![\"Retired](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/LHPYD7DYKBJVPCBM6FSJVS4KYI.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Road](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/F4DWCING6NDSTLQRDGD5PII5RI.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m living the dream, I\u2019m loving it. What they say about retirement is absolutely true though \u2013 you seem to be busier than you were when you were working, and I don\u2019t know how that works out, but it\u2019s great!\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirkwood explains that she\u2019s not getting up at 2:45am for work any more, and has free weekday evenings for the first time in many years, so she can go to the cinema, the theatre, go out for meals, and stay up late.<\/p>\n
And not only that, but she and Randall, who\u2019s \u201c50+\u201d and also retired, have already started travelling, which was part of their big retirement plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s brilliant, I\u2019m really, really enjoying it,\u201d enthuses Kirkwood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI miss my colleagues on BBC Weather and BBC Breakfast, but of course they\u2019re my friends, so we\u2019re still in touch. And I\u2019ll never not look at the weather \u2013 it\u2019s a part of my DNA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI miss my job to a point, but I have so much freedom now, and I\u2019m living to my timetable and my schedule rather than anybody else\u2019s \u2013 that\u2019s liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s added to that feeling, she says, is that both she and Randall have had comprehensive Bupa health assessments to be as sure as possible that future issues aren\u2019t going to scupper their retirement plans.<\/p>\n
She explains that both she and her husband have sadly lost family and friends to cancer recently, saying: \u201cWe\u2019ve lost a lot of people \u2013 life is short.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to try and prolong my life as long as I can and live healthy and happily ever after, as the old saying goes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 64 now, and I want to enjoy my life, and I really do believe the best is yet to come, because I\u2019m not dancing to somebody else\u2019s tune.\u201d<\/p>\n
Happily, all the couple\u2019s physical, blood and heart test results taken during the health assessment were normal, although Kirkwood says: \u201cOne thing it highlighted that I was quite surprised about was my fitness level. I walk a lot \u2013 and I don\u2019t just saunter, I march when I walk \u2013 and I\u2019m doing the Couch to 5k again, and I\u2019ve started doing weight training again, so I thought \u2018I\u2019m going to be fit\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I was average fitness, but only just. And so that\u2019s given me something to work on. I want it to be better than average. I want to be strong, and after you\u2019ve exercised, you do feel strong. So that\u2019s why I try and do as much now as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says the doctor asked if she was doing any exercises to help build the muscles in her thighs, which can be important in the event of hip problems or falls in later life.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, guess what? Now I\u2019m doing lunges, which I hate, and squats, which I hate even more. I\u2019m doing them because it\u2019s all for my own benefit \u2013 I want to live a long, healthy life, so I\u2019m doing all I can to make that happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrevention is better than the cure, and I\u2019m not displaying any symptoms of anything that I\u2019m aware of at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although her test results were normal, Kirkwood says having the assessment made her consider what she eats.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to be more mindful of my chocolate consumption \u2013 I really do love chocolate,\u201d she admits. \u201cNothing was said about that, because my cholesterol was fine, and my BMI was perfectly healthy. But I\u2019m just trying to be a bit healthier.\u201d<\/p>\n
At home, she says: \u201cWe tend to follow a Mediterranean diet \u2013 we eat a lot of clean food, and we don\u2019t tend to eat ultra-processed food. Generally speaking, we cook from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple\u2019s healthy lifestyle and encouraging results from their health assessment meant they could begin their retirement travelling with no niggling health worries, so they\u2019ve been to the US and Italy already.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a case of, what are we waiting for?\u201d says Kirkwood. \u201cSteve and I want to travel \u2013 that\u2019s one of our life\u2019s ambitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re big fans of The Eagles, and they\u2019re doing a long farewell tour around the world, and they were playing in Las Vegas at The Sphere, but we could just never get the dates to work because of annual leave. And then just as I was about to retire, they announced some more dates which we could do because we then had all the free time in the world. So we booked it and went.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my goodness, it was fabulous! And then we went to Matera in southern Italy, which is a really fascinating place, and then to Venice. So we\u2019re doing all right for holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s just the start of their travelling \u2013 Nashville, Graceland, New Orleans, the Taj Mahal and India\u2019s Golden Triangle, and a return to Australia are all on their travel bucket list.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore, like everyone if they\u2019re working, we were restricted by annual leave,\u201d she says. \u201cBut now we don\u2019t have that restriction any more, so if we want to go somewhere like Australia, we\u2019d go for much longer. So we definitely do have a travel bucket list.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple won\u2019t be travelling all the time, of course, but Kirkwood is so happy with life at the moment that she\u2019s even enthused by the mundane chores at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no time to be bored,\u201d she insists. \u201cThere are jobs that you think \u2018I\u2019ll do that when I retire, because I\u2019ll have more time,\u2019 so now we\u2019re having to do all the jobs that we put off until we\u2019re retired.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you paint a room, and at the end of it you think \u2018Yay, we did that, it looks not too bad actually\u2019. Or I did loads of planters that have all blossomed now, and they\u2019re so pretty and colourful, and it\u2019s nice sitting in the garden having a little glass of wine, just admiring the flowers.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there\u2019s joy in everything you do, if you look for it.\u201d<\/p>\n