After thinking about it for some time - and after having been asked on a number of occasions "when are you going to retire?" we have decided to do it. Our current medical registration is valid until 30th September this year, and we have decided not to renew it.

This means that we no longer have to accrue points for continuing medical education, a scheme introduced some 20 years or more ago, and which I think has contributed very little to having encouraged doctors to keep up to date with modern medical thinking and advances in medicine. It has certainly spawned a new bureaucracy and increased costs. That's how things go now. But I am not sorry to be leaving all that behind.

I am sorry about leaving quite a number of my patients behind; but... I'm turning 70 this year, and I don't want to continue working into my dotage. Some people seem to be happy to do that, but I think there are plenty of other things to do. As it is, working two days a week, I don't seem to have enough time to do everything I want to.

I am the only GP in my clinic doing minor surgery. So it will be inconvenient, after I'm gone, for people needing lumps and bumps removed; but this also seems to be the way things are going with fewer GP's doing practical procedural work. I find this difficult to understand as I find it a very satisfying way of keeping my work varied and interesting. Much more so than dealing with mental health, which is the direction our government seems to pushing GP's into.

But - until then...  our daughter Louise is having our second grandchild (a girl, this time) at the end of June. And planning to move house in the month before this, so it is likely that she will appreciate some help with this. So a trip away to somewhere warmer in winter will likely not happen until July - and only then, of course, if Covid remains under control here and we don't have the state border closures which were a feature of 2020.

At present it's under control, so next month we are planning to go to Tasmania and walk a trail from Penguin (on the north coast) up to Cradle Mountain. All entirely outside National Parks, but Tasmania has lots of remote country outside its National Parks; and this time unsupported - we carry everything with us - though we do spend one night, halfway along, in a cabin rather than in our tent. All contingent on the borders not being closed again, which could happen again at any time with no warning.

The pictures on this page are from our "day out" in Melbourne, when we walked down through Docklands and Southbank to the Music Bowl, where we stumbled upon the Melbourne Youth Orchestra rehearsing. We were allowed in to watch them, for an hour or so, getting to experience the new covid safe social distancing arrangements.Then on via the Botanic Gardens to the National Gallery, which has just begun its excellent Triennial. It's good sometimes to be a "tourist" in your own town and lovely being able to enjoy some freedoms at present.