Edward, Tess, Grandad and Maelie (from Left to Right).
Time to rethink the dream of that ‘Bucket List’ retirement?
As we age gracefully, for many seniors the bucket list has become the ultimate celebration of aging. Bolder, healthier and more ‘cashed up’ than previous generations of retirees, today’s seniors are out there chasing rainbows and making up for all that ‘lost time’.
Conversely many grandparents are discovering that spending quality time with their grandchildren is much more satisfying than queuing up to see the Mona Lisa or trekking through the Andes to Machu Picchu in South America.
As a regular Blog writer for Westmont’s website, I decided, with my wife’s support, to practice what we preach by spending our entire 10-day holiday in Singapore last month with our three grandchildren and their parents.
We stayed in the ‘close by’ Singapore Mercure Hotel as our children’s family home precluded any more visitor space. After a grand welcome there were soon tears and arguments as to who would be sleeping over with grandma and grandad on the first night! The roster was soon agreed upon, the amazing hotel upgraded us to a suite at a minimal charge, and we all began the best adventure holiday of all times.
Aided and abetted by the staff and my wife, our grandchildren arranged a surprise birthday for me in the hotel’s main lounge. Because our grandchildren are multi-lingual they led the singing for happy birthday in Chinese, and the staff produced a wonderful birthday cake. All this after only three days!
The next seven days were a blur of swimming, diving and ballet lessons, visiting museums, driving to the old city of Malacca in Malaysia, watching and competing in sailing races for two weekends at the Changi Sailing Club and most importantly becoming best friends and confidants with our grandchildren.
Our bucket list is now more of the same as often as possible with all of our grandchildren!
