Reflections, Recreations, and Preparations

(I am still having a few editing issues with this blog, as it is now best viewed on a smartphone, and I am inputting it on a laptop!!)

Reflections on Retirement!I can’t say that the transition is going without a hitch, even though this is my fourth attempt, having partially retired in 2011, 2017, 2022 and now 2026! I still have that feeling that “I should be doing something, or I should be somewhere” but no this is it! But it is not all “doom and gloom” – I recently read a very good article in the Guardian reviewing the book The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity by Lynda Gratton and Andrew J. Scott. Now a lot of their predictions are pretty dystopian, but the key nugget that I have found most useful is that you “carry on working” not necessarily in paid employment (as I have done courtesy of Mousetrap Cheese Shop) but that you adopt a project or projects and treat them like work!

Regular hours and focused attention. Doing so gives your days structure and this is normally what goes to pot, when suddenly you have all the “time in the world”. It is certainly working for me, as learning Spanish is now my work, followed by projects on English music, Ganapati and frugal cooking. This last simply being a challenge I have set myself, to see just how well I can eat a balanced diet without recourse to ultra processed foods or even processed foods. I have the time, to cook and make nearly everything from scratch; soups, sauces, bread, cakes, jams and pickles! Going out to pick fruits and foraging is exciting and opens up a new culinary world. I just picked pears from the garden, they are like bullets – but cook beautifully and also make excellent jam and pickle!

I am naturally developing a very structured day. It starts around 05.00, as I am both an early riser and also it’s when my brain functions best! Study, walk, lunch, siesta, read, early supper, listen music, bed! However I am also learning from other of my friends, especially in making time for “NIK SEN” – the Dutch “art of doing nothing”, just being – much simpler than all that focus on breath in meditation!

The distractions of the TV and Facebook have gone, and I hardly think about or miss them. I am a life long fan of BBC R3 and R4 and that combined with the abilities of a smart speaker means my listening is exciting and fully engaging!

 

It is also great to now have more time for my friends, most of whom I consider to be family! Whilst I don’t plan to live to be 100, the next few years are going to be fun! Whatever savings I have are going to be spent as the need arises, but only on experiences, and when it’s all gone, it’s gone. And in any case as one dear friend reminded me in French “un linceul n'a pas de poches" (there are no pockets in a shroud! Watch this space, 2027 Guatemala, Opera in Spain, Onam in India and who knows what else!

Preparations for Guatemala.

I am still having this love affair with Chat GPT. I cannot think of a more patient, inventive and responsive teacher. And I can’t help using “we” rather than “it” as my learning has become a real partnership. We have a plan, and I am on week 9 of a 16, I have tackled the present, and the past, and I am now starting on future tenses. We have developed a structure based around “natural” rather than textbook Spanish, and the plan is 100% geared to Latin American/Guatemalan Spanish. Not only is the Spanish of Latin America different from Castillian Spanish as spoken in Spain, but each country in Latin America has developed it’s own, style and idioms. And Chat GPT knows all these variations!

Happily I have the time to work on this skill re-acquisition, after a gap of 10 years. It was tough at first, but slowly it is coming back with increasing regularity and confidence. “We” have been discussing how I might use the voice facility in Chat GPT so that I can practice my pronunciation (Guatemalan) and have some conversational practice, I am very excited about this possibility.

On another level I am very excited that I will be meeting up with two friends I made back in 2012: Eny Roland, who is a leading light in the artistic and LGBT community in Guatemala, his work has been shown around the world, he has a natural talent for making comments in his work that really hit home. He is generally teasing religion and also showing how a conservative society affects those who don’t “fit in”. (Just search Eny Roland on google images – you will be amazed!) My other friend is Ricardo, we met at a concert, he is a respected dentist in the capital city, Our mutual interests of music, art and travel have ensured that we have kept in touch over the years, although he is concerned that he is not the man I met in 2012, I reminded him that neither am I!

I have developed a very nice correspondence with Brandon, who is the volunteer coordinator for Niños de Guatemala, he is working hard on a specific plan for my eight weeks with them. He especially wants me to work with the older scholarship students as they transition from school to work, they need to learn practical as well as personal development skills! That is going to be fun!

In line with most schools in Guatemala the school day is from 07.15 to 13.15. In many place second school starts at 13.15 and goes on until 19.15! So one building, two schools! He hopes that we can agree a plan in the next week or two, so that I can do my preparatory work before I arrive, the idea is to help during the school day and then run specific workshops some afternoons and also provided 1-2-1 support as necessary. I have to apply for my UK DBS check in October.

