Your not wrong there pal . Lol
I fancied retiring untill I bust my back in February, 4 weeks of daytime tv , no bloody chance , going to work until I drop now lol .
My pal has been doing a lot of plastering at the new gaff , hes 75 and still grafting , he says its what keeps him going .
Working for older people as I did, I watched many men retire and simply fade away - literally. Whilst we all say, "I've got my hobbies", a hobby is something that has a pull because ou cant do it all the time. You have to make time for it. Once you retire, and can do what you like when you like, hobbies generally have less 'pull'.
Sorry to be un PC, but men NEED a point to their existance. When we stop working, and bringing home the bacon, then many just give up because they feel they have no purpose, that they're not contributing.
Women largely have a thread of continuity - the home. Plus of course we men are mentally inadequate when it comes to talking to others - especially about our feelings - so end up feeling isolated. Lonliness accounts for a huge swath of illness.
From international research, the perfect way to retire is to reduce your work week over a long period. 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 day. As you do that you will naturally find other things to fill the time out of work instead of feeling like a spare part and losing the will to go on.
On the surface it seems kind of amusing, but its not. When my dad retired he was literally suicidal as he felt so 'spare'. Then mum got dementia and he said to me, "Mum's given me a reason to live." When she died before Christmas, he went back but hid it. That's why, I believe in my heart of hearts he died last week. He'd done his job. Sorry for being mordlin, but this is the reality of retirement if one is not careful.
Always look on the bright side guys
