I have also heard some people say: "Aah, who wants a quiet life anyway? Give me upheaval and turmoil any day. At least it keeps life interesting."

These are the very same people who spend their lives indulging in life-endangering extreme sports such as bungee jumping, free running, snowboarding, and having affairs with psychotic bunny boilers.

After extolling the virtues of a quiet life in recent columns, I have to acknowledge that this theory of "quiet life equals boring life" is partly true.

After all, the ultimate in a quiet life is death.

And since you are now in your middle years, you are that bit closer to shuffling off this mortal coil and realising your dream of a quiet life.

On the other hand, if you have a strong religious faith that says your soul and spirit live on, then you'll be hoping for a quiet after life

I maintain that a quiet life does not necessarily have to mean a dull one.

So, in this week's column, I have come up with a few ideas for those people whose quiet life needs a little pepping up, a smidgen of enlivenment.

The best way to do this is to find someone who is prepared to indulge in sporadic and meaningless, mutually convenient bouts of no-strings-attached sexual activity (there is a colloquial name for this "partner", which I do not dare to repeat in this family newspaper).

Without the emotional ties and baggage that accompanies a conventional relationship, you can still keep your quiet life, while still enjoying some form of intimate human contact.

In case you're unsure, I'm referring to a real-life human being, and not a blow-up version.

The latter simply is not going to cut it, especially when it comes to playing a game of naked Twister.

If you're finding it difficult to find a willing partner, then there are lots of other things you can do as a suitable substitute for your sexual fix. For example, there's Sudoku.

Sudoku proves that Solitaire's not necessarily the only game in town.

In fact, you can also do crosswords, word searches and countless other paper-based puzzles to while away the long, lonely, dark winter nights.

Talking of paper, why not take up origami or take the time to master the Rubik's cube – something you could never do as a kid in the '70s. Right now, my own personal goal is to finish a 1,000-piece jigsaw of the Eiffel Tower

So who says a quiet life necessarily has to be a boring one?