refinement NOT retirement!

What WILL Christine say about this? Strolling in Kensington Mews before we escaped the rat race Without telling Christine, I snuck up to my man cave and made a monolgue episode of our RnR (refinement NOT retirement) podcast in which I explained how I'm REALLY feeling about quitting work.   I asked Christine if she'd be willing to listen to it on her own and then immediately come back l ive on air to give her reaction to my thoughts. Christine WAS willing, and here's the episode where she gives her reaction .

  On our narrowboat's maiden voyage Not all perceived refinements turn out to be positive. Let's just say for starters that our narrowboat experience wasn't ENTIRELY Tickety-Boo! In our last blog/podcast, Christine and I talked about our escape from London to The Cotswolds. Now that WAS an entirely positive change. A refinement! When we first started looking for a place in the country shortly after the COVID pandemic hit, I had the bright idea ( and this is Tony talking here ) that we should also buy a narrowboat.  I was absolutely delighted when Kiki (aka Christine) agreed and, as she always does, threw herself wholeheartedly into BOTH projects - i.e. finding a new home in the country, and purchasing a narrowboat. The first potential new home she found even had a 120ft canal mooring at the bottom of the garden.  At that time, we’d decided on having a new narrowboat built. Thank goodness we changed our minds about that idea! Since I was a small boy, I’ve been obsesse...

  Christine & Tony strolling in Hyde Park before the Great Escape As you now know, Christine and I consider ourselves to be in “refinement” (not retirement) but we have most certainly retired from the business that we’ve owned and operated together for more than 30 years. But we think we’ve been “in refinement” since a long time ago - refinements meaning changes we’ve made (both big and small) that have enhanced our lives. A major life-refinement for us was a relatively recent one -  our escape to the country, or more specifically, to The Cotswolds . For more than a quarter of a century we had been living and working in the heart of central London.  Our property was in South Kensington a few minutes walk from Kensington Palace and The Royal Albert Hall.   We lived in a flat within a building constructed in about the mid-1800s.   The property also contained our company’s premises.  It was a fantastic set-up that worked brilliantly for us. The ...

Refinement NOT Retirement (The Two Rs) Welcome to our Blog. We are Tony & Christine from the quintessential Cotswolds village of Elmley Castle where we’ve been living for the past three years after our great escape to the country from South Kensington area of London .  Now, for the first time in 40 years – for the first time in our lives in fact - we’re out of a job.  At age 66, we decided it was time to move to the next exciting chapter of our lives together.  But why avoid the R word? Well, we see RETIREMENT as a negative concept, an ENDING.  When a player "retires" from, say, a tennis match, they withdraw - they STOP competing; they give up.  We rather see what we’re doing as a TRANSITION , just one of many that we’ve made on our voyage through life together. Speaking for myself (& this is Tony speaking ) - I’ve gone through several transitions as part of a continuing process of REFINING my life. (By “refining” I mean making changes that impr...