These are the voyages...

I haven’t gone for an early morning bike ride in years. I prefer to do my exercise at the end of the day.

I have a friend though. I’ve tried many, many times to say no to her in the nearly 37 years I’ve known her. My success rate is probably 1 in 50, she is very persuasive. I think it’s the red headed Irish girl that lurks beneath the surface ready to pounce if there’s a hint of resistance. When that girl is in full flight you get onboard or get out of the way.

We had lunch on Saturday and she said she was going for a bike ride in the morning and I should come. I can’t was my reply, I have a pre-existing plan for breakfast.

Let’s go before, you can work up an appetite she said. I’ll call you and get you moving in the morning she said. I’m good I replied, let’s do it another time.

No, we’re going and I won’t take no for answer. It was at that point I knew I was riding in the morning but hoped she would change her mind.

She did not change her mind.

At 5:45am my phone rang. Her number is one of the few that I’ve set to allow to ring at any time. I might need to review that setting. It didn’t wake me, I’m generally awake by 5:30am these days.

Hello I answered with a tired sigh. Was there a reply? Did she apologise for the early call? Not at all. Instead, all I heard was part of Mad About You by Belinda Carlisle playing.

Something about you right here beside me
Touches the touched part of me like I can’t believe
Pushing the night into the daytime
Watching the sky’s first light
While the city sleeps

Then she says, we’ve missed the first light but the city is still asleep. Let’s go riding and wake up.

We went riding.

Towards the end of 2023 I started to make a pivot towards removing some of the digital from my life. I love my tech and shiny gadgets but I’d started to think maybe I didn’t need so much of it in my life.

Coincidentally, a watch I was given for my 21st birthday had recently stopped working, so I bought myself a new one as a birthday present in January.

I’ve had an Apple Watch since 2016 and always ensured I was closing the rings and keeping streaks going. Trying to make sure I scored those monthly awards. It was convenient for checking notifications and messages without needing to use my phone, tracking exercise and sleep patterns, using the timer and stopwatch, and gave me quick access to weather details (a minor obsession).

I’ve now spent two weeks wearing my new watch and only putting the Apple Watch on at night to track my sleep or when I exercise. I genuinely thought I’d miss the Apple Watch more than I have. There were a few times in the first week I swiped the watch face to check for notifications before I remembered it’s a normal watch, no data other than time and date.

It turns out the main thing I’m missing is the timer. I used it whenever I made a cup of tea. I brew tea as I don’t like teabags and the timer on the watch was perfect for a quick three or four minute countdown.

I’m pretty happy with going back to just a normal watch. It’s an automatic mechanical watch so no battery involved, just a spring that winds itself while I wear the watch. No need to charge it or replace a battery every few years.

As I said to a friend the other day, I’ve read enough end times fiction to know I can also trade it for supplies when the world starts collapsing around us.

I recently turned 55. I’ve now moved into the next age range on surveys and forms, no longer in the 45-54 it’s the 55-64 bracket for me. The slide towards retirement.

I have a plan for when I’ll retire that I have no intention of sharing with my workplace. I have to give four weeks notice and that’s all I owe them. Don’t get me wrong, I like where I work. It’s big enough I have been able to change positions over the years and do new things without leaving the university. I’ve been there for approaching 32 years in a succession of positions and on the whole it’s been a good employer.

None of that means they need to know exactly when I want to pull the pin or if a request to reduce to a fractional appointment is the precursor to retirement. Succession planning is something that gets referenced in conversations at work when people are approaching retirement age but why do I need to worry about that, I won’t be there. My employer could make me redundant tomorrow, with the requisite payout, and there would be no succession planning then. I’d just be cast adrift. The restructures, redundancy rounds and change processes I’ve seen in the last decade has emphasised to me more and more it’s important to remember your employer pays you in return for doing a set of tasks. You don’t owe them anything more than that.

As an aside, join your union. They care more about you than your employer and will be on your side. Don’t talk to HR about your plans. Their primary goal is protecting the employer and you can be assured they will be telling your boss about your retirement questions.

I took a bit of time in early January to think about how I might approach the remaining years of my working life. Transition to retirement is important. Once you have less years of work ahead than behind you is probably the best time to start. The Fair Work Act in Australia means I can ask for more flexible work arrangements now I’m 55. What would that be is something I’ve been thinking about. Do I want to work from home three days a week instead of two? Do I want to have a nine day fortnight? Do I want to start earlier so I finish earlier? All questions I’ve been turning around in my head for a few weeks now.

I’m at the point where I’m happy with the level I’m at. The salary pays my bills and the position gives me the flexibility to turn off for the day and live a full life in my personal time. I’ve reached my plateau if you like and don’t want to do the extra unpaid hours or give up my weekends to work on something so I can chase that next promotion. My email and Teams notifications turn off at 5pm and turn back on at 8am. They’re off all weekend. It’s not that I lack ambition, it’s that I’m perfectly happy with what I have.

I’m also mindful that I had what the doctor euphemistically refers to as “the cardiac event” at the end of 2020, a hypertensive episode due to undiagnosed high blood pressure and a bit too much stress on the heart. It helps to reset your approach to life when you reflect on the fact women are long lived in your family, the men not so much.

A long way of saying I’ve had a lot of introspection over the last few weeks and I think I have a rough plan for the years ahead. That said, you never know what’s coming. There’s a 200 million first division prize in the lotto tonight, my retirement plans might change tomorrow.