What did you start to do when you retired?

On retiring I walked the Camino de Santiago, 780km over 27 days. I enjoyed it so much that I did 3 more in the following years. I've learnt Spanish intensively and can now converse freely with natives. I've created a fruit and veg plot in my garden and am self sufficient about half of the year. I play golf twice a week, have got a Pegaso 590 and travel often in it. I worked in the vaccination centres during the pandemic and have done work delivering for a food kitchen. I cared for my mother when her health was poor in the last 18 months of her life.
For me the old cliche is true, I don't know how I found the time to work.
 
The wife took up bell ringing at the local church. 2 years on and she still hasn't mastered it. She laughs at these articles on the TV (sky did one this morning) encouraging people to take it up as more ringers are needed for the coronation. It takes 20 plus hours to lean the basics of how to handle the bell on your own safely let alone months of work on how to ring different patterns with others.
 
kevenh said:
Other than cycling and walking more often, since last year’ layoff: -
  • On a rota at approx. once per month I record speakers reading our local newspaper. Then create a USB master recording that I’ll make about 60 copies of that i’ll later post to visually impaired “readers”.
  • I’m a volunteer tech buddy for our county’s visually impaired charity. That’s quite new but the role entails helping the VI get started with gadgets or troubleshoot their issues. Work is ad-hoc.
  • I’m a volunteer at the Greenham Control Tower. It’s also ad-hoc with a shift rota to opt into as needed.
  • later this year I’ll be a Greenham Common Guided walk volunteer host. These are once a month through summer. My first one is on May. As the newbie 🤔

Edit: context and to say I didn’t do the posh list formatting 🤪
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I used to tell everyone that I wanted to send my wife on a cruise.
The trouble was I couldn't get her through the gates at Greenham Common
 
Retired at 57 from a very full time job.
Don't miss it at all.
Have worked as tour guide for BMW bike tours.
Volunteer driver for Fareshare.
Did an open uni course.
Ski from motorhome.
Motorhome hither and yon.
Walk two hairy retrievers often
Go to gym
Cycle around the lanes
Walk hill and beaches.

Sufficiently busy I haven't started to tackle tidying the garage or loft.
 
bladerunner said:
Sufficiently busy I haven't started to tackle tidying the garage or loft.
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Done mine. Plastered the garage ceiling, painted the floor, trunked all the cabling, new racks, new freezer, made new work bench and laundry area, Fitted new loft hatch and ladders, floored out above garage, cleared garage, catalogued all other stuff that went in loft.........

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Rocking Rivet said:
Retired 28th Feb not sure it’s that much fun. But having a new cam belt and service on the motorhome this week. So the fun should begin as soon as it’s done
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New cambelt !!! That's the first £800 gone. Keep this up you'll be back at work before April.
 
Turned the key on the Garage at the start of retirement, at 59, now 77, never regretted it , never bored, living 300 yards from seafront, plenty of walks, cafes , etc. Keep saying we might try bowling, but , don't seem to find time , hopefully Motorhome will turn up soon!!
 
Took my watch off,,not worn it now since 2003,,,Get up when I wake up and seldom. go to bed on the same day that I got up..Started travelling 2 x 3 months a year in mainland Europe,,,BUSBY.
 
KiwiKampers said:
On retirement I moved from a small farm to a four-bedroomed house close to town.
I started growing fruit and vegetables, many of which I give away to friends and the local Food Bank.
I joined U3A (University of the Third Age) because I liked the idea of continuing to learn while having some social interaction at the same time. This was one of the best things I ever did. I ended-up leading a regular walking group, a gardening group and an antique appreciation group, not to mention making lots of new friends.
I use my motorhome a lot more and for longer periods.
I take pleasure from cooking and baking. Previously, it was just a chore, now I like to experiment and fill my freezer with food I have grown myself.
I have more dinner parties and entertain friends a lot more. In general, I am a lot more sociable than I was when I was working.
I always thought that retirement meant I would have more time to read, and I was looking forward to that, but in reality I have bookshelves full of books that I don’t have time to read.
I cannot understand why jigsaws are so popular with retirees! IMO they are a mindless way of wasting precious time.
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Good job we are all different. Since retiring three years ago I’ve completed 92 jigsaw puzzles, not a lot compared to many who also enjoy the same hobby. I didn’t realise that there are so many beautiful jigsaw puzzles available. I take them away with us on our motorhome trips and love sitting outside doing them. I buy new ones but buy, sell and swap a lot on various Facebook groups. I don’t think they are mindless.
 
Sold up everything, literally, absolutely everything. We'd bought the mh two months before retiring. The last month did loads of boot sales, advertised open house sales which got rid of most of the furniture, sold the cars, house on the market. slept the last night on the blow up lilo. Got in the mh and went full timing for three years. Magic.
Accepted an offer for the house while we were at at La Manga. Banked the money at 7%.
When we came back we bought a smaller house so we could easily lock it up and go still go travelling for long periods. This was before the 90 day rule so it was easy.
 
