I guess you thought from the title that I meant packing up an entire house.
No, just planning for a 4 night trip away. However, it will be to an area of distinctly inconsistent weather but it seems to be bordering on the cooler side (for summer) at the moment.
Two pairs of shoes.
A dress which can be worn with or without a cardigan.
Two pairs of trousers – emerald green linen pants and a pair of white slim-fit pants.
Two 3/4 sleeve tops.
Lightweight black pullover and cardigan.
White cotton shirt.
Short sleeve top.
Two scarves that will add both warmth and interest.
This is to cover predicted temperatures from 9C to 29C but mostly between about 15C and 22C.
It is interesting to note that the majority of the items were opshopped. The leather shoes were new last summer and one scarf and one top were bought new several years ago. The other scarf and cardigan were inherited from my mother. I made the white shirt from fabric that was given to me.
I retired from full-time, paid employment in July 2019 so it is now 15 months since I was last in the office. My finishing date was pretty much decided at least 2 years prior to my retirement. I did not really contemplate gradually reducing my hours or other strategies to ease into retirement. This bemused many people who continually quizzed me as to what I was going to do when I retired. I did not really have a clear answer which made them even more convinced that I would return.
The last 15 months has been somewhat of a rollercoaster. 6 weeks after my final day in the office, we headed overseas for a much-anticipated 9 week holiday. It was an amazing adventure which we thoroughly enjoyed. Towards the end of the trip GMan and I independently came to the same conclusion – that we would have a break in 2020 and not go overseas. What a fortuitous decision that proved to be. We had previously considered travelling to Scandinavia this year.
Upon our return from overseas towards the end of October we had barely 2 months at home before setting off on a road trip to Victoria. We spent Christmas with family and then planned to visit areas in eastern Victoria and south-eastern NSW but the worst bushfires in living memory crushed that plan. We did manage to visit more family in Canberra and experienced the impact of the smoke first-hand. Not a pleasant experience.
Home again in early January and we imagined that 2020 would be a time to settle into a steady routine. Enter COVID19 and the world seemed to be completely upturned. We were very grateful for the space we had – house and large garden, a well-stocked pantry as well as a garden which supplied at least some of our food requirements, not having paid work to try to do from home or children to homeschool. We were unable to see or visit family and friends for several weeks but this was barely a minor inconvenience compared to what some people have had to endure.
In fact, COVID19 gave us the opportunity to focus on projects around our home. A quick scroll through previous blog posts provides a bit insight. Compost bays, a cold frame, more raised garden beds and finishing the pergola are some of the outdoor improvements. Meanwhile, I prepared meals made predominately from our homegrown produce as well as sewing and mending. Furniture restoration completed.
As restrictions were lifted we resumed some of our activities and interests outside the home. Which brings me to the essence of this blog post.
It is easy to become immersed in a particular interest or activity to exclusion of most others. Therefore, my goal is to identify broad categories and try to include a mix of activities/interests. It is probably not feasible to try to do this each day but I think that it is possible within the timeframe of a week.
After some thought, I have come up with a list of general categories which cover most of the things I do. Yours may be a little different.
Administration Appointments Community engagement Craft and creating Family Friends Garden/outdoor maintenance Garden/outdoor projects Health and fitness Homemaking – regular/frequent tasks Homemaking – seasonal/occasional tasks Planning Relaxation Socialising and entertaining Travel
Of course, some of these definitely overlap and some activities may even cover 3 categories. The list is in alphabetical order so that no-one can question my priorities. I do not envisage making specific lists but it certainly helps to keep things in perspective.
Finally, to those people who were convinced that I would not have enough to do in retirement – you were definitely wrong. My days are occupied, interesting and most of all, fulfilling.
It is 7 years since I wrote this post. The essence of it was about rearranging the wardrobe in the spare room but the aspect which I want to discuss further was the fact that we had just hosted our first Air BnB guests.
We were first introduced to Air BnB by our daughter and used it on our first trip to the USA in 2012. Since then, we have stayed in Air BnB accommodations all over the world, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Singapore, Mauritius and Canada as well as in cities and rural areas in Australia.
In the spirit of the sharing economy, in mid-2013 we decided that we would offer our spare room on Air BnB. We have not had huge numbers of guests due to our location and somewhat limited appeal but we have enjoyed hosting guests from all over Australia as well as many international guests.
We had never really decided if or when we would cease to host on Air BnB. Like so many other aspects of life in 2020, our hand has been forced with the appearance of COVID19. Since our guests are in our home and share space with us, we decided to immediately suspend our listing until at least the end of August.
The hiatus created by COVID19 provided space for us to consider the future of our Air BnB hosting and it was some degree of sadness that we made the decision not to resume hosting as travel restrictions are gradually eased.
As well as the obvious continuing risk of COVID19, there are a multitude of reasons that have combined to lead us to our decision. These include:
acquiring a new dog in the future
desire for more short-term travel
want more flexibility in activities in retirement
being able to welcome friends and family to stay at any time
physical demands of changing an extra bed frequently
additional cleaning that is required
The experience of being an Air BnB host has been amazing but it is time to move on.
