Menopausal Monday #20 & #21

#halftermholidays; #retirementtasters; #longpostalert; #holidaysnippetsincluded

Home and Away

A whole week home away from home. Delightful, to say the least. Home time for me. Migrants and travellers will understand this. There is a clear intrinsic essence in different geographical positions. I feel like the further apart those positions are, the more evident those differences are.

We can feel it in the air we breathe. It’s not only different in the atmospheric temperature but it can really feel denser, heavier or lighter. The scents also change according to where you are. It makes a lot of sense, if we think about it, that depending on our geographical position, the air we breathe is affected. As such, the type of products, the water, the vegetables, the meat we eat, all is affected. And as a result how we feel and what we become as people are affected too.

In school, I had an Philosophy teacher who had said that the world’s resources are scattered strategically. The world richest countries were allocated the resources but not the means or intel to make use of them whilst the ones with the intel did not get near as much. I suppose if this statement were true, and humankind was not of a greedy nature, it could have made the world a more balanced one, if we were more grateful with what we have, were more caring and sharing and some of our kind were not jealous of other people’s property. I reckon most of us wouldn’t move away from their native places, unless they didn’t feel “home” there. Ambition is a good quality if left uncorrupted.

As I say, holidays are nothing but a retirement taster

And here’s my not carefully curated photo dump.

That is what holidays are. The prospect of still having another dozen years of full time active life need to be counter-weighed with holidays. The ongoing irony that we need to work hard to play hard and that we spend most of our waking lives doing exatly that, so that we can have the highest quality rest or pleasure. There is something wrong with this system… It shouldn’t have to be this way.

Every holiday I come back I dream of my retirement years, when I will finally enjoy the holiday of a lifetime (or whatever is left of them). At every time we revisit, me and my partner reassess our whow we can diversify our finances over the course of the next few years and make plans on the most sustainable ways we can apply our money once our active life reaches the end, so we can eventually enjoy the much deserved rest.

London <> Lisbon <> Sesimbra <> Lisbon <> London

Spot the difference?

No matter where I travel Portugal will always be home. And leaving will always depress me for the next few days. Weeks. Maybe months… 🥹But I’ve been doing it for long enough that I have been able to cope. Admittedly, it’s getting harder, but I am still doing it for the financial security, to be able to provide for the best possible future for my children, so that they never have to struggle in life, even if ultimately it is because we are here for them (hopefully not). And of course, for an upcoming healthy, long and still fun retirement. Portugal is my carrot🥕🥰 I reckon Portugal visits will happen more in the next few years, in preparation.

Back to my active working life, current home. My joints are not appreciating the cold weather any more, nor is my life joy appreciating how depressing it makes me feel. The lack of sun has a true impact on my mood, humour and creativity. But the show and other biz must go on. I’m now going to rant about the petty extras the airline companies “offer” and how ridiculous they are. Walk with me.

Seats Reservations

This became noticeable in all the trips I have done in the past two years. When we perform the online check-in (we normally skip all the extras) there is one where we can reserve our seats for a simbolic amount, which can vary depending on which part of the airplane we wish to sit. The way we see it this is pointless for two reasons: 1) we’re all travelling to same destination 2) everytime we skipped this extra it ended up granting us seats together anyway. So as a matter of principle, this is a “skippable” extra.

Priority (or Speedy) Boarding

I find it funny that people who pay for the priority (aka speedy) boarding seem to look down on the rest of the passengers as if they were VIP, not realising that 1) they will be standing for longer in the queue – keen to show off that they could afford to pay more for the same purpose – 2) only to be sitting in the airplane for a short amount of time, as the airplane will not depart without the remaining of the passengers boarding. An incredible waste of money. But I guess in today’s consumerism trend, money can just be chucked out, as there’s more where that came from.

I so much more prefer to remain sitting in the waiting area and be the last ones to board, when everybody is seated, as no one’s in our way i.e. to put our bags in the top compartments and it costs me less. How is that not mindblowing? 🤯😂

Best airport security experience EVER

The whole trip just flown both ways. Barely any time getting through (even thouhg I had an underaged child with me, which meant I had to get through a different queue to the other two members). Absolutely amazing experience! But that was also due to the fact that we all had an European Passport. The EU is definitely not making UK travellers’lives easy…