# Retired



## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Just got home from my Final day as a Nurse. Feels a bit wierd


----------



## olivefarmer (Oct 16, 2012)

Good for you.

You will miss it for sure but in my experience there is plenty to fill your day here and without a lot of stress.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Tomorrow is Day One of your new life. 
It's a bit like when you left home for the first time.
It will be fun. Enjoy!


----------



## davexf (Jan 26, 2009)

Hola 

I started writing a daily diary - now ten years later it´s fun to look back

Davexf


----------



## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

Welcome the the retired Nurses club


----------



## owdoggy (Jul 23, 2008)

Ex NHS nurses, IMO, are intelligent, feet on the ground, hard working, problem solving, fun loving lunatics and so are perfectly equipped to handle the ups & downs of making a new life in another country. They can also be very vicious so it’s wise not to upset them but when the brown sticky stuff hits the silver twirly thing there’s nobody else I’d rather have in my corner.

How do I know this?...... I'm married to one!





Doggy (flighty, moody musician type)

p.s. No cutsey dog pics 'cos the board reckons I haven't done more than 4 posts...... not bad considering I've been a member for more than 5 years


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

owdoggy said:


> Ex NHS nurses, IMO, are intelligent, feet on the ground, hard working, problem solving, fun loving lunatics and so are perfectly equipped to handle the ups & downs of making a new life in another country. They can also be very vicious so it’s wise not to upset them but when the brown sticky stuff hits the silver twirly thing there’s nobody else I’d rather have in my corner.
> 
> How do I know this?...... I'm married to one!
> 
> ...



Expat Forum For People Moving Overseas And Living Abroad - Announcements in Forum : Spain Expat Forum for Expats Living in Spain


----------



## owdoggy (Jul 23, 2008)

Ok, [rubs slapped wrist] no hay problema jefa


Doggy


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

cambio said:


> Just got home from my Final day as a Nurse. Feels a bit wierd


I don't know 'cos I'm not there yet, but it's bound to take a bit of getting used to, and for all that retired people say that it's wonderful there are bound to be days when you feel a bit at a loss.
It must be great to say goodbye to having to get up on grey, snowy, cold mornings though, like I had to today! It's coming down thick and fast at the moment! :smow: :snowman::smow:


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I don't know 'cos I'm not there yet, but it's bound to take a bit of getting used to, and for all that retired people say that it's wonderful there are bound to be days when you feel a bit at a loss.
> It must be great to say goodbye to having to get up on grey, snowy, cold mornings though, like I had to today! It's coming down thick and fast at the moment! :smow: :snowman::smow:


Nope, you don't feel at a loss, well at least I never have. In fact you start to wonder how you are going to find time to fit everything in.


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

baldilocks said:


> Nope, you don't feel at a loss, well at least I never have. In fact you start to wonder how you are going to find time to fit everything in.


OK. 
Perhaps what I meant is that not all make the adjustment to retirement smoothly, and I think it's good to recognise that it may be more difficult for some, and also that that's understandable.


----------



## Allie-P (Feb 11, 2013)

Congratulations, cambio - you are nearly there.....or, here 

We have been in Spain for a year & there is always plenty to do ! 

Today, for instance, we are researching ; metaphorically running around due to the loss of our UK TV stations....also, our water supply is non existent !

The bureaucracy is mind boggling. If, you should want to cancel a service - whatever evidence you send, at their request - they just ignore it 

Spain is, indeed, a lovely place to live for pensioners - I would, surely, never have time to work


----------



## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

I am supposed to be retired but have never been busier (a three and a half year old doesn't do much to keep it peaceful around here). We are having a new wall built as the other one departed in the hurricane force winds. The builders (Spanish) are doing a pretty good job but they have an electric extension cable which they use to power the cement mixer and other power tools. They didn't show up today so I repaired the cable to make it safe. The main insulation was missing for about a 75 cms and along that length were several areas of bare wire. I wonder if they'll notice??


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Well, it was exactly six years ago that we both gave in our notice at work and started the countdown.

This year I get my old age pension, and OH gets his teachers's pension, so we effectively traded six years of earnings for six extra years of leisure. 

Best thing we ever did. Life's too short to spend half your time working to pay for things you never have time to enjoy. Whatever anyone says, your money goes further here, and the best things in life are free.

