So a whole year has now gone by since I retired from IBM and I can't believe how it's flown by. Before I left I was worried about how I was going to fill the time, after all, my weekdays had pretty much been defined for me for the last 30 odd years and now I had to do it all myself.
I needn't have been worried. First off Sheila gave me the challenge of doing 33 things (one for every year I worked at IBM) that I'd never done before, all to be completed within that first year. I did all of them - the last one on the last day as it happened.
I've spent a lot more time in court this year as I'm now able to do all the last minute sittings that crop up most weeks. That's both interesting and fun and I'm happy to step in pretty much whenever I'm needed.
I became a trustee of two very different charities. One that is constantly struggling to get enough money to survive, and another that has a huge revenue stream and is constantly looking for ways to invest its money for the future. Both are very interesting, a lot of fun, and give me lots to think about and do.
I go into IBM one day most weeks where I'm a curator in the museum. We spend a lot of time getting old kit up and running which is both challenging and rewarding - and of course I get to see all my old buddies while I'm there.
Finally I'm playing guitar a lot more now than I did before. In a way I'm currently in three different bands. One is a four piece that does acoustic stuff with vocals, one a five piece band where I'm the lead guitarist, and a finally a guitar duo that could soon become a proper four piece band.
Oddly we haven't been away on any more vacations than we normally would. When we have been away we've been for longer but we had assumed we'd be off somewhere or the other all the time. Actually I think we've got the balance about right as we're both pretty busy most of the time doing all the different things we enjoy.
