Thursday July 10th 2025 "Retirement - you can do courses on it now apparently! What madness, isn't it !!!!"

Pensioners - do you remember your last working day? There was a kind of a magic about it, wasn't there - the feeling that you won't have to make that perhaps difficult "commute" ever again, getting up at the break of dawn. Now you'll be able to luxuriate in bed till maybe 6 am (?) and then spend the day doing the things you really want to do! 

My medium-to-hard-pressed wife Lois and I chose to retire on the same day, on Yours Truly's 60th birthday, back in March 2006. And in those crazy, far-off days "retiring" was a totally undocumented process, so we were literally "flying blind" when we "took the plunge" and decided to do it! 

flashback to March 2006, my 60th birthday, and the day my

medium-to-hard-pressed wife Lois retired

How different it is today, now that so many studies are being done on the subject to help the people Lois and I call "youngsters in their 60's" navigate the sometimes stormy seas of retirement! Like this landmark study from just down the road from us, at Basingstoke East University - did you see the story in this morning's local Onion News for East Hampshire, perhaps?

"On

Just imagine - if only Lois and I had known all that, back in 2006!!!

And in a funny kind of a way, today is another "last day" for us, certainly our last completely quiet day for us, here in our new home in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, because our two-person idyll is going to start to be rudely shattered soon by the arrival of our dear daughter Sarah (48), who's going to be taking off tomorrow from Perth Airport in Western Australia, and flying into London's Heathrow Airport early Saturday with husband Francis and their 11-year-old twin daughters Lily and Jessica. 

They'll be coming for a two-and-a-half week stay with us.

Lois and me - our "quiet life" is coming to an end,

and no mistake !!!

Yikes! And this quiet little house of ours is going to be ringing with laughter and the patter of tiny-to-medium 11-year-old feet all of a sudden!!! Not to mention Sarah's 48-year-old feet, plus husband Francis's feet which are even older, we believe, but we're still waiting for his birth certificate - it may have got "destroyed" in the great fire at Somerset House in 1915 haha  (!). 

Lois and I have been preparing for their visit for  literally days, sorting out the guest bedrooms etc - and today we're working on the finishing touch - a flatpack bedside table for Jessica (or Lily), which we've got to spend the morning puzzling over and half-putting together, although it seems a bit "wonky" - probably because we haven't read the microscopic font of the instructions quite right, I shouldn't wonder !!!

Silly old us !!!!

[I wouldn't trust you two "noggins" to put a flatpack ballpoint pen together, Colin, much less a bedside cabinet. Just saying! - Ed]

Well we are 79 now - we retired at 60, back in 2006 - you do the maths haha !!!!

It's so different in Denmark, where "Life begins at 80" according to my daily news feed from Gentofte, the suburb of Copenhagen where our other daughter, Alison, lived with her family for 7 years, from 2012 to 2019.

flashback to April 2014: Lois (centre) on the Copenhagen waterfront,

with our daughter Alison and her husband Edward, plus their

three kids: Isaac (4), Rosalind (6) and Josie (8)

Lois and I picked up a smattering of Intermediate Danish while visiting Alison and family during their 7 years in Copenhagen and still today, "for our sins" (!) we run the local U3A "Intermediate Danish for Old Codgers" Group, and we manage to navigate another stormy meeting of the group this afternoon, which keeps us busy, to put mildly! Do write to me, incidentally, if you're an 'old codger' and  interested in learning Intermediate Danish, and I'll put you in touch with your nearest group - and that's a 'Colin-promise' (!)

As joint group-leader with Lois, we still get a "feed" of Gentofte news, just for old times' sake, on my smartphone, which is where I get all these annoying "Life Begins At 80" stories when Lois and I are in bed having our afternoon "nap-time" - well, we are 79, you know (!). [Stop saying that! - Ed]. 

Lois and I haven't been in bed 5 minutes, before my Samsung

starts "diddling away" under the bedclothes again - what madness !!!

A few days ago, we read about Gentofte-resident Grethe Kaspersen, possibly the world's oldest model, who turned 80 this week, but who has no intentions of retiring, after 6 decades [Danish: seks artier] in the fashion business.

Copenhagen resident Grethe Kaspersen, still a fashion model

after 6 decades in the business, seen here with her old "hubby" 

And today, literally "days later", another busy new Gentofter octogenarian "birthday-girl" has popped up on my news feed, Charlotte Grumme, who wears red glasses and looks about 12, but who will actually turn 80 next Tuesday, and - wouldn't you know it! Yes, Charlotte too has no plans to retire, let alone to "slow down" and start taking afternoon naps like Yours Truly and Lois, to name but two of us!!!!

What a crazy world we live in !!!

This is a bit of a rundown of Charlotte's busy life, according to the Zealand News reporter:

What madness, isn't it! And there are two questions in mine and Lois's mind in bed this afternoon: (1) what's it like being married to a "couples therapist", and (2) what on earth is "the Mythical Knot" that Charlotte is  "certified in". And this time we want answers, postcards only !!!!

I did some googling, and there's a YouTube video on Jytte Vikkelsoe and the Mythical Knot, but to be honest, we haven't had time to look at it, what with all the flatpack work we've been engaged on today (!) - see pictures below from the video.

Incidentally don't be put off by the "MAD" notice in front of the lecturer in this clip - it's not a judgement (!) - it's just a sign for the "snacks" table (!). 

You see, "mad" is just the general Danish word for "food" - it's related to the English word "meat" if you must know, which originally meant "food in general", hence the expression "meat and drink". And I should think her audience in that Danish woodland must be gasping for a bite to eat, not to mention something to drink - it looks as if it's late at night, but the lecturer shows no signs of bringing the session to a close. Still, that's the Danes for you!!!!

What madness !!!! [That's more than enough madness for one day! - Ed]

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!