At 57 I got offered voluntary redundancy. After 27 years of shifts I thought the time was right. That was in July. Since then I’ve laid a Porcelain patio, ripped out the downstairs toilet, not had a tradesman in to do any work and plastered throughout, plumbed, tiled, electrics, laid a wood floor & just finished decorating. only just stopped thinking about work, really missed it and thought I was an important member of the team!! Soon learned I was just a number.
Now just bought the Motorhome and hope to see plenty of this beautiful country we live in.
 
After doing lots of travelling for a couple of years, we decided to acquire a pub, believe it or not. We ran this pub successfully for over 3 years before health issues forced us to call it a day.
Weirdly because it's something we chose to do, it did not feel like actual work - more like a full-time hobby.
 
PaddyM said:
From day one of retirement I realised that for the first time in 30 years no other living soul had any influence on my time , I come and go as I please , I can hurry or take my time , I can say no to any request that has a time factor .
I’m free as a bird and everyday I soar .
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YOUR SINGLE I ASSUME

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Retired 20yrs ago at 51yrs, spent the last 20 yrs with my 6 Motorcycles and 5 guitars just about getting used to it.(y):cool:
Still playing in a band at 71yrs. life is good.🎸🎸🎸🎸
 
rod_vw said:
'Escaped' from BT after almost thirty nine years at the age of a bit short of fifty six and did exactly the same job next day but only part time, filled the remainder of the time with motor-homeing and building my own 'self build'.
Did just the same for a further eighteen years and four more 'self builds', now at the age of seventy ?? and fully retired I'm waiting for a new MAN TGE to be converted to my specification to (hopefully) continue the motor-homeing.
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Looking forward to seeing your MAN when it’s done.
 
I started working as a pawl bearer so that when my time comes I can make sure my colleagues carry me properly
 
My 'final' retirement, having done it twice before, coincided with the first lock down in March '20. My cunning plan to take on one refurb job a month at the bar we own, to keep me occupied for a year, fell apart when we had all those weeks closed and we did the lot. Next phase was sorting the house out, and in between upgrading decorating and fettling the garden at our static in France. That's all done now. Acquired the MoHo in Sept 20, and have been fiddling with that on and off since, as well as doing some UK travels in it.

April see us backing off from the admin side of the business, so next trip in the van will start with a one way ticket to Dieppe and we'll take it from there.
Probably our last visit to Turkey in May, a week on the canals in early June with the daughter and family.
Actually having to be careful about planning all the trips around each other, but not the worst problem to have.

Oh ... and a vague possibility of a couple of days a week consultancy for the old job, which will have to be remotely based.

Having written all that out, had to pause to contemplate just how lucky we are.
 
I forgot to mention that we listed our house on a house exchange website and waited for the offers to flood in. It wasn’t exactly a “flood” but we have done about 30 exchanges in ten years, ranging from several in various parts of the UK, Canada and Australia, Vietnam, Sardinia, and Hawaii.
The motorhome makes it easy to do non-simultaneous exchanges with people from the Northern Hemisphere who obviously don’t want to come here during our winter so we go away in our motorhome and leave them in the house.
Exchanges have helped us travel further afield at low cost. Unfortunately, our motorhome is restricted to New Zealand, which is very beautiful, but after 25 years of travelling around the two islands I reckon we have driven on every road and sheep track. I do envy all of you who have the whole of Europe on your doorstep.

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Left career just as Covid struck- plans dissolved !
So- decorated the house- made a patchwork quilt **-did the garden- watched day time tv. Volunteered with First responder for covid jab clinics- and at festivals a steward when covid lost its grip .Felt bored and useless ; missed work-so year ago took a P/T job with homeless people with addiction and MH issues ; still looking after grandkids at times. Like my work but love my days off - trying to persuade better half to retire or go part time so we can go away more often in the moho. Bored when not working but tired when I am working .... can't win

** Quilt took 8 months to do -and ten years off my life .Still dream about 100000000 teeny square bits of material.
 
“took a P/T job with homeless people with addiction and MH issues”.
Kirsten, it took me a while to understand how these addicts with motorhome issues could be homeless if they still had their motorhomes.
Sorry! I’ll go and hide in the Naughty Corner and wear my dunce’s hat!
 
Sort of retired @63 , then a Developer said "hey johno! can you give me a couple of days a week during the school holidays?
New Builds , snagging?
Couple of years later , slowly started to do down ,4 days a week to 3, then 2, walked away.

Hey! Jonno!?

Got fed up with it, loved the job , the banter , the rough and tumble of Building life, meeting old mates from ex jobs, it was just that the boss started to take the Pi$$, need you to go there , and to new builds here, could you FIX the snags here? , there?

Wise enough to realise I was being used, I, too started to take the Pi$$ , not turning up on this day , turn up the next day "hey Boss where are you, not here gone home! sort of thing , yeh but why hav'nt you fix the snags , the unit is being handed over blah blah blah!. No mate You wanted me to examine the xxx and find the faults NOT FIX EM!

At 67 I walked away, did a few "charity jobs" Pro Bono for old people.

Now! just for me and "darlin"

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