The Night Mail

[SM42]

OK 

 

Here's a mystery. 

Why is there a blue bottle flying around the flat here?

 

Perhaps the answer to the question of where do flies go in winter has been solved. 

 

As for retirement I can't wait. I reckon I need another 6 years to make it viable. 

Another 6 years of shifts is not something I relish, especially as shift work is one thing recognised to reduce life expectancy. 

 

However I know of only one colleague who didn't make it to retirement and one who was got by Covid 6 years in.

In general all my ex colleagues are doing well, but without exception they got out as early as possible.

 

Needless to say all the youngsters who have 30 odd years ahead of them are being advised to save as much as they can afford into the pension  scheme now so they can get out early too.

 

They have time on their side and you can only pay in whilst you are sat in the seat. 

 

 

Andy

[bbishop]

I was part time for my last five years.  I was on a final salary scheme, and what happened was for pension terms I was treated as full time, but only got half the years.  Bill

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Evening all,

 

Today was bit of a disaster.

 

Last week it was predicted that there would be hail storm today and for the next three days, and strangely none of the schools whose students drive did anything. Today said hail storm arrived and began chucking down hail on the students driving and being dropped off, so the school sent out a degree 11 minutes before class started that we could go home and do online class or stay at school.

 

A scene reminiscent of a very disorganized army retreat then ensued in the middle of a hailstorm. Some poor souls were left behind till the last bell at 3. I managed to get home but not after crisscrossing campus twice in the storm in a vain search to find my sister who was in one of the gyms. 

 

Thankfully we have online school tomorrow.

 

Douglas

Who does not recommend crossing ice covered parking lots.

Edited February 24, 2022 by Florence Locomotive Works

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Evening all, ...snip...

Douglas

Who does not recommend crossing ice covered parking lots.

Never had that problem in Fort Lauderdale!

[Mike Bellamy]

22 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Ditto, except it was my father's example that I sought to avoid. He retired at 65, and had a heart attack 6 weeks later, although he made 73.

 

Same with my father - retired at 65 and had a 'mild' heart attack just after he arrived at hospital a few weeks later. Full recovery and he lived to 92. He was out with my brother at the time as he had taken over dad's plumbing business and sometimes took dad with him to hold the other end of the tape measure and to make him feel useful. Brother was driving back to town when dad displayed some of the classis symptoms, feeling sick, chest pains radiating into arms etc. The conversation was along the lines of - - right we're off to hospital - -oh not yet, can't we go home first - -why - - I want to go to the toilet - - b*gg*r the toilet, I'm taking you to hospital !!

 

In my case, I retired a couple of years ago at 65 and a bit, as it was part of the transition period between 65 and 66 but I started to draw one pension at age 60, which then got invested as I was still working full time with another employer who then offered generous redundancy to most of the staff, had far too many volunteers and had to drastically scale back on numbers so I was told I had valuable skills and knowledge base so couldn't go with a payoff which would have been about 12 months salary. I negotiated a smaller amount (2 months pay bonus) to stay on for an orderly handover but they didn't recruit a replacement until a few weeks before I left so they didn't start until after I had gone. 65 in April, left July, state pension and bus pass November, 2nd works pension backdated to April aged 65 as the pension dept considered it to be redundancy as I had received that additional payment so win-win which ever way you look at it. However I was only a low grade pen pusher (keyboard hitter) so although it sounds a lot, the sums weren't that great.

.

[Winslow Boy]

4 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Never had that problem in Fort Lauderdale!

 

Didn't have that problem when I was young. We just let the hailstones bounce off us. We were har' in them ther' days. Not like the current lot. First sign of a snow flake and the whole lot of them shut down - schools - buses and trains. Ee it were a grand life uup north.

Edited February 24, 2022 by Winslow Boy
Forgot to say where 8t was

[New Haven Neil]

I went the first time at 55 as I simply could not bear what was being done to my department - as a civil serpent at the time that was the earliest I could go.  Took my max lumper to pay off the mortgage and camper van loan, so less monthly superannuation, then went to work with my bestie running Trackshack, wot growed from three to eight employees and a healthy turnover into seven figures, which we planned would last us until we were of retirement age (we're both the same age to within a day!).  Covid killed that in three months due to lack of stock, and John lost his wife suddenly at the same time and I was struggling with some physical issues (still am) so we chucked it and consider myself retired again at not-quite 63.  With my modest superannuation and Mrs NHN being 5 years younger than me, still working full time and happy in her job, we're doing OK having cut back on eats out etc.

