60's fit and not ready to quit

Had a chat with my sister who had been visiting and we got talking about the menopause (and also my previous post). She had told me about a GP who is an expert in menopause, Dr Louise Newson. Very interesting woman – covers everything you want to ask about the menopause. As I had said previously it affects us all differently and we all have our own ways of dealing with it but she has a huge amount of content and well worth a look. Although I have already mentioned the different stages of menopause in my previous post it also got us talking about age in general and stages in your life!!! As things go we are living longer – Life expectancy has risen around the world and it has been shown that this is down to improved healthcare, the wonders of medical advancements, the change in our environmental living and our attitudes towards diet (not necessarily the losing weight kind!! ) and exercise.

But each stage in our life brings its own issues. How many times has someone commented on your age and decided how you should and shouldn’t act/dress/think or a combination of the multitude of things people think are age appropriate!!!!! Yes of course it’s quite nice when someone says “oh you don’t look your age” (don’t think any of us are good at taking compliments very well!!!) But! why should we be labelled by our age. I recently had a conversation about life insurance and pensions and was asked if I was thinking about retiring………NO I AM NOT. I asked why they had asked that question and they said because I was 60 so they assumed I would be thinking about it, ……..again…….NO I AM NOT. I hadn’t even really thought that much about it to be fair because I am quite happy working just now, am happy with the money I get for my job and don’t feel ready to retire. That said, I can see the other side about living and enjoying life to the full, as you never know what’s round the corner……BUT you also need money to do things. A bit of a tricky situation to be fair. However, in today’s current climate a lot of people don’t have a choice – especially spending money on anything other than essentials – this basically is not an option and therefore savings or paying into any additional insurance or pension is completely out of the question.

As I said I think at every “milestone age” or stage in our life we can get questions….when are you settling down?, when are you going to have kids?, what about your future prospects?, and so on and on. When I was young I didn’t really think of these things……..we’re all going to live forever and we have loads of time to do everything…….don’t we. Yep of course we don’t and it can go by in a flash. We are all living longer and things that were “appropriate” for certain ages way back when are definitely not the same as now. The world has opened up more, technology has massively improved (albeit too much for some!!!). Personally, I feel we should try and embrace what there is, and while it can be daunting – having an understanding of the world we currently live in goes a long way. We may not agree with everything that goes on in the world around us but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be curious and at least gain some information or understanding – again doesn’t mean we will agree.

Unfortunately there seems to be a bit of a misconception or assumptions around both current events and technology just now – that being, if you are at a certain age that you cannot comprehend either the changes in our world or get a handle on the ever changing technology. Whilst I personally disagree with this – yes I don’t know everything (but be honest – who does!!!!) but I try and keep up with everything going on in the world. I am not frightened of technology and try to embrace it and always looking to try and learn new skills and gain more info. I don’t always get it right but I do try. To be honest there are some folk, a lot younger than me who are actually technophobes!!! I think my point here is it doesn’t matter the age – we can’t all assume everyone fits into the age category!!! We can’t all assume that because you are a certain age – you either know or don’t know a certain topic or issue- this can be so far from the truth. When you look at someone you have no idea what they have done or what they can do – and it’s always worth remembering that!!!