Good luck Cambio, and I hope things turn out equally well for you. :fingerscrossed:


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Pesky Wesky said:


> OK.
> Perhaps what I meant is that not all make the adjustment to retirement smoothly, and I think it's good to recognise that it may be more difficult for some, and also that that's understandable.


It depends very much on the individual. For nearly all of my adult life I'd been involved in activities outside my work...politics, trade unions, travelling around. Sandra was involved in politics and trades unionism too and represented her union on their national negotiating committee but when she became a businesswoman she had no time for other activities.
When we decided enough was enough and jacked it all in, our paths diverged. She had had enough of pressure, deadlines and sorting out problems and opted for a quiet life, her only commitment being to fairly regular volunteering at the ADANA kennels when we came to Spain.
I on the other hand couldn't just make a break with my 'former' life so for over five years I did unpaid work for my union as well as a one day a week job at the Czech Office of Statistics in Prague. I was on generous expenses and flew regularly to London and other cities in Europe. I often spent days away at seminars and conferences. 
This suited me as it was a kind of bridge, a transition.
After moving to Spain, the experience became less pleasurable. Flights to London took over twice as long and I missed being in Spain.
So two years ago I resigned from my post...but by then I was involved with ADANA and on the Managing Board. 
Now I'm stepping down from that...but am getting involved in a new Spanish group in Estepona for LGBT young people and their parents...
A Scottish friend once described my political activity as 'interfering wi' folk'..she was joking but maybe she had a point there..
But you're right, it's very much horses for courses.


----------



## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

I wouldn't swap my life in Spain for anything I ever had in UK. Yes, it has been difficult and frustrating at times but watching my young lad becoming bi-lingual, watching him learn to swim and watching him loving every bit of his life here is nothing short of priceless. And all this discussion about the loss of UK TV prompted me to post on Facebook just now:

No TV?? I suddenly discovered that I am married and apparently she can hold a conversation. Extraordinary. And on top of that there appears to be a little boy running around who turns out to be my son....

It got a lot of laughs...


----------



## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

owdoggy said:


> Ex* NHS nurses, IMO, are intelligent, feet on the ground, hard working, problem solving, fun loving lunatics and so are perfectly equipped to handle the ups & downs of making a new life in another country. They can also be very vicious so it’s wise not to upset them but when the brown sticky stuff hits the silver twirly thing there’s nobody else I’d rather have in my corner.*
> 
> How do I know this?...... I'm married to one!
> 
> ...


So very true, I'm one of them and the wife who has nursed longer than me shows the level of 'dealing' with things goes up algorithmically when you hit top end of band 8:eyebrows:


----------



## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Alcalaina said:


> Well, it was exactly six years ago that we both gave in our notice at work and started the countdown.
> 
> This year I get my old age pension, and OH gets his teachers's pension, so we effectively traded six years of earnings for six extra years of leisure.
> 
> ...


That's exactly how I felt and continue to feel. I was 50 when I gave in my notice and moved here 7 years ago (with 10 years to wait until my occupational pensions came into payment). I can honestly say I felt nothing but euphoric to be free of office politics, idiotic senior management, budget cuts, staffing and disciplinary problems and not least a hellish commute. Work is a vastly overrated pastime, IMO. I still get that euphoric feeling sometimes, whether I'm walking by the sea on a sunny day, or waking up on a rainy one thinking "thank god I don't have to get up and go out to work in this"! 

The motivation for doing this took hold when my mother died aged 63 and I thought there is no way I am going to carry on wearing myself out to earn a pension I might not live to spend.

I am a bit of a fitness freak and spend 3 afternoons a week at the health club, swimming and doing exercise classes, and I'm a lifelong avid reader (the classic cornflakes packet will do if there's nothing better to hand). I help two Spanish children with their English studies a couple of evenings a week after school, and am just getting involved with a new voluntary scheme which is being set up to offer English support classes to local children from low income or unemployed families whose parents can't afford private classes. We also enjoy travelling around and seeing as much as we can of this beautiful country, and there's certainly plenty of it to see!

I hope the OP is settling (if that's the right word, sounds a bit boring for what is hopefully anything but) well into retirement and will really enjoy their new life in Spain.


