Waking up on a Monday morning and not having to go to work still excites me and it’s almost four months since I became a ‘Lady of Leisure’. No early starts also allows me to go out on a week night!
Last Thursday a friend asked me to go with her to an autumn / winter fashion show held in a department store in the heart of Cheshire. This area is also home to Premier League football players so I had a good idea of the demographic of the audience. But I was wrong!
Looking around I was surprised to see the majority of the women (only one man!), were between the ages of fifty and eighty! I was not expecting this! Neither was my friend. In somewhat curious anticipation we settled down with our glasses of sparkling wine 🥂 and waited for the show to begin.
It started with two young body builders walking down the ramp in short shorts and vests. Not what I had imagined! The eye candy seemed to go down well with only a few sniggers and embarrassed giggles but we all clapped, some very enthusiastically, as they left the stage.
There followed a really good fashion show. The store had done a superb job in catering for the age group of the audience. Times have changed, thankfully! Women of a certain age don’t have to wear twin sets and pearls. Without looking like ‘mutton dressed up as lamb’ we are able to follow most of the latest fashions. With just a few tweaks here and there to allow for changes in body shapes, stores are keen to tap into the disposable income of this large group of the population!
After the show the store remained open and the models and staff were available to offer help and advice. Not working or having any functions planned in the foreseeable future I was not in the market for an outfit. I could hear my husband’s sigh of relief as I walked past the rows of clothes showing minimal interest!
My friend liked one of the dresses and a reversible jacket so we chatted to a model who found a store assistant to help. I was more interested in the shoes. The only downside to not going to work every day means that I would have nowhere to wear the beautiful peep toe high-heeled boots balancing enticingly on a little glass rack before me. I could just feel the love for these gorgeous works of art oozing from every pore and desperately tried to find reasons why I had to have them.
But common sense, sadly, prevailed and we left the store only clutching our little bags of goodies we had found on our chairs and nothing else! But we had both thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
Doing something different, meeting new and interesting people and having fun is part of my exciting journey into ‘retirement’. It’s not the last stage of my life but the beginning of a new one. By keeping physically and mentally active I’ll wage war on dementia! This is one fear that I’ll keep on fighting against and will try to raise as much money as I can to find a cure! I can’t do anymore. 👠
Jenny Burrell 