65 but dare not retire

If I officially put my feet up I suspect the wife will put something in my tea rather than vacuum around me, so I'm winding back slowly.

I have about 40 years worth of unfinished stuff to go through, wondrous machines to play with and antique guns. I got this thing about antique guns and went a bit wild.

I subscribed to Model Engineer back in the '70's has anything changed?

Robin

Seaford Sussex

"I subscribed to Model Engineer back in the '70's has anything changed?"

Yes Robin - Two clowns are vying to end the human race, scotch whiskey is much more expensive and you and I are very much older.

Rik

Yes, I think I am going to fit right in here

I wasn't subscribing to ME in the 70s, but I think you'd've had to write a hardcopy letter and post it by snailmail back then... :D

Mars bars aren't 2 1/2p any more.

We have no control over the end date of retirement but we do have some control over the start, so get started as soon as possible.

Mike

Or sixpence.

Mike

Or a tanner.....

Or even the same size. remember when mars bars were a measure of inflation?

There you go making me nostalgic, found myself searching e-bay for an old Brooky to put on my ML10...

I'm coming over all unnecessary at the very thought of it.

"scotch whiskey is much more expensive"

Obviously paying more for the extra "e"

Or 4d. Can remember the going from 4d to 5d. Not the same size - they were so big the family had to carve them up and you hoped you got one of the ends which had more chocolate!
Bring back the half crown - it was amazing what you could buy with it - maybe 5 really big ice creams without even the thought of a flake.

Edited By Clive India on 30/08/2017 09:34:42

Ah the old pre decimal money... farthing, ha'penny, penny, tuppenny piece, threepenny bit, tanner, bob, two bob, half crown, ten bob note, quid note. My first pay packet, 1963, was £3-10s-6d... £3.521/2 p in todays money, decent money back then, gave my mum £2 board & keep... unheard of these days!

​George.

Go for it Robin. I retired at 57 and moved to a warmer place in the sun with lower duty on whisky and much cheaper wine. 14 years later no regrets.

Russell

Rick Shaw If you look at the label, it does say imported. It doesn't say where from, so that presumably accounts for the extra 'e'

Roy ( Neither of them keeps with me )

When Britain went decimal I heard a pensioner say 'they should wait until all the old people are dead before doing this'. Apart from that no-one seemed to regret it's passing. I was sorry to stop finding interesting old coins in my change, but otherwise £sd went unmourned.

Can anyone explain why Imperial Measure retains a following whilst Imperial Money is unloved? They both have the same advantages and, arguably, money was more logical.

Dave

Never "retire",just think of it as a change of direction in which you do the driving and you choose the route,and the speed,to say nothing of the number of stops along the way !

It,s great !!

Good question Dave ! No idea.

2 reasons
Firstly they didn't keep a point of reference the same and then decimalise everything around it but used an inconveniently large and new starting point - the metre. If they had taken the foot and decimalised it or something close like 300mm it would have fitted better with everyday life.

Secondly the name. If they had taken a metric based length, 300mm again, but called it the 'new foot' it would have been more acceptable. I believe if instead of the Euro they had called the item the 'new pound' = 'new franc' = 'new deutschmark' etc in each country it would have worked.

Welcome to the Scrap Heap of life Robin. It's not really that bad though.....it's great for me.

Got my first pension last week so I'm officially an 'Old Git'. I retired 10 years ago from formal employment and been doing what I wanted and when since. Had to be frugal, but glad to be rid of the enormous stress, long hours and poor diet.

Took a while to get used to the slower pace (about 2 days .

Not worth the effort fighting change, might just as well adapt to it and cling on to what you personally want to keep. The good thing is you now have all the time in the world to adapt at your own pace.

Just enjoy it!.