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What do you do now you're retired ?


Bugsy
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Working people frequently ask retired folk how they manage to make their days interesting.

It's not difficult...

Last week I went into town and then into Marks & Sparkes and then Woolies in the High Street.

I was only in there for about 5 minutes.
When I came out there was this pimply little s**t writing out a parking ticket.

I went up to him and said, "Come on mate, how about giving a senior citizen a break?"

He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him a Nazi B*stard. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tyres. So I called him a dog t*rd.


He finished the second ticket and put on the windscreen with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket.

This went on for about twenty minutes. The more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote.
Personally, I didn't care..

 

 

 

 



 I came into town by bus.
( I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired. )

It's important at my age!
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What I do is I get up when I feel like it and not to the sound of the alarm clock.  I come downstairs to feed the dog and notice that it's 9.30am.

I make a lovely BIG cafetiere of coffee and put on some toast (tomorrow morning, I might put some croissants in the oven as I have had an oven for all of one day).

I think about going to the town as it's market day, the day when the bank is open, the day when the butcher has his special sausages on display, the day that's not Monday when everything is closed.  I glance at the clock and see that it's already half past ten.  Damn, too late to get dressed and rush out in the car, so will leave it all till this afternoon; after 2 o'clock, of course.

Only problem is, WHAT day of the week is it and what date?  Am I the only person having trouble keeping track of the time, of the days and weeks and months?  Is this what you might call the French effect?

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I drove to the village this morning and parked fairly carelessly, but there was no pimply little shit there to give me a parking ticket.  Only Jean-Luc in his shagged out white van, emblazoned with sanglier stickers, rooting around in his blue dungarees for who-knows-what?  Got the bread and pain au raisin (happily not overdone today) + crisp fruit & veg.

After an early lunch, went off to Avignon to buy a new chauffe eau, since current one is knackered. Had to wait 20 mins (with about 40 others) for it to open after the obligatory lunch break. Back home to discuss fitting of same with neighbour over a coffee and a cigar.  He regaled me with the glad tidings that 72% of 'foreigners' in France are Anglais, and what happened to Leevahpool last night eh, eh?

And then .............. bats (see another thread). 

No, it's a quiet and boring life. 

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Hoddy

"My other half is seriously considering producing a watch that shows just this.
Would there be a market do you think? "

Yes, there is a big market which is already covered, I have the same problem so I have a Seiko day and date, an Avia day and date and a Casio day, date and year.  I am getting so ancient that when my watch battery runs out, I have no idea of day or date, thus the three watches.  All quite cheap by the way.

David

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Contrary to our friends' popular belief that early retirement is one long holiday, our days always seem to be pretty full.. The nice thing is that we can take our time doing whatever it is we have to do, without pressure and hassle.[We'd both had fairly high pressure jobs, him in banking me as a police officer].

Once we'd sorted out the house and garden as we wanted it, that took a couple of years, we then started the enquiries for the adoption of our little boy from Russia. That was very involved taking about a year and copious amounts of paperwork, not to mention 2 visits to Russia. Then came the joys of parenthood with a 4 year old with a slight hemiparesis on the right side, and who spoke nothing but Russian, and who's socialising, education and everything else basically began from day 1 of the adoption, because they'd done precious little with him in the orphanage. Whereas most kids go through the 'terrible two's' at that age, our had his at ages 4 and 5, which meant there was never a dull moment in our house! Add to this teaching him English, the alphabet, and the rudiments of reading, writing and numbers, to bring him up to speed, and you'll get some idea of how we were occupied. It was great when he went to the school, we thought, at last we would have time on our hands. But the gardening and the potager don't look after themselves, the shopping had to be done, once a week we had French lessons, the dogs needed walking, not to mention the friends and family who came visiting from time to time and required picking up from either Toulouse or Brive. That entails cooking, sometimes it feels like you're never out of the kitchen, and constant keeping the place shipshape; after all, you don't want them to think you live in a pigsty! Oh, and before I forget there is the O/H's bit of part time work 'chez Andros'.Plus, when the occasion demands, I make novelty and celebration cakes for friends, having run my own home cake-making 'business' in Jersey, after I left the Police. It's not something I make a profit on, it's a hobby and I enjoy it, but it is time consuming. Being avid readers both of us, we now do this in bed first thing in the morning. And yes, we do still tend to lose track of which day is which, except we're pretty sure of the weekend and wednesdays, as our boy's not at school those days!  All in all, the thought of it being one long holiday would be nice, but we'd get awfully bored if it was. How, when we were working, we ever found the time to do anything else, is still a puzzle to me!! Anyway, better sign off, we've got the in-laws over at present.........

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Im only semi retired at the mo gone from working 60 hour weeks to 3 nights. But it has given me the time to do my french classes,read more, spend more time in my garden, walk the dog more, and go swimming. Over the last couple of years I have been teaching my self to use my computer, and use my camera, and now french. I also have more time to get to france and spend time out there. Only problem is I earn less and spend more [8-)]    
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  • 5 weeks later...

S17 asked "Don't you read some of the other papers to "get a sense of balance"?

Yes I get the Sunday Sport for real news, The Socialist Worker and Playboy for the old car articles[:P]

EDIT I just looked at the Sunday Sport website

Under News it has:

Latest News Exclusives - NO Articles have been found

and on

Have YOUR say - we wanna hear it from YOU!  No Articles have been founnd

The sports report is on the 3rd test against India which finished in August.

The Sport babes are up to date though........  where did I put that Mail on Sunaday the expats bible, crikey, another million Rumanians must have arrived already today[:D][6]

 

 

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