Cheap date

I was a bit worried that retirement would turn out to be a very expensive proposition. The theory is that you spend less in retirement because you no longer have the expenses associated with work, such as smart clothes, the daily commute, coffees and lunches. This is a good theory, but it doesn’t apply to people who have worked from home or done the daily commute on their bicycles. I was convinced that all these oceans of free time would need to be filled with expensive outings, meals in restaurants, theatre tickets and recreational shopping. However, this hasn’t been the case and I’m not sure why. Sheer laziness I suspect. It’s so much easier to eat a leisurely meal at home and then respond to the call of Netflix and BBC iPlayer than to actually stir yourself to leave the house. And the cat does miss us when we do.

London has wonderful live theatre, but by the time you’ve bought the tickets, travelled there, eaten dinner and enjoyed the obligatory interval drinks, you could have gone away for a European city break. Much as I love live theatre, I seem to go less and less. And, to be honest, I’d have to think long and hard to come up with any live entertainment I’ve enjoyed in the last while quite as much as The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. She truly is marvellous.

However, you cannot stay at home all the time. It’s unhealthy and probably fattening. Maybe ageing too. Possibly bad for your cholesterol. I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter because I have discovered a great new free source of live entertainment: attending live television recordings. I understand that I’m a bit late to the party with this – it turns out that lots of people I know have been doing this for years. So, I began by requesting tickets to see a comedy panel show, which admittedly I’d never heard of, but it featured two comedians I liked and in no time the tickets arrived in my Inbox.

It was all fascinating and great fun, but it took forever. Who would have guessed that a one-hour programme would take 3 ½ hours to record? Not for those with short attention spans or weak bladders. Looking around, I could see that the over-60s didn’t seem to be the target audience, but I did my best to behave.

The next event in the diary is Live at the Apollo, which I’m really excited about. I have no idea who will be performing, but love stand-up, so it’ll be a great evening. I’m even more excited about another show we’re going to see- The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice. I love the GBBO, as well as Jo Brand and Tom Allen, and I’m fairly confident that at least my husband and I won’t be the oldest ones there. I’ve just googled Jo Brand’s age and she’s older than us.