Retirement Roadshow

There is a Retirement Roadshow being held in Torquay at the Rivera Centre on 17 November from  10am  till  4pm,  aimed at over 55’s in the bay.  

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There will be many local and national businesses including NHS, government and charities attending with over 50 stalls all with a wealth of information.  

This is a free event to attend.

See: http://www.rivieracentre.co.uk/events/252

The Torquay 55+ Retirement Roadshow is to be held at The Riviera International Centre on Sunday 17th November 10am-4pm; located in the heart of South Devon and just a short stroll from Torquay seafront.

The beautiful English Riviera stretches along twenty two miles of unspoilt and spectacular coastline and covering the three unique towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham.

This year Torbay received more Blue Flag awards for water quality and cleanliness than anywhere else in the UK and a Purple Flag award which recognises excellence in the management of towns and city centres at night.

Torquay is the home town of the famous Agatha Christie. The Agatha Christie Mile runs along Torquay seafront between the Imperial and Grand Hotels and features a number of landmarks significant in the author’s life and works. 

Explore the Agatha Christie Literary Trail through the English Riviera and South Devon, which reveals the inspirations she took from the local area and featured in her novels. There is currently an exhibition on at Torquay museum where you can view the Agatha Christie Gallery. 

This exclusive exhibition is the first of its  kind in Torquay for many a year. We have researched and selected local and national businesses to be able to provide the local community with a wealth of valuable information to help guide them in preparation for their senior years.

There will be approximately fifty versatile businesses attending including NHS, Government and local charities.

The aim is for the Roadshow to be informative for all our visitors and presented in a fun and vibrant atmosphere to the local community so they can see and speak to all the wonderful exhibitors and find out what help and support is available to them locally and all  from one room!

We want the Torquay Roadshow to have a wonderful display of many types of businesses so there will be something for everyone. Typical exhibitors will be promoting and giving advice on the following topics:

Health * Finance * Legal * Property * Care * Leisure * Education * Fashion * Beauty

Asda has kindly offered to help promote the Roadshow and will be contributing in the form of a fashion show, displaying their current Christmas Season lines.

We have invited Ariella Raqs 'Bay Belly Dancers' and 'Charleston Dancers' to perform their current routines and promote healthy living and exercise in a fantastic vibrant display!

Charities attending are Blue Cross and Crossroads Care, both very much needed charities which do amazing work around Torbay.  We welcome them to our Roadshow.

Refreshments

Teas, coffees and cake will be available on the day within the arena. There are toilets and a lift for your convenience. If you wish to stay locally for lunch there is a fabulous restaurant on site 'Bay Brasserie' overlooking the Bay and Torre Abbey Gardens.

There are many local restaurants and pubs close by within walking distance if you wish to have refreshments off site. 

Parking

The Riviera International Centre has a large onsite pay and display car park and are also conveniently located near Torquay Train Station as well as a number of local bus stops.

The Torquay 55+ Retirement Roadshow is FREE to attend. So please book this date in your diary or mark it on your calendar 'Sunday 17th November' as this is an exhibition not to be missed!    We look forward to seeing you there.......

From: http://retirementroadshow.co.uk/index.php?node=torquay-2013-11-17

Our taste in music changes as we get older to match the shifting social circumstances of our lives.

Teenagers who despair of their parents' choices are warned that their musical preferences are likely to follow the same path.

Researchers* believe they have unravelled how a liking for pop hits such as Teenage Kicks can evolve into a love for the Moonlight Sonata.

They have identified three musical stages that we pass through as we mature: intense, contemporary and sophisticated.


Teenagers favour intense music such as punk and metal to establish their identity, but as they move into early adulthood a preference for contemporary music such as pop and rap takes over.  This corresponds to a shift in lifestyle in which we socialise far more in bars, clubs and at parties, where uplifting music tends to be played.

'There is a tendency for young people to prefer music that their parents cannot stand or find obnoxious, so there must be some developmental changes that take place as we get older. 

