The day I retired I stopped wearing a watch....if I need to know the time I ask someone or check my phone (if its charged).
I use an old fashioned calendar to note appointments, but mostly to block out weeks /months for travel.
I have no "routine" ....if I want to do household chores I do, or I don't ..... not depending on anything except desire to do it....or if visitors are expected. Same with classes, or social groups etc.
If I want a "pyjama day" its mine...decide on the day.....same with a fishing day.
The only reminder I think is important these days are birthdays.....
Take your watch off, chuck out your diary and chill.
Met a bloke while camped in Mount Surprise, Qld. a couple of weeks ago who has a great philosophy ...... he says he "starts the day off slow, and tapers off"! I like it!! We've just spent 6 days camped beside the Gregory River at Gregory Downs and worked on his idea. It worked!
Don't necessarily throw away the diary. I have kept one for the last 22 years & it is a great record to have of the highlights & lowlights of your travels.
Don't necessarily throw away the diary. I have kept one for the last 22 years & it is a great record to have of the highlights & lowlights of your travels.
Gday...
exactly !
Using a diary like that is recording today for 'looking back' rather than always turning to future pages to see what will drive your life.
Cheers - John
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2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE Auto - 2008 23ft Golden Eagle Hunter Some people feel the rain - the others just get wet - Bob Dylan
Only time I've worn my watch in last 25 yrs,
is when we go out to appointments etc.or catch a plane.
The most important thing to do when you retire.
Is to forget you retired.
There is NO Clock. there is NO job.
there is only enjoying what you can,at the level you can afford to.
You're actually STARTING your..... life.
the previous 60 odd yrs spent setting up of it are finito....
Christmas is the only obligation to the family, I go there for 3 or 4 days every yr. then see ya next chrissy.
Works well for me.
I get up WHEN I want to. Sometime at 6am sometimes at 10am,
sometime go back for a kip at 3/4/5 pm.
also go to bed anytime after around midnight..
There's NO time rules.
We'll go out for a drive at 2 in morning. Cause I feel like it.
AND.
To feel the roads at night with virtually NO traffic on them.
I normally do my distance driving at night too with the van.
All the idiots are off the road. MUCH MUCH Safer.
Just slip in behind a truck and roll along. leave enuff room between.
That any Roo etc that slips under him has time to bounce and you can dodge.
Night driving is MUCH safer.
And RON. is your best friend.
I'll do this 'ron. I'll do that, Maybe 'ron.
Get it.
Lose your clock and shedules completely..
Last log I wrote was day I sold my last Yacht.
never keep or make a schedule.EVER.
Apart from catching plane to come back home again.
Tossing the coin at all debatable crossroads.
You've reached the Pinnacle milestone of your life.
I retired at 49yrs. 75 now. and still finding things to do.
AT MY PACE.....
I retired early. I was talking to a financial advisor and mentioned that I had retired. He commented that those who retire early generally live a lot longer than those who keep working until late in life. Too many people I worked with went to 65 and then retired - a lot of them didn't make it to 66.I always said I would retire at 60, but went a lot earlier as circumstances unfolded...
I have been retired now for 20 years, and I reckon I have at least another 20 years left. Those years will not be as comfortable as what I have had, but we have seen so much in that time that it has been all worthwile. Even better, apart from the occasional job overseas (my wife didn't go on those), all of it has been in Australia. The more we see, the more we realise that there is so much more to see.
The father of a friend of mine went to the doctor years ago, comp[laining of stomach pains. The doctor asked "Do you wear a watch?". Answer - 'yes'. Dostor said "OK - take it off now, and when you get home, put it in a drawer and leave it there". He also added "Do you drink?" Answer 'No'. ( I don't know why, but I always seem to mix with non-drinkers). Doctor said "Well, on the way home, go to the pub and buy a bottle of sherry. When you get home, pour yourself two fingers of sherry, sit down and sip it until gone. Do this every night". He was the senior accountant for a large company and was very stressed. He retired not long after. He lived another 25 years.
-- Edited by erad on Wednesday 19th of October 2016 11:58:15 AM
-- Edited by erad on Wednesday 19th of October 2016 11:59:15 AM
No idea how I had time to go to work. So busy. Even hired people to do things that I could normally do as I'm too busy. Been retired for 11 years now.
My wife worked from home, so I soon had to make a good man-cave as I was invading her space.
I was a clock watcher at work as meetings-bloody-meetings drove my work. Smashed my left wrist in a motorcycle accident 4 years after I retired and was unable to wear a watch (too much scar tissue). Never missed the watch and never tempted to try again. Only issue I have is when parking in timed parking spots. I do keep a diary for future events. Was paper, now computerised.
It's great not being governed by the clock doing what you want, when you want. Trouble is you start something, get distracted, start something else, get distracted and this goes around in circles for weeks. I actually have a computerised "TO DO" list that I keep and that the missus CANNOT update.
And the best thing I've rarely been sick since. Been in the best of health now for 11 years.
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GRANDPARENTS & GRANDCHILDREN GET ON SO WELL TOGETHER BECAUSE THEY HAVE A COMMON ENEMY
This has seemed to have worked (no pun intended) for me
I forgot about the past
I adapted to the present
I plan/planned/planning stuff for the future, which hopefully will keep me just as happy as I am now
Although knowing that we are all different
I hope that this info is helpful to someone else, because although I was forced to retire at 61 years of age
I was a bit down at 65 years of age, when I realised that if I was to climb back over the employment playground fence, the buggers would throw me out again
Just planning our logistics for a 12 week stay in WA in 2017
Anyone for a dose of fishing. Hey Jim Style.
Sounds like a good plan Jim and a whole lot of fun.........what months are you thinking and where abouts.......I could start as a practice run for retirement and join you for a week or two........
