Work has been the focus of my life for the past 40 odd years. How sad is that but without work what do I do?


I had actually planned how to make the break from working to shirking by taking a three month break in the Bahamas with my family but what happens two days before I leave work? I have an eye hemorrhage and get grounded by the Doc. Can you believe it, never had a day off sick in living memory and here I am two days before I retire and I can have four weeks paid sick leave. I asked them to delay my redundancy package and pay me the sick pay first but for some reason they said NO! - hard to believe.
So instead of being in Paradise doing absolutely nothing but sitting in the sunshine and drinking I am now straight out of work and sat at home in a typical UK January. So I start to evaluate how to spend my time.


Author Ellen Freudenheim in her book “Looking Forward: An Optimist's Guide to Retirement” states I need an anchor activity to take the place of work and recommends amongst other things, music, travel, spiritual seeking and falling in love. So that’s good for The Quo and The Bahamas but the only spiritual seeking I have ever done is to search for the gin bottle, I do like the falling in love bit, a picture of Kylie almost wearing that white dress comes to mind, I hope the wife understands that this is only an anchor.


There has to more than walking up and down to the shops in my slippers and watching LK Today, Ready Steady Cook and some dog called Buster.


If you would like to buy Ellen Freudenheim's book click here