Girls just wanna have fun!

On the subject of FUN:

This video shows my daughters and I racing at a trampoline park while on holidays over Christmas. We’re not at all competitive!

I’m the little one in black just in case you can’t pick me!  One daughter yells out ‘I’ve won’ as she throws herself into the airbags, one does a very impressive somersault at the end, one bounces down the trampoline and I just scream the whole way!!  I hope you got to hear the screaming.

We were by far the oldest players in the centre (especially me) but I’m sure we had the most fun!  We had an hour in total and I don’t think any of us could have continued for much longer – it was hot, it was exhausting and laughing for that long takes it out of you 🙂 We played dodge ball, slam dunk, raced each other and bounced all over the place. It was a great suggestion by one of my daughters and well worth the effort.

During our week together we also had immense fun in the pool, with an inflatable pink flamingo called Freddie and other little inflatables!  We frolicked and lazed and laughed some more as we each attempted to  get aboard Freddie without falling off.  We tried to create a whirlpool as we all ran around the edge of the pool and laughed some more – maybe you just had to be there!

Family holidays with grown up children are so much fun!

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On retirement:

I’m also having fun, despite my fears, as I start my retirement.  I’ve managed to go for a walk/run/cycle every day, whenever I want to without the time constraints that going to work every day had on me.  

It might sound weird but I have also enjoyed being able to go out, to go the shops in the morning, the middle of the day, at hours when I used to be at work.  The freedom of time being my own is like a weight being lifted off my shoulders.

I have recently connected with Donna over at Retirement Reflections and a recent post entitled Am I still transitioning hit the spot for me. Despite retiring over 18 months ago she still wonders if she’s in transition.  Apparently there are six steps in any transition event and her research identified these as the major stages for retirement:

The core phases are often described as follows:
1. Pre-retirement – Planning Phase
2. The Final Days of Work – Farewell Phase
3. The Initial Days of Retirement – Honeymoon Phase
4. So this is it? – Disenchantment Phase
5. Building a New Identity – Reorientation Phase
6. Moving On – Establishing Routine and Stability Phase

I know I am well and truly in the honeymoon phase at the moment and the questions that plagued me in the lead up to being made redundant, Who am I now? What is my purpose? will come a bit later down the track.  As Donna says we need to ask ourselves these questions  in order to achieve closure from our working days and fully embrace our retirement years.

It’s been great to connect with bloggers like Donna who have ‘been there, done that’ and can point me in the right direction.  But not only that, they understand what I’m going through and have generously shared their experiences.  The best thing about reading Donna’s post was that she is 18 months in and still feels like she’s transitioning!

I wrote a long comment (for me) on Donna’s post and decided to include most of it in a post of my own.

Hi Donna – as a newly retired woman who has just turned 56 it was great to read your post. I’ve re-read it a few times and am planning a post so I will link to it if you don’t mind! I was made redundant late last year after months of battling to save mine and others’ jobs, so I haven’t really had the opportunity of step 1.

Step 2 was painfully sad packing up my office after 20+years in the same workplace. But also quite nice to be thanked and farewelled by others. At the moment (2 days into official retirement) I’m definitely in the honeymoon phase, loving the freedom particularly.

I am very worried about Step 5 and this has been my concern all along. I’m one of those people who others say, looking at me incredulously, ‘but what are you going to do?’ My identity was rolled up in my job and I don’t know how I will reconcile that.

The main thing I wanted to say was the time frame you mentioned heartened me – you are 18 months in and still consider yourself in the transition phase. That gives me hope. My husband is finishing his career later this month but has had the luxury of planning and preparing for it. He’s been on leave for the past few months and has coped really well so I’m hoping all will be well for me too. Anyway, I just want to say thanks very much for this post and for the comments as well, as it eases my mind a bit knowing there are others out there in similar situations.

So in the meantime it’s all fun and games for me – jumping on a trampoline, running, riding, reading, blogging, enjoying the freedom with little responsibility – whatever it takes to keep me smiling, laughing and having fun!  My sister sent a message asking if I’d like to go to a midweek Waif’s 25th anniversary concert in Melbourne (5 hours drive away) in March, of course I said yes!

Laugh and the would laughs with you, weep and you weep alone. Girls just wanna have fun!!

Deb 🙂

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