Early Retirement

Before anyone gets carried away and asks "What the?" let me explain.

On Easter Monday, a few weeks ago now, I started to feel unwell and so, as is the custom in these times, I took a RAT. For those who are observant and appreciate grammatically correct statements,  I said a RAT and not a RAT test. It's a Rapid Antigen Test so a RAT test would be a Rapid Antigen Test Test. By all means refer to it as a RA Test if you must. And as for those who say they're reverting back to something ....don't get me started on that. 

Anyway it was a bit of a surprise when the test gave a positive result. After over two years I'd finally succumbed to the virus. Well I supposed it felt rude not to - all my friends and colleagues were doing it so why shouldn't I? Indeed. It turned out, thanks to the vaccine, to be a mild case with mainly heavy cold symptoms with a dash of grumpiness and irritability. Hey I heard that!

After about a week, my outward symptoms generally receded and I tested negative. Phew! Or so I thought. I was soon back at work but definitely wasn't myself. I felt tired most of the time, when tiredness was usually reserved for Monday mornings, and had problems concentrating. It was okay I just needed a holiday I told myself, and I was due to take an extended break in July so all good on that front. It was a few months away but I could get there. My niggling cough refused to budge and, from time-to-time, I succumbed to coughing fits. 

Nevertheless, I wasn't going to let it get in the way of living my life so I kept to my usual routine and went back to running in the mornings. A good run never hurt anyone and breathing hard would surely force any remnants of the virus out of my system. That would show it who's boss. 

After five weeks with little improvement to the underlying conditions I decided to visit my doctor. I was sure that I would be told to get over myself and I'd soon be right. If anyone asked, at least I could say that I'd been and got myself checked out.

The visit didn't run exactly to that script. Sure I was still negative for Covid but the doctor wasn't impressed. To say I got a bit of a telling off would be putting it mildly. The general gist of the conversation was that we didn't close down the country because a mild disease was circulating in the community. This was a serious illness and needed to be taken seriously. By getting back to my routine so quickly after being ill with Covid was reckless and put me right in the firing line for developing long-term symptoms. Yikes!

I was then asked if my job was stressful. I decided to play it down and suggested that it had its moments. I certainly wasn't going to mention the sleepless nights that I sometimes succumbed to when the pressure was on. 

It made no difference. I was signed off on sick leave for two weeks with immediate effect and told to get myself acquainted with the sofa and Netflix. If I didn't take this seriously I could be in trouble. Health-wise.

I don't think I've ever been off work for that long without being away on holiday. And being told not to exercise at all was a novelty. What was I going to do with all that time? What was I going to tell my employer? 

I needn't have worried about the latter - my employer took it really well and put measures in place to have my projects covered in my absence. The former was going to be a little more problematic. Not being able to exercise at all, not even a walk around the park, took at lot of my favourite pastimes out of consideration. Well at least I couldn't make myself feel guilty about not running. For once. 

With such a lot of time to fill I was going to have to approach this like I would any challenge....I needed a plan. And maybe a Gantt chart. Well that's what project managers do!

So early morning became piano practice time - goodness knows I needed it and had been meaning to take it up seriously. Best to get it done whilst I was fresh and to stop myself getting sidetracked. Mid-morning was reserved for auditioning a new album or two. I had quite a backlog from my last visit to the record store and the albums weren't going to listen to themselves. I had to stop myself from wanting to write a blog about those, but time was precious. The remaining time before lunch became video game time - it was deliberately put before lunch to make sure I took a break. 

The afternoons were, as per the doctor's instructions, sofa and Netflix time where I either binged on a TV programme or watched one of the movies that had been on my to-do list for some time. 

And that was basically it, and it generally worked and my days have filled up nicely. 

Was this a taste of retirement? Is this how it would pan out, wherever I was when it happened? Maybe. Obviously I would have to add running or some outdoor activity into the mix. But overall it wasn't too bad and actually quite enjoyable. At this point, in case anyone from my employer is reading this, I should stress that I'm not actually considering retirement at this stage. Well not seriously anyway. But if retirement, or part-time retirement, means I can get to the things that I've been putting off or simply not able to find the time to do then why not? 

The problem now is that my return to work is just around the corner and I'm not ready. I need more time. I even checked my doctor's note this morning to make sure I hadn't got a few more days off. I haven't. Blast. Well I'd better make the last few days count. I think I need to update my chart......