• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

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
So this thread may not be the most appropriate place for this post but it seems pretty close. I'm turning 30 next month and all of a sudden I find myself just completely terrified of my impending death! I know it may be many years in the future, but it's as if the reality of it has only just now sunk in. It's been days now that these thoughts have been with me and I just can't seem to shake them! Does anyone have any advice for getting past this? Or how about some rock solid proof of a beautiful and peaceful afterlife?? :lol:
 
Well if there is no afterlife, it will be like being turned off and you'll know nothing about it so why worry?
 
Thanks tonyblair11! I actually brought this up with a good friend who just turned 40 and she basically mocked me for dwelling on this at my age.

And I do think there's no afterlife and that it's just like being turned off, Ronson... which logically is fine, but somehow it terrifies me! I suppose it won't matter to me a jot when the time comes, but dwelling on it is driving me crazy!!
 
I doubt there's anyone who reaches a certain age hasn't had dark thoughts about death but there really is no point in dwelling on it, live for today!
 
Henry clocks up another year:

Oldest veteran of WWI reaches 112

Britain's oldest man, thought to be one of three surviving UK World War I veterans, is celebrating reaching his 112th birthday.

Henry Allingham, who was born in London on 6 June 1896, is also the last surviving original member of the Royal Air Force - formed 90 years ago.

Mr Allingham, from Ovingdean, near Brighton, will celebrate at Royal Air Force College Cranwell, Lincolnshire.

The event will include a fly past by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

There will also be a parachute jump display.

The event will be attended by Air Vice Marshal Peter Dye (retd) and Vice Admiral Sir Adrian Johns.

As well as the fly past and the parachute jump by the Royal Air Force Falcons Parachute Display Team, Mr Allingham's birthday will be marked by a visit from local school children who will give him a cake.

Somme

Now partially deaf and almost blind, Mr Allingham, who was born in Clapham, London, now lives at St Dunstan's home for blind ex-servicemen, in Ovingdean.

His life has spanned six monarchs and has taken in 21 prime ministers.

Mr Allingham is the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and also fought at the Somme and Ypres where he was bombed and shelled.

He joined the Royal Air Force when it was formed from the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and the Army's Flying Corps in 1918.

His many medals and honours include the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and the Legion D'Honneur - the highest military accolade awarded by France.

He has joked that the secret to his longevity is "cigarettes, whisky and wild women".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7439117.stm
 
Ronson8 said:
He has joked that the secret to his longevity is "cigarettes, whisky and wild women".
So there's hope for us then Ryn! :)

Whisky can shorten your life as well. The Last thing Manny Shinwell did was drink a whisky, say : "I've had enough" and then he died. He was only 101.
 
Yup, and he'd survived the House of Commons ceiling falling in on him only 20-odd years before!

On a more serious note, a good cure for a fear of death is a severe bereavement. Forces one to face one's own mortality, don't you know. ;)
 
A severe bereavement, you say? I'll have to ask around among my loved ones and see if anyone is willing to volunteer their services...

I tried to talk my husband into arranging a near-death experience for me, since so many of the people who have been through such an experience seem to have no fear of death, but he was not willing to assist.
 
Ronson8 said:
He has joked that the secret to his longevity is "cigarettes, whisky and wild women".
So there's hope for us then Ryn! :)

Doesn't seem to be much hope for me, I guess! Don't smoke, only rarely drink, and I'm a hetero female, so I suppose the 'wild women' part is out. :lol:

I've felt old since my early 20's, go figure!!

It really hit home, tho, when my dad developed (probable) Alzheimer's about 5 years ago.

But my mom's mother made it to 95, mind still sharp, so maybe genetics will be kind to me!! ;)

P.S. I never heard that worrying about getting older ever reversed the aging process, lol.
 
This whole death anxiety thing is so new and freaky to me... I really want to shake it off! I don't know where it's come from all of a sudden. So jealous of the very religious with their confidence in a beautiful afterlife.
 
Drunken Swede tries to row home

A last drink proved one too many for a 78-year-old Swede who fell asleep while trying to row home - from Denmark.

Reports say the man had been drinking in the Danish town of Helsingor but found he did not have enough money for the ferry home to Sweden.

Instead of waiting until morning, he stole a dinghy and tried to row the 5km (three miles) across the Oresund Strait to Helsingborg, police said.

But he fell asleep half way and drifted until he was rescued by the coastguard.

The man, who has not been named, was found still asleep in the bottom of the boat, and towed back across the strait - a busy shipping lane - to Denmark.

He was put on the next ferry home after he had sobered up, writes the Danish news service Ritzau.

