I think that one vital ingredient in the fulfilment that retirement has to offer comes long before you actually retire. I am aware of people; often high fliers in the command chain, who if you take the military away from them, nothing remains. These people will find their retirement date an impossible hurdle to navigate. Upon my own retirement, a good friend emailed me with these comments: "Welcome to the rank of all ex-officers"; and whilst those who know me well reckon that I stopped being 'military' some time ago, I have the rest of my life to juggle the many interests and hobbies that I have accumulated other the years. ..... and the comments about mental as well as physical challenges are valid. I was rubbish at languages at school, yet found over the years picking up colloquial verbal language very easy. I am now going to embark on academic Russian; for no other reason than... I can! .... and I am going to visit some of those countries that have thus far have been on a forbidden list. I have already done Cuba for example.