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Ageing & Growing Old

Are you growing older?

  • Yes, I am

    Votes: 82 61.7%
  • No, I'm getting younger

    Votes: 28 21.1%
  • Sorry, I don't understand the question

    Votes: 16 12.0%
  • I'm a Mod; I think adding silly polls to chat threads is pointless

    Votes: 7 5.3%

  • Total voters
    133
Got myself a wee bit confused earlier...

Phone somehow lost all settings for ringtones, so they were duly reinstated.

Kept getting brief calls, which I was unable to answer and when looking up the call history, nothing there...

Took a while before realising I had mistakenly set my call ringtone as the message alert, so every time I had a text or e-mail I tried to answer the phone...
 
Thinking of the future.

A 100-year-old woman has celebrated her birthday with a climate change-themed beach party.

Keen environmentalist Ti Østmo, who lives near Praze-An-Beeble in Cornwall, celebrated with family and friends at Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth.

"I want to know that things are moving in the right direction before I go," the centenarian said.

Instead of buying birthday presents for her, Mrs Østmo asked people if they would plant trees instead.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-48160696
 
Got myself a wee bit confused earlier...

Phone somehow lost all settings for ringtones, so they were duly reinstated.

Kept getting brief calls, which I was unable to answer and when looking up the call history, nothing there...

Took a while before realising I had mistakenly set my call ringtone as the message alert, so every time I had a text or e-mail I tried to answer the phone...

*nods* Yup, been there. I set an alarm on my phone for some reason and then forgot, and it went off as I was driving. I don't answer the phone when I'm driving so I looked at the phone when I'd stopped and was baffled.
 
*nods* Yup, been there. I set an alarm on my phone for some reason and then forgot, and it went off as I was driving. I don't answer the phone when I'm driving so I looked at the phone when I'd stopped and was baffled.
Oh yea... setting the alarm, it goes off inexplicably at 7:50 p.m.

Couple of hours later....I did record that absolutely unmissable documentary, which started at 08:00 p.m.

Right?....
 
This fine old chap will probably now be targeted by islamists.

Ghana's chief imam is a man of few words, but the 100-year-old Muslim cleric certainly knows how to make waves - by attending a Catholic Church service as part of his birthday celebrations.

Pictures of Sheikh Osman Sharubutu, sitting attentively in the pews of Accra's Christ the King Catholic Church for an Easter service, went viral on social media. The grand mufti, leader of Ghana's minority Muslim community, wants to ensure that his legacy is peace - the fruit of inter-faith harmony.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48221879
 
I'm finding it increasingly difficult not to butt into conversation between Strangers and correct inaccuracies and perceived social injustices - no-one will thank me for it, it's a sure sign of getting old and I apologise if I'm already doing it on the Forum.
The last time I was tempted was in Tesco in Amersham - a kid of about nine in football strip was with his Dad in front of me in the check-out queue. They decided to meet up after Practice at the Martyr's Memorial, "you know, that place where they burnt all them witches" explained Dad.
I wanted to shake him - not witches, they were heretics - Lollards in fact, followers of John Wycliffe. Six men and one woman were burnt at the stake in 1521, the children of two of them were made to light the faggots - all because they wanted to stand in nearby St Mary's Church and have the Bible read to them in English.
What do they teach Parents these days !
 
I'm finding it increasingly difficult not to butt into conversation between Strangers and correct inaccuracies and perceived social injustices - no-one will thank me for it, it's a sure sign of getting old and I apologise if I'm already doing it on the Forum.
The last time I was tempted was in Tesco in Amersham - a kid of about nine in football strip was with his Dad in front of me in the check-out queue. They decided to meet up after Practice at the Martyr's Memorial, "you know, that place where they burnt all them witches" explained Dad.
I wanted to shake him - not witches, they were heretics - Lollards in fact, followers of John Wycliffe. Six men and one woman were burnt at the stake in 1521, the children of two of them were made to light the faggots - all because they wanted to stand in nearby St Mary's Church and have the Bible read to them in English.
What do they teach Parents these days !
I don't suppose the average person back in those days would understand or even care about the distinction between witches and heretics -- from what you say, nothing has changed in that respect...
 
Never too old to kill (allegedly).

A 102-year-old woman is suspected of having murdered her 92-year-old neighbour in a French retirement home.

The suspected killer is now in a psychiatric hospital. Earlier she told one of the carers that she had "killed someone", a prosecutor said. A carer at the home in Chézy-sur-Marne, northern France, found the victim dead in bed, her face severely bruised. The cause of death was "strangulation and blows to the head", a post-mortem examination concluded. The death was discovered just after midnight on Saturday by a carer, who found the victim lying in bed unconscious, AFP news agency reports.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48379650
 
Incredible old geezer.

If a Dunkirk veteran’s audience were amazed by his wartime service, they were even more impressed by the gruelling exercise regime he keeps up at the age of 101.

John Hamilton, an anti-aircraft gunner who helped to shoot down three Stukas as British troops were surrounded by the Germans in May 1940, told the Chalke Valley History Festival that he worked out in the gym for two hours a day, five days a week. “I am 101, but I don’t feel it,” he said.

Having been a keen sportsman in his younger days, he said: “I gave up golf when I was 88. I played my last game of golf, and I said no. I had lost my swing. What was the point? I played my last game of squash. What more suitable person to have your last game of squash with than my doctor? He said, ‘John, come on now, stop.’

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/dunkirk-veteran-101-hits-gym-for-two-hours-a-day-07c72b268
 
Incredible old geezer.

