Since I gave up work, I’ve never been so busy. I’ve tried explaining this oddness to those who care (nobody) and tried explaining it to those who feign to listen to me out of politeness (chiefly, my daughter), but the truth is nobody is interested in how I’m filling my weekday time. Nobody cares.
So, I kept a kind of record and although this kind of record stretches over the so recently ended weekend, it’s still a kind of record of how I’ve spent my time. Database stuff, chiefly. With a teeny-weeny bit of (to use a technical term) website front-end fannying about. The database stuff amounts to 43 hours over Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
There will be a little more of the same during the week, but it’s going to be measurable in units of 5 minutes/day. I had to deploy some custom CSS and a little home-made javascript to make things play nicely together. The database stuff included getting a bunch of CREATE TABLE and SELECT * and INTO commands right, which was fun wrangling the syntax into position. It’s been decades since I last worked with stuff like that. It took a bit of cobweb-blowing to get it right.
Well, the bottom line is the campaign website has a new Lifetime Supporter feature (with some safety-rails behind the scenes, to stop jokers from making a contribution of £0.01p or similar).
You’ll notice that the main thing I do – writing (of which, more at another time) – doesn’t even figure in this bunch of time-related activity!
Anyway, it’s shift change in the Spaniel house. Chewie has just got down and Mavis is lining up to take his place, so I have to quickly throw another log on the fire before she settles across my knees.
Everyone I speak to who has retired, all say exactly the same: that they are busier now than when they were working.
I too manage to stay busy. And I would say I am pretty busy. My busyness takes up the whole of my day.
The difference is – and I’ll wager it is just the same for you – that I am busy doing what I want to do.
Over time, I’ve also developed a mañana attitude: if I don’t get it done today, well, there’s always tomorrow.
But well done for keeping busy. It’s important.
Yes! That’s it. I’m as busy as I used to be. I’m just busy doing what I want to be doing, not what some senior person in an office on the other side of the world wants me to do. Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains. Erm.