I'm still a youngster at heart writes Roy Edmonds

Being retired, except for this column and occasional books, I was hoping for snow – always delightfully picturesque, when you don’t have to work! Oh to sit, warm drink to hand, watching a plucky robin in your Christmas-scene garden.

Still, I’ll settle for the bright show of daffodils, tulips and crocuses which now abound.

Sunshine also eases geriatric aches which worsen in cold. Summer sports may be a while off, but I keep the fight for fitness with tai-chi stretches and physio routines against arthritis.

One book on the way is a look at life after 70. In dark humour it’s entitled ‘Borrowed Times’. But, thankfully, we’re now pushing back those allotted biblical boundaries of three score years and 10.

As I write this I’m in a tracksuit after a brisk walk, while my personal health adviser – She Who Knows – is at her yoga class. Later we’re heading out to an afternoon dance . . . yes, it’s all go, here at Edmonds Towers!

In my head, you see, I’m barely past 40. It’s just those caring comments from others which can surprise and unsettle me.

“Would you like my seat?” offered a polite schoolgirl on a bus the other day. I obliged, simply to encourage her good manners.

Similarly, my dentist always asks nowadays if my medication has changed . (No, I don’t take any!) Then they solicitously inquire if it’s all right to slowly lower the chair backwards worried, no doubt, I’ll get a dizzy spell . . .

They mean well, of course, but don’t they know - I’m still a youngster at heart!

* Roy’s books are on Kindle or paperbacks at royedmonds-blackpool.com.