 

When we reach state pension age we'll be better off due to having both a UK state pension (by having kept up UK NI payments) and a good proportion of a Manx one too, having paid into that for over 20 years.

[Compound2632]

For those with an interest in the rise of the labour movement among Great Western footplatemen, I have recently been recommended the book Red Panniers by J. Scott-Morgan and K. Martin.

[jamie92208]

35 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

For those with an interest in the rise of the labour movement among Great Western footplatemen, I have recently been recommended the book Red Panniers by J. Scott-Morgan and K. Martin.

Sounds a very appropriate  title, almost a mutual improvement  scheme for panniers.

 

Jamie

Edited February 24, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

My father was a secondary teacher and found out that the averagevpension draw for retiring at 65 was about 15 months. This was in the 60's. For minrtschevtold mevit was 18 months.  Due to a legacy that my mother got he was able yo retire at 60. He drew his pension till he was 90.  I was due to finish round about my 51st birthday but due to various disputes with senior management I actually finished at 49 and 3/4's  then 4 months on nothing before getting my pension on my 50th birthday.  The commutation rules meant that I couldn't take the full amount but retained a higher percentage of my base pension.  Index linking kicked in at 55 and was then backdated.  That means that all my rises have been on a considerably  higher base pension than many of my former colleagues.   Though the circumstances of my leaving were not happy, I'm now very happy.  The even better thing is that two long running disputes over pensions were resolved several years after retirement and each of them boosted my base pension plus a decent lump sum back pay payout. The government  never learned but dug their heels in till their hand was forced by the courts 11 years later.  It certainly seems that the earlier you can get out the better.  I doubt that my children will be as lucky.

 

Jamir

 

 

[TheQ]

The next area to mine at GEC, a guy went home for the last time and died that Friday night. His wife was lucky in that his official last day of employment was the Monday , So she still got full in service benefits.

 

The boss is depressed today as he watched the documentary on the 737Max crashes, basically bean counters came in removed all proper inspections at Boeing, so everything became about the bottom line and not the safety reputation of the business.  Which is how this place is going.. He yesterday, however, signed on for 2 days a week from June until Christmas / or they find a replacement for him.

 

Me I'm just counting down..

[iL Dottore]

Retirement? Wozzat?

 

I turned 65 last year and I'm still working: my company has a modest and profitable clientele, I set my own workdays and they average about 5 hours/day - but with fees of squillions/hour I'm OK with that. I probably will stop working when I hit 67 (but it'll be hard: I love the dosh and the job is indoors with NO heavy lifting AND I'm my own boss).

 

When I do retire I will have the state pension (AHV), my company pension, my third pillar pension (in Switzerland nearly everyone has three pension pots: state [AHV], company pension and private pension) plus a modest monthly salary from my company (which will be kept going - as Mrs iD is setting up her dog school under the company umbrella [a subsidiary!])

 

I have to say, I'm not sure I'm psychologically ready to retire: I've been working since I was 18 (at first part-time & summer jobs, then a full-time career) and I can't imagine not working.

 

TBH, I think I'm reluctant to give up my current financial independence. It's nice not to have to budget too strictly (and have to trade Beluga Caviar for Heinz Baked Beans )

Edited February 24, 2022 by iL Dottore
Typo

[Canal Digger]

3 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

I went the first time at 55 as I simply could not bear what was being done to my department - as a civil serpent at the time that was the earliest I could go.

I was in a similar Strawberry Mivi/ Civil Serpent situation, I got fed up with doing more, faster, with less for less, amongst continuous change to the point where cycles of various initiatives were repeating themselves. When it went wrong it was of course my fault! There are a limited number of ways to cut a cake, then slices of different cakes are mixed into a trifle. Managers at various levels have to be seen to be doing something so they make changes. Made the mistake of telling high management this which scuppered my promotion prospects, well they did ask. Audience liked what I said, so did some of the management but only in private.  <rant off>

Now happy doing DIY, driving minibuses for elderly/ disabled etc, working to restore a canal and 'messing around' with model trains. 

Edited February 24, 2022 by Canal Digger
correction

[Gwiwer]

Retirement?  What’s that?  
 

It used to be a standard for men at 65 and women at 60; you worked on only under mutual agreement and if fit and able. 
 

My “natural” retirement age is in 14 months time. That is when I can go without special arrangements, that is when I can take my UK State and Australian private pensions. And my bus pass is extended from London-only to the whole UK. 
 

Oddly enough my railway pension from BR days has been paying out since I turned 60 but I am still required to contribute to both state and privatised employer schemes. It does seem unusual to be both receiving and paying pensions but our HR department, and my ex-BR fund manager both insist it’s right.

