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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
Happy Birthday Ron! May you continue to escape the Grim Reaper!

A pilot who escaped a prisoner of war camp after being captured in Allied attempts to end World War Two early has celebrated his 100th birthday.

Ron Johnson's first operational flight came in the 1944 battle for the bridge at Arnhem and he was taken prisoner after being shot by a sniper in subsequent fighting at Oosterbeek. He later escaped and hid "with a few biscuits" until he was rescued.

He said despite his age, he was "still feeling hale and hearty".

Mr Johnson, from Shrivenham, Swindon, was held in reserve on D-Day and flew during Operation Market Garden, an attempt to capture a series of bridges over rivers and canals on the Dutch/German border, in September 1944. The failure of the operation was famously retold in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far.

The glider pilot was injured in subsequent fighting and taken to hospital, but it was overrun by German forces and he was taken prisoner.
He was held at Spangenberg Castle in central Germany, but six months later, he and fellow pilot Bob Garnett escaped and hid for over a week before being rescued by American soldiers and flown back to England.


Ron Johnson
IMAGE SOURCE,BERRY DE REUS

Image caption, Mr Johnson has revisited the Netherlands several times and on one occasion, he met with Agnes Schaap, mayor of Renkum
Roger de Beets, the chairman of the Airborne Commemorations Foundation

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-58862178
 
You know how you notice things and look them up?

One of the effects of ageing, it seems, is a slower digestion.
As my diet is already about 4/5ths as fibrous as a bison's I'm not sure how to improve on it to counteract the dangers of constipation. :thought:
 
You know how you notice things and look them up?

One of the effects of ageing, it seems, is a slower digestion.
As my diet is already about 4/5ths as fibrous as a bison's I'm not sure how to improve on it to counteract the dangers of constipation. :thought:
Er, strawberries?
 
Just curious - what do you use the dry ice for?
That's a very good question @hunck , given that I get 18 x 10 Kg bags delivered a week. Transporting things that need to be kept frozen I suppose, researchers can also use it in a vapour trap so that solvent fumes cool to become liquid and not sucked into a pump. But if you don't use the dry ice within a couple of days, it just evaporates. Have no shortage of dry ice pellets at the moment but cannot get hold of carbon dioxide gas cylinders. Ironically seems to be a world shortage of CO2 gas.
 
You know how you notice things and look them up?

One of the effects of ageing, it seems, is a slower digestion.
As my diet is already about 4/5ths as fibrous as a bison's I'm not sure how to improve on it to counteract the dangers of constipation. :thought:
A handful of sugar-free Haribo gummi sweets.

 
It's no surprise that lager killed bitter with the number of rubbish bitters around in the 70's and 80's.
"Woke up in the morning with nothing to do
Decided to give meself a beer shampoo
Looked in the mirror - well fancy that !
The top of me head had gone all flat."

"Must have been Watney's"

(Fred Wedlock).
 
You know how you notice things and look them up?

One of the effects of ageing, it seems, is a slower digestion.
As my diet is already about 4/5ths as fibrous as a bison's I'm not sure how to improve on it to counteract the dangers of constipation. :thought:
Beer
 
Topics that are usually taboo is sex and when you are old“ constipation “.

I know there are several products on the market for constipation, but I decided to take a more natural approach.

I am eating fiber bars made out of Chicory Root Extract, soy, wheat, rice, flour, oats, barley, and corn fiber.

I hope all will work its way out.

G I impaction is actually a life and death situation.
 
Topics that are usually taboo is sex and when you are old“ constipation “.

I know there are several products on the market for constipation, but I decided to take a more natural approach.

I am eating fiber bars made out of Chicory Root Extract, soy, wheat, rice, flour, oats, barley, and corn fiber.

I hope all will work its way out.

G I impaction is actually a life and death situation.
Porridge. Apart from the fibre/roughage content, force of gravity can work wonders.
 
Topics that are usually taboo is sex and when you are old“ constipation “.

I know there are several products on the market for constipation, but I decided to take a more natural approach.

I am eating fiber bars made out of Chicory Root Extract, soy, wheat, rice, flour, oats, barley, and corn fiber.

I hope all will work its way out.

G I impaction is actually a life and death situation.
Senna tea. These days it's packaged at the supermarket.
 
As Shatner said, the enormity of the blackness of space, but I don’t plan to go to space.

Where is the Quaker Oats cereal in the cabinet ?

The Chicory Root Extract has been good.
 
So I frequent a `Sports Bar` - not because I like sport but because it is spacious and has quick service and affordable beers. Television screens are positioned around the place so that you can't avoid them.

When they are not showing some football - and I'm always happier when they aren't -these are permanently tuned to MTV.

Now MTV is currently doing this section where they rebroadcast the `Hits of the Noughties`. So it's a raft of early Beyonce, early Justin Timberlake, the Sugarbabes, that rock track from the first Spiderman and a whole heap of rap shit. It's not my thing at all but it's all stuff that I recognise and feel sort of comfortable with. To me it's sort of...contemporary.

Except that this stuff is twenty years old. Twenty! And the show isn't aimed at me - it's for their late teen/ twentysomething viewers for whom it is a nostalgia fest, and maybe a bit of a historical curio.

