Finally, I have just completed a game of ‘catch-up’ with a mammoth number of unopened e-mails, those that have lain dormant and unanswered within my bulging Inbox for several days – the net result of a faltering Server, the same of which has frustratingly ‘not served’ in the manner quite expected when initially taking out a contract with this electronically impotent ‘provider’, some ten months ago no less!

OK, I guess when viewing this particular company’s televised advertisement last year, I was somewhat swayed by their intoxicating offer – yet my ultimate decision had precious little to do with the glitz that accompanied the commercial.

You all know the kind of thing for sure – legions of hip-swaying girls, that ubiquitous horde of (wannabe) nipple-bulging nymphs who invade our screens in order to woefully endorse the product in question, each adorned in only bikinis, (or equivalent) the same whose scantily-clad gyrations sees the camera man focussing primarily on the female mid-body region…and strutting their stuff to music of days gone by, in this ironic case, ‘The Kinks’ – “You Really Got Me”.

Given my recent frustration regarding poor IT decision-making – and the ersatz that possibly prompted it, I was left to ponder on the enormous effect of we, collectively speaking, the ‘Woodstock’ Generation’ – quintessentially pertaining to; the commercial duplicity that prevails so present day – in effect, are mainstream over-sixties, such as myself, truly equipped to cope with the pace of social and marketing change as it currently stands?

When toying with this question initially, I decided to switch-off and hit the ejector button – I needed some contact with those bro’s and sisters who featured on the most recent pages of ‘Retirement & Good Living, for me particularly, a therapeutically expedient exercise – and one that would bring yours truly, down to Earth most certainly.

On uncovering a Mother-lode of news, views and retirement annotations – I started to analyse each published comment – absorbing respective concerns and observations of my fellow retirees – and then tabulating the specific trends in behaviours and attitudes amongst sexagenarian’s particularly – this proved to be a stimulating and highly informative exercise – and indeed – thought provoking too.

As it transpired, I did not merely scan, nor indifferently examine the copious quires of posted comment, in truth, I inwardly digested each paragraph and stanza, then scribbled bountiful notes on my findings – this before commencing on a mini-exercise of human analysis – primarily in an attempt to reveal the key source of intrinsic disquiet…and disturbing disenchantment, that of which some good people experience when adjusting to full-blown-retirement particularly.

I must be quite candid at this specific juncture of my article, the essential motive behind the job-in-hand, was not simply to establish – nor ultimately provide, a sustainable means to eradicate respective, retirement-years gremlins, those currently so prevalent in the lives of; (as a make-believe example); Mr & Mrs Smith of Swansea, or a sixty-something Miss Jones, possibly a retired spinster teacher, living somewhere in or around Glasgow.

I was a military analyst by trade and certainly not a savvy soothsayer, nor tabloid ‘Agony Aunt’, or compassionate uncle, more to the point, mine was an endeavour to unravel the origins of my own intermittent disillusionment on the inevitable withdrawal from active working life, this through the mindset of others in the same position.