Retirement: Five Years On

July 2, 2022 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Five years ago today, I experienced my first day of retirement after almost 40 years of corporate working. I haven’t done a stroke of paid work since retiring and I haven’t regretted that for one minute. I have been lucky that my health has been good (I know a few new retirees who have not been so fortunate) and that earning and saving during my working life has meant that I could retire in my early 60s and still live comfortably (again, not something that is possible for all).

*^{Taking The Retirement Step Five Years Ago: Mr Archer Has Left The Building!}*

I have also been lucky in that retirement moved me more permanently to our family home in a lovely part of Gloucestershire but that I could also keep a degree of access to my London flat for a few years. That meant that I could wean myself off London cultural life gradually. That London facility has just been sold and now I am tied much more to Gloucestershire day to day (something that probably means Long-Suffering Wife is a little more long-suffering these days). However, while cultural exploits are now less frequent, the countryside here is highly alluring, the rural walks are delightful and the pandemic lockdown had already trained me to make the most of the local.

*^{Long, Local, Countryside Walks – A Great Retirement Treat}*

Five years ago, I wasn’t sure what to expect from retirement (that was one of the reasons why I started this blog when I retired) and there certainly have been some surprises along the way. The Covid pandemic has been a big one and that has curtailed a lot of the travel that I anticipated doing. Middle Son’s accident a few years ago was also completely impossible to anticipate and has taken a while to recover from. Now a needless world war is causing more widespread disruption in which to plan.

*^{Pre-Covid Travel We Did Manage: South Africa}* ²⁰¹⁸

Our sons’ locations have also been unpredictable and yet this has determined a lot of our travel. When Youngest Son was in Australia we went there (twice); currently he is in Belfast and we have visited there twice too. Middle Son remains in London so we have seen him there but we wait on tenterhooks as to where he will move to next and more permanently.

*^{Northern Ireland Summer 2021; (Typically Very) Early Morning Trip With Youngest Son}*

Meanwhile, Eldest Son is settled in Edinburgh with his partner and they have produced the loveliest retirement surprise – our First Grandchild – and so Edinburgh has become another regular destination.

As I did a year after leaving employment, I have gone back to the initial impressions I had of retirement which I set out after the first six months (here and here). To recap, the main personal lessons, in summary, were:

Work didn’t and doesn’t define me and I don’t miss it
There is plenty to do in retirement
There is still need for structure
Holidays (trips away from home) are more relaxing now
I miss London, but not as much as I expected
Summer Is A Good Time To Retire
Remember That Retirement Affects One’s Partner Too
Spend Time Getting To Know One’s (New) Neighbourhood
Don’t Rush Into Any New Big Time Commitments
Health, As Always, Is Critical.

Once again, I don’t see much to change or add to that. I have certainly found plenty to do in retirement and have enjoyed getting involved more in the local community, but a key attraction is that little has to be done in a hurry. Even though I have taken on a few commitments around the village, particularly regarding local climate action, and even though some of these have become quite substantial, the pace is much more relaxed. As in work, there seems to be much to do but, in retirement, most can wait until tomorrow.

*^{Our Meadow And Vegetable Patches: Varying Levels Of Untidiness}*

I have been able to create new routines and structures for my day primarily around walking, shopping and cooking. They help provide some balance between doing and doing very little that create a feeling of busyness but with a flexibility on timescales that is just challenging enough for me.

That flexibility is perhaps the most attractive thing. We can travel or not. I can offer to help with something or not (I remain careful not to promise things I can’t deliver). I can go out gardening today or leave it till later because Wimbledon tennis is on or it looks like rain. I can take a long walk because the weather is nice or I can sit and play a computer game for an hour or two. I can cook simply or take the time to explore into new cooking territory. I can go to a Forest Green Rovers away game halfway across the country or sit nervously alongside the radio commentary.

*^{Who Wouldn’t Want To Travel Halfway Across The Country To See The New Forest Green Rovers Away Kit?}*

The choices are more attractive than when I was working, the execution of those choices is more relaxed, and it’s been a very good five years!

Old Mates, New Gig

March 13, 2022 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

In the last two weeks I have revived two lines of enjoyment that have been very constrained since the start of the pandemic two years ago: going to a gig and meeting up with groups of old friends on London.

^{London – Always A Treat To Visit This Great City}

It was on the 13 March 2020 that Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I went to Bath to see a concert by Faeland. It was a similar length of time ago when I last met up with a bunch of old, London-based friends as part of an ongoing set of get-togethers to visit restaurants representing each, in turn, a letter of the alphabet. We had been stuck on ‘S’ (for Spain as it turned out) for around two years.

