Turning 55 was not my finest hour, I was ill and even after an operation still not at my best so having sold my business i ended up at home bored and morose. Even my Doctor told me I was having a mid life crisis.
So to get over it I took a friends advice and went to Thailand for a few weeks, it was great fun, I did some of those things i had never got around to before snorkelling jet skis rafting and other action stuff. Of course being Thailand I was never short of female company it was all very enjoyable.
What would the foreign office have said?
Also to make a point you missed in last weeks column about paying for sex saving a marriage, you should have seen the smile on my wifes face when I got back and we tried out some of the things those friendly girls had shown me while I was on holiday.
What mid life crisis?

Jim, plymouth,

Well said Donna Walker.
My children have grown up, and my wife passed away several years ago. I decided to take early retirement, and took the plunge to see the world by signing up to a singles holiday. I so enjoyed the first experience that I now go abroad several times a year with the same singles holiday specialists.
I have met some fantastic people, and keep in regular contact with many of those I have had the pleasure of meeting since my first trip.
I would encourage all those 50 somethings, who feel a little lonely and abandoned, to take the plunge and spend your hard earned cash on enjoying yourselves.
Just ignore this 'nanny state' bunch of no hopers who only want to raid your savings when you finally leave this mortal world.

pw, Banstead, surrey

I will turn 50 in a few weeks. I had a demanding career until age 31, two sons, a divorce, and have worked hard for 15 years bringing them up and resurrecting a career. They are now 19 and 17 and I intend to start enjoying life again.

I went on my first singles holiday last summer - had some fun, flirted and drank more than I would have at home. I'll do the same this year, if I can afford it. Next year, I intend camping out at a music festival instead of attending for just one day (tent already purchased); I wouldn't bungee-jump but that's because I'm a coward, not because I shouldn't.

Several generations of my family, on both sides, have lived into their nineties. Chances are, I'm going to do the same. I have no intention of starting 'old age' at 50. I may be about to enter the Saga generation, but I'll be joining the Saga Louts not entering Gods Waiting Room.

How I wish this Government would stop nagging. It's getting extremely tedious.

Donna Walker, Effingham, Surrey

Anyone who is naive enough to expect any level of assistance at all from a British embassy overseas is too damn stupid to be allowed out of the UK.

Bugger the fed-up public (ie those of us stuck at a desk who can't retire until we are too old to have fun!!), those of you whoe were children during the war - go on! eat, drink, be merry and have all the fun you can while you still can. Better a slipped disk or broken ankle as a result of a good skiing holiday than because of tripping over a poorly maintained kerbstone on a ungritted pavement!

yours, an envious 47 year old who can't wait for her turn!

Aluinn, Aberdeen, Soviet Repulic of Britain

It is wearisome when every single pronouncement from the government is an assault on the life-style of the average Brit.

Sadly, over-use of "good advice" has had the effect of irritating everyone to the point that every message is reflexively seen as a direct hit on personal freedom. Occasionally, therefore, something sensible is slighted.

Like John, I think it's highly likely that the embassies/consulates are drowning under the demands of troubled and unthinking British tourists who binge-drink and/or entertain themselves into hospital, jail and the mortuary. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't believe that getting hoards of tourists ill-prepared for travel outside of Britain home is fundamentally their role.

Sadly, the government won't just tell it straight. The advice will be ignored by an already fed-up public and the embassy and consulate staff will have to continue to cope.

Sue, Felpham,

Stuff that. After paying taxes for 45 years I don't give a damn about the poxy elf & safety morons. I shall sing and dance and drink lots of wine and sail and swim and climb rocks. I shall ENJOY my last years. Enough!!

'pud', Yorkshire,

Government's views on smoking are not economic. They merely reflect a deep-seated desire on the part of persons of a political bent to tell others how they should live - period. They all have it to a greater or lesser degree and the sooner we waken up to this, the sooner we can limit the damage they cause. As for Professor Leto's observation, isn't it stating the bleeding obvious?

Billy Barnett, HK,

Get with the programme mate life is not a rehersal, there are no pockets in a shroud, once you have fulfilled your parental duties and the children have flown the coup it's play time. I have lived my life on fast forward and at 55 have no thought of slowing down, at my funeral anyone wearing black will be banned and my headstone will read, laughed every day and didn't miss a chance, rock on
Tim

T walton, Bangkok, Thailand

Agreed, for those who in later life can afford the luxury of choice. Unfortunately, as time progresses, those people will be fewer in number as pensions become increasingly less secure and the state pension reduces to nothing. And indeed it's the case that as you approach retirement age and are looking to invest (that's if you have anything to invest) for your declining years, the more bad habits you have, the better the return. So, get stuck in there if you can, you are limited not by your habits but by your genetic make-up. Longevity and "intercept dates" can only be presumed from your forbears, but there are no guarantees.

Dwight Vandryver, Scholar Green, Cheshire, UK

It seems quite likely that there if one very simple reason for the Foreign Office's wish that people should take out medical insurance before going overseas to spend nights drinking vodka, dancing on tables and falling off. Uninsured British citizens who have injured themselves or otherwise got themselves into trouble tend to turn to British embassies from which they demand help and hand-outs.

Ms Marrin thinks the minister's comments represent the nanny state and are an example of 'elf-and-safety (as she would no doubt call it) gone mad. Others might think it sensible advice that will save taxpayers' money..

John, London,