• Teenage years are often dominated by the need to establish identity.  Intense music, often seen as aggressive, tense and characterised by loud, distorted sounds has the rebellious connotations that allow adolescents to do this.
• The next musical stage appears to be more about gaining acceptance from others.
• The taste for pop fades in early middle age when more sophisticated genres such as jazz and classical take over.  Scientists say this marks a shift to a more solitary expression of our intellect, status and greater emotional maturity.  They also found that tastes became less pretentious with far more older people liking country, folk and blues music.

*from a survey of more than 250,000 people, carried out by Cambridge University over at 10 year period

See: 

http://www.classicfm.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3

Diary of the Saga of a house seller and purchaser - Part XII - October 2013

1 October: Had a call today saying that our proposed purchasers are keen to have the searches carried out, which means things are still moving with the sale.  So time to seriously start packing up!

5 October:  Had a call from a very helpful person from Severn Trent Water and the meter problem with baby bungalow has now been sorted.

11 October:   We had a good journey up to Derby this evening, apart from the motorway being closed and the diversion signs being rather remiss - or we weren't very observant.  This resulted in arriving an hour later than planned to find that, as the bungalow has been unoccupied for nearly two years, it's become a very convenient parking space for the neighbours, and we couldn't get into the drive!  

There was a very informative letter from Television Licensing waiting for us, explaining what to expect at our Court appearance for not paying our TV licence.  And we haven't even properly moved in or got the TV to work yet! 
Discovered why no decent TV: reception in Mickleover is not the best, all the neighbours having two TV aerials, so that's what we need.  Responded to TL giving them the information, and buying a licence.  But why are they  so heavy handed?!

Joined the library properly, now we have a utility bill from Severn Trent, so can check emails as well as borrow lots of books to read.

Saturday 12 October:  Over the past couple of weeks we have viewed several (many) houses and at last found one which fulfills nearly all our criteria.  Rang to put in an offer - and the number given must be a fax as that funny noise was all the response we got.

12 October:  Our proposed purchasers visited our property today to measure up - for the dog's part of the garden.  The most important part!  

Monday 14 October:  The number we tried on Saturday for the selling agent this time resulted in no ringing tone or fax noise.  Looked on the internet for any other telephone numbers for this new agent, found one and it just rings - and rings.  So tried the original number - and it worked!  Very pleased.  

We have now made our offer and are waiting for the vendors to discuss the offer and come back to us.  Fingers crossed!

Tuesday 15 October:  No news from agent and was going to to Derby, so popped in there when I arrived.  Their news was that our offer needed to be a little higher.  So offered £5k more, which was accepted.

16 October:  A letter was waiting for us at Cromer Close (baby bungalow) re gas and electricity supply, asking for meter readings (already supplied) and for us to register as customers.  

Thursday 17 October: Went for a second viewing, taking the family along.   It seemed noisier than when we viewed before, possibly due to the wet still weather and it was rush hour.  Inside the house it's perfectly OK but in the garden the sound is rather louder.  Will look up what is recommended when living near to a busy road - both for noise and for pollution.

21 October: Registered for gas and electricity, a simple procedure, and sorted out direct debit.  

22 October: Ordered survey of big bungalow from Tim Stubbs, which due to high demand cannot be carried out for 12 days. 5.30pm: call received from surveyor and due to a conflict of interest they are unable to carry out the survey.  This is because they surveyed the house 18 month ago when the present vendors bought the house.  So they've given me the numbers of three nearby surveyors whom they recommend.

23 October:  Booked a survey with Martin Hoskins, to be carried out on Friday 1 November.

Wednesday 30 October:  Took another van-load of stuff up to Derby and put it in secure storage.  The people at Access Self-Storage were very helpful.  The place is open 24/7, so long as we registered by 5pm we could stay as long as we liked putting out possessions into our lock-up. 

Friday 1 November:  Met the surveyor at the house and went afterwards to a cafe for a coffee.  After long explanations from the surveyor, reluctantly we have decided to pull out of the purchase.  What a shame!  So now back to square one but very glad that we at least have a pied a terre whilst we search for another property.