Police said the owner of the dinghy had decided not to press charges, Reuters reports.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7482551.stm

It seems unlikely now that I shall emulate Francis Chichester's feat of sailing alone around the world at the age of 65. But now I have a new sea-going hero to emulate - but first I've got to get to 78! Growing old disgracefully - go for it! :D
 
Are you a wrinkly yet? Try the wry quizzes in a new book which test if you've reached one of life's most painful milestones
Last updated at 11:22 PM on 03rd July 2008

The old proverb says: 'You're only young once, but you're older every year.' Now a new book offers more wit and wisdom about wrinkliedom and a series of quizzes to test if you've reached one of life's most painful milestones.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE GETTING OLD WHEN ...

Your idea of a workout is trying to chew a toffee.

You go to a garden party and you're mainly interested in the garden.

Those issues of Reader's Digest just can't come fast enough.

Your knees buckle but your belt won't.

Your new reclining chair has more optional extras than your car.

You're 18 around the neck, 44 round the waist, and 105 around the golf course.

When you look in the mirror, one of your parents is looking back at you.

You are cautioned to slow down by the doctor instead of by the police.

You begin every other sentence with the word 'Nowadays…'

You can clean your teeth in the dishwasher.

Combing your hair seems to take less and less time.

All the cars behind you turn on their headlights.

When you're visiting a friend in hospital, a member of staff comes toward you with a wheelchair.

Happy hour is a 30-minute nap.

You suddenly find you are proud of your lawn-mower.

Your back goes out more than you do.

A WRINKLY GUIDE TO THE MODERN WORLD

iPOD: A portable gramophone crossed with a hearing aid.

ROCKET SALAD: Lettuce that tastes funny.

REALITY TV: Home movies of people you've never met.

CELEBRITY: Anyone who has appeared on the television more than once. This now comprises about half the population.

HDTV: A useful new type of TV that shows pinsharp pictures that will enable you to read the letters on Countdown more easily.

MRSA: The proof that you will finally get something out of the NHS after paying in for all those years.

JEREMY CLARKSON: One of the very few people under 70 whose views you agree with.

EMAIL: A marvellous new way of sending messages, but when will they finally invent a stamp that will stick to the computer screen without falling off?

BLOG: A bit like one of those round robin letters people send at Christmas - without the interesting bits. May possibly stand for Boring, Long Or Godawful.

.............

THE PERKS

All that money you've been investing in the NHS over the years will now finally start to pay off.

In a hostage situation, they're more likely to keep the young, pretty ones.

You can buy things now and know they will never wear out.

Your doctor will no longer immediately dismiss you as a hypochondriac.

RETIREMENT SPEECHES

'Active socially' - drinks heavily.

'Character above reproach' - still one step ahead of the law.

'Excels in the effective application of skills' - makes a good cup of coffee.

'Shows tremendous flair and imagination' - some of those expenses claims could qualify for the Booker prize.

'Has the energy of a man half his age' - he's worn out 14 young secretaries so far, and not with his dictation.

'Has the respect of all his staff'- he scares the living daylights out of them.

'His departure will be a great loss' - to all the local pubs, wine bars and betting shops.

'Great communication skills' - can yabber away on the phone at the company's expense for hours.

'Has a good relationship with this superiors' - a right little creep.

'Visionary thinker' - spends most of the day looking out of the window.

'Irreplaceable'- Thank God!

'Internationally known' - likes to go to conferences and trade shows in Las Vegas.

YOU'RE SO OLD THAT…

When you order a three-minute egg, they ask for the money up front.

Even your kids are drawing their pensions.

You can recall when Barbara Cartland didn't wear make-up.

You can remember when the Queen Mum was a bit of alright.

You were around when the world heavyweight boxing champion was a white man.

You could have been a waiter at the Last Supper.

When you walk past a graveyard, guys come running after you with shovels.

WRINKLY EXERCISE

Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.

Plenty of exercise and a healthy diet can add years to your life. Unfortunately, they're always added on at the end when you're too old to enjoy them.

'My husband's taken up jogging,' says an old woman to her friend. 'He says he thinks it's the only way he'll ever hear heavy breathing again.'

WRINKLY SEX

'Sex for an old guy is a bit like playing pool with a rope.'(George Burns)

Put on your glasses and have a quick double check that your partner is actually in bed with you.

WRINKLY JOKES

(ABOUT HIM) Q: What's the difference between a clown and a man going through a mid-life crisis?

A: The clown realises he's dressed in ridiculous clothes.

Two women are watching their husbands. 'I can't believe your husband is still chasing after women,' says one.

'Doesn't worry me,' says the other. 'Even if he catches them, he wouldn't be able to remember what he wanted them for.'

There are three ages of men: underage, overage and average.

(ABOUT HER) Q: What does a 70-year-old woman have between her breasts that a 20-year-old doesn't?

A: Her navel.

