The final countdown

This will be my last post about leaving the UK, but I thought I'd cover a bit more about the process before moving onto life in Madeira.

The last two weeks before we left were totally exhausting. We were getting up early and sorting things until 1 or 1.30am before crashing into bed to start the whole thing again a few hours later.  Even though we had packers, we had to make sure that we identified anything we did not want to come with us.  On top of that, some of our stuff was going to our house in Madeira, and some was going into storage for our new house when it is built, so we had to ensure everything was appropriately marked for the packers.  We used a system of coloured labels but I have a suspicion that they were not always followed correctly.  When our stuff finally arrives I will not be surprised if things end up in the wrong place.  I know that some stuff that was meant to remain was packed (for example plumbing spares for the "old" house) and will be turning up where we have no use for it!

The packers arrived on the Tuesday before our flight, and from then everything was a complete whirlwind.  They were incredibly efficient and I suspect that if either of us stood still too long we'd have been packed too!

We had no say in the order in which they packed rooms, so the kitchen and all of its equipment was done very early on leaving us no way to prepare any food.  This meant that the only way to eat was to walk into town and buy something there.  Our lovely friends Tony and Eniko kindly let us stay with them from Wednesday night onwards as our bed had been packed too.

On Thursday, several hours later than expected, a 40ft container arrived outside the house and the packers shifted everything into it.  Well, nearly everything, as they realised quite quickly that there would not be room for the two motorcycles.  Dave ended up having to make alternative arrangements with someone he knows who specialises in transporting motorcycles overseas.

In the middle of all of the packing, on the Wednesday, we finally exchanged on our house.  The process, in hindsight, was pretty quick, but it was none-the-less, very stressful and you never feel it really will happen until you have that confirmation.  It was a weight off our minds to know that we would not be having to sell an empty house from abroad.

The container was packed up and sealed, and it looked like we had filled every square inch of it.  By the time it was done the driver had exceeded his driving hours so ended up sleeping in the cab outside our house for the night, leaving early the next day.  We left the house looking a little desolate (us and the house), but then had a lovely meal out with Tony and Eniko and our friends and neighbours, Robert and Julia. It was a great evening but also a reminder of how much we are going to miss everyone.

On Friday, we returned to the house to supervise the transfer of the last few pieces of furniture to friends and charities and to do as much cleaning and tidying as we could.  Also the purchasers popped around for what Dave called "house training"!  It is a large and complicated house so we wanted to help the buyers know how to operate the various systems and to make their move in as smooth as possible.  They strike us as people who will love and enjoy the house as we did, and that makes us feel a little better about leaving it.

My friend Shreena decided that, as we had never been to an acclaimed local restaurant in all the time we had lived there, she was not going to let us go without doing so.  Therefore we had a great lunch out with her, and got back to the house just in time to supervise the loading of the bikes into a van for their separate journey.  After a bit more cleaning we were picked up by Eniko and went back to theirs for another exhausted night.

Saturday, our last day in the UK, was a very emotional one.  We took the girls out to lunch and (bravely) they came back to the house for one last look around.  Then we waved them off amid many tears. An hour or so later some other friends, Sati and Rob, came around to pick us up and take us to Gatwick.  We had a lovely meal out with them before they dropped us off at the Premier Inn for our last night as UK residents.

And then there were two.....

We have now been in Madeira for 10 days and are getting more relaxed and less stressed as we fit into a new rhythm of life.

In my last post I said that our move has been both physically and emotionally demanding and I'll now elaborate a bit.

By far the biggest and most difficult aspect of our whole move overseas has been the fact that our two daughters have not come with us.  They are both in their mid-twenties so they need to forge their own lives and careers, within the UK or elsewhere, rather than having us dictate to them.  Until a couple of months ago, both were still living with us so our move, and the sale of our house, meant that they had to find new accommodation.  They get on well but the idea of living together was not really an option so both have found rented accommodation which suits their individual lifestyles.  Corina, the eldest, is now sharing a flat with a friend from her church, and Tania is living in a house with the owner/landlady.

