I had many jobs throughout my life--waitress, journalist, writer, and teacher--and although I enjoyed most of them, I'm finding retirement to be an absolute blessing. There's nothing more liberating and empowering than deciding what you will do with every minute of your day, and what environment you will spend your time in. One pet peeve I had as a high school teacher in the U.S. was the alarm bells for changing periods. "Why not use pleasant sounding chimes?" I asked the principal, but she dismissed the idea as silly. Better to be aurally accosted 6 or 7 times a day with a horrible and extremely loud alarm sound... That was just one of many pointless, stupid, and frustrating things I had to put up with to earn my money.