So I think back to when I was a late teen/twenty something - in the Eighties. Every now and then I would borrow a cassette from the library that featured music from the sixties. Say, The New Faces, for example. In other words, music from twenty years earlier. To me in those days it felt like I was excavating some buried ancient artefact from the dim and distant past. No doubt this is how the young MTV watchers view this `contemporary` music from the noughties!


I'm not old I'm not old. Well, only a bit old. Not THAT old. Not all THAT old. Okay, quite old. Okay oldish. But I'm not like other old people. I'm differently old. Okay than, I'm old. I'm old. So what? I'm old. I'm old. Fuck!....I'm not old! I'm not old!...[Repeat]

 
A good innings!

The world's oldest living international cricketer has celebrated her 110th birthday.

Eileen Ash played for England in the 1930s and 40s, and contested the Ashes in Australia in 1949. As well as raising a glass to celebrate with family at her care home, St John's House, Norwich, she received birthday greetings from England cricketers.

"I've been so lucky in my life and done some lovely things," said Mrs Ash, who received cards from around the world. "It's absolutely amazing. I've been very close to my family and have been very lucky to have been healthy for so long."

As well as a successful cricket career, Mrs Ash worked for MI6 during World War Two, and for a further 11 years.

She and her husband moved to Norwich to retire, and took up golf. She finally hung up her clubs at the age of 98.

She passed her driving test at 105, a feat that was filmed for ITV show 100 Year Old Driving School, and on her 106th birthday was taken for a flight in a Tiger Moth plane.

Aged 107, she was shooting hoops after opening the Eileen Ash Sports Hall at the Hewett Academy in Norwich, and said she wanted to take up martial arts.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-59102578
 
An Alabama man nicknamed "Nimblewill Nomad" has become the oldest person to hike the entire Appalachian Trail at age 83.
‘Nimblewill Nomad,’ 83, is oldest to hike Appalachian Trail

An 83-year-old from Alabama started walking when he retired more than a quarter-century ago — and never stopped.

M.J. “Sunny” Eberhart strode into the record books Sunday as the oldest hiker to complete the Appalachian Trail.

Eberhart, known by the trail name Nimblewill Nomad, acknowledged that despite having tens of thousands of miles under his belt, the trail was tough going at his age, leading to quite a few spills on slippery rocks.

“I’ve a got a couple of skid marks on me, but I’m OK,” he said in a recent interview. “You’ve got to have an incredible resolve to do this.”

He hiked the trail out of order, in sections, to take advantage of optimal weather, and had already completed northern sections including Maine’s Mount Katahdin. He completed his final section in western Massachusetts, in the town of Dalton, in the same year in which a 5-year-old became among the youngest to complete the feat. ...

Joining Eberhart for the finish was the former record holder, Dale “Greybeard” Sanders, who lives outside Memphis, Tennessee. He completed the hike at age 82 in 2017. He’s not sad to see the record fall.

“My dear friend Nimblewill is taking my record away from me, and I’m happy for him. Records are made to be broken,” Sanders said. ...
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/lifestyl...labama-maine-07890eda2a8dc653bb69c68629e20a8f
 
Motitech should make him their spokesman.

Kenneth Judd may be 99-years-old, but he is a cycling tour de force.

The almost centenarian last month gained a silver medal in a global cycling competition that had more than 5,000 entrants. To win second place Mr Judd pedalled 2,348 miles (3,779 km) over 26 days. That's an average of more than 90 miles per 24 hours, a distance that many of us of a younger age couldn't cycle in one day, let alone for another 25 in a row.

While he cycled, Mr Judd was able to enjoy quiet country lanes in his native Yorkshire, and the Lake District. Yet he was actually moving on the spot, using a high-tech exercise bike at a care home in Warwickshire.

Now in its fifth year, the worldwide event is called Road Worlds For Seniors. Open to elderly people, and those with dementia, participants cycle on stationary bikes made by Norwegian firm Motitech. The cycling machines are connected to a laptop or other computer, which in turn is linked to a TV or monitor. So when the user cycles they see themselves moving through the scenery on the screen.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59317505
 
Good news! Vid at link.

Rochdale veteran, 96, presented with new medals after theft​

A World War Two veteran has been presented with replacement medals after his original ones were stolen.

Ninety-six-year-old Jim Marland, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was surprised at half-time at a Rochdale AFC match. The medals had been donated by a fellow veteran after he saw an appeal on social media.

Mr Marland said he wanted to thank everyone who had "been so nice".

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-manchester-59411075
 
My old man will be 86 next Birthday. I speak to him on a regular basis on the phone, and pop round to see him every time I drive into London to watch Leyton Orient play football, and each time I do, I swear he’s getting more and more frail.

Over the years, and at quite considerable cost to his wallet, he has collected an army of tiny bronze soldiers. At least one platoon of every regiment of the British Army, including Calvary regiments on horseback, and armoured divisions. There are literally thousands of these toy soldiers, which are displayed in two large cabinets cases in his living room. They are his pride and joy.

Anyway, on Thursday afternoon, I was on my way to pick my son up from school, when my mobile phone rang. It was the old man. His tone was serious, and he wanted to talk about the toy soldiers. Basically, the next time I pop round to see him, he will have his entire collection packed up and ready for me to take them home with me. I told him not to be silly and asked him why he wanted to part with them, but he was most insistent and stressed how important it was for me to have them.

People do that when they feel they are on their way out of this world. I must admit it upset me a little bit and got me thinking that I must accept the fact that in all probability, he hasn't got long to go. :(
 
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