The Retirement Newsletter: My last start of an academic year and going cashless
Issue Number: -17 — It all seems unreal
Welcome
Welcome to issue -17 — My last start of an academic year.
And I also comment on how my local town seems to be sleep-walking into the cashless society.
The start of the academic year
All my life, well, since the age of five (or three and a half if you count pre-school nursery), I have lived by two calendars — the yearly one that most people live by and the academic calendar that pupils, students, and educators use. And this is my last start to an academic calendar year. And it feels odd.
Three years ago, in 2020, I realised I was welcoming the last cohort of students I would see graduate. And I went to their ceremony in July.
It felt strange.
I had lost count of the number of graduations I have attended.
Excluding my three, it must be well into the thirties (most years I have attended two, some years three).
All that hand clapping.
All those class photos.
I wonder how many toilets have a photo of me with a graduating class hanging on their walls. How many attics have boxes with a photo of me and a graduating class?
It must be in the thousands.
And July 2023 was my last graduation ceremony (unless I go to the winter one in December).
Last week, I welcomed my last batch of first years.
It felt strange as I stood there looking at the class and giving my last ’welcome’ lecture. I did wonder why 50% of the class was missing.
Where were they?
Didn’t they know it was my last time doing this welcome session?
And then, this week, I had the last start of my cell biology module.
Again, where were 40% of the class?
Didn’t they know it was my last time starting this module?
I gave my first two of the twenty-two lectures on the course.
After the lectures, I returned to my office and loaded the lecture recordings online for the 40% of the class that was not in the lecture. No doubt, I will look at the video statistics at the end of the term and find that hardly any students will have reviewed the material.
I also gave my first live-streamed session of the new academic year this week.
Live-streamed sessions are a leftover from the COVID-19 days when we couldn’t do face-to-face teaching.
During COVID-19, we flipped the classroom.
That is, we recorded numerous videos for the students to watch and then held 2 to 3 hours online each week, talking about the material in the videos. This is flipped teaching, and it produces a deep understanding of the material for the students — if they do the work.
These online sessions were great and some of the most fun, challenging, and best teaching I’ve ever done. The students asked questions before the session so I could prepare answers. And during the session, they could ask follow-up questions. This approach to teaching kept me on my toes and challenged what I thought I knew and understood. I loved it. This was active learning. I used to get a real buzz from the sessions.
I hoped we would continue the flipped teaching when we returned to campus. Sadly, we didn’t. The students wanted to return to the passive lecture format, with me talking at the front of the class. And then later complain in the student feedback that the lectures were dull.
Reverting to the old style of lecturing was a lost opportunity.
Anyway, that’s my last academic year started.
My lectures are now underway, live-streamed sessions are being delivered, and I will start my last lab classes in a couple of weeks.
It doesn’t seem possible.
I still feel like a newbie at this job, even though I’ve been doing it for over 25 years.
Where did the time go?
A cashless society
Well, we seem to have been sleepwalking into this one.
I guess this is another unintended consequence of COVID-19. And this time, one that is sticking around.
I live in a small market town of around 12,000 people in the UK. When I was growing up, there were about 8,000 people in the town.
When I was a kid, we had five banks — the National Westminster (now NatWest), the Midlands (now HSBC), Lloyds, Barclays and TSB.
We also had three or four building societies.
When cashpoints (ATMs) started to appear, all the banks (except TSB because it had closed by this time) got cash machines. Even some building societies had cash machines (ATMs).
At its peak, we had six cashpoints in the centre of the town.
Over the last couple of years, the banks have closed, and most of the building societies left before COVID-19 arrived. All have taken their cashpoints with them.
There is now one building society in the town, and it doesn’t have a cashpoint.
We now have one cashpoint in the town outside a small supermarket.
The cashpoint is heavily used (there is always a queue) and frequently runs out of cash or breaks down.
The next nearest cashpoint is at an out-of-town supermarket. And they have reduced their number of cashpoints from two to one, and that one is often offline.
You may think this is not a problem, but some shops in the town will only take cash.
The other day, I went for a haircut and discovered I had no money in my wallet. I couldn’t get a haircut as they only took cash. I had plenty of cards and a phone, but they were no good.
I went to the one remaining cashpoint in town, and it was broken.
I had to go to a nearby supermarket that does cash back and buy something I didn’t need so I could get cash for a haircut. Madness.
You may think the solution to my cashless problem is to use the local supermarket when I need cash. But, cash is drying up in town, and they have less and less cash in the supermarket to do cash backs.
Plus, I would rather not spend money each time I want to take out some cash.
Another added expense in my retirement.
Keep an eye on your town or village and don’t let it go cashless.
Travel — Nostalgia Corner
The last of my stories from my trip to Myanmar (Burma):
Myanmar (Burma) — 10 Travel Tips for visiting Myanmar (Burma) — My top 10 travel tips for travelling to Myanmar (Burma) — well, thirteen tips.
Myanmar (Burma) — Leaving Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma) — Departing from Yangon (Rangoon) International Airport (RGN), Yangon, Myanmar (Burma).
Myanmar (Burma) — Summary of my trip to Myanmar (Burma) — The end of a great trip to Myanmar (Burma)
Myanmar (Burma) — then (2015) and now (2022) — Looking back at my time in Myanmar (Burma).
Next week, tales from Malaysia.
Next week
Next week, it will be time for one of my quarterly reviews on how my plans to retire are progressing and if my plans are on track — this will be my penultimate review.
Also, next week, I will reveal how my ‘action plan’ from my Pension Wise meeting (See Issue -19: What did I learn from my Pension Wise meeting?) is going.
Thanks
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Until next time,
Nick
PS, If you want to contribute something to the newsletter — a story, advice, anything — please get in touch.