Have you heard about the new bra they've invented for women in later life? They call it the 'sheep-dog' because it rounds them up and gets them pointing in the same direction.

Old age is when a woman buys a sheer nightie and doesn't know anyone young enough who can see through it.

WRINKLY QUOTES

'Three things happen when you get to my age. First your memory starts to go and I've forgotten the other two (former Labour Chancellor Denis Healey) :D

'I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap (comedian Bob Hope)

'A sexagenarian? At his age? That's disgusting' (actress Gracie Allen)

'At my age flowers scare me.' (comedian George Burns)

'I don't need you to remind me of my age. I have a bladder to do that for me.' (Stephen Fry)

'Middle-age is when your glasses and your waistline get thicker. And your hair and your wallet get thinner.'

'Did you hear about the old man whose health was so bad his doctor advised him not to start watching any serials.'

THEY SHALL NEVER DIE…

Old academics never die, they just lose their faculties.

Old accountants never die, they just lose their balance.

Old architects never die, they just lose their structures.

Old bankers never die, they just lose interest.

Old blondes never fade, they just dye away.

Old computer operators never die, they just lose their memory.

Old computer programmers never die, they just byte the dust.


Extracted from The Wrinklies Joke Book by Mike Haskins and Clive Whichelow

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... tones.html
 
A real Monty Python moment here:

Grannies on mobility scooters fight in supermarket
By Rupert Neate
Last Updated: 2:34PM BST 10/07/2008

Two grandmothers on mobility scooters had to be dragged apart after getting into a fight where they were "ramming each other like dodgems" in a supermarket.
The women were separated after they started trading blows in front of shoppers in an aisle of the Iceland store in Crawley, West Sussex.

They were prized apart after staff heard screams.

A store worker said: "It was shocking.

"Seeing these two old ladies going for each other like that was truly disturbing."

The shelf-stacker, who did not wish to be named, added: "They could have been seriously hurt - they were ramming each other like dodgems." :shock:

Police were called to the scene after the warring pensioners - who had been friends - fell out over money.

They arrested one of the pensioners, who has not been named, on suspicion of assaulting the other 78- year-old woman who suffered an injury to her arm. She was later taken to hospital.

The grand-daughter of one of them said: "The two of them met some months ago and this lady was always at grandma's house.

"They became really friendly but fell out massively over money."

It is not yet known whether charges will be brought.

It is not the first time mobility scooters have been used dangerously.

In Rugby, Warwickshire, the policy introduced a speeding clampdown on mobility scooters, which can reach a top speed of 8mph, after a series of collisions and near misses in the town centre.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2279070/Grannies-on-mobility-scooters-fight-in-supermarket.html
 
Stripper to appear at Edinburgh Fringe
Mike Wade

False teeth, sagging breasts and varicose veins might not combine in a conventional image of the body beautiful, but a 75-year-old stripper from San Francisco believes that she can storm the Edinburgh Fringe with a show that will explode society's obsession with youthful good looks.

Lynn Ruth Miller, a former journalist who has only been stripping for three years, said that she was “living the dream” in an act that celebrates every fold and crease of her body, “revelling in the disasters” that the ageing process wreaks.

“If you want to feel old and inadequate, that's up to you, but there is a choice. I look like an old lady, I know I do, but I never suffer pain, I never get tired and it is so exhilarating to communicate with people. When I'm on stage, I'm talking to the world, saying, ‘Don't sit in your rocking chair - get out there and live',” she said.

For her show, Ageing is Amazing, Ms Miller has devised an eye-catching opening sequence that echoes Samuel Goldwyn's dictum: start with an earthquake and build up to a climax.

Emerging to the tune of the Strip Polka, over the next four minutes she sheds a robe and several chemises, to be left standing in front of her audience clad in billowing underwear, elaborately decorated with a fringe, bells and feathers.

Those who have seen her performances are rarely left unmoved. “I swear the audience went completely bonkers when this crazy lady stripped down to her granny panties,” one admirer wrote.

Despite this unabashed exhibitionism, Ms Miller describes herself as a good girl with a 1950s mentality. A former teacher and librarian, she spent most of her career working as a newspaper columnist. She loves classical music and her first experience of the Edinburgh Festival was to sit enraptured at symphony concerts at the Usher Hall.

“I've coped with the dips and the valleys and experienced the highs. I've never taken any pills or drugs. I've lived a totally conventional life.

And now, if it means taking off my clothes to make people notice me, why not? I'll do it,” said Ms Miller, who has been married twice. She admits that she probably terrifies her former husbands. :D

Her stage career began less than five years ago after she devised a stand-up comedy act about her experiences as an older woman.

In 2005 she was booked to perform at a venue that was also promoting burlesque and decided to embrace this most risqué of art forms. Her strip routine was born.

