About Me
My name is Tessa. I am a Londoner, once a Midlander. A mother, a survivor and a shopper. Pensionista.co.uk is about life over seventy and, I hope, far beyond! It is dedicated to my mother Mary.
About the Site
Pensionista is a three-part perspective on living alone in much-later life and one of the biggest adventures of the 21st century – growing older in your own way.
Like most creative endeavours, Pensionista is also a way of reaching out and connecting with – other people.
The core part is a collection of essays in short story form, which follow a train of thought…all inspired by personal experience of real events or conversation. Selected stories also appear on Medium, the American platform.
Notes from the Diary, posted weekly, belong to a familiar, more traditional genre, but in distilled form. The focus on the mundane or routine is deliberate, because everyday incidents or encounters with the inanimate are subjects in themselves and often neglected – but good to write about!
In the Basket, the third page – is the monthly, maverick bit: a selective list of the items that find their way into one woman’s shopping bag or trolley. It may – or may not – amount to a micro-narrative of its own.
Autumn, 2022 Isolation in lockdown was a wake-up call, instigating another huge adventure and a plan to move house and return to the south, to be nearer my family. The property was put on the market in the summer, but it wasn’t till the following spring that an acceptable offer was made on it.
August, 2023 The house in Lichfield now sold, I shall be moving into a friend’s spare room in North London this month, then the hunt for a suitable/affordable new home will begin…
Pensionista must pause for a while during this period, but will return.
November, 2023. A new series of Notes from the Diary begins, written from the room in Tufnell Park. Great Events and Important People will feature now and then, but as before, the focus will be on everyday experience of someone who left a flat in Bloomsbury, Central London, in 2008. After 3 years near Wigan in the North-West of England, I moved to the heart of the country, living in Lichfield for 12 years. I miss the spacious rooms and mourn the loss of the garden – and always will – but had to leave them behind too and finally find my way back to the greatest city in the world.
November, 2024. When I completed on the purchase of a property in Enfield, North London. A cottage in need of a lot of t.l.c but in a wonderful location – set in a park, near the shops and transport links. And here, I intend to resume more regular writing……
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Pensionista 
Hello Tessa, we last met on Derby station. Just wanted you to know I like this very much. I have affinity with the cruise!
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Hi Tessa. Enjoying reading your work to avoid picking up Memento Mori again. Yours is so much more enjoyable.
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Hi Tessa . Once again I so enjoyed reading both your diary and the latest piece ,
Vermin !! We also have loads of mice around that attack our house at certain times, particularly when it’s cold and they fancy somewhere warm and cosy. I am afraid we use old fashioned methods to sort them out, cruel but effective.
Elaina
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Hi Tessa, Found your blog quite randomly. Something about it is just so reassuring. Thank you for sharing it. I am a 50 year old woman living in Vancouver.
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Anita, thank you for your comment, though I wonder about the ‘reassuring’! Do appreciate feedback received as it is in some ways a new style of writing. Best wishes, Tessa.
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