The Final Countdown

I am now into the final month of full time paid employment (14 working days to go and counting) – pension papers have been submitted, annual rail season ticket has run out, my two major clients are now in the hands of my colleagues and I have stepped back from my front-line role and am acting more as an advisor.

Having just returned to work after a week’s leave (Lanzarote – very nice, thank you), the idea of not working is finally beginning to transform from a vaguely understood (and more than a little mistrusted) wraith-like notion to a more solid reality. The balance between trepidation and excitement is ever so slowly tipping in favour of the latter.

Consequently, I can start taking my panic head off and put on my “so what will I do when I retire” head. To that end, I have dipped my toe in the water of the great wide world of stuff I really would like to give a try, and have compiled the following list. I’ll make a note in my diary to check back in on this list in April 2017 and I’ll report back on how far I’ve got (if anywhere!).

·         Instrument making – this is a real long shot, but I would love to have a go at making my own guitars. Starting from my base of zero knowledge, it may take a long time to get there, but time is something I should have a lot more of (I’ve also got a very large patch at the bottom of the garden that never sees any light, so a big boy’s workshop may also be on the cards).

·         The local chess club – as a musician and a mathematician, I should be able to complete this triangle of related activities and play chess. I’ve never had the time to get anywhere near understanding how the game works, so now is my chance.

·         Bread making – Graham, my fellow musician and band member, makes astounding bread (I’ve already nicked one of his recipes). I used to make bread some time ago and really enjoyed it.

·         Home brewing – now that you can buy virtually a complete mini-brewery, and brew beer from scratch, this is looks like a great candidate for filling up some more of the space in that huge workshop at the bottom of the garden (see  “Instrument making” above….).

·         Films – myself and the GLW are big film buffs, and I have “I must get round to seeing” list as long as my arm. We have an abundance of good independent cinemas near us (The Carlton in Westgate; The Curzon in Canterbury; The Palace in Broadstairs) that will now receive the benefit of my hard earned pension cash.

·         Play better! – my mandolin playing is based on taking my guitar playing style and transposing it to mandolin (which isn’t really the way you should do it – I really should unlearn all my guitar stuff and start from scratch). Similarly for Dobro, which is even further down the scale of “stuff I do reasonably well”. I’ve signed up for a bunch of instruction courses (Peghead Nation – well worth checking out) and, although I’ve said it every year for about the past 7 years, this is the year that I really get my act together!

That’s probably enough to be getting on with (and that’s ignoring the various charities and voluntary stuff that I am involved in, and the fact that the house needs quite a bit of TLC) – let’s give it a year and see how I get on…….