Monday 4 November:  Returned home to find a message from our estate agent and our solicitor.  The people who are purchasing our house would like to move in asap.  In this case asap is two and a half weeks time.

We will have to now rent a larger lock-up as will be between houses for more than a month, so can't expect relatives to have their houses piled high with out boxes.  So we plan to go up to Derby next week to move our possessions into a larger lock-up, so when we finally bring the rest of our stuff up it'll all fit in.

November 7th:  To carry on re sale of our property.  Big hiccup today as had an email from our solicitor confirming that they were going to exchange on our behalf with the price of the property £11,000 less than the price we agreed.  Emailed back immediately in a great panic.  Then looked through our paperwork to confirm that that price was incorrect - and pleased to find the memorandum of Sale which showed the property price, and a copy of this document had been sent to our solicitor on 6 September!

13 November:  Still awaiting exchange, this should have taken place last Friday, so am having to take on trust that this move is actually going to happen.  Perhaps the Scottish system is better after all!  We've said goodbye to many people, resigned from organisations and today even cancelled the telephone and asked for its installation at our temporary property.  Have been in this place before, last year and then, when it all fell through, because people couldn't contact us they thought we'd already gone!  Fingers crossed!


14 November:  Don't talk to be me about storage!  We dropped some stuff off at Access storage a couple of weeks ago and now are having trouble.  Will elaborate further when this is eventually sorted - one way or the other!


16 November: STILL awaiting exchange - no idea why!  And the prospective purchasers would like to move in by the end of next week.  It's almost getting to the point of 'no can do' so far as moving out our stuff is concerned.   We're now thinking that our remaining possessions may not fit into a sprinter van plus our two cars - so what to do?  Freecycle seems very quiet at the moment, a charity I approached re giving away some furniture can't collect until after our proposed removal date, and it would be rather a shame to take excess stuff to the tip.  Someone mentioned a charity called Anode (http://www.anodecharity.co.uk/AboutUs.html) which takes stuff to help people start again.  But they're not open 'til Monday morning.

18 November:   Anode can collect stuff but are choosy about what they take but at least they will take some items and it will be nice to know that someone else will enjoy using them.

20 November:  Today we hired a sprinter van again, loaded it up and drove up to the storage locker.  Emptied van with help of two willing(!) younger people.  Stayed the night in our baby bungalow, exhausted - and this is only day one of the marathon.

21 November: Returned to Paignton in sprinter van, loaded it up again (how did we accumulate so much stuff?!).  
Took some bags of unwanted items to the local charity shop  - mishap on the way as I opened the car door a bag fell out and a glass smashed in the street.  Luckily a local hairdresser was able to load a dustpan and brush so it could be cleared up.  It would have been funny if the 'workers' loading the van hadn't been waiting for their snack lunch!
Anode called with trailer and took away a few pieces of furniture.  
We stayed the night with some friends, enjoying a fish supper and film. 

22 November:  Finished loading the van, last clean of the house - still hadn't heard whether we'd actually sold or not but felt we had to proceed anyway as if we didn't then we'd be in real trouble as we had to vacate today.  Although we took a trip to the tip there were still some items which we didn't get chance to dispose of - but we feel that having to move out in such a rush meant that the purchasers couldn't complain too much if the place wasn't completely cleared (we did get permission from them first).