She made her mark straight away, performing at a birthday celebration by dressing up in a black chemise and stockings and bursting out of a giant cake. Later, performing on stage at an upmarket hotel, she provoked a ripple of emotion from the well-heeled audience by lobbing her underwear at them.

Of course she was younger then, only 72, but she will reprise her bra-throwing routine this year in a second Fringe show, Grannies Gone Wild, in which she also sings a song written by the Sex Pistols.

It is all for comic effect but Ms Miller's performances are driven by her hatred of discrimination. “Most comedy springs from anger, and it's ageism that infuriates me. My routines attack the notion that old people don't remember who they are, can't walk up a stair and have to wear nappies,” she said. “I'm thrilled that I'm ageing. I like it all. My show is about all the things that happen to you but I let the audience know I'm still having fun. And I am.”

In Edinburgh's “pubic triangle” - a grubby area of the Old Town notorious for its lap-dancing bars and strip joints - there was scepticism about Ms Miller's act. “In this industry it's horses for courses,” said Jay Drummond, the owner of Hooters bar.

“Certain people like certain things - tall, short, blonde, dark, big boobs, small boobs, fat, thin. It's a weird and wonderful world out there. But I've not had much call for 75-year-olds.”

Philip Walker, of the Campaign Against Age Discrimination in Employment, said that he was fully behind Ms Miller's show.

“Just because you're older doesn't mean you can't live, that you're past it. If she looks good, and she obviously looks good to herself or she wouldn't be doing it, why the hell shouldn't she?” he asked.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 312761.ece

rynner has no plans to become an extra-mature Chippendale, however...
 
'Whatever she's stripped down to, it needs ironing!' :lol:
 
This disreputable old codger is setting a bad example:

Smoker who has 10 cigars a day celebrates his 100th birthday
By Rupert Neate
Last Updated: 8:14AM BST 17/07/2008

A smoker who has 10 cigars day and enjoys a whisky with his morning tea has celebrated his 100th birthday.

Mr Priestly began smoking at the age of nine, he has since smoked 153,000 cigars and 715,400 cigarettes
Jack Priestly claims he has suffered no serious health problems related to his tobacco and alcohol habit.

Mr Priestly, a widower and former baker, began smoking cigarettes when he was nine and claims to have smoked every day since.

He changed to cigars in 1966 after he said he was told they were "healthier" and celebrated his century last Saturday.

The grandfather from Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire, who also has six great-grandchildren, said: "I've been operated on from toe to head but I've still got a good set of lungs. There's nothing wrong with them.

"I love my cigars. I wouldn't be without them. I don't care about the brand - a cigar is a cigar. But I'm not a fan of the small ones. The bigger, the better.

"My doctor wasn't a fan of pipes. He advised me to smoke cigars instead. And who am I to ignore doctor's orders?"

Since his first puff in 1917 he has smoked 153,000 cigars and 715,400 cigarettes and drunk a shot of whisky in his morning cup of tea every day since the age of 24. He has not suffered any serious health problems related to smoking or drinking.

His mother-in-law got him hooked on whisky, which he drinks without fail as soon as he gets up, before he has even had breakfast.

"She said the best thing for a woman is for her to drink whisky before she does anything, every day," he said. "I don't feel my age. I've still the mind of a young man. But if I had the company of a good woman, I'm sure I'd feel 40 years younger in a flash." ;)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... thday.html
 
One of the advantages of growing old is that you may live to see your critics eat their words! 8)

Sir Paul McCartney to rock Israel 43 years after ban
Last Updated: 6:47AM BST 18/07/2008

Sir Paul McCartney is set to make pop history by playing his first gig in Israel, 43 years after the Beatles were banned from performing in the country.

In 1965 McCartney, 66, and his fellow Beatles were turned away by Israel's then education minister, David Zarzevski, who thought that a show by the band might corrupt the minds of the nation's youth. :shock:

However earlier this year, Israel's ambassador to Britan sent apology letters to McCartney and drummer Ringo Starr - as well as the relatives of deceased Beatles George Harrison and John Lennon - inviting them to play as part of the country's 60th birthday celebrations.

Ron Prosor, apologised for the "misunderstanding" and wrote: "There is no doubt that it was a great missed opportunity to prevent people like you, who shaped the minds of the generation, to come to Israel and perform."

"We missed a chance to learn from the most influential musicians of the decade."

McCartney, 66, is now said to be on the verge of signing a deal to play to 250,000 in Tel Aviv this September. He will either play at the nation's football station Ramat Gan or put on an open air gig in Hayarkon Park.

A source reveals, "Paul is desperate to put Israel on the map of places he's performed.