You could be mistaken for thinking that I have no other interests apart from what I write about here.
While gardening, cooking and sewing are both hobbies and an integral part of our simple, sustainable life they are not my only interests.
GMan and I have many shared interests. Films, books, photography, history, music, art, architecture and travel are equally as important to me as the more practical pursuits. I don’t have as much time as I would like to indulge in some of these and they are often mostly confined to holiday times.
We both enjoy the films and social interaction provided by the local film society screenings each fortnight in our country town. Today was the AGM of the society and I have accepted the role of secretary for a second year. Community organisations such as the film society exist due the generous contribution of members who volunteer in a variety of ways and I feel that it is important to give back to the community in this way.
Are your hobbies inextricably linked to your lifestyle or do you have hobbies or interests that are……..just because?
I meant to tell you that there would be a break in blog posts as I was going on holidays but I was caught up with final preparations and forgot to do a post.
So, here I am on the other side of the world and just wanted to let you know that I am still blogging, albeit on a different site. You can follow along with my UK adventures on Somewhere, Anywhere.
We have just spent two nights with friends in south Wales and you can read about it on the travel blog. This was particularly special because we are friends as a direct result of this blog and a close connection formed as a result of our common interests.
People write blogs for all sorts of reasons – as a diary, to make money, to promote their business and so on. I started my blog as a way of recording my thoughts and particular interests and hopefully to connect with like-minded individuals and share ideas.
Meeting someone on the other side of the world, whom I regard as a good friend and who I have been lucky enough to meet in person on two occasions has been a real joy. I am truly grateful for her friendship.
You never know what is on the other side of that door………….
No, we are not about to retire, although today is GMan’s birthday and it is a reminder that the time when we are no longer in paid employment is edging inexorably closer.
It is strange how thoughts seem to align. A friend posed the question on Facebook today, “What are your retirement plans?” The answers varied but an overarching theme seemed to be travel and writing which may have something to do with her particular group of Facebook friends. However, I was blown away when one respondent stated, “I’m hoping to simply make it to retirement age!!” That really put it into perspective because although we all risk not making it her odds are definitely not as good as most of us.
I also saw my own plans with a great deal more clarity. I realised that my retirement plans are very similar to the reality of my life today and while some could view that as rather boring I can see that I am living my life as I choose here and now, today and every day. I don’t want to sound morbid but if anything happened that I did not reach the age at which I intend to retire I would still have done and seen much of want I want to do and see.
We need to create a balance in our lives but I would implore you to savour each and every day as well as planning for the future.
Time to take a break from organising, decluttering and the regular day-to-day activities at work and home.
I keep hearing people speak of bucket lists so I decided to investigate a little further. I found this definition thanks to Google:
early 21st century: from the phrase kick the bucket ‘die’ (see kick1), popularized by the 2007 film The Bucket List.
There are many bucket list ideas floating around on the internet if you care to look but I think this defeats the purpose somewhat as you are really just following the mob. I prefer to carve out my own unique path.
The majority of online bucket lists tend to follow a general focus on travel, extreme sports/activities and philanthropy. Travel is a passion and while we have lots of ideas of places we would love to see both in Australia and overseas, I do not have a specific list of places to go. Extreme sports or activities would probably go on my list of things that I will definitely not do before my time on earth is ended. I would love to volunteer and provide support for those less fortunate , especially when I am no longer working full-time. However, I am not sure that this really fits with a list of things that I want to experience.
I have never considered ever actually writing a list of things I want to do. I think that a list creates the risk that you can become so focused on ticking things off the list that the enjoyment is lost.
That is not to say that I do not have goals and aspirations. I just haven’t written them down and numbered them as 1 to 100.
Do you have a bucket list? What are your thoughts?
This week the weather has turned warm, even hot by some standards and it is officially still winter.
Many of my clothes are suitable for most of the year depending on how I wear them. However, the warmer weather has made me stop and think about what new things I might consider buying this season. I have 3 good pairs of shorts and probably enough skirts but it might be time to get some new tops. Other than that the 2 main things on my wishlist for summer are sandals and a hat. My current sandals are well-worn and have been repaired. They will keep going for some time yet but it would be nice to have a new pair to wear to work during the summer months. The hat that I crave is a straw one in a dressy style. Since I am not tall, I find that I need a hat with a straight or slightly upturned brim or otherwise I end up looking like a mushroom. I have a fabric hat which is fine for travelling and beachwear but I would really like one that I can wear with a dress in the city.
That is enough about my wishlist, now for the workhorses.
These are some singlet tops that I bought at Uniqlo when we were visiting Japan in 2009. They are some of the most versatile items I have ever owned. I wear them as singlets in winter, pyjama tops with boxer shorts, tank tops in summer and even to work as a camisole with a skirt and cardigan. The lace edging and straps are actually elastic lace and they are really comfortable. When these wear out I will definitely buy more or possibly make some if I can find suitable elastic lace.
Having items of clothing that do double or even triple duty will be very useful when I come to pack when we travel overseas. I am hoping to travel as lightly as possible. Do you have any particular ideas that have worked for you?
organised castle 