Keeping yourself busy in retirement

[Tukaram (Tim)]

My dad used to tell me to never retire - it is too boring.  I smiled and told him that he was bored, I would not be.  My counselor in high school said I had a bad attitude when she asked what I wanted to do after graduation, and I replied with 'retire'.  Turns out I was right.  I quit work at 48 and have not missed it a bit!  Work always paid for my life, but was not an important part of my life.  My father (as many of his generation) identified by their jobs.  "I am a salesman" I never had that problem.  I was a cook, later I was a sailor, then I did aircon work forever.  But that was not who I was, it was just how I paid the bills.

I tend to get bored out here, but that is because I live out among the rice fields, 20 km from the city.  Nothing to do, and too damn loud.  I am planing on moving back to city next year.  Much more fun, and quieter.  Retirement was always my career goal, and I love it.

My main hobby is my YouTube channel.  I do miss model building and my train set, but this is a tough place for that.  I built one model, of my old ship, and had to send to China for the model and paints.  One of the  paints came in damaged and I had to wait for a trip to Manila to replace it.  We have one model shop (that I have found) in Iloilo and it is all mechs and various anime'ish things.  Lots of paints, but no military colors, it is all neons.  Not a lot of hobby shops here.  Hobbies require lots of spare time and spare money.  Both of those are in short supply for most people here.

Edited November 11, 2019 by Tukaram (Tim)

[Tommy T.]

9 minutes ago, Huggybearman said:

My loft will be about 154sq. mtrs of useable area which will provide a space for a nice sized layout. I am showing plan for the attic which, if you look closely, even includes the baseboard layout for the railway.

 

Way cool... I want to visit your place when your model railroad is up and running...what fun!!!

[Huggybearman]

3 minutes ago, Tukaram (Tim) said:

My dad used to tell me to never retire - it is too boring.  I smiled and told him that he was bored, I would not be.  My counselor in high school said I had a bad attitude when she asked what I wanted to do after graduation, and I replied with 'retire'.  Turns out I was right.  I quit work at 48 and have not missed it a bit!  Work always paid for my life, but was not an important part of my life.  My father (as many of his generation) identified by their jobs.  "I am a salesman" I never had that problem.  I was a cook, later I was a sailor, then I did aircon work forever.  But that was not who I was, it was just how I paid the bills.

I tend to get bored out here, but that is because I live out among the rice fields, 20 km from the city.  Nothing to do, and too damn loud.  I am planing on moving back to city next year.  Much more fun, and quieter.  Retirement was always my career goal, and I love it.

My main hobby is my YouTube channel.  I do miss model building and my train set, but this is a tough place for that.  I built one model, of my old ship, and had to send to China for the model and paints.  One of the  paints came in damaged and I had to wait for a trip to Manila to replace it.  We have one model shop (that I have found) in Iloilo and it is all mechs and various anime'ish things.  Lots of paints, but no military colors, it is all neons.  Not a lot of hobby shops here.  Hobbies require lots of spare time and spare money.  Both of those are in short supply for most people here.

I am a great fan of your YouTube channel Tim. And a subscriber. I can understand exactly how living out where you are can be a limiting and why you are thinking of moving back to the city.

Keep doing the YouTube vlogs though!

Ken

[Huggybearman]

2 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Way cool... I want to visit your place when your model railroad is up and running...what fun!!!

You will be very welcome Tommy. This is a long term project. As I mentioned earlier I already have a hundred or so buildings for it. My interest is in the late 50's era which is what I remember the most.  I also want to re-create an 'end of steam era' scrap yard which I used to play around when I was a kid. Literally hundreds of old rusting steam locomotives just rotting away in sidings.  I have already created and weathered about 30 old locomotives for this scrapyard scene from a collection of about 50 old ones I got off eBay over the years. It is certainly a labour of love, which keeps me occupied for hours on end!

Ken

[Tommy T.]

9 minutes ago, Huggybearman said:

You will be very welcome Tommy. This is a long term project. As I mentioned earlier I already have a hundred or so buildings for it. My interest is in the late 50's era which is what I remember the most.  I also want to re-create an 'end of steam era' scrap yard which I used to play around when I was a kid. Literally hundreds of old rusting steam locomotives just rotting away in sidings.  I have already created and weathered about 30 old locomotives for this scrapyard scene from a collection of about 50 old ones I got off eBay over the years. It is certainly a labour of love, which keeps me occupied for hours on end!

 

What fun! I am eager to see this and also to show L the history of old railroads. She is totally ignorant about all railroads, so it will be a real educational experience!

[graham59]

I still have some of the Dinky and Corgi toys bought for me in the late 1950s, here in a box.  I could never part with them.  

I also have my Post Office savings book with entries starting from when I was 4 years old,  kindly deposited by my grandmother, while I. my siblings and parents were living in Malaya and Singapore. 

[Mike J]

5 hours ago, Huggybearman said:

I plan to shoot a time lapse video from the drone during our entire house build project from a height of about 20 metres showing the construction from start to finish in just a few minutes. I will post it here when construction is finished. Won't be for a year or so, unfortunately.

That would be awesome.  Looking forward to seeing it. 

[hk blues]

3 hours ago, Huggybearman said:

You will be very welcome Tommy. This is a long term project. As I mentioned earlier I already have a hundred or so buildings for it. My interest is in the late 50's era which is what I remember the most.  I also want to re-create an 'end of steam era' scrap yard which I used to play around when I was a kid. Literally hundreds of old rusting steam locomotives just rotting away in sidings.  I have already created and weathered about 30 old locomotives for this scrapyard scene from a collection of about 50 old ones I got off eBay over the years. It is certainly a labour of love, which keeps me occupied for hours on end!

Ken

I had a "OO" layout in one of my old places - it was about 10 foot x 8 foot.  I really enjoyed building the layout but when it was completed I found I had zero interest in actually "playing" with trains so I ended up dismantling the thing and selling all the track and buildings etc at a Car Boot Sale!  Was a damned expensive hobby!

As for retirement - I came here 5 years ago to retire at 50 but, after 2 years and having set everything up for out house, I became very bored so I started back teaching again - online this time.  I'd say 50 is too early to retire unless you have a bottomless wallet and/or activities/hobbies that keep you busy.  

[Mick]

These are the scary ones 

 

[Tommy T.]

21 minutes ago, hk blues said:

As for retirement - I came here 5 years ago to retire at 50 but, after 2 years and having set everything up for out house, I became very bored so I started back teaching again - online this time.  I'd say 50 is too early to retire unless you have a bottomless wallet and/or activities/hobbies that keep you busy.  

Maybe you might share how to do online teaching? I would be happy to do a bit of that online and part time for a while. If not, then that's okay too...