On the Road Again!

I logged in about 8.30am as normal. As it is the last day of term for all the schools there were very few calls logged. Those that were were easy to fix or for new staff beginning in January. Not my problem. At 3pm we had a Google Meeting for the team and some of my old workmates to login and give me a send off. It was nice to speak to them.  It's always nice when people say good things about you. After 24 years you get to have met and worked with a lot of good people. Some reminiscing. Some stories and at 4pm I logged off for the last time. The end of an era.

With Claire already trying to find me meaningful unpaid work in the new year, I thought I'd look to see what I could do. So when I saw an advert for Kent Greyhound Rescue I thought I'd see what they wanted. The ad said they were looking for volunteers to walk and feed the dogs. I can do that. I filled in the form and there were bits that didn't match the advert on Facebook. I left a few bits blank! I also sent a covering email to explain the blanks. I said 1-5 hours a week but I could easily do two mornings a week. See what happens now.

One of the perks when you get to state pension age in England is that after possibly contributing to the country's coffers for around 50 years they give you a pittance to live on, plus a free bus pass. Incredibly, in a world where private companies know how much toilet roll you bought and when, the UK Government expects you apply for the things you are entitled to.   State Pension? Apply for it and quote your National Insurance number.  That tells them all about you. How much tax you paid over your entire lifetime. How much national insurance you paid to get your pension and medical cover. But the ten page form asks you to do all this again! Bus Pass? Simply quoting the same National Insurance number should be sufficient. They can see from that when you were born and whether you are old and decrepit enough to be eligible for one.  But.... No.  Another form to fill in to APPLY for what is rightfully yours. Repeating all the same information as the State Pension F...

Home "office" With the increasing number of Covid cases in the UK and indeed, around the world, I am still working from home every day. It's not helped by the new strain from South Africa catchily called "omicron". Sounds more like a villain from an alien planet.  China? The plan to return to a semblance of "normal" and go to an office to work for two days a week has been shelved for now.  It means that I am getting up and logging into the computer around 0745 every day and sitting on that nice dining chair for the most part of the day. Still as the countdown on the right shows I am getting ever near to retirement age. In fact the count down is my 66th birthday!  In reality as I am on a term-time only contract my last day of work is actually Friday 17th December 2021.  I still have to return my work laptop to the office or at least to my line manager.  This looks to be the 15th when I am in London for a football game in the evening. I'll have to se...

Picking this up from another posting. What excuse for Vera's inactivity? None really. Apart from many of us have more that one life. Working 40 hours a week. Family. Dog etc etc.  Riding a motorcycle for fun is one of those "lives" that has to be fitted into all the others. I guess this true for all of us.  We all have other calls on our time and so we have to basically ration everything we do to fit in with the wishes, needs of others and our environment. Although I haven't been without a motorcycle since 1978, I am very time poor when it comes to just going out and throwing a leg over one of them and taking off. Maybe with retirement time poverty will be reduced and instead of working a 40 hour week I can use some of those hours enjoying the freedom of the road from the back of a motorcycle. Mind you, my wife is already suggesting things I can do! Volunteering at the local historical society.  I would be good at that (apparently) because I like history and I have ex...

A month to go and then I will officially reach the State Pension Age for the UK.   But am I looking forward to it?  I have mixed feelings.  It's not as though I have been working every day in an office with colleagues around me so that I will miss the banter and all that.  I have been working from home since March 12th 2020!   I have been into the old office building once and that was over a year ago and I didn't see anyone I knew! Even the guys on the door at 222 Upper Street had forgotten who I was and I used to see them every day! So the countdown on the right is getting lower and lower.  I don't officially retire until the last day of December as that means I get a full months pay to tide me over until the State and my occupational pension start to cough up! And I am fully expecting that to go wrong!   I have already applied for my bus pass. This gives me free bus travel across the country!  If I was living in one of the other d...

This is something that wasn't being given much attention over the years. Okay, I am the oldest person in the team at work, but as we haven't met face to face since March 12th 2020, the feelings of being in a team are far from fresh! I was making a timer for the days leading until the school holidays kick off (it's over there ---->). Whilst I was at it I typed in the date of my 66th birthday. It's the date I can retire, if I so wish.   I guess I was a little stunned to see the timer calculate that I have only 163 days and change (at the time of writing) to go! In fact it will be slightly less, as my term-time only contract means I actually stop working on Friday 17th December. I am still waiting to hear from the Government's Pensions Agency about the arrangements for my state pension and I can apply for a bus pass for free travel in September! I had the fanciful idea of working on a bit. If we can't travel because of Covid, and the weather is crap anyway in th...