If a Dunkirk veteran’s audience were amazed by his wartime service, they were even more impressed by the gruelling exercise regime he keeps up at the age of 101.

John Hamilton, an anti-aircraft gunner who helped to shoot down three Stukas as British troops were surrounded by the Germans in May 1940, told the Chalke Valley History Festival that he worked out in the gym for two hours a day, five days a week. “I am 101, but I don’t feel it,” he said.

Having been a keen sportsman in his younger days, he said: “I gave up golf when I was 88. I played my last game of golf, and I said no. I had lost my swing. What was the point? I played my last game of squash. What more suitable person to have your last game of squash with than my doctor? He said, ‘John, come on now, stop.’

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/dunkirk-veteran-101-hits-gym-for-two-hours-a-day-07c72b268
He is just amazing! What a guy.
 
Don't be too intimidated--it might take him 2 hours to do three sit ups.
To put that in perspective, I'm more than 40 years younger than he is, and it takes me 2 months to do three sit ups.
 
Centenarians .. my Grandma Eileen will be 100 in about three hours time. I've just got off the phone with her and she's enjoyed her 'pre party' as she describes it .. and she got done for speeding last year but threw the ticket away my parents inform me .. my Dad wanted to frame it .. she tells me she's had a card from the Queen but she reckons it's just a printed signature and she'd had a card from the DWP ..

agrandm01.jpg
 
I'm drinking a toast to her. Should go in the happy news thread really..
 
Happy birthday to Britain's newest centenarian! Please give your gran our best wishes, Swifty.

:beer: Let's all have a drink at the Troll's Head in her honour!
 
Centenarians .. my Grandma Eileen will be 100 in about three hours time. I've just got off the phone with her and she's enjoyed her 'pre party' as she describes it .. and she got done for speeding last year but threw the ticket away my parents inform me .. my Dad wanted to frame it .. she tells me she's had a card from the Queen but she reckons it's just a printed signature and she'd had a card from the DWP ..

View attachment 19143

Great!
 
Let's hope we are all in such good shape when we reach 100.
Frankly I think it's about time she got a job .. she's taking the piss

edit; .. and in tribute to my Gran today and the speeding ticket she got last year (that wasn't a joke .. she really did get a speeding ticket last year, she paid the fine because she was worried she wouldn't be able to hear what they were saying on the re training day instead) .. Happy 100th Birthday Grandma X :badge::nelly::party:


(Grandma, Grandaughter, Mum .. the women are hardcore in our family, don't say I didn't warn you)

agrandm03.jpg
 
Last edited:
Frankly I think it's about time she got a job .. she's taking the piss

edit; .. and in tribute to my Gran today and the speeding ticket she got last year (that wasn't a joke .. she really did get a speeding ticket last year, she paid the fine because she was worried she wouldn't be able to hear what they were saying on the re training day instead) .. Happy 100th Birthday Grandma X :badge::nelly::party:


(Grandma, Grandaughter, Mum .. the women are hardcore in our family, don't say I didn't warn you)

View attachment 19152
Looks like a letter from Her Maj in the bottom right corner!
 
I've phoned her again today and told her lots of people on the internet who she doesn't know that I chat with have wished her happy birthday and she's asked me to say "Thank you. That's very nice of you."

I used Bigphoot2's design of me sitting in an airplane (because I can't remember where I've put the disc my Dad made of vintage family pictures) so that I could get the funky pigeon card to her on time this morning .. thanks Phooty, I owe you another pint mate .. it made her laugh. I've told her I'll phone her again in a hundred years.
 
Today I've been mostly digging holes in Oxfordshire, everyone should have a hobby. Been walking up and down ploughed fields in wellies and over-trousers (trowel and pinpointer in the pockets), a heavy field jacket (a kilo of rusty nails and a Werther's Original in the pockets), a canvas bag over the shoulder, a metal detector in one hand and a garden-border spade in the other. I started this lark two years ago and the longest I've ever been without either a coffee break or a wee was five hours - today I was shattered after two and a half. Sure I told myself that this was the first trip since January and I've been on a diet for 15 weeks and I'm 60 next year, but FFS the trip there and back was nearly that long.
 
Today I've been mostly digging holes in Oxfordshire, everyone should have a hobby. Been walking up and down ploughed fields in wellies and over-trousers (trowel and pinpointer in the pockets), a heavy field jacket (a kilo of rusty nails and a Werther's Original in the pockets), a canvas bag over the shoulder, a metal detector in one hand and a garden-border spade in the other. I started this lark two years ago and the longest I've ever been without either a coffee break or a wee was five hours - today I was shattered after two and a half. Sure I told myself that this was the first trip since January and I've been on a diet for 15 weeks and I'm 60 next year, but FFS the trip there and back was nearly that long.
Find anything good?
 
I am now being called "Sir" quite often when I buy a drink in a pub. I feel like telling them I've not been knighted - not yet at least - but I don't, of course. This feels like just one step away from someone offering me their seat on the tram.
 
It does go the other way.

Last year I was sat in a seat on the train from Leeds to Manchester. My wife was sat next to me; the train was packed.

As the train got under way, a young couple came up and the husband said 'Excuse me Sir, but I think you are sat in our seats'.

And he was correct. They had booked beforehand.

So we pensioners had to stand from Leeds to Manchester. Our own fault for not booking ahead of time.

But I do remember that the previous year I had given up my booked seat to a young girl with a baby.

Guess that's just the way it goes these days.
 
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