I am still not used to this retirement fact. Having been a teacher for many years, I don't find the last two weeks any different from the normal schools holidays, a quarterly interruption of the working year. In fact driving passed a school and seeing that teachers and pupils are at work has been the one jolt to my sense of unreality. I am now beginning to be aware that one day needs to be no different from any others; there are no weekends for me any more. In this era of 24/7 shopping this is more of a reality.

I am also realising that the only things I have to do are chores of one description or another; there are household chores, gardening chores, letterwriting and bill paying chores. In my working life, I had people to interactive with, too many too often and so at home I liked the lack of them. I don't yet know whether I will like the permanent absence of classrooms and offices full of human buzz.

I Have now been retired for nearly a fortnight. It won't be long before I can start to write here regularly. That is the hope.