"He is pushing to make it happen, although the security issues are a real threat."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... r-ban.html
 
Dunkirk veteran Col Michael Cobb gets PhD aged 91
By Tom Peterkin
Last Updated: 6:56PM BST 16/07/2008

A Second World War veteran, who was evacuated in the last boat out of Dunkirk, is to become the oldest student to be awarded a PhD by Cambridge University.
Col Michael Cobb, 91, will receive the doctorate on Saturday after 18-years of study that has seen him catalogue every station and every line ever built by British railway companies between 1807 and 1994 for his work 'The Railways of Great Britain: A Historical Atlas'.

He is thought to be the third oldest person in the world to receive a PhD. The current record holder is Rev Edgar Dowse, who received one from Brunel University in 2004 aged 93.

Col Cobb orginally graduated from Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1938.

He said: "It's very exciting. Forty members of my family are coming and we are all having tea together at Magdalene. Some are coming from Canada, Spain and one from Texas. I can't get over it really."

The atlas was hailed as a "remarkable piece of scholarship" by Richard Smith, Cambridge's head of geography and one of the examiners.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... ed-91.html

Video here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7515590.stm
 
Too long an article to quote in full, but this is worth a read:

The strange tale of Buster Martin
When he ran the London Marathon this year at the reputed age of 101, he was hailed as the oldest person ever to complete one. Then it emerged that he might be 'only' 94. So who is he? And can Patrick Barkham track down the truth?
Patrick Barkham The Guardian, Monday July 21, 2008

'A lot of people don't like me because of my retentive mind," explains Buster Martin with a characteristic glare from beneath his furrowed brow. Neither the garlands of world's oldest marathon runner and Britain's oldest employee, nor the rival insinuation he is Britain's oldest fraudster, comes close to describing this unique force of nature.

Buster was hailed as a 101-year-old hero after completing the London Marathon in less than 10 hours this year. Then it transpired that Guinness World Records refused to recognise the achievement because he could not produce a birth certificate. It was reported they held evidence Buster told NHS staff he was born on September 1 1913, not 1906 as he reckons these days.

Months of claim and counter-claim have followed during an ongoing row with William Hill, the bookmakers, which, in the absence of a birth certificate, is refusing to pay Buster winnings of £13,300 on two bets taken out on him completing the marathon. Buster wants his winnings to go to charity and now has two new weapons at his disposal: the Home Office has issued him a passport - his first ever - with the 1906 date of birth, and his boss at Pimlico Plumbers in London is threatening to take the bookies to court.

But perhaps the biggest weapon in Buster's battle to prove he is 101 is that retentive mind. The most striking thing is not the wit of the remarkable stories he tells, but their precision. Buster has a mania for dates. He started work at the plumbers three months after his 97th birthday. He claims a working life of 96 years, starting work - in an orphanage - when he was five. He came to London "in 1916. I was 10". Actually, it was 10am when he arrived. "By 12 o'clock I was working." He's sipping a pint of Newcastle Brown Ale with chunks of orange, and explains that this habit was acquired during an army training exercise in Egypt. "It was my 21st birthday. 1927." He says he spent much of his life in the army. "I joined at 14. 1920. And got married."

........

The passport that Buster now has would be proof of age enough for most bars, but because he was born in France, surrounded by such mystery, his age may never be proved. "What would it matter, a little bit of age?" says Mullins at one point. "He's obviously no spring chicken."

However old he is and however he tells it, his life is a great story. And Buster is confident he has "got a long way to go before I'm brown bread". When he took some leave from the army he returned to the orphanage and visited his favourite nun, Bridget. "She was 102," he says. "She died in my arms. But she did turn round and say, 'You'll probably live for 22 years after 102.' I said, 'Yeah I'll nick another year and probably a few more.' She said, 'Knowing you, you will.'"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jul/2 ... dwellbeing
 
He’s 65 - but Mick Jagger still looks as if time is on his side (not to mention the £225m)
Alan Hamilton

One thing that Sir Mick Jagger assuredly will not be worrying about this morning is how he is going to manage on his £87-a-week old age pension.

Still as snake-hipped and rubber-lipped as he was when the Rolling Stones crept into the lower end of the charts in 1963 with a Chuck Berry cover, the grand master of heritage rock turns 65 today, and so officially becomes an Old Man. But he doesn’t look it, even if his face does bear the odd wrinkle of a life thoroughly lived; beside those two wraiths of the undead, Keith and Ronnie, he is the Duracell Bunny of ancient rockers.

Yet he is not the granddaddy - the improbably youthful Sir Cliff Richard is three years older. But Cliff resorts to trickery: he is suspected of having a portrait in his attic, whereas Mick is the picture of Dorian Gray. And there was the true begetter of rock’n’roll, Berry himself, still belting out a tired version of Johnny B. Goode in London the other day at the age of 83.

