I had a mammogram (free) on Oct 12 and the results came today: no signs of breast cancer. Reason to celebrate!
And today, we celebrated my 22-year work anniversary at our afternoon team meeting. My manager looked up my actual hiring date and it turns out it was officially October 18 (which was Sunday), but I hadn’t really been thinking about it. I knew it was in October, and this morning someone on LinkedIn congratulated me. Haha! 22 years: crazy. So I went down to the café and bought silviakaka and another pastry of saffron and coconut and brought it to our meeting for everyone. Silviakaka is SO good, but MAN is it ever sweet.
Everyone was asking me questions about what it was like at Axis when I started in 2004. I was hired by the VP Sales who left the company years ago, and when I started there were only 7 people in Corporate Marketing: only one of whom is still at Axis. Corporate Marketing, which is now part of Global Marketing and Sales, has grown to about 175 people here in Lund, and I don’t even know how many we are worldwide, but it’s a lot! When I started we were in one building; today we fill 6 buildings and just built another that will open at the end of January. We could hold our Christmas parties in our basement cafeteria; nowadayas we are too many to even use the arenas in Malmö or Lund. I knew pretty much everyone who worked at Axis; that hasn’t been true for years. We still had fax machines, haha! Just thinking about it makes me feel old.
Anders put in his official paperwork for retirement and his boss has signed them and turned them in to Tetra Pak’s HQ. He turns 65 in the beginning of May next year, but with all his vacation and comp days, he’ll probably stop working somewhere around the middle of March. Technically, the retirement age in Sweden for both him and me is 67. For him, 63 is the earliest he can start receiving pension benefits, with parts of it not available until 67. For me it’s 64, then 67. But both Anders’ sister (who is a year younger than me) and her husband (who is my age) have JUST retired, and I am curious as to how they are managing it financially. My manager and HER manager have told me I am never allowed to retire, so it’s all a moot point. 😀
But they can’t stop me thinking about it! 😀 I haven’t actually looked to see how I’m set up financially, but I can say that the possibility of going down slightly in hours is starting to be a very appealing option, since I am not ready to actually retire completely.
I don’t know anyone else my age in the US except for Julie and her husband who have already retired, and she was only 55 when they did. Also crazy! Even my cousin who is a year older than me is still working (though I think she is part-time now).
And now it’s time for me to get off my duff and write my October letter! Only 3 more to go, including this one.
Mood: just fine
Music: LOVA—Leave it Beautiful