HAVING retired, after 46-plus years, I was looking forward – naively perhaps – to a more relaxed period in which I would have a greater say in my daily ‘routine’ – a word I hate.

What I have discovered is a tendency for others – usually still working – to assume I’m either dead already or have too much time on my hands that can only be filled by their ingenious suggestions.

There is an assumption in some quarters that if I have a minor accident it must be treated now as ‘life-threatening’, considering that I am now numerically closer to death than birth.

Thankfully, my friends abroad treat me differently, considering old age only to be something you reach when you are no longer capable of self-sustaining daily life and in need of full-time nursing, prior to a respectful death of course – unlike here.

I have already made it known that I don’t plan to depart this world until I have at least received more in pension than I paid in and have informed them that although my bus pass suggests I may “expire in June 2013”, I’m not in that much of a hurry. In fact, having viewed the local political scene in recent years, I may even stick my oar in and annoy even more people than I have up to date... I can hear my poor wife groaning already.

If I’m going to be a grumpy old man I might as well give it 100 per cent effort.

MICK HEAVEY, Oxford Road, Old Marston, Oxford