My young niece once said, “Grandad is a robot.” I wondered what she meant as I was woken by his 6am alarm in the room next door. An hour more of disjointed sleeping and I rose too to the smell of his breakfast. Fish and Rice, like every other morning. By 7:57 he is in the lobby of his office. Work starts at 8.

Mid morning he drives to the beach for his daily open water swim. He’ll have lunch at the club, and drives back to the office, where work continues until 6.

Home, dinner, and bed at 10pm. With a sprinkling of TV cooking shows somewhere in between.

And that’s what he does every day of the week… bar his day off on Sunday where he wakes at 7.

I think I understand what my niece was getting at. I hope to be as healthy and driven as he still is at 84, perhaps we should all invest in swimming gear.