As one chapter draws to a close, a new one will soon be beginning

It’s been a very strange summer so far, and certainly nothing like the summer I was expecting. To start with 2026 is set to break all records for high temperatures, with five heatwaves so far, and a distinct lack of rain. The heat hasn’t been good for working outside, although the combination of high temperatures and lack of rainfall has meant very little, if anything, is growing in the garden. I’d more or less given up on it anyway, as the ritual of nightly watering was becoming a losing battle.

We’ve had some welcome rain over the past two days, but it’s nowhere near enough to bring the garden back to life, although with a holiday looming in two weeks’ time, the garden will have to look after itself, anyway. Climate considerations aside there’s major life decision looming up on the horizon and it’s one that I’m starting to embrace, and indeed welcome with open arms. I’m almost halfway through my 72^nd year and I’m really starting to feel it, so there’s one area of my life that I really need to let go of. I’m talking here about paid work, or more pointedly my career as a scientist-safety professional. In other words, I’m talking about retirement.

I’d been thinking about letting go of my ties with the world of work, and had already taken the first tentative steps of exploring the financial options open to me, once that all important monthly pay cheque stops coming in. Something happened though, along the way to prompt me to speed up the process of letting go, and it wasn’t so much the feeling tired and lacking in energy, but rather a chain of random events that appeared out of the blue, which have been sufficient to persuade me that it’s time to go.

I’m not going to go into too much detail, primarily because it wouldn’t mean too much to those unaffected anyway, so without giving too much away there have been a few changes in the structure and set-up of the company I have worked for over the past 20 years that have suddenly changed it from being a nice place to work, to one where the opposite is now true. People talk about dynamics in society, and on a much more local level, dynamics within the workplace, and a few recent changes that have taken place have completely altered those carefully constructed building blocks, that hold the whole thing together. I’m talking here about the glue, that connects the various strands that make an organisation function in a certain way, and that ultimately make it successful as well as a decent place to be employed in.

The changes I’m referring to seem at odds to what I’ve been talking about above, but basically the company is losing two key people who I both respect and admire to the extent that I can call them friends. The crazy thing is that one of them, like me, was navigating the same pension maze necessary to provide that vital income, to see him into retirement, and through the other side. The other person is much younger but felt herself forced out by the person brought in to replace the colleague I’ve just been referring to. In short, the carefully constructed dynamic that held a key part of the organisation together, has been shattered, because top management made a rash and poorly though out decision.

It’s not going to be a particularly nice place to return to when I come back from my holiday, which is why I’m speeding up the wheels that I’d already set in motion for a tidy and ordered retirement. With a reasonable “pot” to fall back on, I am looking at Pension Drawdown, as even despite my advancing years, Final Salary Pension Schemes were being withdrawn, even when I started work.

So, that’s where I am, as we head into the final week of August, and is why you find me in a contemplative and reflective mood. On the plus side, it’s raining quite heavily, at the moment, which is further good news following on from some early showers, and long may it continue – at least for a while. As for my impending retirement, I shall keep you informed as to how things are progressing.