----------



## Relyat (Sep 29, 2013)

cambio said:


> Just got home from my Final day as a Nurse. Feels a bit wierd


I did my last shift on Thursday

I can't yet describe how I felt


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Relyat said:


> I did my last shift on Thursday
> 
> I can't yet describe how I felt


Having been there, albeit in a classroom, I know exactly how you felt!
But you and cambio too can reflect with satisfaction and pride on the fact that your working years were spent helping sick and anxious people and not in the financial sector as a vicious greedy speculator driving many people to need your services through the distress and anxiety they cause ordinary working people. You can sleep well at night with a clear conscience.
Thank God for publicly-funded freely available national and regional health services and those who work in them, especially those at the sharp end.


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Relyat said:


> I did my last shift on Thursday
> 
> I can't yet describe how I felt


Don't worry you'll get used to it. It's taken me some 7 years and I'm still getting the hang of it but I'm determined to succeed.


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

For ages I couldn't just read a book all afternoon without feeling slightly guilty that there was something more important I should be doing. I resolved this eventually by getting a hammock. Once I'm settled in that, I'm there till the sun goes behind the mountain (which it has just done!).


----------



## Relyat (Sep 29, 2013)

I'm determined to get used to it, I've waited long enough (in my mind anyway!) and looked forward to this. It's the walking away from a building where I've spent the last 18 years, together with the people therein, that threw me. I'm not really sentimental or anything and I just wasn't ready for how I felt - however that was.

P.S. Thanks for the accolades Mary, but I can't accept them as I wasn't a member of the Health Service.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Relyat said:


> I'm determined to get used to it, I've waited long enough (in my mind anyway!) and looked forward to this. It's the walking away from a building where I've spent the last 18 years, together with the people therein, that threw me. I'm not really sentimental or anything and I just wasn't ready for how I felt - however that was.
> 
> P.S. Thanks for the accolades Mary, but I can't accept them as I wasn't a member of the Health Service.


I thought you were a nurse, like cambio....


----------



## Relyat (Sep 29, 2013)

No, sorry if I gave that impression, I was a Prison Officer


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Relyat said:


> No, sorry if I gave that impression, I was a Prison Officer


An important and imo often misunderstood and misrepresented job.


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> An important and imo often misunderstood and misrepresented job.


I agree, Porridge would not have been half so funny without Mackay.  OK I'll get me coat.


----------



## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Well I can assure you that having been in Spain for a few days, the glass of red and the sunshine has been the best tonic so far.

This afternoon a walk into Portugal! and then dinner

BLISS


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

cambio said:


> Well I can assure you that having been in Spain for a few days, the glass of red and the sunshine has been the best tonic so far.
> 
> This afternoon a walk into Portugal! and then dinner
> 
> BLISS


Just over the border is a part of Portugal called the Alentejo....it is unspoilt and breathtakingly beautiful. We have spent a couple of short breaks with the dogs in a former 17th century convent in a small town, Moura. There is a slightly bigger town nearby, Beja, I think that's how it's spelled..well worth a visit.


----------



## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

But didn't a Prison Officer just win X-factor? And I have to say she had a very good voice - good luck to her.


----------



## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

cambio said:


> Well I can assure you that having been in Spain for a few days, the glass of red and the sunshine has been the best tonic so far.
> 
> This afternoon a walk into Portugal! and then dinner
> 
> BLISS


Have never met you and probably never will but your posts have been so personal I feel like I know you. The very best wishes for your future adventures in Spain. I feel certain that you will have all kinds of fun!!!!


----------



## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

mrypg9 said:


> Just over the border is a part of Portugal called the Alentejo....it is unspoilt and breathtakingly beautiful. We have spent a couple of short breaks with the dogs in a former 17th century convent in a small town, Moura. There is a slightly bigger town nearby, Beja, I think that's how it's spelled..well worth a visit.



Our house is in Spain our car is parked in Portugal!

It is a beautifull spot to be in


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

cambio said:


> Our house is in Spain our car is parked in Portugal!
> 
> It is a beautifull spot to be in


Well, I really do recommend a trip to Moura and Beja. You could probably get there in an hour, it took us an hour to cross from Rosas de la Frontera, I think the town was called. 
Worth the trip for stocking up on the local wine, unbelievable quality for unbelievable prices.
A very poor but unspoilt and picturesque area.


----------

