It Was Three Years Ago Today..... 

It’s HARD to believe that I’ve been retired now for THREE whole years. I officially left full-time employment one day after my 60th birthday on 8th April 2020 and eased into the retirement I’d been ‘planning’ for 6 months. Although, with the Pandemic starting to bite there wasn’t a lot of easing going on. But those three years have gone by in a WHOOSH. Funnily, I bumped into someone from work today. I didn’t work directly with her, but our paths crossed fairly regularly. She retired 8 months before I did so we compared notes. We both agreed on the whoosh aspect but also agreed that part of that was the whole unreality of Covid in the early part. We also agreed that our activities have expanded to take up the available time so being at a ‘loose end’ just doesn’t factor into things. I told her of my ex-boss who wondered (or maybe worried) that I’d be bored without a job to go to. As I told her (my ex-boss that is) at the time: I don’t come here for something to do. 

So, how are things turning out? Three things immediately spring to mind, firstly because I’m now getting the sleep my body needs I’m no longer tired ALL the bloody time, as I was when working. By nature, I’m a night owl (I am SO not a Morning Person!) so I tended to go to bed late – around 11.00-11.30 - and then drag myself out of bed around 7 hours later on work days. I slept later at weekends but there’s no real way to claw back the deficit so... constant tiredness. No longer! I’m generally going to bed even later – pre-midnight is rare – and I get up around 8 hours later. So far, so expected. Oh, and the sleep I DO have is better. Not only do I tend to get to sleep faster than before, I also rarely wake up in the night and when I do I go back to sleep sooner than before. 

A somewhat more surprising result of retirement is that I haven’t had a cold since I left. I’ve had a few sniffles and I wondered a few times if I had a cold so mild as to be almost invisible, but generally.... Nothing. Obviously, this will be because I’m not mixing with hundreds of people every day rather than retirement per se but it’s a nice plus to the process. I’d never been one to ‘man up’ when ill and drag myself into work to infect other people, but it seems I was pretty much alone in that. To be honest, I obviously worked with germ filled plague carriers.  

Something that has surprised me a great deal is my lack of headaches. In the last 3 years I’ve barely had one, and that was a pretty mild affair. I used to own multiple packets of pain killers and bought them in bulk. In the last 3 years I think I might have taken 3-4 pills. I used to take 2 every 4 hours for the best part of the day (or longer) to make a headache at least bearable. These days I now take individual tablets (in the rare occasion when I need them) and that’s enough. So. It wasn’t my (Diet) Coke addiction and caffeine withdrawal that was messing with my head. It was WORK – most probably stress related frowning to be honest.  

All in all, retirement has been a major boon for both my physical and mental health – despite putting on a few kilos in weight because of lack of exercise. I used to walk a LOT in my job so I’m compensating somewhat by going for walks most days when it’s not raining. Regret retirement? Not for a second.