Am I repeating myself?

Tomorrow sees the eighth anniversary of my retirement. It seems only last week that my next-door neighbour warned me that after three months I would wake up in the morning and wonder what I could find to do to pass the time before going to bed again. Three months? Here I am, eight years later, and still I haven't found the time to do all the things I promised myself I would get done once I retired. I'm starting to think that some of them will never get done now, but I continue to live in hope.

If a younger person asks me for advice on how to live a long and happy retirement I always answer that I will tell them when I have had one, eight years not being a long retirement in my book. I know things were different in my grandfather's day, even in my father's day, but I fully intend to enjoy at least twenty years of retirement. But to be serious for a moment, I am sure that the answer is to have at least one hobby to keep ones mind active and another to keep ones body in reasonable shape. And these really should not be hobbies taken up on retirement. Planning for the big switch off should start several years before the day. (In the case of finances, of course, planning needs to start years before - and the earlier the better.) I'm not saying that one should avoid taking up a new hobby on retirement - far from it - but I do think it helps to have some continuity. No, that's not what I mean. It's not continuity that one needs, rather a hobby one has been practicing in the evenings and at weekends can be given more time on retirement and it is something one knows one enjoys. A new hobby might turn out to be a mere flash in the pan, looking interesting but turning out to be otherwise after a few months.

I always feel so sorry for people who have had no time or inclination to follow any pastime while they are working and then, on retirement, are at a complete loss. All they can do to fill the time is watch television or do something else equally uninspiring. The secret of a long retirement, or one of the secrets anyway, is to keep both body and mind active. That is what I tell the youngsters. Not that I have ever been asked, but that is what I would tell them if any were to ask me.

And what, you might ask, have I got to keep me so busy? Before I retired I had started producing a family tree and retirement gave me the time to get as far down the line as I think will be possible. I have now got so far backwards and sideways that I have given up searching for names to add. I try to keep up with new births, marriages and deaths, but with more than 5,000 names from the 17th century onwards, the tree has grown quite big enough. Being a member of the Lions Club gives me as much or as little to do as I want. Just this week, for example, I have been polishing a history of the club that I have written (this year is the club's 60th anniversary), getting started on the next issue of the monthly newsletter and producing the menus for our forthcoming Charter Night dinner and dance. There is a meeting tonight that I could attend if I wish, and a regular club meeting tomorrow night. To keep the body active, I walk the dog a couple of times a day (usually) for 45 minutes to an hour each time and I grow vegetables so there is always something to be done in the garden.

Retirement is to be highly recommended - but take my advice: get yourself a hobby or two first.