Dear LPG, 

I retired just before Covid-19 started, or perhaps it is more a case that the pandemic was that occurrence that forced my decision to make the break from work.  I think that people who officially said goodbye to work during more ‘normal’ times had more of an opportunity to either look forward to it or get really depressed about the radical change in routine that we all have to take on at that time.

I was thrown in at the deep end as is everyone else when they have all that extra time on their hands but my retirement was a time when old and young had to completely restructure our lifestyles.

So many people had to live locked down and many of them did it alone.  As a result, quite a lot of us were eased into retirement not to mention many other life phases at very short notice because of the pandemic.  Perhaps it was the severity of those changes that we all had to make which made the whole leaving the world of work for the final time seem less of a milestone.  I wonder how many 2020 retirees are still just about coming to terms with the fact that their retirement happened into the bargain.

I think that now that lockdown is a thing of the past, normality is returning and while the workers of the world get back to that new normal that everyone has been talking about, for all the new retirees that have had to do lockdown alone, the fact of where we are up to is just about starting to really kick in.  

If you had, and still have no company at home, it is vital to find the social world outside and make a few new friends. 

I know it is not always easy to just turn up, but we all have to start somewhere and so I suggest joining a club.  Although we newly retired people only have what has been said on the media to go by, the pandemic has left us with fewer places to find the social involvement that we could do with.

So while nothing is easy, it might just be that some of us newly retired oldies would be just the right people to get together and start a new little club of our own.    Two or three friends who commit to meeting up regularly might be the way to start that small ball rolling and lead to something with a bit more force given a bit of time.  It’s just an idea…  

CP, Dulwich 
 

Just in case you feel ready to start a social club from scratch, CP has found a starting point…

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…and LPG adds some information on today’s celebration…

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