It’s always good to visit London and always great to catch up with old friends there. Not only did I get to meet with my alphabetically-sequenced restaurant group of mates (at Donostia) but I also separately caught up with a few other long-standing ex-workmates and friends over lunch at Ombra. Both restaurants were small-dish-based (Basque and Italian respectively). Neither was inexpensive but the food was tasty, the wine flowed and the company was very welcome after such a long break from group conviviality.

^{Views From Our Barbican Flat – Now For Sale (Sadly)}

LSW and I also caught up with some old friends before going on to a concert by Hope Tala at Village Underground. This is a great, medium-sized venue that I have been to many times before, but not since retirement getting on for 5 years ago. We met up beforehand at the bar at Tavla with a couple of female friends from our time living in Kew. At this moment in the Covid pandemic recovery, it’s a very relaxed and convenient bar for these purposes – buzzy but not too crowded with good value drinks and friendly service – and it has become our go-to bar in East London.

*^{Getting Busier Again – Whitecross Street Lunch Market Next To Our Flat}*

Hope Tala is a good friend of the daughter of one of these Kew friends – hence the choice of concert. The daughter is now doing many of Hope’s music videos. This is a line of work that has become more interesting to me since Youngest Son (YS) dabbled in music video as part his mainstream video business (at Wilson Archer Films). Hope played an energetic and vibrant gig that was full of poppy riffs with a Latin tinge. I’ve surprised myself with the extent the songs have stayed in my head for the days since. Based on what I heard, Hope Tala will go far and I hope that creates a platform for more video creation for our friend’s daughter.

*^{Hope Tala And Band At Village Underground}*

While in London, I fitted in a three exhibitions but I’ll take a breath and post separately on those. Following the recent meetings of groups of London-based friends, a gig (at last!), and a few exhibition visits, life seems to be returning to normal. Next week we are off to Edinburgh to see First Grandchild (FG) again. This time we are planning to take my Dad up in our new electric car so he can meet his great grandchild for the first time. We saw FG just a couple of weeks ago when he and his parents flew down to see us for FG’s first trip out of Edinburgh. Now I can’t wait to see his further development since (which seems to include the discovery of his ability to squeal loudly!)

In the midst of the dreadfulness of what is going on in Ukraine it seems incongruous to be having a good time and moving back fully to what I would probably call normality. All we can do is hope that some semblance of normality returns quickly in Eastern Europe too. It seems that maybe only one man can make that happen!

*^{Late Winter Skies On A Local Walk Home}*

Getting To Skye At Christmas

December 31, 2021 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

On Christmas Eve 2020, shortly after we had smuggled our sons out to our Gloucestershire home just before the 2020 Christmas Coronavirus lockdown, Youngest Son (YS) suggested that we hire a house in Skye for Christmas 2021. Everyone was extremely keen on the idea and, after a few quick texts, our sons’ girlfriends were enthusiastic too. I handed YS my credit card and he immediately booked a brand new, designer house on the western edge of Skye with the hope that Covid would be long passed or at least largely neutralised.

A year is a long time in which much has happened. Covid is changed but very much still with us and it is still hampering all travel, socialising and entertainment. Also, our first grandchild – not even a dot when we booked the house in Skye – has arrived recently. That meant that Eldest Son and his partner had to drop out from our 2021 Christmas adventure. To compensate, we all decided to incorporate a stop in Edinburgh on the way to and from Skye so that we could all (re-)introduce ourselves to First Grandchild (FG) around Christmas.

Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I travelled by train to Edinburgh. It’s a long journey but we decided against using the electric car because, in Winter, it requires charging so frequently that the journey would have taken a whole day. We decided again a flight from Bristol because the cost for taking our bags was almost as much as for us plus we are trying to avoid flying in a probably futile (but well meaning) effort to reduce our carbon footprint. Fortunately the trains were entirely on time and, with the exception of some rowdy 20-somethings who got on at Darlington, mask wearing was common. We felt fairly safe and comfortable.

Getting to Edinburgh a few days ahead of the others (staying once again in an excellent Premier Inn Hub with small but perfectly formed rooms) enabled us to spend more time with FG and his parents and have a couple of extra days in the city we are coming to love.

^{Blue Sky V}*^{iew Across The Meadows To Arthurs Seat, Edinburgh}*

The weather was very mixed. We had some wonderful blue sky days and some that were dull and moist – the local word is ‘dreich’.

*^{Murky, Moody View Of Edinburgh Castle}*

Regardless, at night the Christmas lights on the commercial buildings and between the curtains of the Georgian terrace houses and flats enlivened the atmosphere.

With the last-minute news that Middle Son’s cold symptoms wasn’t the result of Covid and that he and his partner’s PCR tests had proved negative, we all convened in an AirBnB armed with negative Lateral Flow Tests. We were all able to have multiple turns at holding FG who was, of course, absolutely lovely. He is engaging eye contact increasingly and, although he usually maintains a vaguely suspicious and curious look, is starting to smile. And then we set off for Skye.