Moving the girls into their new places has been strenuous and logistically demanding but we got there in the end.  Corina's move involved "two men and a van", as well as a car load, as she was in the fortunate position of being able to take some of her own furniture with her.  In fact, she even supplied some furniture for her flat mate.  This has had the double benefit of her keeping her familiar and comfortable furniture, and us not having to find new homes or storage for it.  As Corina has previously lived away from home for college and work, the transition, although painful, was not too shocking for any of us.  One victim was Dave's head though, as he ended up with a nasty cut on it caused when dismantling her landlord's old unwanted wardrobe.

Tania, on the other hand, had never lived away from home before as she stayed at home throughout her time at college.  Therefore the arrangement where she is in an established house feels more comfortable for her (and us). Sadly she could not take much of her furniture with her.  Our original plan had been to store it for her but that proved to be ridiculously expensive so we agreed that we would bring her bed out here (as we needed another one) so she can use it when she is here, and sell or give away her desk, wardrobe and bedside table.  When she buys her own place we will buy her a new bed and other pieces.  We had one piece of furniture which she particularly wanted to keep, an art deco display cabinet, and some kind friends of ours are looking after it for her, along with a couple of sculptures she had asked to keep.

That brings me onto how generous our friends and neighbours have been as we have been going through the whole move.  We definitely left on a wave of love and support from them all, with practical and emotional support in abundance.  We can't thank them enough for all they have done for us, and for their good wishes and kind thoughts.  We even have a sideboard full of new home cards here as a reminder.

We also had to say goodbye to our extended families, some of whom we sadly may not see again.  For Dave's side of the family we were lucky to be able to see almost all of them over one weekend as his Aunt and Uncle who live in Spain were over celebrating a big birthday, followed by celebrating a milestone birthday of one of his nieces the next day. We got to see his aunt and uncles, sister, cousins, nieces and nephews and even a great niece, plus numerous in-laws and partners. For my side, I arranged a meal out with my three sisters, who all live in West Sussex, plus partners and as many of their children as could make it.  Those who couldn't phoned in for chats during the evening. The only family I failed to catch up with was my brother's as he lives in Cheshire and I felt it was too far to ask him to come.  We did see them all in May so it was not too long ago.

I also managed to have a drink and meal out with most of my closest ex-colleagues. It was great to catch up with them and hear some office gossip.

Going back to the emotional side of leaving, I confess that, although I knew that leaving the girls would be tough, I was not at all prepared for the massive wrench it is turning out to be.  First the pain of them leaving home in quick succession, followed by us selling the house that they largely grew up in, and finally us leaving them behind as we flew off to our new lives.  Although, with communications and transport being so available nowadays we are constantly in contact and we are really only a few hours apart, it still feels like a chasm sometimes though.  Many tears have been shed and I miss them dreadfully.

I'll tell you about the rest of the move in my next post as this is already long enough.  No photos I'm afraid as I don't really have any suitable.  There will be some in the next post.  See you there.

We made it!

Well here I am, writing from Madeira.  We have actually taken the plunge and are now living here full time, as of last Sunday!

The last couple of months have been incredible in so many ways, and have left me with very little time to write up my blog.  But now we are here and things have quietened down (temporarily) I will try to catch up.  It will probably take a few posts to bring things up to date.

My last blog was posted just after we dropped our Lamborghini off in Madeira and headed home to get on with packing up our house.  We had put the house on the market at the beginning of July and immediately got a lot of interest and some offers, although below our asking price.  After around 15 viewings a lovely young couple with a little girl looked around and, within an hour, phoned up with an acceptable offer.  Then it was over to the surveyors, lawyers and estate agent to work through the whole process.  As anyone who has bought or sold a house will know, even the most straightforward of sales is a slow, painful and frustrating process and ours was no exception, even though there was no chain and no major issues.

