It’s official. I’ve retired from my day job. While my friends barely blink at the news, the change in my life is massive. Fact: on 31 March 2016 I ‘retired’ as Director and half-owner of a wonderful little online business, Contented Enterprises Limited. Retirement is not headline news Most of my friends raise a puzzled eyebrow […]
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I like lists. Writing them. Ticking the boxes. Moving on. But sometimes I feel my life is becoming one great list, or worse, a monstrous database of lists within lists within lists. A scatty bitsiness pervades my life. I hear many retired people say they are busier than ever. Busy is good … up to a point. But […]
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Every baby looks like a baby. When you look at a baby, you can guess its age to within a few months. No 15-year-old looks like a 5-year-old, either. Gradually the differences between individuals of the same age stretch out. The difference between two 7-month-old babies is miniscule, and the difference between two septuagenarians is vast. Many, many of us give a […]
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Did you have a label slapped on you as a child? It’s common, goodness knows. In large families they are kind of useful as an identity short-cut for outsiders. I used to think that such labels were all bad, constricting and sometimes condemning us to be a certain sort of person. Now I’m toying with […]
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For the first time in years, possibly ever, I’m having Christmas Day alone. Stop — don’t feel sorry for me! No sympathy is required. Until 6.30pm on Christmas Day, it’ll just be me at home alone, apart from a phone call or two. (Short interruption right now while I receive a text and a photo of […]
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