First we loaded up two hire cars with our luggage and panicked a bit when we saw how little room was left for the planned ‘big shop’ to get food and drink for the following seven days on Skye. In a further wrinkle to our plans, Scottish licensing laws forced us to split the shop for food from that for drink which we postponed until Fort William. Ultimately, it was all good and we got what we needed (and more).

At first, the drive across Scotland was through the dreich weather. Then, suddenly, we were driving through wonderful fairytale, mountain landscapes overlaid by miles and miles of hoar frost. I have seen such frosts in local pockets before but never on this impressive scale. It was a magical sight.

^{(Blurred) Pictures Of Many Square Miles Of Hoar Frost From A Moving Car}

*^{Blue Skies Over Hoar Frost At Dalwinnie}*

Then, as darkness began to close in, we passed the romantically positioned Eilean Donan Castle, looking rather mournful in the descending gloom, and then traversed the Skye Bridge onto the island. Remarkably, there was still 90 minutes of driving to go (MS and YS took the strain on that).

In darkness we found the house we had rented, unloaded all our goodies, confirmed the high quality of the premises, allocated the bedrooms, got the woodburner going, stretched our limbs and enjoyed the first of the evening meals prepared on a rota among the six of us. It’s so nice having young people around who have the energy and willingness to prepare a fish curry for six after driving for day; delicious.

*^{Our House For Christmas Week: Wood House (https://harlosh.co/wood-h)}*

When I was working, Christmas was a time to wind down and chill out. When I started out on my career, I tended to work around Christmas but the pace was usually slow since few others were around and I could relax (relatively) without wasting precious holiday. Increasingly, as the boys arrived and the family home moved to the country, I realised the benefit of an extended break at Christmas. It became a time of winding down.

Retirement now seems to be bringing a reversal. Recently, Christmas seems to be one of the most energetic times of the year. Christmases have been increasingly busy, especially for LSW as she focused on Christmas lunch at our house with large numbers of family. We stepped up the activity levels even further with our Scottish adventure this year. In a subsequent blog post I’ll describe the benefits of that uptick in activity as we spent Christmas on Skye (spoiler: it was fabulous!).

Happy New Year!

The Lull Before Christmas

December 15, 2021 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Life has been relatively quiet recently and, increasingly, I have dipped out of large social gatherings such as the Community Shop Christmas Party and the monthly local Pub Quiz. This is in the hope that I avoid the latest Omicron variant of Coronavirus at least until after the Christmas period.

Christmas too is going to involve fewer social contacts than usual but we do hope to see all our sons, their partners and our new grandchild. It’s going to be a treat but a different treat from the usual.

The last few days have included a number of Christmas preparations (including my booster jab). Our family are doing a Secret Santa again this year so little present buying is required. But, despite the other differences to our Christmas Day this year, I am maintaining the recent traditions of home-made party hats and a Christmas picture quiz. Both are now ready to go.

Local walks have continued to be a Covid-safe feature of my retirement. I’ve been on a couple of different ones with mates from the village. That is always interesting, not only for the conversation but because, no matter how many times I traverse the local footpaths, they almost always take me on routes or to places that they know but which are slightly different from my normal haunts.

*^L^{ocal Woodland Old Spot Pigs – Well Fed By The Undergrowth And Rather Fatter Since The Last Time I Saw Them!}*

*^{An Unusual, Local Double-Stepped Stile I Hadn’t Seen Before}*

Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I also squeezed in a rather impromptu visit to Bath. Walking past the Georgian Crescents and through the streets reprised a visit we did a couple of months ago. Then, I visited The Holburne Museum and saw an interesting exhibition on (Dante Gabriel) Rossetti and his portraits of his muses and girlfriends (usually, they were both). He certainly seems to like women with big, lustrous hairdos!

*^{A Rossetti Portrait, Holburne Museum, Bath}*

*^{View Of Great Pulteney Street From The Holburne Museum}*

This time, the main purpose to the visit was to try out lunch at the relatively new Landrace Bakery. We have loved the Bakery and café since it opened well before Covid struck; LSW has been going there since it opened. Landrace has more than survived the lockdowns of the last 18 months by evolving and shifting its focus to takeaway and, most recently, a small restaurant upstairs. The lunch we had there didn’t disappoint. The service was informal but excellent, the servings were tasty and of a good size and, despite the ‘London prices’, lunch was good value overall. We’ll go again and we recommend it.

*^{Georgian Crescents Overlooking High Common, Bath}*

^{Luke Jerram’s Impressive ‘Moon’ Artwork, On Show When We Visited Bath Cathedral}

But now, attention turns to a trip to Scotland and to Christmas. The socialising may have been scaled back in the run up and the numbers around the Christmas table will be less than a third of last year. Nonetheless I am looking forward to it more than ever after the constraints of the last year and in advance of the restrictions that are likely to come as the pandemic moves to its next stage. Hopefully we will get away with a great little Christmas!

