The pandemic has left its scars on the world. They are often deep scars; some may never heal. Scars have been left on society, on the economy, on the high street, in hospitals. Perhaps we all bear our own individual scars from the pandemic. I have a certain amount of contempt for those who dismissed the pandemic as a flu. There are one or two conspiracy theorist crackpots I no longer speak to.
The exit from the pandemic has proven difficult for some folk. People have different risk levels to the virus. Some were affected by lockdowns. Some are still bereaved. Me? The pandemic gave me the priceless gift of time. Lots of it. Whilst never furloughed, I did end up with what amounted to a couple of months worth of paid leave spread over the lockdowns. And the post pandemic world cruelly took that time away.
I regarded the lockdowns as a dry run for retirement. Retirement doesn’t suit everyone. It suited my grandfather. My dad, not so much. It definitely suited me. Very much so. However, the world around me has largely returned to normal and all that spare time has disappeared. My experiment with retirement ended some months ago. Now I have to skim read my newspaper, skip tempting new Netflix shows and cut short long walks. I rarely get to write a blog post any more.
I miss having all that spare time. It’s disappearance is truly noticeable. I feel pressed for time, all the time. Rushed. Squeezed for. Short of. It must have been like this in the Before Days. One just didn’t notice. It was normal. One knew no different.
I only have seven or eight weeks of annual leave and that just isn’t enough to do all the travelling that I want to do. The photo above is from a recent trip to Spain, that I did manage to get in. It’s a shame WordPress don’t allow me to add a song to play whilst you read. There’s a Pink Floyd masterpiece that fits the bill here. I guess you could play it in a background tab in YouTube…
Still, one mustn’t grumble. The pandemic did not suit the railways. Not at all. Cost savings are on the way. And as much as I like lots of free time, I do not wish to be granted the stuff by way of my becoming ‘a cost saving’. I’d prefer to wait till retirement proper. The scars of my version of the pandemic are more bearable than the scars of redundancy.
The Mexile 
The steel industry was cyclic, my first stent in the iron house was 18 months and then laid off for five years but the seniority accrued. Of my thirty one years, I was in the millhouse for 19 years at best. I got a good taste for retirement, what with all the practice.
They offered a buy-out at age 52 (the door did not hit me in the ass). I’ve been retired 14 years now-I spent the morning putting in garden and servicing the tractors. I’m heading to the nursey next for a half dozen flats of pepper plants. Retirement is a fine thing. I get to rest when I want.
I did a lot of things during my years of lay off. I always enrolled in university as soon as I got my lay off slip, school was cheap when I was young. I could pay for a year’s tuition for less than a month’s pay. ( our local university runs 13 grand a year now).
I worked in the oil fields, the rubber industry, construction/demolition and farming while laid off from the steel mill . The goal, was mailbox money, at the end, while I was still young enough to carry on a bit
As to covid, I had a go round with it that almost killed me, my resting heart rate went from 60-65 to 70-75 , it seems to be for the duration. In the context of croaking, I got off lucky.
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I want to try and avoid redundancy. Right up till my last working day. At which point I’ll happily take a pay out. The next six to twelve months is an important period for me, which will likely have quite a bearing on our retirement plans.
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Off-topic my friend, but want to hear something really freaky? Up until 2 weeks ago, Spokane went through over 270 days without the temperatures reaching 72F. And cloudy the entire time. Then it broke — for about 5 days, and we saw the sun again on two of those days. But now we will be getting rain, and looks like it will continue every day for some time, and the temps back into the 60s again, and of course cloudy.
Well maybe such conditions are common in England, I don’t know, but it is June and Summer is nowhere to be found. The trees and other flora have of course moved into Spring in spite of the weather, as flora tends to do. Otherwise, I am wondering whether our town has been cursed by the god Poseidon. Or maybe some other suitable angry god.
All of which is really fine with me on a personal basis. I live in my cave and scribe the parchment, and I happen to like cool weather. So this is more observation rather than complaint.
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The weather is getting increasingly erratic, everywhere. There is the possibility we’ll see 40C in the UK at some point over the next week. We’ve never recorded over 40C here.
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You said you only get 7 or 8 weeks vacation per year. The most I ever had was 3. When I was laid off at 53, my wife and I took off for Mexico. We had no pensions, and lived on the investments we had made. 20 years later, we are still happy. I have friends who retired early, only to; have a serious stroke, have COPD, lose the function of their legs, and other less serious illnesses.
Waiting until you have all of the money to live a more lavish retirement is a gamble. Just my opinion, but retiring while you’re young enough to have some active years is the way to go.
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To be fair, 7 or 8 weeks vacation is pretty generous compared to most places in the world. But there are so many places I need to get to see, and time is becoming more of an issue with each passing birthday.
I wont work one day longer than necessary.
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