A new chapter begins

Well, it's official - I've retired!  It still seems a bit unreal and as it's half term this week, all my work colleagues aren't in the office either but next week and they are all back and I'm not - that's when it will hit home.  In addition to a very generous amount of John Lewis vouchers, I was given a framed poster of memories of the 17 years I've been at the school.  A few private jokes, a few of the work projects I've worked on and even Brad Pitt. Whenever I look at it I will smile and remember the relevance of each comment.

So the thing I've been asked the most is 'whatever will you do with all that spare time?' and my answer has been 'I really don't have any hard and fast plans'.  I'm thinking that my days will sort themselves out as time moves on and hopefully we will have a sunny summer where I can have impromptu trips out - on a weekday!  I've already decided to do a daytime exercise class which I'm hoping will make it less of a chore - those classes that don't start until 7pm can sometimes be a bit of an effort. A 10am start should find me more enthusiastic and less tired and hungry. 

One thing I will definitely be doing is joining in with the Summertime Scavenger Hunt organised by Mary-Lou.  I love this project!  You can find the details over at Mary-Lou's blog, come on, join in, it really makes you keep your eyes open for that elusive photo.  

Bank Holiday Monday here (although every Monday will be like a Bank Holiday from now on!) and we had a flying visit from our son and his wife last night.  They'd hired a car to go to the Hay Festival in Wales and needed to get it back to the rental company by 11am today.  They hadn't factored in how long it would be to drive home after the last event that they had booked for so the message 'Can we sleep at yours tonight?' was quickly followed by 'we should be there sometime around 2am'.  Thankfully they managed to come in quietly and not disturb the dog so we weren't all awake in the early hours!

Enjoy your Monday!