Digression re cats: We were about to leave - and couldn't find one of the cats - how to they do it?!  I'd sprayed a special cat-calming spray around the place which had worked when we tried it a few days ago.  
But Tiger decided she'd rather be calm outside, sitting on the compost bin.  We tried for nearly an hour, but every time we got near she scampered off, more wary than before.  In the meantime, Malcolm was happily sitting in the middle of the deserted living room floor, looking rather bemused and wondering where all the furniture had gone.  
We decided that David would have to leave or he'd be too late returning the van and that I'd stay and summons help later from a friend.  I think Tiger picked up on this as she then allowed herself to be picked up and put in the cat basket.  However, she wasn't quite to happy when we put Malcolm in with her and tried to escape. 
But once in the basket they were quiet, so we put them in the car and I made a hasty exit, to start the 230 mile journey up to Derby.  The cat spray must have worked as they were pretty quiet all the way up the motorway, only murmuring when there was a change of speed.  
I didn't dare stop for a drink or to use the facilities so drove all the way non-stop only slowing down for the three traffic jams on the M5.  But we still did the journey in just over four hours and when we arrived we carried the basket straight out to the conservatory, where we'd set up camp for them, complete with cat flap out to the garden.  
As they'd been so long in captivity I took them straight out into the garden, then showed them their food and places to sleep.  Later I showed Malcolm how to use the cat flap and also took him on walks to neighbouring streets to get his bearings.  Often he's more like a little dog so we enjoy short walks together.
But to return to the actual house sale:  we left David driving the van up the motorway and me following with said cats and various fragile pictures.  Half way up the motorway I had a text to say that we'd actually exchanged contracts! Hoorah!!  Then later a text to say that we were rich as we'd sold!

23 November:  Obviously too much excitement yesterday as today have gone down with a terrible flu-ey cold.

28 November:  At last the money for the house has come through.  I don't feel happy having all that money, it was much better having money invested in bricks and mortar (is that a British attitude as people in other countries are happy to rent all their lives and have a portfolio of investments?).  So now need to spread the money around, so that there's no more than £85,000 in any one bank (or banking group) per person, for compensation in case the banks go bust - not something we'd have thought about before the Northern Rock fiasco.  For more information on this, see: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/safe-savings  and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/savings/9280429/Keep-your-savings-secure-when-banks-get-into-trouble.html

Little Black Book for Mickleover, Derby

Recently we popped into the Mickleover Community Centre Tea Rooms for a quick bowl of soup lunch, followed by one of their excellent cakes. 




(see: http://www.mickleovercommunitycentre.co.uk/the-old-school-tea-rooms).  As well as this excellent community cafe, there are also lots of activities held at this centre. 

For an Aladdin's cave of a shop, visit Wilmar Electrical (http://www.wilmar.co.uk/) which is actually a misnomer as this shop sells such a variety of items!  We came out with a electrical cable, picture hooks, a beautiful broom, a couple of screws (not a whole packet when only two were needed), and a bucket.  From looking at the outside it's difficult to imagine what lies inside this very useful shop!





Last Sunday at Mickleover Methodist Church
(http://www.mickleovermethodist.org.uk/) there were two types of service on offer: traditional service in the Church itself or alternatively 'messy church' in the big hall.  The latter consisted of activities for the children, hymns accompanied by the music group, payers, an illustrated talk and discussion group, with the theme being 'world hunger' - the four big 'IF's

To quote: A coalition of 100 UK development charities and faith groups will on Wednesday launch a major campaign to lobby David Cameron, the prime minister, to use Britain's presidency of the G8 to leverage action on ending global hunger.  (http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/jan/23/anti-hunger-campaign-if-g8-act).

We wanted a quick lunch so went to the Great Northern in Station Road, where service was prompt and the food was very good.
http://www.thegreatnorthern.co.uk/contact.html

Insurance options for the over-65s

Now that my other half is 'the wrong side' of 70 travel insurance is likely to become more problematical.  I heard recently of a 93 year old who's given up on her cruises as the cost of travel insurance is higher than the cruise itself!  The insurance companies don't seem to take any account of the health of the person concerned, just his or her age, which doesn't seem to happen with other insurances.  So here are a few sites which cater for the older traveller:

