Dear LPG,

I am addressing my comments to the male retirees that read your page. 

It is funny but I think human nature dictates that many of us, especially us men, manage to get through our working years putting work before anything else.   Getting there day after day and the responsibilities involved take up so much of our time, with hobbies and DIY coming a close second and often leaving many of our closest friends at the other end of the work commute.  So when we retire most of  our friends live far away and often are still caught up with work, while we suddenly have very little to do. 

My wife had a couple of working years in front of her when I retired, her routine was all set up leaving me feeling as if I got under her feet nearly all the time and I found that day after day of dealing with relatively unsuccessful  and daily DIY projects was more than I could cope with.

In the end I decided to go against everything I believed in  and attend a day centre that was local to me, and I was frighteningly surprised when I realised how many more ladies were there than men.  I nearly turned and left straight away, but I did find one man to sit next to and it appeared to me that he felt as out of place as I did on that day.

We got talking and have since found another retired male ‘nearly lost soul’ and I think that I have learned what the word ‘bromance’ really means.  The moral of my message is that even if you are a newly-retired, self-sufficient man, it is really important to find and invest some of your time in finding a friend, or group of friends, that live near you. 

I recommend it.

OC, Lee

There is quite a lot of information online to support OC’s concerns…

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