A significant birthday draws close

Right, it's a week away from work now, my work e-mail has been set to “out of office”, and on the way home last night I filled the car up with petrol. Most of the clothes that I'm taking on this short cruise have been packed, leaving a minimal amount to do on Thursday morning. I intend then to spend a relaxing day, before making the drive down to Southampton mid-morning on Friday. In case you’ve been asleep, the Bailey family are heading off on a short, four-night cruise, across the North Sea, to Hamburg and back. I must admit I am looking forward to the trip, even though I’ve just discovered that Sunday is not the ideal day for visiting Germany’s second largest city.

I say this, because all the stores are closed on the Sabbath, an experience we haven’t come across before, despite having made numerous visits to Germany. Most of these trips have been to Bavaria, in the Catholic South of the country, where Sunday closing does not seem to be strictly enforced. However, in the Protestant North, it appears that the Lord's Day is rigorously observed. Thirteen years ago, the lad and I spent a long weekend in Berlin, where we noticed that shops had limited hours on Sunday, with major stores opening around 1pm and closing by early evening. This seemed a good compromise, perhaps in keeping with Berlin’s capital city status.

Fortunately, most bars and restaurants will be open, so Matthew and I will almost certainly be doing a moderate amount of drinking. This arrangement also suits Mrs PBT’s, who is quite content to remain on the boat, and enjoy a little rest and relaxation. She’s advised us boys though; to refrain from excessive drinking and to ensure we don’t miss the last bus back to the cruise ship. With the weather forecast predicting rain, we may need to find an indoor venue to stay dry, at least on the outside.

I probably mentioned I have a significant birthday coming up in just over a fortnight's time. By significant I mean it’s a birthday with a nought on the end, and in case you haven't guessed it's the biblical three-score years and ten. This brings me on nicely to the topic of retirement. I’m already passed State Retirement age, and am currently claiming my state pension, on top of the pro-rata salary that I receive from my employer. It’s a nice position to be in, financially, and it’s also good from a mental health, point of view, as I feel, and know that I am still making a positive contribution to society, as a whole.

The time may come though, when my body tells me that it’s time to slow down, and take a back seat, but that time hasn’t arrived, yet. The job I’m carrying out at present involves just me, although as company Safety Advisor, it obviously involves the whole company. The main attraction is I have no staff reporting to me, so I can forget about annual leave, days off, sickness, training (although I do carry out specific H&S training for the company, as a whole). I’ve also been heavily involved with our ongoing expansion project, which means dealing with outside contractors, procurement of goods and services, along with a whole host of related tasks. Think how better that is than sitting at home, watching daytime TV, that is irritating at best, and mind-numbingly boring at worst.

Having said that, I haven’t completely taken my eye off the ball when it comes to pensions, although I have advised my employer that I intend to carry on working for a few more years. At least. The additional money will come in handy, I’m sure, and I don’t just mean heading off on another cruise - even though we’ve just booked one for late October! There are also a number of long overdue, home-improvement projects to arrange and finance, not least of which will be the new kitchen that I talked about, in a previous post. We’re going for a full blown, new installation rather than attempting to revamp the current one, as I talked about earlier. OK, these are material things but if they help make easier and more comfortable, then why not, especially as we both grow older.  

I haven’t been completely idle on the pension front though, as I have booked a one-hour consultation with Pension Wise, the organisation which is the UK government's sponsored service that helps people with the various pensions options that are available. The whole multi-million-pound pension is something of a nightmare, so it pays to make an informed choice, and not to jump in, feet first, and with all guns blazing.

That's enough of growing old, morbidity and the like, apart from saying that Mrs PBT’s will also be celebrating reaching the same significant, biblical age as me, come September. Initially, we decided to have a fairly low-key joint celebration, although I am slowly coming round to the idea of perhaps having a party for friends and family. The weather is normally pretty good in September, so a house party that spills out into the garden, might not be such a bad plan, after all. Food for thought?