• All clear insurance (http://www.allcleartravel.co.uk/cgi-bin/lansaweb?procfun+msdweb01+msdw009+alc+eng) offers cover to all ages.
• Avanti Travel Insurance (https://www.avantitravelinsurance.co.uk/default.aspx) covers those aged up to 85 (up to 75 for annual policies).
• Flexicover (http://www.flexicover.co.uk/) has an age limit of 85 on single-trip and annual multi-trip insurance policies.
• AgeUK (http://www.ageuk.org.uk/) offers all types of single-trip and annual policies, with no upper age limit.
• Holidaysafe Club 65 policy (http://www.holidaysafe.co.uk/) has a maximum age for single trips of 84 (74 for its annual policy).  No upper limit on cruise policies.
• Insurancewith (http://insurancewith.com/)offers standard policies up to age 85, but there is no age limit on its cruise policy.
• JD Travel Insurance (http://www.jdtravelinsurance.co.uk/) has no age limit for single trips or annual cover.
• P J Hayman (http://www.freespirittravelinsurance.com/) imposes no upper age limit: you can apply online up to the age of 79; if you are older you need to telephone.
• Preferential (http://www.columbusdirect.com/travel-insurance/preferential) offers single-trip cover up to 80 and annual up to 75, although some age limits depend on destination and duration of trip. (Perhaps now called Columbus?)
• Saga (http://www.saga.co.uk/) offers premiums that are quoted on an individual basis, depending on health, age, holiday destination and other factors.
• Staysure (http://www.staysure.co.uk/travel-insurance?gclid=COKfiqbUi7oCFePHtAodQy4APg) sells a single-trip policy up to 85 years, annual up to 80 years.
• World First (http://www.worldfirst.com/?ID=1046&gclid=CMD35LbUi7oCFY7LtAodO1QAHQ) covers those aged up to 100 for a single trip, but only up to age 74 for annual cover.

From an article in The Telegraph

Whilst looking for something else I've just found an excellent site (http://www.mudrashram.com/adultlifeskills.html) regarding adult life skills.  

I have no idea what 'Mudrashram Institute of Spiritual Studies' is but this comprehensive article is well worth reading, even if merely for the information given therein.  



It would be too much to reprint the whole article here, especially as through a link you can read it yourself.  To precis, it suggests what we might want out of life, then points out the reasons why sometimes this doesn't happen.  It then points out that there are nine areas of 'skills for life':

1. Environmental skills, such as making your bed, going food shopping, basic plumbing skills.
2. Financial life skills: such as post something with the right postage, pay bills, open a bank account.
3. Social/Civic skills: such as being well groomed, apologise to someone, graciously accept a gift.
4. Parenting skills:  such as understanding your child's developmental stages and what behaviour is appropriate at each stage.
5. Employability skills:  such as have job skills for which an employer would consider hiring you, know how to answer questions at an interview, arrive at work on time.
6. Friendship/Intimacy skills:  such as help someone who needs your help, share your feelings with someone.
7. Learning/Educations skills:  such as be able to write clearly and appropriately for the the reader, be able remember information for tests, for job-related tasks and for personal interest.
8. Life Planning Skills: such as be able to decide what is really important to your life, set goals to achieve these dreams and take effective action towards achieving them.
9. Self Management skills:  such as be able to care for self during illness, control diet and lifestyle, be able to keep your word, to do what your promise, be able to grieve for a loss of someone or something important.

This article then goes on to suggest ways of achieving the above, such as: 

Life Planning Skills - You can learn to set goals and plans. There are resource materials available from your school counsellor and at your public library. There are private programmes that teach life planning skills. You can also learn about goal setting and planning on-line on the Internet. You can learn how to do a personal inventory like this one and begin to make changes in areas you want to improve.

Here are other sites which give ideas - both serious and fun - on what we should be able to achieve as adults:

An excellent article of life skills usefully mastered by the time we're 30 (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/whole-life/20-things-every-twentysomething-should-know-how-do)

31 life skills in 31 days - optimistic, by the time I got to day 31 I'd have forgotten the first lesson!  But good try: 
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/09/01/heading-out-on-your-own-31-life-skills-in-31-days-series-wrap-up/

Life skills your mother never taught you: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/20/living/real-simple-lessons-mom-didnt-teach/index.html

25 skills every man should know: http://www.esquire.com/features/life-skills-0509#slide-1.  How to skin a moose, how to get a bartender's attention, how to cook eggs.

7 skills to develop in your 20s: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/whole-life/7-skills-develop-your-twenties