I hope too that readers of this have a happy and healthy Christmas and holiday period.

Overstepping The Mark To Normality?

October 29, 2021October 29, 2021 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Over the last couple of weeks I have done a number of things that have pushed my risk of catching Covid 19. I haven’t caught it – presumably thanks to being double vaccinated – but have felt in jeopardy on a few occasions. With the exception of our planned trips to Scotland (lockdown restrictions permitting) when Eldest Son and his fiancés’ baby arrives and then for Christmas, I plan to reduce my exposure to the pandemic a bit in the next few weeks.

For the first time since the pandemic struck, Long-suffering Wife (LSW) and I went to a large indoor event. We attended two very interesting talks at the Cheltenham Literary Festival along with a few hundred others who were mostly masked and who were, by and large of the age that would have been double vaccinated. Any feeling of risk of contagion was quickly overtaken by my interest in what was being said.

*Feargal Cochrane And Patrick McGuire Discussing Northern Ireland At The Cheltenham Literary Festival*

The first talk was about the Labour Party and whether it has any chance of winning an election any time soon. The conclusion between three Labour party sympathisers seemed to be a resounding ‘no’ but the reasons and the possible deflections to that verdict were well set out in arguments that seemed to spill new thoughts and ideas every few seconds.

The second talk concerned the recent history of Northern Ireland. This is of particular interest because Youngest Son (YS) and his Belfast-born partner are now making their careers and lives in Northern Ireland. Having visited a couple of times, we love the country and want it to succeed. The risks to that success are rooted in history there, recent disinterest in Westminster, and the touch-paper lit by Brexit. It was a fascinating talk and increased my wish that the current difficulties around the new Northern Ireland Protocol agreement with the European Union can be resolved soon and relatively painlessly.

Then, last week, I travelled up to London. I hunkered down in a corner on the train up and then walked across London to our flat. On the way I visited the new Marble Arch Mound. The Mound and the view from it was a lot less impressive than the scaffolding on which it is built but the light show inside was a nice bonus.

*One Of The Lightshow Exhibits (Left) Mirroring The Scaffolding Underpinning The Mound Itself*

The main purpose of my London trip was to visit my dentist there for a check-up and hygienist appointment that had been postponed several times over the last year due to the pandemic. The Covid protocols in the dental surgery made me feel very safe and I got away with just a couple of bloodied gums and some new dental hygiene advice.

I felt less safe on the tube to and from a football match (it wasn’t quite coincidence that my football team – table topping Forest Green Rovers – were playing at Leyton Orient the day after my dental appointment!). Despite guidance that masks should be worn, only a minority did so. Fortunately I only needed to be on the tube for four stops each way.

At the match itself, masks were completely absent but the excitement of the football always swamps any feelings I have of Covid risk during games.

*Celebrating Shared Spoils After A Tight Game (Nice Orient Mascots!)*

The visit to London was a lovely break. I visited an unusual and stimulating exhibition by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama at the White Cube gallery in Bermondsey. His art there incorporated old maps (which I love), ideas about colonialism and the story of his renovation of a bat infested grain silo complex. The White Cube is a wonderful space and it’s free to visit.

*Variety Of Ibrahim Mahama’s Work At The White Cube Gallery, Bermondsey*

*Ibrahim Mahama’s ‘Capital Corpses’ – 100 Rusty Sewing Machines That Bash Away On Vintage Desks (Its Quite a Noise!)*

I also got to see Middle Son (MS) and his partner at the football match but also for dinner and lunch. It was great to catch up with what they are up to. Dinner at Bottega Prelibato was excellent and felt pretty safe.

However, it was during that dinner that I decided that I would forgo another planned London trip the following week during which I was scheduled to see the band Tourist with MS. The idea of being in a cavernous, enclosed space with several bouncing and singing, young and partially vaccinated people felt like an overstepping of the Covid risks. MS and his partner were able to use the tickets and I’m left with regret but well-being.

Other safe events were a visit by YS and his mate on their way to a holiday in Wales and a simultaneous visit by a couple who have been decades-long friends from London. All had gone beyond the call of duty by having recent lateral flow tests – something I need to get in the habit of doing – before visiting us. It was an extremely convivial weekend full of chats, walks, good food and a local art exhibition by a West Country chap called Stuart Voaden. His day was made too by the fact that our friends purchased some of his work. We all had fun.

*Stuart Voaden’s Exhibition At The Three Stories, Nailsworth*

What felt less safe – although it was fun too – was a visit to the local pub last week. For a few weeks now, since the weather got colder, I have been drinking inside rather than in the pub garden. Even during the busy recent Quiz Night the environment felt relatively Covid-free. However, the ‘Jam Night’ last week was a night of full blown sing songs and, as I left after a few noisy beers, I wondered if that had been my peak risk of infection during the last few weeks. I’m going to go to the pub on quieter nights for a while.

