To wonder what retirees do on a grey, wet Tuesday morning

I get up at 8 and head to the gym for aqua, sauna and Pilates and a catch up with my friends. I get home at about 12.15.

As you have observed op, nothing changes suddenly from one day to the next when you first retire, in terms of intellect, life experience, motivation etc, so I suspect most retirees are putting their time to very good use on an average, wet, Tuesday morning, if they were used to doing the same before retirement.

I only have a few years of pt work to go and my retired contemporaries are travelling, helping to run charities, writing novels, setting up consultancies, establishing organic vegetable gardens, moving to different countries and looking after grandchildren.

Your op seems to suggest that the average retiree seems to lack iimagination and internal resources? Why is that?

I haven't worked for about 10 years now, and now I'm officially a pensioner I don't have to justify it to people.

I have never once been bored in my life! There are far too many interesting and fun things to do with your day, and the problem is fitting them all in. When it's too wet for my outdoor activities I'll do an indoors one. I'm currently learning 3 languages and 2 new musical instruments, I do genealogy and build family trees for several friends. I might practise one of my martial arts, or write content for one of the many social media pages I run. I might hop in the car and go for a swim. I might create a new recipe, or I might just sit on my backside and read a book.

Once my friends also retire I'm hoping for some regular boozy lunches.

This!! I would hate to be busy and booked up with doing “stuff.”

I retired at 53 and moved to France.

On a wet tuesday I usually feed the cats, have breakfast, get waterproof jacket on, walk round the garden, plan what to do that afternoon, go into the wood shed whilst the OH clears out the woodburner, chop some bits of wood to medium and kindling size, play with cats as they leap about in the woodshed, herd them out of the woodshed and take the wood to the back door. Then go do some harvesting or pruning or weeding or anything else that needs doing. I collect alot of water from one shed at the top so often use a long hose to move it to other waterbutts round the garden so that is a useful thing to do on wet days as I am already wet at that point. It has been I valuable this summer as it has kept the polytunel going.

Then cook lunch, light fire if it wasn't lit earlier, have lunch, tidy up, then go back out and do gardening, or pottery, or go out to a museum, or to meet with friends, or do any number of things that needs doing round the house.

I also study French so last winter I did 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon which kept me very occupied.

Go to the gym! My gyms have always been full of retirees during the day.

Play the Ukulele.

Lots of cinemas have 'silver clubs', A film, tea/coffee and biscuits, at my
Local cinema it is 5 pounds.

The local FE college has classes not just to learn but things like art for mental health.

I get up at 8 and head to the gym for aqua, sauna and Pilates and a catch up with my friends. I get home at about 12.15.

Spin/weights. Supermarket. Reading. Galleries. Walk in the rainwater appropriate clothing.
Its great being retired!

Do what you want to do on a wet Tuesday. That's the point of retirement. You don't have to answer to a boss and be stuck with drones all day listening to banter day in, day out.

Retirement can't come quick enough for me. 😆

What is happening "at the end of the runway"?

What runway?

How long is a piece of string? There are loads of activities people can do, both inside the house and outdoors on a wet Thursday.

The gym and sauna. Home for lunch.

Whatever I want and when it was miserable and grey in February I was in South America.
Generally do the following on a weekly basis, but plenty of flexibility:
gym, aqua, Zumba, table tennis, parish councillor, trustee of a charity, volunteer in a charity shop, housework, try new recipes, plan future trips, read…

Perfect for curling up with a good book.

Surely anything is better than getting up for work on wet Tuesday morning in winter. I mean, by all means continue to work if that floats your boat. I cannot wait to retire but for many reasons I will either be working until I'm 70, that's if I even live that long.

I sit up in bed and watch people trudging to the tube station to go to work. Followed by a leisurely breakfast, followed by a trip to the British museum to volunteer or to the V&A to wander around the costume court. Then home to a nice early dinner.

Retired at 57 and firstly I have to say that I would prefer a wet, grey morning to the relentless heat, sun & clear sky's we have had for the past two Springs & Summers as THAT is more likely to keep me indoors than a bit of rain!

Ddogs always need to be walked and if it is wet (regardless of the day), they will need cleaning after running through puddles, digging in the mud etc. With the heat, these walks have to be done v.early or late.
Garden always needs something doing, even through the winter although sometimes it is nice to just sit under the veranda, listen to the rain, watch the birds and plan the changed for next season.
I have my crafting hobbies and since we moved (THAT is a good way to occupy a year in retirement!) I have workshop space (instead of just a room in the house) so I can do noisy/messy/smelly crafts such as wood turning, pyrography, grinding/shaping stones etc.
We go away in the MoHo for a couple of nights midweek most weeks of the year regardless of the weather (heatwaves excepted), gets us out to new places.
I have my pilates.

Sometimes it is just nice to sit down with a book, a jigsaw etc and just be lazy for a few hours.😁

Whatever you want ….
Stay in bed & dream
Train for a half marathon
Design your garden
Paint a wall or your toenails
That’s the whole point
obviously having a decent retirement income helps .

Yes that is what I do.
I do however have a lot of hobbies ( sewing, knitting etc) I don’t get round to doing because we look after our grandchildren quite often. We also holiday a lot ( long haul, Europe and UK).

I’m 65, took early retirement at 58. Start off a wet grey weekday luxuriating in bed with a nice cup of tea or two and Mumsnet. Go out and browse a few charity shop bookshelves before going for coffee (local independent chain). In the evening listen to podcasts.

I’m three months from early retirement, am 57. So am on the slow down and my mind is going there. Already work is starting to interfere with the stuff I wish to do. Gym, see friends, albeit in the evening, go on a day trip, London, museums, cinema, stuff round the house, the cupboards all need doing and rhe wardrobes. I can genuinly see why people say they don’t have time to work.

i woke up this morning and thought it was Monday, and was annoyed as in my head I wanted to go to the gym, change the bed, and do some world class pottering, and thought I’d meetings to attend.

Whatever we damn well please, that's the joy of it!