The Retirement Thread

[BoldonLad]

A question for old farts.
Back in the 60s/70s......when you went abroad on holiday you took eg travellers cheques plus some currency.
When you went eg to a restaurant with the family how did you pay ??
Unlikely you would carry enough currency.
Cheque cards, to my knowledge, were not around then.
I just cannot remember what we did.

my recollection is, you could actually pay with travellers Cheques?

this brings to mind another “event” around 1979, on a whim, I drove to visit my brother, who was then in army, and, stationed in Germany. I had my three children with me. I made minimal preparations. I stopped at a garage, in Germany, to fill car with petrol. Went to kiosk, to pay with my debit/credit card. They refused to take my cards, and, I had no currency to pay. Attendant phoned Police. A very obliging German Policeman turned up, and gave us a lift to a cash machine. Children thought is was very exciting.

I subsequently discovered that credit/debit card usage in Germany was not nearly as widespread as in UK, at that time.

As recently as last year (2019), when visiting Germany, we encountered bars/restaurants that did not take plastic. I did ask a waiter at one establishment (which, as it happened did take plastic), why this reluctance to take plastic was so. His explanation was that, citizens of a nation which had experienced the Gestapo, and the Stasi, did not like to give the Government of the day an easy paper trail

 

[Dave7]

Ha, ha. I hadn't spotted this. Thanks. We have a player called Elliott Bennett. Many people refer to him as Elliot and when I saw the team sheet I thought it was him.

Yep looks as though young Harvey had a good game. The Rovers message boards are very complimentary. We dominated, 19 shots, missed penalty. We should have won, self-inflected defeat.

By the way "my lot" are the mighty Rovers. A little more respect please.

Did I ever tell you my eldest, 8 at the time, and I were at Anfield 14th May 1995. I queued from 2.00pm to 9.00am the following day for two of 3000 or so tickets. Slept in the concourse at Ewood. Great, great days.

Sorry I dissed them. Allow me to immediately correct that..........
I see the mighty Rovers were tonked 3:1 last night

 

[PaulSB]

Sorry I dissed them. Allow me to immediately correct that..........
I see the mighty Rovers were tonked 3:1 last night

Think I walked in to that one.........😄😄

 

[ColinJ]

@ColinJ I'm disappointed for you to read you've ridden so little this year. I understand what a big part of your life this is. I know I'd be at a complete loss without my bike this year.

Can I ask why you aren't riding? Hope this is not an intrusion.

I just checked my diary to see exactly how poor it has been... It turns out that my total so far is the lowest that it has been by this time of year for nearly 30 years, and that includes the year that I had to stop cycling due to blood clots (because I didn't clot until July so had already got more than half a normal year in)! In 2020 thus far I have cycled a grand total of...


(drum roll...)


... about 2,100 kms or 1,300 miles. That is pretty disappointing! I have been doing enough to just about keep my old legs/heart/lungs working but not enough to get really fit.

I have felt ill quite a few times this year, but looking back I was surprised to see that it has been for a total of 6-8 weeks. Not ill enough to make me feel wretched, but a warning not to try anything too energetic for fear of tipping myself over into something much worse, a mistake I used to make when I was younger. I don't know if this is Covid-related or not, but the illnesses didn't turn into anything clearly cold- or flu-like so if not mild Covid/'long-Covid' I don't know what it has been.

Still, that left plenty of time to get more riding in. In the early days of the pandemic I really did want to stay local but that hasn't been the case for months now. I think I just 'lost my mojo'!

I'll do my best to average 100 kms a week for the rest of the year. If I manage that, I will finish 2020 on close to 3,200 kms or 2,000 miles.

 

[classic33]

Yes.....I had 8 days in about 6 years ago. Like you I was woken regularly by what was going on (especially one night when the poor bloke opposite died) but found I could catch up by daytime snoozes.
Difficult to sleep though when you are excited about what the next culinary delight will be.
Will it be rump steak?
Spag bol with red wine
Or slop

"What you having for dinner?
Will it be chips or jacket spuds?
Will it be carrots or frozen peas?
Will it be mushrooms?
Fried Onion Rings?
You'll have to wait and see ..."