While the house sale was working its way through Dave and I continued to sort and de-clutter as much as we could.  I ended up selling a large amount of clothes and other items on eBay, which is time consuming and sometimes demoralising, but meant at least I got occasional bouts of exercise dropping parcels off at the Post Office.  We continued to try to place as much of our furniture as we could with people who had need of it.  As we already have a fully furnished house in Madeira, there was only a limited amount of furniture that we planned to take with us.

On occasion it seemed as though some guiding force was helping us, as we often found good homes for items just when we needed to.  For example, when the mechanic who maintains one of Dave's motorcycles was dropping it off in his van, Dave asked him if he knew of anyone needing some furniture.  By amazing coincidence, his son was just buying his first house and would happily take several items.  So the van went away with a wardrobe, bedside table, chest of drawers, dining room table and numerous other items.

We were delighted that the buyers wanted to buy our piano and some gym equipment which would have been very heavy to move, although they didn't want our snooker table.  We had an arrangement for that with the person who supplied it but that fell through at the last minute.  Dave put it on eBay on a 3 day listing and, luckily, someone wanting one just like ours happened to see the ad and buy it.  He's a builder and drove all the way up from Torquay in his flat bed truck, with wife and son in tow, to pick it up within a couple of days.  Similarly, we needed to sell our car (not the Lambo) and there was very little interest apart from some insultingly low offers. And then, when we were about to give up hope, a local couple turned up, loved it and bought it on sight.

We found a couple of charities who were happy to collect other items of furniture which was useful as our car, when we had it, was pretty tiny.  Also some of our neighbours wanted a few items so people staggering along the road carrying chairs, sideboards and cabinets became quite a regular sight.

That is a brief description of the practical side of preparing for our move.  I'll cover some of the more emotional issues in my next post.

The picture at the top is the sunset as seen from our garden on the day we arrived - to explain why this is all so worth it!

The Bull has landed...

Fifty years after Apollo 11 landed a manned vessel on the moon, an alien craft lands on the island of Madeira!  Yes, we have arrived with the Lamborghini at last.  It was quite a journey over 7 days and 2,700 km.  We stayed two nights with friends in Normandy, followed by a night in Bordeaux, one near Segovia in Spain and one in Alentejo in Portugal.  Each was lovely in its own way, as were many of the roads between them.

As planned, we picked up a second, more sensible car in Portugal and I drove that for the last couple of days.  It wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, once I had stopped grazing my left hand knuckles on the door every time I went to change gear, and helped by largely quiet roads. Also Dave is a good lead driver as he only overtakes when there is enough space for me too.  I feel a bit guilty that he had to drive at a more sedate pace than he normally would, on some lovely roads, so he could keep me in view.  The car was supplied by the father/father-in-law of another couple of friends, and they kindly hosted us for lunch at his beautiful villa before we set off for the next stage of our journey.

We arrived at the port of Portimao in good time for our ferry which set off perfectly on time at 2pm.  The journey took 25 hours so we had booked a cabin which was right at the front of the ship.  We were just settling into the journey, waving goodbye to the Algarve over a beer, when Dave started to suffer from a dreadful bout of seasickness.  Sadly he suffered for pretty well the whole journey, so it turned out to be a little less romantic than we had hoped.  I kept him company or wandered around the boat, managing to turn up at the restaurant when it was just closing. Fortunately I wasn't particularly hungry so did not mind missing my evening meal. Dave was not eating anything!  A kind Madeiran saw Dave's plight during one of his rare trips to get some fresh air, and gave him some travel sickness pills which didn't help the sickness but did help him sleep through it.  I'm relieved to say that he had recovered enough to drive by the time we arrived.

Dave's seasickness has confirmed what we already thought, that we will actually ship the motorbike to Madeira in our removal crate rather than ride it.  We realise it is just too much time, money and energy to expend a second time.

