Here is a leading question if ever there was one; ‘What is the difference between men and ladies?’  There are many to be fair, but one of the most noticeable ways in which the two most obvious sections of the human race differ can be seen best when they get to retirement age.  

In general, when the females of the human species give up commuting to work they have a large network of friends that they have made while taking their children to playgroup, school, the doctors and shopping etc., while the gentlemen have usually dedicated themselves to their careers and find that there are few friends who live locally to them.    For the drinking man there is always their local, but that is often pretty empty during the day when all their drinking mates are still going to work, and the result is that they often feel more lonely and isolated than their female counterparts. 

Be honest, after a lifetime of being involved with work all day and coming home tired for an evening meal, spending a few short evening hours swapping stories about your day with your other half, if you have one, and spending the weekends doing some DIY or trying to make the garden look reasonable, it is hard to find another way of filling those eight or more hours per week day when you used to work.   

When we are young enough to work full time, we all look forward to a time when we don’t have to rush our lives away trying to keep deadlines. But when we finally get to retirement, the reality, for many, can be that being forced to get to places on time feels like it was quite a good thing.  The work treadmill, at least, gave people a reason to focus on something other than the bigger, often depressing, picture of where their life is going.  The immediate post-retirement empty feeling that many are left with once they are no longer being depended on to be one of the all-important links in the work-chain that they have got used to being, often sets in quite quickly.  

The Ladies continue to shop, talk, sew and spend hours on the phone to their friends but what of the newly retired Gentlemen; what do you do with your days?

60 up are an organisation that caters for all pensioners and, because they are forward thinking, they are dedicating Thursdays to the male of the species.  So, if you live in the Honor Oak area, their Thursday Club looks forward to your first visit on Thursday 7^th September 2017 between 11.30 a.m. and 2 p.m.   Now you know about the where and when aspect of this venture, learn a little more about the why .