In anticipation of my forthcoming house move, I bought an armchair today, which was going for a song on FB marketplace. I arranged to pick it from the seller’s place of work at the auction mart in Hexham. This is the local livestock market but I know they do other stuff on the site too so I assumed I’d be picking it up from an office or a warehouse or some such. Imagine my surprise when I turned up and he open up a gate and ushered me into the cattle pens and in front of an audience of curious cows, I exchanged a handful of fivers for a lightly used Parker Knoll wingback chair.
And in other news
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Life just doesn’t get any more exciting. If I was you, I’d find a comfortable chair and have a well-deserved nap…
He’ll be in for a rude awakening when the cows come home
and one of them finds Yorktown in his chair
If they’re feeling frisky, they might pat him down.
Having had my urine samples rejected last week because I’d filled the pair of jugs* in 45 hours, not 48, I had my second attempt accepted yesterday.
I spent the rest of the day in a state of mild euphoria.
(*) come on down, Moosey
“What? From here?”
Is that the drug test for the Very Dull Olympics? (Joke)
If ever there’s an Olympic team for the pee-on-demand race, I’ll surely be called up. Simply give me a mug of tea and 10 minutes…
Despite not over-filling the containers this week, simply because it wasn’t so hot as last week, so I drank less water between teas, the lucky nurse who took them off me commented on the impressive volume.
You seem to have the same talent for wee as I do. Congratulations and commiserations.
She was probably just taking the piss.
I line ’em up, you knock ’em down…
If a nurse congratulated me on my impressive volume I’d be over the moon.
When I had my prostate removed I had a catheter for a week afterwards so you get to deal with it via a bag – is incredible how much we wee every day!
I have that delight to come in November, when I’m having my kidney stones lasered and have to flush the resultant powder out.
I’m normally a big fan of lasers, but not so much when it involves my insides.
Physiotherapist appointment on Thursday just gone, at the doctors surgery, concerning my right ankle which is very painful if I walk any distance more than a few hundred yards.
My car is off the road awaiting a (probably expensive) repair and there’s no direct bus route from where I live to where the surgery is. So I had to walk about a mile and a half to get there. The pain was at it’s worst after a mile but by the time I arrived it wasn’t hurting much. As expected, the physio couldn’t do anything much (a doctor I spoke to previously had already told me that ankles (and wrists) are too complicated joints to do much with). He gave me a printout of exercises that might help and that was that. I caught a bus into the town centre, did some grocery shopping and caught another bus home.
On Tuesday I have an appointment for an Ultrasound scan (abdomen and groin, following a doctor’s referral from about 2 months ago that I’d pretty much forgotten about). This will be a 2-bus journey taking about 1½ hours each way.
My car isn’t booked into the garage (needs it’s radiator replacing) until September 16th and I have a ticket to see jazz saxophonist/writer Simon Spillett on the 7th in North Finchley. That’ll be a 3-bus trek there (nearly 2 hours) and 2 buses and a 20-minute walk home afterward. The last bus from the town centre to home will be long gone by the time I get back there.
Several gigs I wanted to go to are either already missed or soon will be. Too difficult to get to and probably not affordable with a car repair bill looming.
FB Marketplace is great. You have a much better chance of a local pickup and cash in hand plus there are no charges. It’s linked to other local selling sites so you’re not limited to FB users other than having to be on it to post on the first place.
FB Marketplace is also full of idiots who say they’re coming and don’t show up, or live in Bulgaria but claim their brother lives round the corner, or think that $x for what you’re selling is way too much.
Be careful out there. Targeting sellers on Facebook Marketplace is the ‘hot fraud,’ police warn.
I mentioned that I was going to retire a while back. Well, now I have – today is day one. It feels like a huge weight lifted from my shoulders, a physical feeling. I’ve listened to music & played instruments all day.
Excellent Leffe, enjoy. You’ll love it.
Welcome to the club!
Congrats, dude – enjoy your freedom!
Having received three emails in one morning, each basically asking “I know you’re about to go on holiday, but I’ve made an absolute mess, so when are you going to get it cleaned up?” I’m beginning to contemplate retiring at 55 and a half.