I will pm you so we can have a chat about it
-- Edited by Bushpie on Wednesday 19th of October 2016 07:33:26 PM
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I Remember It ...............All Too Well
Wherever the four winds blow. I'm restless, I'm ready
I retired at 59 when I got made redundant and made that decision based on reading others regrets at not having done so earlier in their life. Wife and I didn't work for almost 2 years and spent that time getting to know our home State of WA before taking a slow "drive through SA into VIC where we spent about 6 months in the same show ground CP at Berwick and met so many great folk there and had a great time (get up, wander round, yap, go down to Melbourne's many HUGE shopping centres and see al the ethnic food and people (realized how much we were missing out in WA), then back to the CP, crank up the fire and a bunch of us sat round drinking in the smoke and the booze.
We then moved up to central coastal NEW - Batemans Bay - where we farm sat for about 6 months. Had every intention of going up to Sydney and taking Hey Jims generous offer to stay at their place for a few weeks (or was that months, Jim lol) and then got called back to Perth to kick some druggies out of our sons house (sigh - I reckon we get stuck with our kids till we kick off this planet).
We then made the silly (???) decision to build a new house owned jointly with the same son and now have bought a new car for the wife as we now are back at work. The BOSS tells me she is the hardest working person this side of the black stump. I do community health work 4 days one week and 6 days the next week and generally love it, even though some of my clients are palliative and are not long for this world.
After 2 years of not working, we feel younger again for having returned to work, and will now stick to maybe 4-6 week trips away in our van - until Jim extends the invitation to stay at his place again in return for a cheap red and fish in chups at least once a week.
We never ran a diary while we were retired (haha), but had our mob phs and internet (Telstra).
Jim - wave your middle finger in the air, hop in the tow vehicle with the van attached and just go - to hell with your ex-company and your daughter can still phone and text you.
Hope next year we will be better settled in and able to host you - southern WA is a brilliant place to visit (other than school hol's) - so much to see and so different to the WA to saw this year
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
Done 18 weeks in several trips in last 12 months. Plus a week where we flew to Coolangatta (from Avalon) as we ran out of time to pull the van. Relaxed but fully occupied.
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GRANDPARENTS & GRANDCHILDREN GET ON SO WELL TOGETHER BECAUSE THEY HAVE A COMMON ENEMY
Re diaries. I keep a written one during the year. Then the next year I start a new one & type the precious years into computer. This, I hope, will be a record for next generations who I hope will also hit the road eventually. So they can scan my written word & maybe find out some good hints, dos & donts etc that will help them. Alice
Pen and paper still the best and start a new one every year. This year is the first I've not kept a paper diary. Problem I've found with computer recording is you still really need to print it out. Planning to print 2016 out at end of year. During the years, my backup has gone from cassette, 5" then 3" floppy (never had the 8" one), CD, DVD, USB thumb drive, not-so-portable external drive of various connection types, to the portable USB drive. Have to migrate/update your backup as the older backup becomes obsolete. Then you still need a computer to check on things past.
My diary has always been a spiral bound A5 student diary. Also makes notes as to any good ideas we see in other people's vans.
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GRANDPARENTS & GRANDCHILDREN GET ON SO WELL TOGETHER BECAUSE THEY HAVE A COMMON ENEMY
Our tow truck goes in next week for a few replacements/ repairs. We will be floating past you on our way up to Exmouth. Nearest port will be Geraldton this trip. Around 4th -5th April. take a break an join us at Exmouth for June.
The boat is already booked till then.I will send you a PM shortly, Got to fly off to the DR with Lambie. I feel like Fred Flinstone. Yaba daba do.
Hey Jim (haha). Since we got back to Perth, we now have a new house, as you know, but Bev has just gone out and bought a new Corolla Sports lift back. Now we have to be workers again and take annual leave and all that bull.....sigh......but I mostly enjoy my job as I get to meet some great people who are either in palliative care, bed or wheel chair bound. I guess it keeps you "grounded" and aware of just how much luckier us able bodied (at the moment anyway) are.
We haven't had the time to get our warranty repairs yet done to our van (which we cant get from the side of the house as the son has dug it all up for water reticulation and mucked it up. Dad pays to get it fixed and have to get a tradie in to partially bury it and then have a bloody great aluminium grille welded up so we can drive the van over it - and then we can lay the concrete for the driveway - money, money, money !!!
Cant see us holidaying until late next year - hopefully you will return to do the south west of WA (where we are at the top of) - it is more like VIC - green, cooler and the bush lusher.
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
What a great thread this has been. Thanks for starting Hey Jim.
I live by my diary, but on my terms now. I try not to plan my life away, but I have "blocked out" at least a weekend every month for next 6 months to get away. They will be not negotiable. Others can work around my schedule for a change. One weekend for family back in Perth and the other 2 weekends to chill or whatever comes along.
Just tonight I was talking to a friend in Perth who was stressing over something/someone she had no control over. That was me not so long ago. I told her I now try not to sweat the small stuff.
I don't think I am a selfish person, but the longer I live the more I realise I need to start doing things that make me happy, not trying to make everyone else happy.
Heading up to Kalgoorlie tomorrow for the weekend. Why? Because I can.
I think everyone here is singing from the same hymnbook. We are enjoying life, not clock-watching, doing what we want when we want it and within our means. As long as I wake up each morning without a white chalk-mark around me, things can only be good.
-- Edited by LLD on Friday 21st of October 2016 08:50:23 AM
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GRANDPARENTS & GRANDCHILDREN GET ON SO WELL TOGETHER BECAUSE THEY HAVE A COMMON ENEMY
And April, May, June is blacked out, with my shapie pen. Gone Fishing.
