Despite how times have changed, I reckon there are still plenty of misconceptions around about people’s lifestyles. Take retirees. This one’s at the forefront of my radar, because Boris and I have recently closed up shop in our respective careers. It’s been interesting seeing how people respond to it, not least our own kids.

It’s like they have this image of retirement should look like, expect us to adhere to that, and then freak out when they realise we’re not doing anything of the sort. For example, part of the reason we both chose to retire when we did was because we want to spend more time on our passion – restoring old trucks  into campers and tiny homes – while we still can. The kids were all like, “We thought you were going to wind this up when you retired!” And we were like, “Where on earth did you get that idea?” Servicing and repairing trucks gives us life; why would we stop now?

I swear they don’t even listen sometimes. I’ve been telling Hayley for ages that we need to live on a big property that’s still in close proximity to auto parts and services. You should have seen Hayley’s face when we told her we were moving to Brighton. Tyre and auto service centres were the furthest thing from her mind. All she cared about was whether the land we were interested in had a house on it. We build tiny houses, for goodness’ sake… the whole point is that we don’t need a conventional house.

If we do move to Brighton, auto electrical services are another thing we’re going to want to have access to, what with our friends’ demands for solar-powered campers to travel around the country in. Neither of us has ever been much with hooking up lighting and so on, and we’ll need someone local who can help us out.

Anyway, my point is this: don’t assume that the retirees in your life share the priorities that you’ve mapped out for them.