Everyone has a different feel for the balance of risk in relation to Covid. I know that I’m lucky that I can choose how much risk I take. The last few weeks have been interesting in helping me determine what is and what is not ok for me in advance of my booster jab and, one hopes, a final decline in Covid cases.

Postscript: Just one more shout out for our Café-au-Lait dahlias which have given me so much pleasure as cut blooms over the last few months. They will continue for a little while yet until they are blasted by the first frost.

Also, I am pleased that my limited range of vegetable harvest has been decent again this year. I can’t grow a lot of things since I struggle to protect them from mammals both large (deer, badgers) and small (voles, mice). However, some basic fencing and conservative plant choices have meant we have plenty of squash, chard, beetroot, onions and potatoes stored in the old stables as we enter winter.

*Home Grown Veg! The Crown Prince Squash (Top Right And 1 of 5) Is A Whopping Stone In Weight*

Old Friends

June 19, 2021August 6, 2021 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

With the relaxing of the coronavirus lock down we have been emboldened to travel further afield to see friends and relatives. At the end of last month we went to Nottingham and Edinburgh and last week we visited friends in Eye, Suffolk. It had been over a year since we had seen these old friends and over two years since our last visit to Suffolk. There was much to catch up on.

*Unexpectedly Spectacular View At Diss, Just North Of Eye*

Once again, we had great Suffolk weather. That showed off to best effect the improvements to our friends’ house and outbuildings, which had continued up to the lock down last year, and the private allotments that they have recently purchased and taken fuller control of.

*The Entrance To, And The Developing Harvest Of, Our Friend’s Allotments*

These allotments are tremendous; they are colourful, well-tended and, judging from the health of the vegetables on show, fertile and not by savaged by deer or badgers. I am particularly jealous of this last point having seen all my Jerusalem artichokes on my own tiny allotment plot excavated and eaten by relentless badgers in recent weeks.

Since our last visit to the Eye allotments, the wife in the couple has extended her animal husbandry alongside the vegetables, flower beds and an orchard cum meadow. There are now pigs in addition to the squad of chickens and a grumpy, blind duck.

There has already been a cycle of acquiring pigs, feeding them up and sending them to slaughter that the current pair Oxford Sandy and Blacks/Gloucester Old Spot crosses are blissfully unaware of. Given how friendly and enthusiastic for life that they are, I’m not sure I could bear the emotion of farming pigs in this way but I have to say that the pork we had at dinner on the first night of our stay was delicious!

Eye itself is a pretty town in which the wife in the couple seems to know everyone. The town is a good size with a market and a nice range of independent shops. It is surrounded by a mix of chicken factories and old airfields that are starting to be homes for small businesses. One such is Bruha Brewing which we were able to visit (following my first and rather precarious cycle ride for several years) to sample their very satisfying craft beer.

The town is also surrounded by arable farms criss-crossed by lanes and footpaths and we took ample opportunity afforded by the sunny weather to get our steps up to normal levels after the long drive to Suffolk. There was time, too, to visit Wyken Hall Gardens and have a lovely lunch (again) at its restaurant, The Leaping Hare. We have a lot of shared history with our Suffolk friends and it was great to catch up in such relaxed and attractive surroundings.

Then, this week, we had a visit from my best man (BM) who is another long standing friend from university. Again, the formula of a pub visit, walking and a nice meal was a good, solid backdrop for a great mutual sharing of recent events and life developments. BM’s life rarely seems dull and a recent hip replacement and impending retirement added to the normal interest. If he doesn’t move on to a new job after all, perhaps we will be able to catch up more often.

*Some Big Fields In Gloucestershire Too!*

*And We Have Sandy And Black Pigs In Gloucestershire Too!*

Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I are starting to enjoy and plan more trips and visits as Covid lockdowns are eased to allow them. Last month, for the first time for me in ages, we visited LSW’s aunt, cousin and his wife for dinner. It was an evening enlivened by their dog amusingly pinching a third of the quiche (the rest that he left for us was lush!) and a spectacular view of a sunset over the Severn valley from their house.

Now we are starting to schedule trips to Ireland, London, Scotland, Bath plus dates for local get-togethers with local village friends and neighbours. Normality in retirement is returning.

A Jab In The Map Of Perfect Tiny Things

March 14, 2021March 14, 2021 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

A couple of weekends ago, Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I streamed and watched a film called The Map of Tiny Perfect Things. It was a slight but charming fantasy about a couple of teenagers in an ordinary American town experiencing exactly the same day over and over again. The repetition of events allowed the teenage boy to map out a series of funny or spectacular moments that occurred during the day and then schedule to view them, or interact with them in different ways, during each daily repetition. It was Groundhog Day with teenagers rather than Bill Murray.

