Office Repurposing

[Antarctic Boy]

The benefits of semi-retirement - only one office required so this is my new bike "shed". After 18 years of having to shift an old car, ladders etc to extract either triple I can now open the door put on my kit and waap, waap waaah! It's also insulated, carpeted and alarmed. Christmas has indeed come early!

[Treeman]

Perfect

[malc87]

Brilliant
what job did you retire from?

[skub]

Cool!

I loathe having to move stuff to get a bike out. When the notion strikes I just want to grab a lid and gloves and go.

I have two of the bikes on those mainstand trolley dolly things,they're great for just pushing them out of the way to get what I'm after.

[Antarctic Boy]

I semi retired from a job I just ended up doing as my sole reason for leaving school back in the late seventies was to get a job and buy a bike! I thought the meaning of life was the biggest wheelie up the high street (though only on a very early S1 NOT a KH250)! Thus I started my working career as a Computer Operator (when computers took up entire floors). To cut a very long story short I ended up running my own business with a software application for Book related businesses. I hate talking about it to be honest, when people work for themselves or run their own business then people assume that you are rolling in money and the aforementioned always go on about how hard they work. The latter is most certainly true and the former could not be further from the truth in many cases. But I've "got over the line", my house is mine and everything I have is paid for. My brother died suddenly a few years back aged 62 so hence my current path, I'm 62 now so I'm valuing my time so much more. I have two triples and a classic car, enough money to get by and keep what I have.

I gave up a house and everything to an ex wife after I discovered my son was not genetically mine (when he was seven), I paid maintenance for both and never slagged off "Mum" BUT they all think I'm a bastard and even have a grandchild I've never seen.

The only lesson from my working experience that I've passed on to my daughter is try and do something you actually like/enjoy. I wrote a poem to the two children I paid maintenance for which sums up quite a bit - MAYBE way too heavy for this site but as I emerge from quite an awful place sharing stuff I find helps.

No Bridge Over Troubled Mind: An Invitation

Work, keep busy, ensure the trauma has not space, no room to return to base.

That cerebral place, always full, so there can be no trace for ones’ mind to embrace the thoughts that unlock the pain.

But now, as I complete the working race, I suddenly feel the rain,
The flood of strain borne, now braking shoulders that supported all that came.

How can it be fair, not to claim nor seek to shame, or even blame those that I could name.

Here I am, smashed and broken, can’t see how ever I will be woken, words unspoken to those that have taken their token.

I wish I could lose this capacity to feel that unrelenting hurt I just cannot heal, caused by those who steal.

I have so much now, a wife and daughter that are just wow,
They keep me sane, but alas I cannot refrain from thoughts that have caused this pain.

I’d like to know why I am held in such disdain, by the victims that remain of actions not made in my domain.

And now, twilight on the horizon, I wish for things to not remain unaired about this stain.

I’d like to talk and find out why and ask if you, too, also cry?
This, I would like to do before I die.

For now, the councillor hears my plea, maybe render this soul free. The loss of mother, father to (though his personality was not in me), my dear brother so suddenly.

To the kin I do not hear or see, if this olive should land on stoney ground and there is nothing to be found please do not come to stand around a graveyard mound.

[skub]

The passing of time and relationships,well encapsulated in your verse Antarctic Boy.

We all need our individual form of catharsis.

[malc87]

Life deals different hands.
Some never seem fair............

You are soooo correct about teaching your daughter to do something she actually likes and enjoys.
I have seen so many people go through life in careers they hated!
what's the point??
its only as age creeps up on you ,you realise how short life really is............

[TallyB]

Been through a few upheavals myself, as I am sure plenty on this forum have, we all have our own ghosts. As for advise to young people stepping into the harsh world of work, the one piece of advise I would give is start a private pension from day 1 of employment.

[Luke Sharp]

Some heartfelt words there, and seems like you’ve been the wringer!

Hopefully you can relax and kick back a bit now.