Unsure who I’m quoting, but something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward sums it up well.
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For a horrible moment there I thought that you might be paying someone to power wash your record deck, which I wouldn’t have thought would do the stylus much good!
But if you’re one of the new unfortunate ‘Animals’ purchasers, you might have hit on a solution to the ‘dirty’ LP.
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These pension taxes are the main reason that Mrs G (an NHS consultant) has handed her notice in and submitted her pension claim forms this week, well ahead of her original plans. Yippee!
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So sorry for your brother and his family plus your family.
A horrific disease,
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All good advice graham. Much appreciated. Your comments about the stress of a city job are very close to home too.
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Perhaps he was looking for something. 
The thing about retirement is that you know when reached the point at which you want to retire.
Hopefully it is close to the Normal Retirement Date of your employer…
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I went early (55, I’m 62 now) and Mrs G is leaving at 57. Her original plan was to work for another five years. She now plans to leave imminently and return part time (2days a week) so as not to leave her colleagues in the lurch.
I left because the job (mental health nurse) had become dangerous to me and my patients, and no one was listening to us. Mrs G is leaving due to exhaustion and tax. Working in ED throughout Covid has visibly aged her, and now she has practically nothing left to give of herself. It really is time for her to walk away!
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Life is a tight rope and ephemeral we are like may flies…make hay while the sun shines…
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Well, I still haven’t found what he was looking for…
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Sorry, wrong topic, see Nice Photos
Hello Graeme , that is so sad and on this forum I will say no more.
Also I would always counsel people to retire gradually . There are actuarial graphs that show the transitions in life expectancy . There are however spikes, 16 - 20 because of motor accidents and at around 63 -66 ( ish) because of the emotional stresses related to adapting to retirement
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I retired at 57 and haven’t regretted it for a nanosecond - I’m 71 now. I had a decent academic job with a nice pension and still dabble a little with research and reviewing but have never done a day’s proper work since. I find we can comfortably live on one third of my final salary. When you are old you have pretty much everything you need and have no mortgage or debts so all your money goes on food and fun. My life is very full and happy and I would advise anyone to retire as soon as you can.
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I agree with all of that, particularly the advice at the very end.
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How are you today?
Best wishes
Ian
A good start so far, thanks, Ian. Three Weetabix (remember the old ‘Nobody can eat…’ adverts on TV with Brian Blessed) and a couple of bacon sarnies, along with Building A Library on Radio 3, is always a great start to the week-end.
Plus, my misfiring Visa card appears to have let me order a couple of LPs online. The one that I’m really looking forward to hearing is Friedrich Gulda’s ‘Diabelli Variations’, one of Beethoven’s sublime late period piano works. Compared to that, I shan’t give a shoot if ‘Animals’ sounds like Rice Krispies after adding the milk.
I’m negotiating with the staff about being allowed out to visit the pub for a few bottles of alcohol-free beer this afternoon. I may get lucky! (It’s a bit like living full-time in a kindergarten.)
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I have ordered the Blu-ray of Animals …
I’m lucky I invested in a decent quality Pioneer
Not a crackle in sight ( l’m hoping)
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Spurred on by this advice, I dug out the CD I do have and lo and behold it is the 1981 digital recording with the BPO, on DG. I’m sure I’ve had this over 30 years. Right now, it sounds better than it ever has, but across the internet the reviews are poor, so I feel tempted to try an alternative. I note the recommendations from you and @suzywong but is there a definitive version I should seek out? Something other than national bias makes me think I’d want to try an English or Welsh conductor tuned in to the early 20th C music scene, perhaps even the late Arts and Crafts genre.
I think that Boult’s last of his five recording of the piece with the London Philharmonic (pictured above) is probably as close to ‘definitive’ as you could hope to get - he did conduct the work’s premiere, after all.
Karajan’s Vienna Philharmonic account is perhaps slightly less idiomatic (it could hardly have been music with which the orchestra was familiar), but the orchestra’s playing and the Decca Sofiensaal recording are sensational.
I don’t like to have just one recording of a favourite piece, because you start thinking of that particular recording as definitive. So I’d suggest buying both of these recordings, and getting yourself familiar with each. They’re very different from each other but, taken together, will give you a far better understanding of the piece as a whole.
All that said, there are a huge number of recordings of the suite (including lots of much newer, fully digital accounts), which I’ve never heard. For example, Simon Rattle has made two recordings, one with The Philharmonia and a later one with the Berlin Philharmonic, when they were ‘his’ band (both EMI). Perhaps some other Members will nominate their favourites here.
64 and once again in hospital with this spinal issue and now COVID to boot. The Dr gave me a funny look when he asked what I most missed about home and I said Radio 3 on my Nat 05!
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