 

[12boy]

Worked my skinny butt off yesterday harvesting carrots and cleaning them up and moving winter-over plants into the garage. Got up to 18 C and was a gorgeous day, perfect for a ride. The last such for at least Tuesday, got the polar vortex stuck over MT, WY and CO for a while. Its snowing now with a high of -4C, with Sunday being a -10.5 high and a -19 low annd snow most of the week. Good news, actually as there are some epic forest fires in CO and this will help with that. Mrs 12 has her SAD light out for a 30 minute dose daily as she doesn't thrive without the sun. If I get desperate I can throw some studded snow t ires on my 'Dale mtn bike or my Surly Steamroller, and I've a pair for my Brompton too, although I 've never been hairy chested enough to try them. Perhaps I can, as we say in WY, "Cowboy up" and give the Brompton a try. Every winter I lust after a fat bike but they take a lot of room and are kind of marginal use wise for here. Got a buddy who rides his on frozen rivers but that seems a little scary to me.
Stay well, warm and dry. I would hate it if any of you miscreants weren't around anymore.

 

[Dirk]

Worked my skinny butt off yesterday harvesting carrots and cleaning them up and moving winter-over plants into the garage. Got up to 18 C and was a gorgeous day, perfect for a ride. The last such for at least Tuesday, got the polar vortex stuck over MT, WY and CO for a while. Its snowing now with a high of -4C, with Sunday being a -10.5 high and a -19 low annd snow most of the week. Good news, actually as there are some epic forest fires in CO and this will help with that. Mrs 12 has her SAD light out for a 30 minute dose daily as she doesn't thrive without the sun. If I get desperate I can throw some studded snow t ires on my 'Dale mtn bike or my Surly Steamroller, and I've a pair for my Brompton too, although I 've never been hairy chested enough to try them. Perhaps I can, as we say in WY, "Cowboy up" and give the Brompton a try. Every winter I lust after a fat bike but they take a lot of room and are kind of marginal use wise for here. Got a buddy who rides his on frozen rivers but that seems a little scary to me.
Stay well, warm and dry. I would hate it if any of you miscreants weren't around anymore.

It always confuses me when I see abbreviations like - CO, MT, WY etc.
Have to Google 'em to figure out the geography.

 

[12boy]

Almost forgot...here's the carrots. Some are really tiny and my youngest and his wife will probably pickle them. And a path south of the house yesterday.

 

[12boy]

I know about the abbreviations. I have to look up metric conversions because I struggle with Celsius.

 

[Dirk]

I know about the abbreviations. I have to look up metric conversions because I struggle with Celsius.

It's an education, ain't it?

 

[ColinJ]

Mrs 12 has her SAD light out for a 30 minute dose daily as she doesn't thrive without the sun.

I sympathise with her - I'm the same. The valleys here look lovely in the spring, summer and early autumn, but once the greenery goes everything looks grey and brown, often with depressing mists swirling about.

That's another reason why I need to start getting up earlier - so I can get out when we actually do get some winter sunshine rather than just hibernating through it!

A few years ago I got chatting to someone on the subject of S.A.D. He said that his wife had gone to university in northern Norway. Her first winter there nearly finished her off, with the sun setting in November and not rising again for 3 months! I just did a search for info on that and found THIS interesting article on how the northern Norwegians actually cope really well with it.

 

[PaulSB]

Almost forgot...here's the carrots. Some are really tiny and my youngest and his wife will probably pickle them. And a path south of the house yesterday.


View attachment 553935

WOW! Wish I could grow carrots like that. I had 44 years in professional horticulture!!!!

Do you get a problem with carrot fly??

 

[PaulSB]

I've never been called a miscreant before! 😂

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I just checked my diary to see exactly how poor it has been... It turns out that my total so far is the lowest that it has been by this time of year for nearly 30 years, and that includes the year that I had to stop cycling due to blood clots (because I didn't clot until July so had already got more than half a normal year in)! In 2020 thus far I have cycled a grand total of...


(drum roll...)


... about 2,100 kms or 1,300 miles. That is pretty disappointing! I have been doing enough to just about keep my old legs/heart/lungs working but not enough to get really fit.

I have felt ill quite a few times this year, but looking back I was surprised to see that it has been for a total of 6-8 weeks. Not ill enough to make me feel wretched, but a warning not to try anything too energetic for fear of tipping myself over into something much worse, a mistake I used to make when I was younger. I don't know if this is Covid-related or not, but the illnesses didn't turn into anything clearly cold- or flu-like so if not mild Covid/'long-Covid' I don't know what it has been.

Still, that left plenty of time to get more riding in. In the early days of the pandemic I really did want to stay local but that hasn't been the case for months now. I think I just 'lost my mojo'!

I'll do my best to average 100 kms a week for the rest of the year. If I manage that, I will finish 2020 on close to 3,200 kms or 2,000 miles.

In contrast I'm at 3800 miles, slightly down on where I was last year but not bad.

 

[welsh dragon]

I watched a film called the girl in the spiders web. Really good film it was.