On the Road Again!

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...