Ichabod's Day

  Those of you that know me will know that I am about to enter retirement in  few week's time. After 40 years within the profession of Occupational Therapy (including 3 years as a student) - 20 years of which have been spent in education - I decided it was time to regain balance and find those parts of me neglected by an all consuming career.  I have decided to write a few posts sharing my transition into retirement in the hope that it may help others make the same transition I may also at some point share some of the many interesting, exciting and strange things that happened in such a long and varied career - need to do some careful editing beforehand to protect the innocent/or not so innocent!       Eagers et al (2018) give a number of stages to the transition from work to retirement-which I seem to be following (always one to follow a rule!) :   Making the decision:    I start with a little "academic speak" as it is this that got me think...

    At the age of 14 years, our beloved Bruno Bear left us to go over the Rainbow Bridge. His heart became too big for this world, a heart stuffed full of love for all things, which finally gave out on 4 th August 2020.   Here is his story……..   After we lost our sweetpea, Pepe, on Valentine’s Day 2008, the dog shaped hole was much too hard to bear and we wanted to share her legacy with another rescue dog. We visited Leigh Dog’s home and whilst all around us dogs were barking and clamouring for attention, this one dog, very striking in appearance, was sitting quietly, gazing out of his cage. As we spoke with him he picked up his bowl and went into the back area of the cage and lay down. They knew very little about him other than he was a stray from Salford, was about 2 years old and had been at the shelter for just over 4 months. We took him out of the cage for a walk around and it was very clear that he was well liked and was used to receiving treats from the volun...