What keeps Mick’s batteries charged is a secret that we wearier pensioners would like to know. Perhaps it is two wives, seven children, three grandchildren, and a catalogue of amours that have included she who is now the First Lady of France, not to mention his recent squiring of a partner 29 years his junior. “I don’t go out with housewives,” he once said.

It is just as likely to be money. The Stones recently completed the biggest-grossing tour in the history of rock, which demanded from their lead singer a phenomenal fitness and stamina. When you see Mick in frenzied action on stage for 2½ hours, you can’t really begrudge him his estimated personal fortune of £225 million.

In the mop-headed Sixties we gilded youth divided into two camps; Beatles music was of the tuneful kind that you could comfortably play to your granny, while the Stones were the earthy, openly sexual bad boys, singing about gin-soaked bar room queens and about not getting, um, satisfaction.

Mick has had his brushes with recreational pharmaceuticals, leading to a memorable Times leading article in his defence of nearly 40 years ago, about breaking a butterfly on a wheel. But at 65 he has become a spicy mixture of ageing bad boy, who once did unspeakable things with a Mars bar, and respectable English gent, with his holiday château and love of cricket.

Yet he has always been canny, neither being cheated by wicked self-serving managers, as happened to Presley, or squandering his loot on drugs, which killed Jimi Hendrix at 27.

The band’s finances are managed by Jagger himself and by astute financial gnomes in Amsterdam; it is estimated that of £240 million earned in recent years, less than 2 per cent has gone to the taxman. When Jerry Hall wanted that French castle as part of her divorce settlement, she didn’t get it.

The lives of the wicked shall be shortened, it says in the Book of Proverbs. In which case Mick is one of the goodies: Elvis died at 42, Freddie Mercury at 45, John Lennon at 40, Marc Bolan at 30 and Brian Jones, the Stones’ original leader, at 27.

Mick is not such a hellraiser as Ronnie Wood, who last week booked himself into rehab after running off with a cocktail waitress. Mick, frankly, has a touch more class; he is, at bottom, a middle-class English boy who studied at the LSE. He’s not daft. “It’s all right letting yourself go as long as you can let yourself back,” he said of his own remarkable survival.

Diffident and rather quiet offstage, he remains a sizzling showman in front of an audience. Now branching out into film production, Mick the pensioner has achieved all the satisfaction he could want, and the Stones’ hit Not Fade Away still holds true.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 402485.ece
 
Well if Iran don't get us first...

All I know isa I pee alot more than usual and its hard to say if thats a probem cause I like to drink beer after worrk and any chance I get.
In fact I am looking into making an investment on a Mico-brewed beer place.

I eat the wrong things ( chips, fried foods, and to many eggs) but my dad ( a retired Marine bad ass) is 82 and still trys to get me to try out his new work out equipment as I chug a beer and say "no thanks" (I'm a Navy guy who likes to save his strength) any how I gotta go get my new beer outta the car I just bought some really good neww brew I wanna try!! :D
 
Oh!! and I forgot to mention..I was invited over to the neibors tonight at 7:00 PM for a cook-out !! Rib -eye steaks and drinks !!

:shock:

Rowdy heard and he's going too as they tend to drop things at these parties :lol:

plus he's a good moocher
 
We'll have to work until we're 70, just as it was in Lloyd George's day
Rosemary Bennett, Social Affairs Correspondent

People will be forced to work until they are aged 70 if the basic state pension is to survive into the next century, according to the Government's pensions supremo.

Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, the architect of radical reforms in which the retirement age will rise to 68 by 2046, said that with no limit in sight for life expectancy, people are going to have to work even longer than he proposed.

In an interview with The Times marking the 100th anniversary of the creation of the state pension on August 1, 1908, Lord Turner predicted that a future government would reopen the question of raising the state pension age soon after it reaches 68.

“This is not the end of the story. If the value of the pension is to be protected the retirement age will have to rise again. I would be amazed if around 2055 the government of the day were not taking the retirement age higher and we'll be at 70 by the end of the century,” he said.

“There appears to be no upper limit on life expectancy so you are not taking retirement away from people by raising the age they stop work. People are still going to be having longer retirements despite the changes.” :roll:

He noted that when the pension was first introduced by David Lloyd George, it was paid only to those aged 70 or over, the age that he believes it will eventually be.

Experts believe that Lord Turner's recommendation to raise the retirement age to 68 — to pay for the restoration of the link to earnings — saved the pension, which was in danger of withering away as its relative value plummeted.

The Government has adopted his proposals, and the retirement age will rise to 66 in 2024, then 67 in 2034 and to 68 by 2046.

Ministers also adopted his proposal to set up a low-cost national private savings scheme to which employers must contribute. Although it is not compulsory for employees to join, it uses “the lever of inertia” by requiring them to opt out if they do not want to be members.

