, when you can trust someone, there is a chemistry that tells us we are all singing off the same hymn sheet as it were. So, for the last eight weeks, our gardens have been transformed, today being the final day of the capital work, with wood treatment & so on. Pam & I are delighted, even the Wendy-house is having a lick. Now obviously this kind of hard work has to be paid for, but several of our friends have spent more on holidays, but for Pam & I this for us is like a holiday. I have put a few picks up on the "view from my window" topic, so just a couple on here for now. Our garden has gone through three distinct phases in the fifty years that we have lived here & if we enjoy this phase as much as the others, we will have little to complain about. In the garden with fair weather & in the Wendy house when it is not so nice. Our forum is not an advertising site, but I am more than happy to share the contact details of our gardeners by private email. Just to have trustworthy folk is a bonus, as we in our age group are often victim to those that exploit & give false account. A happy wife, sat on a bench made by the gardeners from a railway sleeper.

Hi all, Something that I have supported for years. Walking for our Health

I gave my early morning brisk walk away this morning Philip, it was 1.7 at 7.30 this morning. My bed wouldn't let me get up!

Nice t-shirt Les Mac . When I retired a friend bought me one saying "I'm not totally useless,I can be used as a bad example". Unfortunately I put it somewhere when tidying up and can't remember where (and that's the truth, I love that t-shirt )

Hi Philip Something I've argued for years. Even if you are walking in places you know well you see things from a different angle and with more time so you appreciate things you normally take for granted. I'm fortunate in that I'm still mobile and don't have many health issues (touch wood) so I manage at least five miles a day, either on my own or with a friend, but the most important thing is, I enjoy it!!!

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

Hya Old L. Walking with your dog is one of the best exercises, both physically and mentally. I retired when I was 60. I had a business for 30 years. When I left my business I decided to take my A levels, and I chose English and History, and much to my surprise I got them. My real love was History, and at that time Warwick Uni were giving free lectures. So I spent 3 years part time there. I now read History books for pleasure. I have always had dogs. My last two were Border Collies, my present one and my last is Evan, a rescue lad. I had him when he was 1 year old, he is now 14 years of age. Together we have 3 walks a day, a bit slower but as Ben Hogan said we can smell the roses. I am now 85 and I take great consolations in the knowledge that I have beat the system. By the way if anyone hasn't read it, Ken Follett's PILLARS OF THE EARTH and WORLD WITHOUT END are well worth reading See you about, folks!