 

I have been mostly blessed with good health and don’t plan on abandoning the workforce this side of 70. Circumstances might force a change but that’s where I am today. 
 

Dr. SWMBO is ten years my junior so if I go at 70 she will be 60, able to take all her Australian funds including a state top-up but not her British pension for a few more years. She might, however, opt to retire at the same time I do if we can be reasonably certain of financial security. 
 

But she won’t get her bus pass when I do which may allow me some freedom to roam!  Assuming, of course, that we still have buses at that time. The rural and regional links are a threatened species in many areas. And hardly any seem to run after 6pm now outside major cities. 
 

The heffalump in the room remains where we retire. UK or Australia. I’m better off here; she is better off there.  Taken together it’s finely balanced.  There’s a bridge to be crossed somewhere in the forseeable future. 

[PhilJ W]

I decided to get out when I calculated that my pension, without NI payments, tax, commuting and of course the pension contributions themselves would come to more than my salary. A couple of years before I retired they asked for two voluntary redundancies but I was the only one who put my hand up. What I and my colleagues didn't know was that the two redundancies had been decided and despite my  and their protests they went ahead. I succeeded in the end by using HR's own stupidity against them.

[PhilJ W]

@Gwiwer The bus pass will only cover you for England. Welsh and Scottish bus passes only cover holders for their respective countries. I'm not sure of what happens on cross border services.

[Gwiwer]

20 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

@Gwiwer The bus pass will only cover you for England. Welsh and Scottish bus passes only cover holders for their respective countries. I'm not sure of what happens on cross border services.

Scotland might be a bit of a trek by bus from the Hill of Strawberries!  
 

No-one seems quite sure of the cross-border rules.  There might also be routes which cross a border more than once. In that case I might expect an outbreak of common sense in allowing passes of both nations the full length of the route. But we know sense is far from common in the industry. 

[polybear]

4 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Didn't have that problem when I was young. We just let the hailstones bounce off us. We were har' in them ther' days. Not like the current lot. First sign of a snow flake and the whole lot of them shut down - schools - buses and trains. Ee it were a grand life uup north.

 

Icy outside?  Pah....when Bear were but a young cub we had ice inside the windows....

[PhilJ W]

I don't think its that much of a problem on the Scotland/England border except at places like Berwick-on-Tweed. But the Welsh/English border sometimes runs down the middle of a street and if there is a bus route traversing that same street what then? 

[Winslow Boy]

25 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Icy outside?  Pah....when Bear were but a young cub we had ice inside the windows....

 

Mr Bear I would have thought a bear of your knowledge would have known that having windows was something for those soft southners. Yourll be saying next you had indoor privy and a tin bath. 

[PhilJ W]

With bus passes I would suggest making it UK wide and incorporating rail travel as well at a cost per mile (or kilometre) basis. Each year it will be 'loaded' with a fixed amount* that would automatically be topped up each year. (*For some people such as those undergoing medical treatment as out patients the amount would be increased.) Restrictions such as at present where they are not usable before certain times would still apply in most cases but with modern technology they can be adjusted for an individual who needs to travel at those times such as the aforementioned out patients and children going to school. (My friends daughter who has special needs was given a bus pass to get to the special school she attended, she had to be there by 9a.m. she couldn't use the bus pass until that time.) 

Edited February 24, 2022 by PhilJ W

[PhilJ W]

1 minute ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Mr Bear I would have thought a bear of your knowledge would have known that having windows was something for those soft southners. Yourll be saying next you had indoor privy and a tin bath. 

But the indoor privy was were he kept his bike and the tin bath was where he kept the coal.

[Winslow Boy]

32 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I don't think its that much of a problem on the Scotland/England border except at places like Berwick-on-Tweed. B

ut the Welsh/English border sometimes runs down the middle of a street and if there is a bus route traversing that same street what then? 

D

I beleive that when 5hose lot in 'haggis eating land' finally get there wish and cast themselves off into the atlantic yourll have to get off the bus and go through customs just in case you try to smuggle anything in like whiskey or kippers.

 

Not certain what's going to happen with the sheep worries. Maybe they'lle just close the border entirely.

[Winslow Boy]

7 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

But the indoor privy was were he kept his bike and the tin bath was where he kept the coal.

 

Coal, Coal wern't rich enough for that. Anyway pigeons and whippets were in privy.

[Gwiwer]

10 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

pigeons and whippets were in privy.

And the "ice bucket challenge" was aiming your needs into the receptacle - of necessity outside the privvy - in the midst of a freezing night