How long do you go without speaking to someone?

Grandparents who are looking after pre-school children round here are made very welcome at 'Baby and Toddler' groups. The one I help at/attend with my GS, nearly a year old, has a mix of grandparents, Mums, Dads and childminders and the antics of the little ones make a great starting point for conversation. If you are at home with small children and want a chat, please find a group like ours.

My church is about to start a drop in cafe (just drinks and snacks) aimed to cater for people who find themselves on their own, eg single, bereaved, newly retired, just moved to the area etc.
I am open to suggestions how to create conversation, without imposing it, and how to avoid it defeating its own object.
There are already numerous groups in our small town, including U3a, but this one will have no particular theme.

It will only be once a week.

I am glad to read that others talk to themselves as well as me. I thought it was a bad things and actually spoke out loud to tell myself not to talk to myself!!

Although I live in Retirement Flats I can go a couple of days without talking to anyone, but that's my choice, could knock on someones door with some excuse if I really wanted company, and indeed my next door neighbour does knock on my door with excuses - I'm not all that keen on her company! But I always ask her in as realize she is lonely.

Cabbie. Open with a question. How are you. Lovely day. How did you get here. Have you been before.

I am still trying to get my head around someone's very bizarre statement that Esther Rantzen is a public nuisance with her Silverline scheme.

I am sure it has enabled many older people to feel less isolated.

Margs The hospital patients are probably so wound up by their stressful appointment with the consultant that they desperately need a friendly ear to tell it all to. Perhaps you would be happier walking to the next bus-stop, leaving them to find someone else, who doesn't get glazed eyes when they listen? Better for them, and the exercise would be good for you - you sound as though you are younger and healthier than most of us.

My friend died a few years ago and I miss her company, we would often ring each other just for a chat or ask what are you doing, meet up and then go out maybe just for a roam around the shops. Also I have been housebound for 3 weeks this year after having my knee replaced and was dependent on my husband taking me out. This got us both thinking what would we do if we were on our own for company and we came to the conclusion that my OH would find it the hardest. So he is now going to Pilates once a week in a group that is all women and they invite him to join them for coffee afterwards. It’s a start I have people around me but I still feel lonely,

I have one like that too, sometimes he agrees to do things he wouldn't normally do. It's great when he agrees with the DGSs and he is waist high in the sea wearing wadeders

In one village near us they have a weekly lunch for folk who live alone. These are mostly but not all retired folk. As it is lunch time, it's not so convenient for working people,, but there is no age limit. Volunteers provide a home-cooked two course lunch plus tea or coffee for £5.

For those of us who miss a chat, I just want to say, take the opportunity when it crops up.
This afternoon I went out for my usual walk. First, sitting near the tills in Sainsbury's, I had a long chat with a lady of near my age. Very interesting.
Next, I was sitting on a dedicated seat overlooking the sea, and a man asked if he could join me. An interesting person, a Greek Cypriot who had married an english woman. Told me he had 3 heart attacks. I said I had 2 stents - he said he had 3 stents!
So 2 good chats.

I think I spend about 90% of my time alone. I don't mind solitude and am used to my own company. I am still working but have no colleagues as such, but do have overall control of an orthopaedic private practice so mainly email/phone contacts. At home it does feel more lonely. As is always the case, things change - people move on and sadly people die. I am surrounded by short-term rented out properties now, a very transient population of younger people working away for long hours. This wasn't case a few years ago and it was a friendly place to live. There are many things I enjoy doing on my own, but sometimes I do feel isolated despite making the effort to get out and about. This has become more difficult since I developed a spinal condition so that walking/standing and general mobility is reduced. I just feel a lonely future looming once I do retire.

In England, I chat to anyone, anywhere. My husband looks embarrassed when I do this, as he's not that kind of person. However, after twelve years in North West Spain, where people don't even answer you when you speak, I noticed that (but this was in England) my husband started up a conversation with a stranger. A giant step forward for husbandkind, I think.

When there were only me and my husband, I could go 12 hours a day without speaking to anyone while he had his long shift. I remember when I yawned in the evening, I could always smell my own breath. I am an introvert though. If I don't have specific things to say I usually stay quiet anyway.