Notes From Retirement......................Where did the years go?: Poetry, Cinema, Fine Dining, Theatre, Fine Art And A Momentous March

We're cramming so much into our retirement that I sometimes worry that we'll burn ourselves out. Last week was hectic even by our standards.

We started on the Saturday evening with a delicious home baked pizza cooked by good friends before walking with them a few doors down the road to FAYAP where Slice Of Life Fram were putting on yet another of their brilliant cultural events.

Luke Wright was performing his show, Luke Wright Poet Laureate and what a show it was! We've seen Luke two or three times now and we would happily go and see him again. He is a major talent and very funny with it. If anybody had told me a few years ago that I would be attending regular poetry evenings I would have scoffed - not any more.

I hadn't realised how tall Luke is until I uploaded this photo of him with Marion at his signing session after the show.

Sunday was relatively quiet day at home watching football on TV and putting into place my final plans for a special surprise day planned for Marion's birthday on Tuesday.

Tuesday soon arrived and I woke her up at seven thirty with a card instructing her to pack an overnight case.

Our local florists Callendars didn't let me down and delivered these flowers for Marion bang on time at nine thirty. It was then time to drive to Ipswich and catch a train to London.

We often walk past Ottolenghi when we arrive at Liverpool St and walk into East London and Marion always says how much she would like to eat there. So it was an obvious choice for me to book for a very good birthday lunch.

I've started looking up a lot more when in London and loved these pottery plaques depicting bakers that I spotted above Honest Burgers' Liverpool St branch. I've walked past this place loads of time without noticing them. Seems that they were installed in 1926 when a bakery opened on the site. They weren't the only London artworks that I noticed for the first time but I will save those photos for a future blog.

From Ottolenghi we travelled to Premier Inn at County Hall before walking along the South Bank to the National Theatre.

Marion has wanted to see Follies for ages but, as I'm not a lover of musicals, she told me not to book it. She was delighted when we turned up at the theatre and I have to say that, despite my dislike of musicals in general, this was a spectacularly good show.

The final surprise of the short break was a trip to the Royal Academy on Wednesday to see The Renaissance Nude exhibition. The RA has assembled a quite spectacular display of works by notable artists (mostly of the 1400s) from all over Europe to produce a fascinating display.

We loved Get Out, so when we saw that Jordan Peele's new movie was out we went on Friday to see it at Cineworld.

Us is an extremely complex horror film about the arrival of zombie like doppelgangers in a California resort. With plenty of shocks, a lot of humour and a mind boggling plot which I still don't understand, it's very entertaining but I challenge anyone to explain what exactly is going on.

On Saturday we drove to Stratford and had a look at some furniture in Westfield before catching the tube to London to join in with over a million plus like minded protestors in the march to put it to the people. I blogged in the days following the referendum that the electorate was lied to and I feel exactly the same today. Now that Vote Leave has been fined, I am surprised that there are still people who believe that it was a democratic and fair vote and I hope that the politicians see sense and give the public the final say. Whatever the outcome we can accept that next time everyone will know exactly what they are voting for.