*A Little Film With A Good Message For Me*

The ‘Map of Tiny Perfect Things’ was entertaining enough, but what made it memorable was that it resonated with our current situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. We are in what sometimes seem like an endless lock down; every day feels, rather weirdly, very much like the last.

The film reminded me that we need to appreciate all the good things – even if they can often only be little things at the moment. I need to do more of that despite, or perhaps because of, the back drop of the pandemic (and even while railing against all of the inequality, strife, climate emergency concerns and political shenanigans of the world). What we can all do is take comfort from the tiny pleasurable moments in each locked-down day.

*A Perfect Walk Among Tall, Straight Beeches In Conygre Woods, Kingscote*

Those moments might be the sighting of a kestrel or a group of buzzards during an airy walk across the Cotswold Tops, or seeing a flock of chattering long tailed tits in the ivy opposite our house. Recently, while on a walk with Middle Son and his girlfriend – in itself, a set of (slightly illicit) lovely moments – I saw a dipper and then, later, the iridescence of a kingfisher. Another perfect thing might be coming across a particularly attractive moss-covered tree, or suddenly spotting the semi-wild but inquisitive pigs snuffling around in the local woods. Another perfect moment was seeing the result of my recent and hugely overdue haircut (courtesy of LSW).

Then, today, I had a welcome tiny moment when I had the first of my anti-coronavirus vaccinations. The moment of the jab itself was painless but it still felt like an important instant that signals the start of a new phase. Lock down may still have some weeks to run. For a few weeks yet, meetings with friends and Middle Son and his girlfriend may continue to be chilly snacks in the garden, or bracing walks, rather than gatherings around cosy wood-burners or indoor dinners. However, change and more frequent, and more obviously perfect, tiny moments are coming.

*View Over Stroud While Waiting The Advised 15 Minutes Post-Jab*

In any case, the progression of the seasons has helped provide a structure for time spent – we aren’t really living at a standstill. Spring is here and every warm and sunny day now provides a hint of the summer to come. The buds in the hedgerows are swelling and bursting, the birds have long been active and noisy, and the fading snowdrops are now outshone by anenomes, crocuses and daffodils.

For me, the football season has also provided a structure to the chronology and a sense of progression over time. My local and favourite team, Forest Green Rovers, are doing very well. Watching every one of their games through an internet streaming service (now physical attendance at games is prohibited again) has been a real boon. Indeed, on the coldest football evenings, I’ve been very glad to be able to watch my team from the comfort of our living room rather than the frozen stand in our stadium. I am finding that the football season is providing a way – albeit a tense one – through the repetition and drift of time in pandemic lock down.

This has been my first post to this blog for a few weeks. In part, that has been due to distractions due to a busy period with our local climate action group and, more recently, involvement with a local Community Land Trust project. Also, though, those weeks have been dominated by a routine of relative inactivity so as to avoid the coronavirus risk. There hasn’t seemed much to say.

I think I need to pay more attention to those transient, tiny, perfect moments in my routine and make the most of them. But, also, I am hoping that my vaccination jab, and the end of lock down over the next several weeks, paves the way to a new context for those moments. That context will include, once again, proper socialising, travel and substantial events; a map of large perfect moments.

*Our Village Pub Door – More Sociable Times Are Coming…..*

Hope and Resolve in 2021

January 22, 2021 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Yesterday, Storm Christoph, which has been battering and flooding many parts of the UK, brought us a dramatic combination of rain, wind, thunder, lightning, snow, bright sunshine and then a great sunset. I suspect that we might see a similar drama in events and a variety of ups and downs in 2021 as we wrestle with the coronavirus pandemic, the impact of Brexit and the normal hurly-burly of life.

*Sunset Over The Garden After The Storm*

Currently, the rather boring but necessary lockdown continues and Winter life revolves around meals at home, shopping for them, walking the local lanes and fields, reading books, listening to the (voluminous and ever changing) news, watching TV dramas in front of the woodburner, and sleep. But the delivery of vaccines is providing some hope that, in a few months, we will be able to resume adventures around the UK and meet people normally again.

Yes, there are new variants of the virus and, yes, the death rate will rise yet further before it subsides, but there is expectation now that the current pandemic will pass (or, at least, become a lot less disruptive) during 2021. Of course, I am dearly hoping that is the case. However, I also hope that the Government does not hide behind an effective roll-out of the vaccines (assuming they manage that). We must learn, and make transparent, the lessons learnt from doing almost everything too little and too late to combat the virus. After all, this is hardly likely to be the last pandemic we need to deal with and we need to do far better next time.

Against the uncertain backdrop of pandemic and Brexit, it is hard to set concrete personal resolutions for the New Year. The lockdown has induced a gentle lethargy in me (I’m one of the lucky ones). I think it is going to take the fine Spring weather and an end of the lockdown to generate some proper enthusiasm to break that ennui. So my resolution process this year is really to just continue on the path set over the last couple of years.