We pulled into Funchal at 3pm on Wednesday 16 July and, by some amazing luck, I was the second car off the ship.  I parked to one side to wait for Dave, as he had been on a different deck and got off around 10 minutes later, and was met by Nelio, the builder who will be building our future house, and his marketing manager Robert.  They will garage the Lambo at their office until they have built our new one.  Much to our amazement the Lamborghini had already become a Facebook phenomenon by the time we arrived, as people had photographed it at Portimao, and some were speculating on whether it was headed for Madeira or Tenerife where the ship was going onto.  Several people seemed to claim they owned it too!

Once at the port the BMW was parked in the nearby CR7 car park (yes, not only have the Madeirans named their airport after their famous son, Cristiano Ronaldo, but they have also named a car park after him!) so that I could join Dave for the Lambo's first trip on the island.  It certainly did cause a stir as we went along.  My worry is that people will have accidents staring at the car instead of the road!

Now the car is housed at the builder's office until our new house is built.  Dave took Nelio for a brief drive before washing it and putting it to bed.  Even that became a spectator sport! Our car is rapidly gaining celebrity status on the island.

We then had four busy days talking to the builder, looking at building sites, and meeting our tax advisor who is helping us import the car.  It is apparently a very laborious process with pitfalls all along but, for us, worth the effort to have our car on the beautiful island with us.  We popped by to visit our plot but got sidetracked by our future neighbours and a very large gin and tonic.  The future looks very promising....

Now I am back home and we are on the final straight before moving out there for good.  The house is on the market and has had around 10 viewings so far.  Dave has booked the packers to pack up and move our possessions, and our one way flight out.  Yes, we have a leaving date!  It will be 29 September.  I am just about to list a load of items to sell online and we have had two mega-trips to charity shops with one more to go.  Now that we have a deadline it has really focussed our attention on what still needs to be done.

One last bit of news.  My younger daughter, Tania, passed her motorcycle test last week and has now taken possession of her brand new bike.  I am so proud of her.

What a whirlwind....

Hello, another apology for taking so long to post again.  I've been rather busy and there hasn't been that much exciting to tell you about really.

The main things occupying my time are sorting, tidying, throwing stuff out and, er, more sorting.  In the past month Dave has finished the decorating and we have had new carpets fitted to a large part of the house to make it more attractive to potential buyers.  It seems a bit mad to spend a load on something that we will benefit from for such a short period, but there is no doubt it will help to bring in the right buyers. We've had several estate agents come around and have chosen one.  Our house will officially be on the market in the next few days!  I am in a quandary of mixed emotions about that as I love this house so much, and a big part of me really does not want to leave it.  Also, of course, as the time to leave gets closer, the reality of leaving our two daughters behind is starting to hit me.

We did fit in a family holiday to Italy last week.  We spent 5 days near the beautiful lake Orta (the smallest one) and then 3 days in Bologna.  At that point Dave and I came home leaving the girls so spend a couple of days without us in Milan.  They are safely home again now and both had to go back to work immediately.  We had a lovely time, and did manage to relax a bit, although we always end up driving around a lot on this type of holiday.  Highlights included a dip in the lake, a visit to lake Como (no we didn't see George), some totally spectacular views, and the walk up to the Sanctuary of the Madonna de San Luca in Bologna.  And, of course, the food!  This may be our last family holiday of this type, but I hope not.

As I mentioned in my last blog, car prices in Portugal are very high, even for older cars.  Dave has been doing a lot of research and sourced a 1 series BMW at a "reasonable" price through a friend who lives near Lisbon (and who has a car dealer for a father-in-law!) which he has now bought.  This means that we will be collecting a second car on our way to the ferry next week and taking two cars across to Madeira.  A great idea in principal but I am rather dreading it as I will have to drive the new car from Lisbon to the port and this will be my first experience of driving a left hand drive car and of driving in Portugal.  I just hope that the roads are both wide and quiet!