In my previous job, it had got so bad that I rang my boss on the Friday and said “I’m going on holiday next week and I don’t think I want to come back”. The following Monday, as I was making sand castles on the beach, he rang to tell me the company had gone into administration and I’d be paid until the end of the month. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.
Amazing to say, but I’ve worked without any gaps in employment for my entire career. So I just need to lie down now!
I recognise the fire drill phenomenon mentioned above, as soon as you get good at solving problems, that’s all you do. Then eventually you end up in a state of high alert waiting for the next one. After that you realise that none of the problems were ever really worth solving.
Despite that, it wasn’t the case for me really, at least not recently. I left on good terms.
I’ve only had two gaps of a few months each, both a result of Startups going belly-up. One when the elder offspring was a toddler (so we saved a fortune in nursery fees) and one when the younger was due to start primary school (so we didn’t need to take any leave to cover the half-days).
I’ve always just got on with it, until Mrs F announced last December that she wants to retire at 60 (in another 18 months). But me working another three years after that, until I turn 60, is beginning to test my resolve.
It really wouldn’t be an issue if other people could just do their jobs properly in the first place.
Lucky enough to never had a break in employment.
That’s the Civil Service / Public Service for you – lucky really. I can claim to have had about 10 different jobs in 38 years though.
Retirement? Mrs D reduced hours recently and is now badgering me to do the same, but it gives me something to do, keeps me off the streets (and out of the community), and whilst it has upsides (free-time, less stress/annoyance with idiots lacking a clue, free desk space once the laptop has gone) I’m not actually sure I want to stop working at the moment
(am I a loony?)
I quite enjoyed the time between jobs, perhaps because both pay-offs were roughly equivalent to six months of take-home pay. Both times, I redecorated the house between short periods of contract work. It was actually the social aspect of the office I missed most. But a lot has changed since, I had little kids in the house back then, and I’ve been WFH for the last five and a half years.
And I have come to enjoy not working much more as the years have gone on.
I was freelance for 15 years and worked for almost all of it but you inevitably get a month or two gap between contacts which offsets the fact that you’re often away and always subject to high pressure and stress. I had about 18 months off wondering what to do with myself then got a permie 3 year job which was also high pressure & stress so I think it’s me. I was very ready when I hit 65.
re. people doing their jobs properly… well, yes. That’s a problem – but I personally realised that I might be the reason for that. If people ask for your advice/help, and always get it, even if they could look up the answer in documentation (or whatever) then you are absolutely causing the problem. This was me for many years.
There’s an element of that, for sure, as I have Admin “superpowers”. A new IT system is just round the corner, and everyone is going to have to be retrained to use it (properly, I hope).
I am not retired yet because I effectively had a 5 year work break in my 40s for various reasons, mainly because I blindly moved to Canada without thinking it through too much. Looking back on it I am not sure what I was thinking, the fact I had just lost my mother and one of my closest friends may have clouded my judgement. Luckily I had just about enough assets to get through it, but it has certainly delayed my retirement. I am 63.5 now, 12 years in same job, I hope to retire before I hit 67 but we shall see.
I don’t think you are anywhere near 63.5. I recall you’re about the same age as me. Which makes you closer to 63.2. At the most, 63.3.
Apologies if I’m wrong.
I can only even consider it because Mrs F (a) continues to tolerate me and (b) earns twice as much as me. Not that we’re exactly profligate with our spending but, when she stops working in 18 months, budgets are going to have to tighten.
I’m frantically buying all those half-speed masters while I still can.
We’ve just been through our finances with a view to retirement. I’d like to get rid of the equipment early 2027 when I’ll be sixty two and a half, but I’m resigned to hanging on until early 2029. These dates are set by a break clause/end of warehouse lease and by the time everything is sorted, I’ll be 65. I could continue doing keyboard based work but I don’t want to, in fact I’d gladly stop now. I’ve got things I want to do and places I want to visit and after a number of deaths and serious illnesses among people I know, I’d like to have some pleasure before I croak, plus I’m just bored of what I do after 39 years.
I’ve had retirement thrust upon me by health issues and I hate it. It’s robbed me of the one vital aspect of my life that has been left to me. It’s also shrunk my day to day world to the confines of a one bedroom council flat. I rarely see anyone or talk to anyone. It’s awful. The only positive is at least I’m financially more secure now I’m a pensioner even though I’m not one of the well off variety.