I’m in the Bahamas sitting on Alex (my daughter)'s front terrace overlooking the ocean sipping a vodka and cranberry juice talking with Christine about things we can do when we get home now we have retired. We can do, that’s the issue.


I was beginning to worry before I retired as mentions of what we could do were creeping into our conversations. We could go to auctions, we could go to sales, we could join a walking club, we could join a yoga class. For the past ten years we have only seen each other on weekends and I think we need to approach this matter of we very carefully.


I quite liked being an 'I'. Thai restaurant in Richmond with Gaz on a Monday, Skittles with Annie and Sarah and the Welfare Assoc on Tuesday, Italian in Northampton with Kev on Wednesday and a couple of pints down the pub with Richard on a Thursday. Home on Friday evening, another quiet week dear, have tea and fall asleep. I quite liked it. But now it’s all about ‘we’.


Christine, can I mention at this point, retired two months before me and took herself off to the Bahamas for a month whilst I was still at work.
How’s that for being a ‘we' and doing things together.

On the few nights during the week I did manage to get home it was not unusual for Christine to be out with the girls.
How’s that for being a ‘we’.


So my plans were more like:

Going to auctions? I thought more of meeting the guys and playing golf.
Going to sales? I thought more of meeting the guys down the club for a few ends of crown green.

Join a walking club? I can live with that. The guys do that on a Wednesday.
Yoga classes? If I need exercise I can walk down the pub.

Saturday can now be soccer because I’m at home all week and Sunday needs to be golf because some of the guys are still at work during the week. Tuesday night is down the Cornerhouse with Kev and his crew and I need at least one night down the village pub to see what’s going down.


And another thing by being away I saved Christine from having to watch all the soccer on Sky Sports etc. (Thus giving her all the time she needed for the makeover programmes, see how considerate I was) but now I’m home there’s Football Friday, Soccer Saturday and Super Sunday as well as the Champions League and mid week matches and to make it even better the World Cup in June. No problem with all TV then of course.


So where to fit in the ‘we’s.


Mind you when Christine went off for a month and I became an 'I' on a weekend it wasn’t all fun. Most people already had things planned and most things seemed to be for couples or maybe I only get invited anyway because I am a 'we' with Christine. Maybe I had better rethink some of my plans and become a ‘we’ at least for some of the time.