Dave has also been on a bit of a spending spree buying things that are difficult or very expensive to get in Madeira.  Purchases so far include numerous large items of kitchen equipment, a robot mower for the lawn that we do not yet have, a clothes airer, various pieces of hifi and probably lots of other stuff I have forgotten.  We have had a couple of quotes for moving our possessions to Madeira and it appears that we will need most of a 40ft container, so Dave is determined to make full use of it!

I think that brings you up to date now.  Our next trip is the car trip starting on 11 July so I will post again either before or after that.

In the meantime, I though you would like to see that the "Happy Retirement" balloon that my colleagues gave me is still hanging on in there, three months after they gave it to me.  It is currently hovering at around 3 feet off the ground.  Here is the evidence:

The plot thickens

Hello again.

Well here we are back from Madeira.  We had a great time, although it was very busy too as we are now moving on with our plans to have a house built out there.  We have put a deposit on the plot of land and have a set of design plans to be submitted for planning approval.  We spent a whole day with the builder, including 3 hours with the architect, and on other days visited numerous tile and bathroom-ware shops. We also spent a lot of the rest of the time poring over the plans and working out some of the details.  They will not start building until September, and it will take the best part of a year to build, so there is no need for us to have everything sorted at this stage but Dave, in particular, likes to get involved in the fine detail and wants to get a lot of things nailed down straight away.

We revisited the plot a couple of times to visualise how the plans will become reality.  Here are some pictures of it, along with the resident lawn mowers:

We did manage one "lavada" walk, which is a walk following one of the many irrigation channels which are all over Madeira.  They are a lovely way of getting away from the hustle and bustle and spending some tranquil time with nature.  As I am still suffering from the odd bout of vertigo we avoided any of the more vertiginous walks this visit.

Also while we were in Madeira Dave and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary with a delicious meal in the town of Ribeira Brava. The builder kindly gave us a beautiful orchid which I have entrusted to our neighbours (of our current house there) until we are living there full time. I am so looking forward to growing my own things out there, and my list of plants for the future garden keeps on growing.  We won't need a banana tree as we will be surrounded by banana and sugar cane plantations, but I do plan an avocado tree, several citrus trees and possibly mango, persimmon or some other sweet fruit.  Dave, on the other hand, is busy researching robot lawn mowers, strimmers and other pieces of garden equipment.

We did a little investigation into buying a second hand car for every-day use and were shocked at how expensive they are.  Portugal has very high duties on car imports so even old cars are very expensive compared with the UK.  We had to tone our hopes down from something like a VW Golf to a Toyota Yaris!  Again, no hurry, although we need to get something by September when we move out there.

Now we are back home and back down to earth.  Dave continues to pore over the plans and is currently trying to configure the kitchen (even though there will be experts to help us with that!).  He is also getting on with more decorating to get our UK house ready to rent or sell.

I did manage to get along to my bra making class on the day we got back, although I was rather too tired to take in some of the more technical stuff that we were taught.  I have produced something called a fit frame (like a bra with no cups!) which, once it is properly fitted to me, can be used to try out different cups, to get the perfect fit and style. We now have a week off for half term and I hope to find some time to make some progress on my own.

I hope that you all have a great bank holiday weekend and that the weather is kind to you.

Spinning around!

Hello there.  Sorry it has been a while since my last post.  Last weekend was a busy one. Amongst other things we went to Brooklands Track for Auto Italia day on Saturday and saw lots of lovely Italian cars, although it was ridiculously cold for May!  Here are some friends for our baby:

On Sunday we drove down to the South coast for my eldest sister's 60th Birthday party.  We are now officially our nieces and nephews' "coolest aunt and uncle" as we turned up in the car.

Then, on bank holiday Monday, I woke up to find the room spinning, and it was nothing to do with alcohol (honest!).  I seem to have gone down with something called Labrynthitus, an inner ear infection which causes vertigo.  It is no fun as everything spins every time you move even a millimetre, your stomach churns, and you can't balance.  I spent the whole day in bed trying not to move.