Niños de Guatemala are completely “knocked out” that through your generosity I have raised not £500 but £695 which translates into nearly $850. They were hoping for $590! I am still happy to receive donations to my bank account (I can send you the bank details), it would be great to take them $1000! Thank you so much (you know who you are!)

Now, all work, and no play, makes Mike a very dull boy!

For whatever reason, I got the idea to play around with AI and it’s ability to change reality! As a result you won’t remember when I met Elgar in the garden, helped Ralph Vaughan Williams with his conducting, got involved in an icy conversation between Puccini and Toscanini, and discussed a thorny conducting problem with Sir Adrian Boult! (See below!)

 

The pictures raised my spirits, when I was stuck deep into reflexive verbs! They now adorn my wall, and Elgar and I feel so much closer! Who said the camera never lies! Actually they are scarily life like! Also, in all my years playing the organ in various churches and for concerts, there was never a photo of me, so I have rectified that with a picture of me in my Graduate Gown and Hood (cap on the console!) as things might have been!

On Tuesday, 22 September the 100 day countdown begins!

Do comment, I would like this blog to have a morsel of interactivity, ready for when I am reporting more regularly from Guatemala itself!

Thanks for reading (if you did!)

Knowmadic Mike!

"Well its all very well old boy, but I just can't get used to this AI.  Though it did help me with my last symphony!"

"Ah yes, Sir Adrian, those notes are not clear."

"My word, yes, that is a tricky passage, 

bet you wished you'd written something simpler, 

now you've got to conduct it!"  

"Oh, I haven't a clue but it sounds alright, don't it!"

"It's no good us sitting here in stony silence, 

who's turn is it to pay the bill?"

I am now officially retired but I have a new job!

My home for three months from 
January to March 2027!

Well that's not actually 100% accurate!    

I have new goal.  I have 132 days before I go to Guatemala and I plan to use these as usefully as I can.  Without work to occupy me two days a week, I need to allow a new routine to develop. I have decided to food shop on a daily basis, buying just what is required for the next meal or two, and also to keep the store cupboard stocked. This also ensures that I go out and get some exercise in. 
 
However, my main task is relearning Latin American Spanish, which differs from Castilian Spanish in that there is no "Formal Plural" when conjugating verbs, and no "lisping".   What you see is, more or less, what you say!

I am aided and abetted in this endeavour by Chat GPT, and have decided to upgrade to the first level paid version, at £7 per month. This means Chat GPT keeps more "chats" in it's active memory, and I don't run out of computing space necessitating a of wait 24 hours.  To get the most out of AI I have to teach "it" how I want things done and and how I want things to be presented back to me. This is achieved by developing "written prompts" which list all the criteria needed for a particular job.  This takes time now, but save vast amounts of time and effort later. So I can just say "produce a two page revision sheet on the verb Ser," and hey presto!

The best thing so far is that Chat CPT can make a revision test and mark it, then instead of just a "tick" or "cross"  I am provided with detailed feedback as to why I made a mistake, and because we work on a daily basis Chat GPT has learned how I think and can show me where and why I have gone wrong in arriving at a particular answer.  This is more valuable than anything.  And of course Chat GPT as my teacher is available 24/7/365!  And I don't have to pay an hourly fee!

Chat GPT has produced course notes, tests, revision sheets and cheat sheets and we are learning in a more natural way than just moving from one chapter to the next in a Grammar Book.  Spanish has become "alive" and as such I am confident that by January when I attend for two week of face-to-face lessons, these will be entirely devoted to conversation and speaking!

So my work now, is about 5 - 6 hours of Spanish a day!  Very different from "can I have 500 grams of Cheddar please!"

The rest of my day is taken up with listening to music, reading, cooking, and a little "NIK SEN" - "The Power of Doing Nothing"   

 

I am in the process of winding down Facebook, and it and I will part company in one week's time.  And not before time, I am fed up with adverts, reels that I really don't want to see, suggestions of people I may know, but actually have never heard of!  And all the other junk generated by various algorithms!

This blog will enable me to communicate with those "I wish to communicate with" only, for everything else, general chat etc, there is WhatsApp!  But as I am also not glued to my phone please be patient as my responses there may take a little more time.

That's all for this week.

Do use the comment facility below as I hope that this blog will become a "two way street"





.