Last night campaigners responded angrily to his suggestion that the retirement age should keep rising.

“After a period of working of 40 or 45 years, society should endow on people a period of retirement of not just two or three years,” said Neil Duncan-Jordan, spokesman for the National Pensioners Campaign, the independent lobby group.

“If the retirement age is raised to 70 for some groups of people, especially low-paid manual workers, life expectancy is not much beyond 70 or 75. Five years is not exactly the ‘lifetime in retirement' people have been promised.”

Mervyn Kohler, head of public affairs at Help the Aged, said that ministers needed to show flexibility.

“I entirely buy the principle that links the state pension age with life expectancy, so people spend roughly the same amount of time working and in retirement. But I do not believe they should be set in concrete and future governments bound by it.

“If some experts are correct, growing rates of obesity and other health problems could lead to declining life expectancy, so the pension age should actually come down in those circumstances,” he said.

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, did not oppose Lord Turner's view. “More and more governments are going to see retirement as a process and not a single date. Consequently, a single retirement age won't be as much of the future as of the past,” he said.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “Under the Pensions Act 2007 we will increase the state pension age gradually to 68 by 2046. We have no plans to increase this further at present.”

Lord Turner, who will shortly take up the reins at the Financial Services Authority and has served as Director-General of the CBI, also had harsh words for ministers who have failed to grasp the nettle of public sector pensions.

Anyone working for central or local government, the NHS, the police, the fire service and the associated regulators is still entitled to a generous final salary pension and most can retire at 60. Taxpayers are paying £21billion a year to fund these pensions.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/ ... 432434.ece

(My younger brother is a civil servant, which means he qualifies for his pension two years before I do! :( )
 
However...

100 years after reform, poverty in old age is rife
Rosemary Bennett

When the first state pension was paid, there was widespread celebration. David Lloyd George, Charles Booth and the other founding fathers were certain that their reforms would end poverty in old age.

Yet 100 years on, 2.5 million pensioners — more than a fifth of all those aged over 65 — still struggle to pay their bills and keep their homes warm.

Much has changed since Lloyd George introduced the weekly allowance of five shillings for men and women aged over 70. “The deserving poor” had to prove that they were of good character and had never turned down paid work. Pensioners lost their allowance if they were found “squandering money on drink”.

These days all people are entitled to state support in their old age but the decision to break the annual uprating of pensions with earnings in 1980 started a decline in its value. The rise in fuel costs has hit the elderly hardest and their income has failed to keep up with gas and electricity bill increases. It was no surprise to campaigners when figures last month showed that the number of pensioners living in poverty had risen to 2.5 million.

And the founding fathers could not have predicted the escalation of means-testing, a necessary evil in 1908 to win support for the new allowance.

The first means-tested applicants did not have to contend with the 15-page form and 20 pages of notes that applicants have to fill out today to get their pension credit, the means-tested top-up for the basic pension.Their complexity means that one third of those eligible for the £1,352 payment do not claim it.

etc....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/ ... 432435.ece
 
Stair Crazy: How an 80-year-old man has been BANNED from running up a department store down escalator
By Jane Fryer
Last updated at 12:13 AM on 01st August 2008

Anyone who went into Elphicks department store in Farnham, Surrey, last week, just behind the matching pan sets and gleaming cooking utensils, and to the right of the tea towels, would have seen Peter Hildreth limbering up-flexing his muscles, taking a couple of deep breaths, smoothing down his neat beige trousers and checking no one was looking.

Then suddenly, legs going like pistons and thin hands grabbing at the black rubber rail, he hurled himself up the escalator as fast as he could.

Which may not sound so very strange. But it was the 'down' escalator. And Peter is 80 years old.

So when he emerged a few seconds and 26 steps later, puffing and pink-faced among the sturdy bras and lacy knickers of Ladies Lingerie, Rosemary the sales assistant was rather startled. And quite cross.

'She told me to stop because it was dangerous, but I've done it lots of times before and I was always careful to check no one was in the way,' he says today at the home he shares with his wife Carol, 62, in Farnham.

'I did it to celebrate my 80th birthday and it took me about six weeks to crack it.

'But I did it-quite easily, as it turned out,' he adds with a twinkle. 'Although Rosemary was quite stern.'

Not just Rosemary. Shop manager Graham Duerden was having none of it and put the grandfather-of-five on his last warning - one more escalator transgression and he'll be barred from the store for life.

'Which would be a shame, because I like to pop in most days to their cafe - there's always someone to have a chat with over a coffee,' he says.

'In fact, the whole thing's been rather surprising, and funny in a way, because it's nothing much really, running up an escalator. But I've never had so much attention.'

He's not joking. Since being rumbled, Cambridge-educated Peter's been in the papers, on the radio and on telly - he might even go on Richard & Judy - 'very exciting.'