Since then things have got slowly better but it has not gone completely yet.  I have been taking things easy, but at least I have been able to get on with going through my huge piles of food magazines. I've probably worked through another foot or so of magazines. I'm relieved to say that I also did manage to get along to my Bra Making class on Wednesday evening (still nothing suitable to show you I'm afraid).

On Thursday Dave took a day off from painting the house and we went along to the Grand Designs Live show at Excel to get some ideas for our new house build.  We came away with lots of inspiration.  Who would have thought that I could get so excited about pocket doors and extractor units?  And don't get me started on lighting systems and blinds!

We are off to Madeira next Wednesday, our first visit since I finished work, and are really looking forward to chatting to the builder about his plans and our ideas.  It will all feel a lot more real when we go back and stand on our chosen plot, and can visualise ourselves living there.  Sadly I will miss one of my bra making classes but hope to get to the following one on the day we return, as long as the plane is not late.

Another exciting development is that the company which runs the ferry from mainland Portugal to Madeira has finally released their timetable for the summer.  We now have a booking in the middle of July to take our car out there.  We will have a mini holiday driving down there through France, Spain and Portugal. Then we have all sorts of fun in store as we have been advised that the process for importing cars is incredibly complicated and laborious.  And we will need to arrange garaging once it is there as we will not be able to get such a low slung car up to our house in Funchal!  It would end up beached on the entrance to our condominium!  Having done that, we will be doing it all over again with the motorbike.  But we haven't picked a date for that yet.

I'll keep you posted on how we get on in Madeira.

Let the clear-up begin!

I hope that you had a great Easter break and had a relaxing long weekend.

I'm pleased to report that I finished my banner and it was duly delivered to the church in time for the Easter service.  Here is a photo of it in the church.  The banner finally consisted of 93 felt daffodils plus 5 buds, and 10 "pebbles" made out of whatever fabric was to hand (two started life as socks!).

Now that I've finished the banner I don't have any excuse for not getting on with sorting out the house.  I'm dividing it into manageable steps and my first task is getting to grips with my extensive pile of recipes.  I'm a compulsive recipe collector and have to face the fact that I won't live long enough to try out every recipe I have cut out and saved from magazines, especially as I also have a huge collection of recipe books!  The other thing I need to bear in mind is that I may not be able to get some ingredients in Madeira, and probably should be considering simplifying my cooking to take advantage of the huge array of fresh fruit and veg that the island produces.

Over the last two days I have reduced two six inch piles of cut-outs to about one inch (sorry about the old measurements).  I have another pile or two to go and then have to start on the mounds of complete magazines! Finally I will attack the books themselves as there are some which haven't seen the light of day for a long time, and therefore are probably not going to be missed if they find themselves a new home via a Charity Shop.

Dave has been very busy painting our hallway in preparation for a new carpet to be fitted.  In typical fashion, we are getting around to doing the hall up for the future occupants of the house, rather than for ourselves.  If I told you that this task involves 14 doors and painted wood panelling, from dado downwards throughout, you might get some idea of the size of the task (and why we haven't got around to it before!)  Who ever said that you take retirement for a rest?

On another subject, the Bespoke Bra Making course that my lovely colleagues bought me for my leaving present started this week at Morley College in London.  The first class was mainly admin, scene setting and basics so there isn't anything to report yet, but I will keep you posted on how things progress. I love sewing and learning new things, so this is very exciting for me. More soon...

Easter is coming...

Well, all is relatively quiet in retirement land, but that doesn't mean it has not been busy.  I have been working hard on the daffodil banner as the deadline is approaching fast.  It needs to be finished for Sunday morning, and true to form, I finally am really getting on with it.   I will include a photo of the completed banner in my next post.

I ended up with 93 felt daffodils and 4 buds in total.  And then I had to sew them all onto the background.  I am so glad that I gave up work and no longer have to do the same repetitive things day in day out! 

