What Difference does Retirement Make?

Someone asked me the other day, "How are you coping with retirement?" Although there were many references on this platform a couple of years ago to my plans for a 'phased retirement', once the phasing was over and the permanent condition kicked in, I gave it only the occasional thought, and my main focus was on simply 'getting on with reality'.  So the question prompted me to take a mental step back and consider just how different the 'after' life is from that which went 'before'.

Of course, I have known two retirements in the last twenty years, the first being the cessation of office work when circumstances drew me into a second career as a courier driver.  In that earlier era, one of my chief skills had been computer-based, using bespoke accounting software alongside countless spreadsheet applications.  My spreadsheet experience began in the early 1980s, with an Apple PC, on which the program had to be loaded every time from a 5¼" floppy disk (when floppy disks really were floppy!).  Once the program was loaded, a magnificent 32 kilobytes of 'user memory' were available for whatever application you chose to create and this number was displayed constantly in the corner of the screen to remind you how close you were getting to this tight and unrelenting limit.

One program followed another; there were SuperCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Symphony, and another whose name escapes me, which we used to estimate our weekly profit when I was working in the newspaper business (the managers never believed the results we came up with, but they were only estimates, after all!).  Finally, the industry standard became Microsoft Excel, which I was brave enough to buy for my personal use long before I left the world of accountancy.  Since that memorable transition, some fifteen years ago, my Excel skills have not just been maintained, but probably enhanced, as I've used it for many aspects of my personal life, from housekeeping accounts, to all the records of my courier work (which was self-employed, and so needed accounts and tax calculations as well as performance data), and latterly to monitor my SIPP pension investments, and extensively for my family history researches.

Then came the second retirement, when my sixth van gave up the ghost just hundreds short of that coveted achievement, a career million miles.  Of course, as previously with the spreadsheets, retirement didn't mean I gave up driving, but it has led to my driving taking on a different style and purpose.  Now driving for leisure only, I have had to get used to using just first, second and third gears to get me around the town, and on the occasions when I now venture further afield, I find it takes a few miles for me to regain those different habits, techniques and skills that apply to driving on the open road, especially on trunk roads and motorways.  I enjoy the longer trips that I do make, for example regular visits to the local record office, or to my cousin in Nottinghamshire, and other occasional trips like a recent one to Heathrow Airport, or next week to a family history meeting near Uxbridge.

From time to time I recall - with a tinge of regret - many things that I realise I'm unlikely to see again: particular faces, particular company premises, in many cases whole cities and towns, for which there is now no reason to visit. There are also some situations and circumstances that I don't miss.  My home is in what was once the industrial heart of this Garden City, and often I can look out of my window, and see commercial vehicles passing by.  On dirty wet and cold winter afternoons I see delivery vehicles out there, and feel very glad to have retired.  Those were the days when I would return to the office about 3.30, knowing that there were some hours left of the working day, hoping that I could simply wait for a job to start the next day, and that I wouldn't be asked to go out again that evening.

As with the destinations and the purposes, there are some aspects of the driving itself that I don't miss.  Like countless thousands of other drivers, I abhor the miles upon miles of speed limits on our motorways.  I accept that their purpose is safety while developments take place that will be greatly beneficial in the long term, but the frustration, delay, and in some cases almost fear generated by being boxed in on three - or worse four - sides by heavy lorries has to be experienced to be believed.  It's one aspect of my working life of which I'm happy to be free for approximately 99% of the time!