But then, he isn't quite your average octogenarian.

As well as being bright, chatty, charming and extremely twinkly company, he has a bit of an edge on his peers when it comes to fitness.

In his heyday, he was Britain's most capped athlete - semi-finalist in the 110m hurdles at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki and competed at the 1956 Melbourne Games and again in Rome in 1960.

Half a century later, he's in great shape - lithe and nimble and looks a decade younger than his 80 years.

Which is a good thing, because there's more to running the wrong way up a moving escalator than meets the eye.

'It's best to begin in little bits, so you start by coming down - say about five or six steps - then turn around and sprint to the top. And then gradually increase it.

'The most difficult bit is getting on at the bottom, because the bottom steps are constantly moving towards you and disappearing.'

When Elphicks put their foot down, Peter branched out.

'I had a quick look at Debenhams in Guildford, but their escalator is much the same as Elphicks - 11 steps down and about 26 steps up.

'But M&S has a much longer one, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

'I got on the 9.23am bus to Guildford, rushed over to M&S and ran up it - I had to work hard, but I made it to the top.

'And then I turned around and ran back to the bus stop. I was that quick I caught the same bus home.'

And his fellow shoppers - aren't they a bit startled?

'Oh no, I always tried to make sure it was quiet and no one was watching.

'I was very anxious not to get in the way or be a nuisance.'

Even for a one-time Olympic athlete, sprinting up an escalator's quite a task if you're 80. So what's his secret?

'I've never drunk much. For a few years I smoked a little - those nice menthol ones, maybe ten a day and never before 6pm - but I shouldn't think they did much harm because I don't think I ever inhaled anyway.'

And exercise? 'I walk everywhere - down to the bank, or to Elphicks for a coffee... and I like to garden.

etc.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... lator.html
 
Grandfather buys back his car after 50 years
A grandfather has bought a vintage car for £6,000, 50 years after he first bought it for just £23.
By Chris Irvine
Last Updated: 7:50PM BST 03 Aug 2008

David Overton, 69, originally bought the white 1928 Austin Seven car when he was a student in 1958.

The father of four from Chale Green, Isle of Wight was driving the car when he met his future wife, Jill, a year later, although Mrs Overton admits she fell in love with the Austin before she fell for her husband.

He sold the car in 1960 for £31 and replaced it with a Mini, but now, after tracking it down on the internet, he has once again become the car's proud owner.

Mr Overton, who has 10 grandchildren, thought he had lost the car forever when he found it had been sold to a Canadian man a year after he had sold it.

But 18 months ago, he decided to search for the licence plate KP2730, and found the car belonged to a man living in Bristol.

Eventually, the owner offered David the opportunity to match a £6,000 offer from a potential buyer, and he jumped at the chance.

He said: "I just thought that if someone else was prepared to pay the money then I had better get in first so I agreed to buy the car without even seeing it.

"It was a bit like meeting an old friend you have not seen for 50 years. It was both strange and familiar at the same time."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... ng-it.html
 
Logically I must be. But I swear I'm not physically aging. I get ID'ed all the time in pubs and I'm 25. I'm mentally immature for my age too - I have no life experiences to speak of. Thats OK though, because I value innocence as a great virtue.
 
Rolling Stones classic wakes grandfather from coma
A 60-year-old grandfather woke up from a 10-week coma after his favourite Rolling Stones song was blared into his ears.
By Chris Irvine
Last Updated: 3:04PM BST 07 Aug 2008

Sam Carter lost consciousness after contracting severe anaemia but was brought back to life when "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" was blared into his ears.

The anthem was the first single the retired baker from Stoke in Staffordshire ever bought, released in 1965 when he was just 17.

Despite only being given a 30 per cent chance of survival, he woke from his coma after his wife Eva, 65, took the doctor's advice and played him his favourite tunes through a set of earphones.

After three days of listening to the local Stoke station Signal 2, his eyes opened as soon as he heard the sound of Mick Jagger's vocals and Keith Richards' guitar riff.

Sam said: "I can't remember much from being in a coma, but I do remember that when that song came on it took me right back to when I was a youngster.

"I could remember how excited I was to get it down at the record shop.

"I suddenly had a burst of energy and knew I had a lot more life left in me and that's when I woke up - to the sound of the first song I ever bought."

Same, who has three children and six grandchildren, added: "I would love to thank Mick and the rest of the Stones personally - I feel they really did help wake me from my coma."

Wife Eva said she had switched on the radio at Stoke's City General Hospital in a last-ditch attempt to bring him back a fortnight ago, after growing increasingly frustrated with his lack of progress.

She said: "I didn't really think it would work.

"I couldn't believe it when he started opening his eyes and looked at me. It was like we had been given another chance."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... -coma.html
 
Back
Top