One thing which is rather nice is my work room looks out on a flower bed which is waking up for the Spring.  I have been watching an industrious pair of robins frantically feeding their very demanding fledgling chicks.  Here is a picture of one of the chicks, just showing a flush of yellow on its chest.

Talking of preparing fledglings to fly the nest, Dave has been helping our younger daughter, Tania, to learn to ride a motor bike.  She hired a 125cc bike last weekend and they spent the time riding around the Kent countryside, like a mother duck being followed by her duckling.  I joined them on Monday and am so proud of her.

In terms of our future move to Madeira, Dave and I have been chatting with the builder who will be building our new house. We are getting close to a final design which would make any Bond villain proud! We are now looking for a white Persian cat.

Have a great long weekend all, and a very special Easter.

I wandered lonely as a cloud.....

No, this isn't a reference to the loneliness of retirement!  It is a reference to the project which has been occupying a lot of my time over the past week.  I am making a banner for my church and need to have it finished by Easter.  And that banner involves a large quantity of felt daffodils.  I have 58 at the last count and need to make between 80 and 100 in total!

A host of golden daffodils!

As I want to finish this first, I haven't managed any house sorting yet.  Also I am letting myself into this new phase of my life gradually rather then trying to get everything done at once.

However, we have been looking further forward to our move to Madeira in other ways.  Although we already have a house in the capital, Funchal, our longer term plan is to have a new house built for us in a different area.  When we were in Madeira back in March we visited a few plots of land in our favoured area, and have one in mind.  So we have been enjoying batting ideas around about what we want the house to look like, how many rooms, where my vegetable plot will go etc. We have even bought tickets to Grand Designs Live in May to get some inspiration.  It's quite a daunting thing to plan your home from scratch.  We usually adapt to what is already there.  It is exciting though.

When I have finished my banner I have to get down to some serious de-cluttering.  Having been in our current house for nearly 18 years I have accumulated a lot of stuff.  And I need to find a home for lots of work clothes that I don't need any more!  Maybe that'll be covered in my next post.

Well this is it!

I have finally taken the plunge and am officially RETIRED!  After over 31 years at the same firm, and my only real job, this really is life changing.

As anyone who has been within earshot of me for the past few weeks knows, my big plan is to move to the beautiful island of Madeira with my husband Dave later this year.  You'll be hearing plenty more on that as time goes on.  In addition, I hope to spend time indulging in my many passions.

One of my biggest passions is sewing, and sewing lingerie in particular, and my lovely colleagues have given me a course in Bespoke Bra Making as my leaving present so I am totally in my element.

They also gave me a wonderfully mad leaving card:

Now I can't promise that I will dye my hair pink and jump from a plane, but I won't rule them out either (although the pink hair may be a step too far for me).  I can't thank my friends and colleagues at EY enough for making me feel so special and giving me such a great send off.

A few people asked what I was going to do on my first day of retirement and I had no idea.  Now that it is over I can tell you what I did instead.  No Bucks Fizz in bed I'm afraid.  First I went to buy the weekly supermarket shop (I really know how to live) and then Dave and I went out for a ride on our BMW motorbike.  We need to get in lots of riding practice as we will be taking it down through Spain and Portugal and ferrying it to Madeira later in the year, and it's a long time since we have done such a long bike journey. We stopped at the bike dealer for me to try on a new crash helmet, which will now be fitted with the ultimate communications system, and then went to a lovely country pub for lunch.  Now that bit is more what I expected retirement to feel like.

I have to say I have been on an emotional roller coaster this week, with my emotions going from apprehension to elation via just about everything else in between as I start to appreciate the magnitude of this next step of my life. I have said goodbye to the environment, routine and people that have been such a major part of my life for so many years. But I am now coming down to land (albeit not in a parachute) and getting excited about what comes next.

Let the adventures begin.......!