For example, I will maintain my target of walking an average of over 15,000 steps a day. Apart from a bit of garden pottering, that is really my only substantive exercise these days. So, it’s good that I exceeded that target again in 2020 and I plan to do so once more in 2021. That should be achievable, and be thoroughly enjoyable to achieve in our lovely countryside, provided I stay healthy. Hopefully, many of those steps will be taken a little further afield than was possible in 2020.

The 2020 resolution achievements I proudest of in 2020 were those relating to increasing alcohol-free days and reducing average alcohol units per day. I beat my target of 40% alcohol free days by more than 10% – well over half or 2020 was alcohol free! I also thrashed my 10% reduction target of decreasing my alcohol unit intake. My tracking on the Drinkaware app has shown that I managed a 35% reduction in alcohol compared to 2019 and I now average 22 units/week.

That still leaves me well above the recommended limit of alcohol intake (14 units a week); so there is more to do. However, there is a balance to be struck here. Until I really can’t drink whiskey, wine or beer for precipitate health reasons, I need to weigh the benefit to my feelings and mental health with the physical risks of exceeding the rigour of what is recommended. So many pleasures have been curtailed during this pandemic, reducing further the pleasure I get from what is now a relatively occasional drink is not in my set of 2021 targets. I will just aim to at least repeat what I achieved in 2020 – that will involve will power sufficient to be challenging enough.

That, plus the continuation of walking, should help with my perennial objective of getting my weight below 11 stone. By the week before Christmas, I had managed that. However, for the second year in a row, the combination of mince pies, Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, brandy butter and a major Christmas dinner – lovely as that all was – tipped me over the edge of the 11 stone marker just before year end and just as it did in 2019. My resolution this year is to reduce my weight to such a degree by mid-December that I can enjoy those Christmas excesses without jeopardising target achievement.

Other resolutions from last year have been a bit of a washout. I failed to listen to the news on the radio less and listen to music more. There was just so much news from the pandemic, to Trump, to Brexit, that I just couldn’t stop taking it in. Plus I failed to reach my target of reading 20 books (I managed only 13, a poor show given how much discretionary time I now have and how much I enjoy good fiction). I resolve to do better in 2021.

Long-Suffering Wife and I failed, for obvious reasons, to achieve our resolution to get out together around the UK more. We made it to Belfast for the first time but other holidays to Cornwall and Wales were planned then cancelled. This year, when the virus allows, we will revisit Belfast where Youngest Son is establishing himself, and visit Eldest Son in his new home in Edinburgh. We also have booked, rather ambitiously, a family Christmas on the west coast of Skye; if that comes off, the world really will have returned to something like normality.

*Memories Of Exploring The UK In 2020; Belfast Lough*

This time last year I said in these blogs: “I think that 2020 is going to be a far better year than 2019”. In some ways it was in that we had no sons in near fatal accidents. Now, I really do think 2021 will be far better than last year but who knows what it will throw at us. Good job my resolutions are not critical work targets that must be met; I can relax, be flexible, go with the flow and just be content with pushing myself just a tiny bit.

*Early Snowdrops – A Sign Of A Brighter Future?*

Goodbye (Good Riddance) 2020

December 31, 2020 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Most of 2020 was pretty awful for the World due to the coronavirus pandemic. For many, it will be a year remembered as one in which health and jobs were impacted hugely and where tragedy struck. It is surely everyone’s hope that vaccines and natural progression of the virus will mean that, during 2021, the incidence of such these impacts and tragedies will lessen to insignificance.

I have confessed in these blogs that the impact of the pandemic on me personally, especially during the spring and summer, has generally felt little more than inconvenience with a touch of boredom. Certainly the personal impact of the pandemic has been much less than Middle Son’s accident in 2019. My Mum contracted the virus in her care home but has recovered. Phone and Zoom calls have provided the means of staying in touch with Dad. Youngest Son briefly lost work but that just meant we had the pleasure of his company in our home for a few months. We have been very lucky so far. Nonetheless, I am very glad to be saying goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021 and a new feeling of hopefulness.

Our family Christmas with all three of our sons here in Gloucestershire was made possible by Middle Son’s girlfriend being willing to drive Middle and Eldest Son across London just before the Tier 4 lockdown was announced, a bit of bending of the rules relating to Christmas gatherings, and a bit of judicious coronavirus testing.

Wrenching Middle and Eldest Son out of London earlier than planned caused some upheaval to their plans. Eldest Son had some more work to complete. Middle Son hadn’t had time to relax after finishing work for the year. He showed the signs of work stress that reminded me vividly of the sort of stress I used to suffer when I was working in a big corporation. Soon though, everyone chilled out and we had a few lovely and highly-valued days together. I hope all readers of this were able to enjoy the Christmas period as much.

