Hikers 1930s
Marilyn's Man Cave
Marilyn's Minion
Marilyn's money
German Historical Institute Library
Marilyn's bike
Marilyn at work
Marilyn at sea

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“Everything has been figured out, except how to live.”
Jean-Paul Satre

Welcome to Re-Thinking Retirement. Here I share some of my thoughts and experiences as I try to figure out what retirement is all about.

It’s been a roller coaster of a journey! There’ve been peaks and troughs, passions and pre-occupations. Retiring from paid employment is the simple part – it’s living in retirement that’s the challenge.

I’ve realised that it’s one of the key defining moments of life – it just happens to come somewhat towards the end. For me, it was the ‘new ‘18’ – a chance to start over with the things that really interested me instead of doing just what showed up.

My trouble was, it took me quite a few years to figure out retirement, and I’ve had a number of pre-occupations along the way. You can learn more about these by visiting My Quest page.

I also share more about my personal journey under About. Do drop by and see how I’m getting along by reading my blogs: America 18/70 & Notes

Experiments

Culture

A space for some of the wonderful stuff that’s available in London.

champagne

London is home to three of the top ten museums and galleries in the world. It hosts more than 17,000 music performances a year across 300 plus venues. And its West End has over 200 shows to choose from every day. What’s not to enjoy in retirement?... Read more

Travel

One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.

Beach chair

Holidays take on a different complexion when they no longer provide the oasis of relaxation from the world of work. On the one hand, there’s the myriad of locations to choose from and on the other, it can feel like you are just filling time with no real satisfaction. I started with a bang… Read more

Creative Arts

Shall I weave, paint, sculpt, write or sew? The cornucopia of retirement choice continues.

Fish bowl

During the sixties when I grew up we saw an exuberant expansion in the Arts. So, it’s no surprise that’s where I turned to for fun when the work pressures turned off. Every museum and gallery offers an amazing choice of creative activities for the ‘busy generation’. And I tried every one of them! Away from London, there were the Literary Festivals… Read more

Breakthroughs

Rubble Women

Digging around the period of German Reconstruction, I unearthed the rubble women.