Retirement First Steps
Finishing work has been a big step for me. It’s a less confronting way of saying ‘retiring’. It’s been a long time in the planning, but I’m doing it early while Julie and I have the time and, more importantly, the physical and mental capacity to undertake active activities. After 17 years at Beca - my longest-ever job - my formal letter to my manager opened by saying it was with a mix of reluctance, sadness, trepidation and excitement that I was resigning. I’ve had a great career at Beca and will miss both the work and the people. I was given a lovely send-off by current and former colleagues, with some thoughtful words from three of my most respected colleagues. The last few days of work were spent sorting out a last few loose ends of project work, copying files, changing my contact email address to my personal one for various professional and personal organisations, clearing out my desk/drawers/bookcase and living on a caffeine high from all the final coffee catch-ups with colleagues. Very little productive work was accomplished (sorry, Pete…).
The day after finishing work, it was off to Lake Kaniere on the West Coast for the South Island Masters Rowing Champs, staying in rented accommodation with friends Matt, Kath and Brian. In glorious weather in a stunning setting, we had a great time. Over a day and a half, I competed in nine races, in every class of boat from single to eight and was in the stroke seat for every race. No wins for me, but some seconds and thirds. It made for a great final outing before our big trip, reminding me how lucky we are to live in Aotearoa.
Back home for our final week, on the first proper day of ‘retirement’, I sat in bed with an early morning coffee, making out a list of trip-related tasks to complete during the day. Worryingly, I’d finished them all by about 10:30AM. My friend Ben - an experienced retiree - subsequently advised that my rookie mistake was making a list in the first place, counselling that this was a bad work habit that I needed to break. Nonetheless, I spent the entire week guiltily feeling like I was bunking off school. On our final Saturday evening (coinciding with my birthday), we had a lovely low-key farewell gathering at the house of closest friends and (former) colleagues. Then on the Sunday, we had breakfast out with Greer and Bruce and their two boys, Angus and Corin, who had kindly come up from Dunedin to see us off.
After that, it was just a matter of final packing and organisation for our departure early on Tuesday 6 May. Bike boxes were taped up, bikes were stripped down and packed into the boxes, and our luggage was squeezed into our bags. It was quite a challenge getting it all in - besides all our cycle camping gear, we’ve got non-cycling clothes for the inevitably variable weather in the UK, as well as those suitable for the heat of Oman on our return journey. Simplifying the logistics, we’d arranged a minivan taxi to pick us up at 4:30AM so that we could transport our two bike boxes along with our two (large) bags from the front door to the airport drop-off. Checking in was relatively straightforward, although I’m always nervous watching bikes disappearing beyond the airport concourse, wondering how carefully our precious cargo will be treated by baggage handlers before we see them again, despite the large printed ‘Fragile’ label on the boxes. Sweetly, we bumped into Brian, who was on the same flight as us to Auckland - although for work in his case. Thereafter, we entered the twilight zone that is long-haul travel - flight to Auckland, walk to the international terminal, breakfast in the Air NZ lounge, flight to Singapore, a lengthy period in another lounge at Changi and then the final looong leg to Heathrow, arriving around 6:00AM local time. We did have the pleasure of premium economy seats for the first leg to Singapore - the additional legroom was much appreciated, even if it did make the contrasting 14-hour economy seating to Heathrow that much harder.
Arriving at Heathrow, our bags came through quickly, although I was alarmed to see a number of tears and dings in our cardboard bike boxes. We’d arranged a taxi to pick us up once rush hour traffic had eased, so settled in at an airport cafe for coffees, while we waited in our jet-lagged stupor. The taxi was a God-send - attempting to get our bags and bike boxes from Heathrow to James’s house in north London via tube and train (and all the intermediary walking/dragging) would have been a nightmare. Instead, we were able to load everything into the back of the vehicle and relax for the ride to Palmers Green.
Once there, we let ourselves in to be greeted by two sweet welcome cards produced by Eva and Josh, took our bags up to Lala’s room (‘Lala’ being Julie’s moniker, long-assigned by Eva and Josh), had showers, unpacked and generally luxuriated in James and Tamara’s top-floor en-suite bedroom which has been our home-away-from-home on multiple occasions in recent years. Once semi-recovered, we took Tamara’s recommendation to try a new local cafe for some much-appreciated fresh food, after many airline cooked meals. Later in the day, we picked Eva and Josh up from school and began settling into domestic life once James and Tamara came home from work. Over the following few days, we put the bikes back together (thankfully unscathed, despite the state of the boxes), went into the city to purchase maps and a few other practical items (including tweezers for tick removal…), played tourists for a day, proudly watched 4-year-old Josh’s cycling skills, supervised evening routines of baths and bedtime stories, enjoyed some socialising and got into a semblance of routine while recovering from jet-lag.
Over the last week, we’ve been on the move. First, we travelled by train to North Wales to stay for four nights with Hannah’s father-in-law, Richard, just outside Conwy - a part of the country I’d not previously experienced. Along with Angus the black Labrador, he lives in a lovely stone cottage on a hill overlooking the Conwy valley, carefully refurbished to make a very comfortable home (I’ve never complimented anyone on their toilet before…). Richard proved an excellent host. He provided well-considered and informative tour-guiding services, tasty meals (despite his avowed hatred of cooking) and was very hospitable: AAA++ - would recommend. On the first afternoon, he took us on a stomp up the hill immediately behind his house to an Iron Age hill fort. On the following day, it was a loop walk around the Great Orme peninsula by Llandudno, taking in the 100-year-old tramway to the summit. Next, it was a 25-odd kilometre loop walk around a couple of mountain lakes, starting out in bluebell woods, with a side trip to a peak providing views across Snowdonia. The final full day was across the 199-year-old suspension bridge built by Thomas Telford spanning the Menai Strait to the island of Anglesey. We walked around the ruins of the Penmon Priory founded in the 6th Century, and out to the Trwyn Du Lighthouse, overlooking Puffin Island, before wandering round Beaumaris, complete with partially-moated 13th Century castle. Returning home that day, we strolled around the walled old town of Conwy, dominated by another 13th Century castle and the unusual triple bridges, comprising the Telford suspension bridge, the Stevenson rail bridge and the new road bridge. All trips necessitated refreshments at cafes and ice cream shops.
And now we’re back in London. Today has been the first day when we haven’t been task-focused, travelling, or being chaperoned, so we’re having a relaxing day to ourselves. Lush!
Great blog Ian. Keep it coming. Cheers. Ben
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