How do you feel about retirement without alcohol? Hear me out.
Often when people describe the attractions of retirement, they speak about alcohol: a round of golf with a glass of cool rosé in the clubhouse after the game, visiting country pubs to sample local ales, gin and tonics at 5pm, enjoying the garden with a tumbler of something chilled and sparkling.
You see what I mean? It seems to be woven into the idea of retirement.
Sure – you can go to the pub and have water, you can sit in the garden and drink water, you can drink water after golf, or get a cuppa or a hot chocolate. It doesn’t seem so tempting though, does it?
Now, I don’t drink (it gives me headaches) and I am not itching to retire. Are these things linked? I think so, yes. Also, I have work that I enjoy, plus it’s varied and stimulating, so I am lucky. Why would I give that up to… do what? Garden? Play golf? Cycle the Camino de Santiago? Learn ballroom dancing (there’s only so many hours a week I can do that, or would want to). Take up bridge? Volunteer (now, I actually could do that – watch this space).
I could travel. There are loads of places I haven’t been to: Japan, Costa Rica, Iceland, Sri Lanka, Australia… and maybe I will go to those countries one day. But I am not itching to go. I already travel for my work: South America, USA, Russia, Middle East, India, most European countries… and counting.
Incidentally, travel also involves drinking in the common mindset: certainly most holiday ads show a glass of some kind of alcohol in the publicity pictures: cocktails, wine, G&T, champagne. Cruises are ALLLLLL about the drinking and eating. If they are all-inclusive, it seems you LOSE money if you don’t eat and drink the maximum you can stuff into your face every day. I don’t need any more encouragement to overeat, thank you. Check out those travel agency advert photos: cocktails on the beach, Bucks Fizz for breakfast, white wine for lunch, champagne with your cream tea in the afternoon, sherry and aperitifs before dinner in the ‘golden hour’, full bodied reds with dinner, digestifs and brandies after dinner… Cognacs at midnight.
I don’t think I am being a killjoy or a misery. If other people want to drink, good luck to them. But you can see that – for ME – that attraction isn’t there. I eat my meal, drink my glass of water, chat to my fellow passengers at the Captain’s Table for an hour or so, and then I am done, I want to do something else. And I know that, on cruise ships, there are cinemas, lectures, bingo, aquarobics, casinos, yoga, port visits, a gazillion other things to do besides drink.
Maybe I am over-focusing on the booze. It was just a thought. Certainly my husband, who is a real wine buff, loves his tipple when he is working from home, or after a walk at the weekend, or after the gym, during a family meal, in front of the TV etc. I just think it would be a slippery slope for me if I drank in retirement. I wouldn’t have any other work/tasks/projects to drag me away from the bottle.
My point is:
Retirement without booze is what I am facing, and we know some people can feel ‘cast adrift’ in retirement without their routine or purpose. I personally think I will be bored and fed up, so I am going to delay it as long as I can. I am wayyyyyyyy off retirement age anyway! I am going to be like Dame Judi Dench – still working in my 80s, if I can, and if I am still enjoying it.
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