Retirement has become a reality , for almost the first time in my life I am rally bored , Not frustrated at too much to do in to little time , which I had mistaken for boredom. However I wont comment on boredom just yet I think I will savour what is for now a new experience , and see if I like it . I never realised that day time television is such a collection of hoary old repeats . with a few gems shining through . I have to admit I have become an instant fan of loose women as for the rest my television viewing has actually gone down . Radio 4 has some good bits , once they get over their current obsession with finance . Its odd for the first time I only need to interact with the bits of the outside world I want to . I am actually finding the absence of transport more of a problem now I am retired than when I was working , when I quite happily used public transport , funny that . I am finding that I am putting things off because I have plenty of time . whereas when I had little time I got them done , "Strange" Attitudes from my family have differed as well, Its as if by retiring I have aged 15 years in a day I suddenly need advice and looking after , and being told what I should attempt and not attempt . This is odd because I am actually quite fit , and no one suggested otherwise before I retired . and the attitudes of public servants especially those in the council administration is amazing , talk about patronising once they find out you have retired .I think my Victor Meldrew is coming out .

bikes

Not really about learning , I was looking at my bike today , I have a venerable jawa with a side car . I rode motor bikes up to the late 1980s .When a crash led to me being unable to afford another one until i bought the aforementioned Jawa at a barn sale . Unfortunately I never took a test because at that time you could ride indefinitely on L plates if the bike was below 250 cc . I wish I had taken it then because believe me its a lot more complicated now . I am going for a combo as I am also older and need three rather than two wheels , and don't worry all the people who wish to tell me how bad combos are Ive had two before , yes on an L plate life was simpler then . I am trying to add an image of the bike but blogger doesn't seem to want me to. Is it harder to learn as you get older or is it harder to learn several things ? I don't seem to be finding the theory test too hard although I haven't taken the real thing yet . is it a case of use it or loose it ? I can set up, programme, and to some extent troubleshoot computers ,small networks and IT functions , yet am just about literate with a mobile phone . Is this evidence of" just in time learning"? I think so because my calender ,scheduling and notes were all on my laptop and /or palmtop. I didn't need to use my phone for anything except calls,so never assimilated the other uses . I was probably too lazy to move the instructions to long term memory . Is this one of the problems with just in time learning ,that by restricting learning to what you need, you are also restricting to some degree your awareness of other possibilities and other opportunities? The same could be said about just in case learning , for instance one of the reasons I bought a jawa is I know about their foibles and have quite a large amount of" just in case knowledge" of the specis ( yes and I still bought one ) but were my options limited because of my previous learning ? I know the photo is 2006 but I have been restoring it since.

musings on worth

I was watching television again and several items awakened my interest on perception .This time it was how human beings perceive worth . three areas really , number one was a discussion on antiques road show about a piece of glassware , the discussion was around
if it could be attributed to a specific maker , in which case it was worth several thousand pounds more than if it couldn't . What then was the intrinsic value of the object ? Tom Keating asserted on his death bed that there were several of his paintings displayed in museums as works of the old masters .My feeling is that if they are unable to be distinguished from the original , then they are as intrinsically as valuable as the original especially as many of them were not copies but were "in the style of" .Later on a footballer was discussing his ( to my mind) somewhat obscene amount of money he got per game whilst as the evening progressed a newly qualified nurse was talking about leaving the profession as the stress involved was not compensated for by the wages . I once ran an intensive care unit and at that time I was the lowest paid of three of my friends , one lorry driver , one trainee footballer , and a club entertainer . I would not hesitate to admit that the situation has changed and present wages are much better , but the perception of worth is still an important factor. The third area was about food ,one of the cookery shows was extolling the virtues of belly of pork.I grew up in a farm working family , and my father always maintained that the only part of the pig you couldn't eat was the squeak , belly of pork was cheap tasted good , and provided lots of calories .Ideal for a farm workers family . It definitely was not trendy . However now it appears it is and the price has risen accordingly , So is it the endorsement by some TV chef or is there a real change in perception taking place ? Especially as the food in question although undeniably tasty, would seem to go against the lean and keen ethos of today . a fourthbut somewhat risky example does occur to me , benefit fraud is as we are told punishable by having a criminal record , but alowances fraud (oh yes, to my mind just as fraudulent and more criminal as many of the benefit fraudsters have very little , but i know of very few poor MPs ) does not .Fraud is fraud the difference must be in the perception of the act

more thoughts

Odd how when you think you have lots of spare time, life expands to fill it . We are having our loft insulated and there is 30 years of junk ( sorry !treasures! ) up there . No-one wanted it when it was up the loft, but its interesting to see how much is needed now I want to bin it . I took the dog for a walk today and saw a five spot Burnett moth . They used to be very common on a patch of waste ground which was covered with thistles . but disappeared when it was built on , its nice to see one back even if they are loaded with poison . The dog did try to eat it, as it does with most things but I dissuaded it . It tried to eat a bee yesterday and walked around with a fat lip, as the bee objected. but it still tried to eat another one today . She will try most things in the hope they are edible. and so far the only thing she will not have a go at is orange peel .Oranges are OK she will eat them but not the peel. We found some of my old nursing notes from when I was a student in the 60s , strange how much that we thought was gospel, was wrong , anyone remember preventing skin breakdown by vigourous rubbing with soap and then rubbing with spirit? Two ways of removing oils from the skin . but our patients (the word clients hadnt been invented ) didnt break down because the ritual of "the backs " involved strict two hour turns and inspection of the pressure areas. ritual does have its place some time . I was discussing just in case and just in time learning witha coplleague and cant help feeling that we are missing something important here . There should be a third category "just about" I have allways held that education is about allowing people to use their mind . Just in time is learning that is needed for application to the business or process you are engaged in , just in case is a business you may be engaged in but what about learning that allows you as a human being to develop and explore your environment and expand your perception ,( Im not talking Timothy Leary here) just learning .If you teach people to think they will challenge, they will explore, and they probably will reject concepts you as the teacher hold dear; but is that such a bad thing as Dylan says "the times they are achanging"

First Thoughts

First post in my new blog , Getting to grips with being retired after having worked since I was 15 , Great having the time to do all the things I need and to explore all the "I wonders".But a bit worrying having to organise direction and structure rather than having it imposed by the needs of work . I wonder if my changed perception of life will affect a lifelong need to learn , I hope not . The availability of life long learning has been enhance by the use of IT , I hope to re-learn German on live mocha the web 2 site and later perhaps Hindi . I don't know why people say you cant spend all the time on the garden . I spent all day yesterday weeding, and after a nights rain you can't see where I've been .That's a thought, a database of weeds, their uses ,and Achilles heels; accessed as a podcast and downloaded to mobile media. So when you see the little swine you can find out if they are useful and how to deal with them on the spot .