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Val has her say:
‘I know it's too soon to start comparing perception of the passage of time pre- and post-retirement, but I can say that this week flew by...’
I was over at Val’s blog - I am days behind with my blog-reading visits due to some computer/modem malfunctioning - and had to smile when I read what Val wrote above. Too soon?
‘I know it's too soon to start comparing perception of the passage of time pre- and post-retirement, but I can say that this week flew by...’
I was over at Val’s blog - I am days behind with my blog-reading visits due to some computer/modem malfunctioning - and had to smile when I read what Val wrote above. Too soon?
I switched to part-time work back in January 2005 - which is probably as close as I will get for a while to ‘retirement’; but it wasn’t just a time change, I also decreased by a long way my need to involve myself in the job.
For the last few years I was working much of the time as a trainer of staff at the telecommunications company where I work. There were many weeks when I would work 10 hour days and weekends at home. So my current 3 days a week - sitting quietly at a workstation, logged in to the phones - taking inbound calls helping people all around Australia with an assortment of problems, is a breeze... and good fun.
I have a pet theory about how we work. We either ‘work-to-live’ or ‘live-to-work’. With the first we see the work we do as a means to earn a living, and with the second we believe our work is our life. Many work-aholics and over-achievers are to be found in this second group.
For the first 12 months of my new ‘retirement’ - I did nothing! and I do mean nothing - I slept, and read, and watched a lot of TV - I ate chocolate and drank coffee and returned to cooking with a passion. And I promised myself every day that this too would pass - that any day now I would leap up and start on all the things that I had looked forward to doing more of ‘when I had more free time...’
What I cannot believe is just how quickly all this time I have spent doing nothing has flown by... that it is July 2006 already - and we wont even mention that it has been 17 years since the Berlin wall came down - and 10 years since Hong Kong was ceded back to the Chinese.
For the last few years I was working much of the time as a trainer of staff at the telecommunications company where I work. There were many weeks when I would work 10 hour days and weekends at home. So my current 3 days a week - sitting quietly at a workstation, logged in to the phones - taking inbound calls helping people all around Australia with an assortment of problems, is a breeze... and good fun.
I have a pet theory about how we work. We either ‘work-to-live’ or ‘live-to-work’. With the first we see the work we do as a means to earn a living, and with the second we believe our work is our life. Many work-aholics and over-achievers are to be found in this second group.
For the first 12 months of my new ‘retirement’ - I did nothing! and I do mean nothing - I slept, and read, and watched a lot of TV - I ate chocolate and drank coffee and returned to cooking with a passion. And I promised myself every day that this too would pass - that any day now I would leap up and start on all the things that I had looked forward to doing more of ‘when I had more free time...’
What I cannot believe is just how quickly all this time I have spent doing nothing has flown by... that it is July 2006 already - and we wont even mention that it has been 17 years since the Berlin wall came down - and 10 years since Hong Kong was ceded back to the Chinese.
Val is learning to make
beautiful book covers:
4 Comments
After your comment Della I also studied the cartoon very carefully and I'm forced to admit, you may be right about there being no tortoises visible, however I intend to have another look when my eyes are rested before I capitulate.
re your post, it is amazing how much time we can waste isn't it? but then if we are doing what we want to do is it wasted?
I apply the same rule to cooking that you did to work, and I'm definitely a "Cook to live" type.
- hahahahaha -
now, let me get this right Peter - you cook 'as a means to get something to eat?'
or... you were 'born to cook?'
thanks for the inspiration for my blog today Val...
And thank you, Della, for the link to my post and even putting up a photo of my coptic bound book. If I start getting orders for books I'll know who to blame!
Today I was thinking again about time: that I haven't caught myself thinking "I wonder what's happening at work now" or "What would I have been doing now?" The fact that it was Wednesday, my day off when I was working, had totally escaped me. That it feels totally natural that I can simply stay at home if I want. As my son said, "It sounds like you were ready for retirement".
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