How about a
Send-Someone-Round service?
 Normally, I devote this column to issues
concerning the 50-plus. But having had what I consider to be a Very Good Idea, I am
sharing it with visitors to laterlife.com and hope you might be able to help.
My idea is a Send-Someone-Round Service to do the
kinds of things that the handy man or odd job man used to do. Nowadays, there aren’t too many real handy men and
odd job men around, unless you count husbands or partners, not all of them necessarily
handy or willing, and sometimes very odd in what they achieve.
The real old-fashioned variety is a very rare species. Most builders only accept large jobs, and even getting
them back to correct some minor hitch of their own making is almost impossible. Call-out charges for plumbers or carpenters can be
enormous, often involving specialists who come from very long distances and do the task in
less than a minute.
The tasks I am thinking of are a broken window
latch, a bit of grouting that has come adrift, seal on the edge of the bath that is
stained and needs renewing, a peeling floor tile that refuse to stay stuck down - you know
the sort of thing. You or your very own resident
handy man may have tried to mend but failed. It may
be the do-it-yourself handiwork that has caused the problem in the first place.
So where could we get this simple SSR Service? I am suggesting that we talk to our local Homebase, B
& Q or other local outlet, ask the manager if they would consider setting up such a
service, which would be very local, involve a team of able men, and women too, possibly
retired people who wouldn’t mind taking on the odd job.
No doubt you will hear objections - insurance
cover, too expensive, impossible to get and vet people… To which one might reply, where there’s a will
there’s a way.
And, you might add, these shops and warehouses that
entice the amateur into do-it-yourself jobs, should shoulder some responsibility when
it all goes pear-shaped. It’s the least they
can do, though instructions in understandable English for self-assembly products would
also help.
 If you don’t wish to approach your own local
manager, how about emailing me with moral support, so that I can inform my local
Homebase that there’s a ready market for the service.
My email: helen@laterlife.com
Watch this space!
THIS LATER
LIFE…
Life after 60 is a slow decline… I wait with fear to see what happens.’ Maggie Koumi, aged 60, ex editor of Hello magazine.
‘My attitude to old age is: you have got it, so you might as well make the most of
it. I think you are more relaxed in
yourself…Age gives you the time to pursue (an interest) which in the hectic part of
mid-life you never had.’ Dame Cicely
Saunders, aged 84, founder of the modern hospice movement.
(Both quoted in The Times)
In 20-odd years time…
· By 2025, the number of people over 80 in the UK is expected to increase
almost by half compared to 2000
· Average age of population is projected to rise from 38.8 years in 2000 to
42.6 years in 2025
· Number of people over state pension age is expected to increase by around 12%
by 2021
· By 2025, the population of people of state pensionable age is expected to
exceed the number of children aged under 16 by nearly 2 million. In 2000 there were nearly 1.3million more children
aged under 16 than people of pensionable age
Got any contributions to THAT’S
later LIFE? Send them to Helen@laterlife.com
|
Talkback is a regular
feature in laterlife.com run by journalist and author Helen Franks. 