We ate well, with everyone sharing in the cooking, and our recycling bin reveals that we drank well too. The weather was kind enough to allow some very pleasurable local walks over the Christmas period. The exercise from those walks enabled periods of guilt-free slouching on the sofa in front of the fire, watching films and football on the TV together. Long-Suffering Wife has just bought a new, wider screen TV so it would have been rude not to!

*Sunny Christmas Day Walk Above Horsley Village*

Rather boldly, we have already planned next Christmas. On Christmas Day Youngest Son noticed that a property on the western edge of Skye in Scotland, that he had been alerted to by Eldest Son’s girlfriend, was free for 2021 Christmas week. Immediately the other sons expressed interest and so we booked it straightaway. Hopefully our sons’ respective girlfriends will also be able to join us for at least part of that Christmas week. Christmas 2020 was a very different Christmas from normal and 2021’s Christmas promises to be even more different; that is an extra thing to look forward to in 2021.

I’m sure 2021 is going to have its challenges. Climate change may (should!) start to take centre stage in terms of a World crisis. The impact of the recent Brexit deal will bite across the UK. Forest Green Rovers football club might not be promoted. Other First -World problems might beset us. But, with 2020 finally done and dusted, we can look forward in hope to less social distancing and more normal personal interactions, more unimpeded travel, and Christmas in Skye.

Happy New Year!

*The Garden Under The First Real Snow of the Winter*

Shrinking Life Boundaries

October 31, 2020 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

I’m leaving October with the rain pouring down outside and the threat of a further significant tightening of the lockdown against the pandemic apparently imminent. One can always expect the rain in the UK at this time of year but who would have predicted, this time last year for example, that life would be so constrained. I certainly hadn’t imagined that retired life would be so narrow and boundaried. I expected to be travelling, exploring and experiencing variety whereas, now, life has shrunk to very modest activities.

*A Windy And Wet Autumnal Day From The Warmth Of Indoors*

Of course, the little island of life that I have retreated to is very comfortable relative to many. Despite all that one reads and hears on the radio, it is hard to put oneself in the shoes of a young intern now without an internship, a single mother without an income, or someone like my Mum cooped up in a care home without visitors. It’s a tough period in which to be holding a poor hand of life cards in the UK and the deaths of those in the Channel this week hint at how much worse things are in some other parts of the world.

A few days ago we took Youngest Son (YS) up to Heathrow. (He had been over from Belfast to drop off a car and do a video job in London which was ultimately, disappointingly cancelled due to a Covid-19 infection at his client.) On the way back Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) and I listened to a radio programme hosted by Arlo Parks, a young British singer/songwriter, on the demise of live music during the pandemic. As I listened, I realised that it is probably watching live music that I miss most in this constricted pandemic life.

*Up Close With Zun Zun Egui at Cafe Oto (My Favourite Music Venue)*, *London* *March 2015*

One of the points made in the programme was that live concerts are more than just opportunities to hear live music that one likes or might like. These concerts are short periods when pretty much everyone in the room come together for a common experience and somehow that lifts the listening to the music to a broader, collective emotional high.

*Mogwai At The Roundhouse, London June 2015 – One Of The Bigger Gigs I have Been To*

This experience can be near perfect or fall flat; that is not always because of the quality of the music. I have listed all the gigs I have been to since mid-2007 (368) and rated them as I went.

*Jazz Servant Quarters, London; A Tiny Venue With Nuria Graham*

My ratings have, of course, been determined mostly by the quality of the performer – and that is not just the quality of the music but also whether the artist looked like they were enjoying playing, their engagement and the banter between songs, and the overall atmosphere they created. But there are other factors contributing to the overall enjoyment and, therefore, the rating. These include the quality of the venue and the audience.

*The Antlers At Union Chapel, London, April 2019*

On that last point, I’m old-age and traditional. I hate being in an audience where the crowd are more interested in shouting over the music at each other than listening and getting into the show. I wonder why people go to a gig if all they want to do is chat to each other – just go to a bar instead why don’t you? I’ve learnt which venues, in east London at least, are best for listening to the music and experiencing the togetherness that Arlo Parks and her colleagues on that radio programme talked about. It’s that, and the anonymity of being in the crowd where everyone is focused on the stage, that I miss.

*Faeland At Chapel Arts. The Last Concert I Attended*

I’m missing visiting London, visiting exhibitions and live football too. I’m regretful that I can’t travel – it looks like our planned trip to Wales next month is doomed. But when one of my biggest worries is whether I will be able to get another haircut this year, I should quit moaning and appreciate the things I can do.

So, in that spirit, here are a couple of pictures from recent, lovely woodland walks!

Stay safe!

My Retirement Journey

I've Retired! What Next?

Coronavirus