tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-179861312009-06-21T13:31:50.799+02:00Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.comBlogger131125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-69100822511612459022009-06-21T13:22:00.003+02:002009-06-21T13:31:46.097+02:00

I find as I get older that I get tetchy very easily. Often a fairly trivial thing may happen, which gets me overly irritated, cross, complaining. It often happens when I watch TV, especially those documentaries where the presenter seems more interested in projecting themselves than in the subject of the programme. It doesn’t make it any easier for me when, looking over their shoulder at the

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-7482034974862375222009-06-01T11:03:00.006+02:002009-06-21T13:28:49.459+02:00

…so says the actress Isabella Rossellini in response to a new book. ’50 is the New Fifty’ by the journalist Suzanne Braun Levine. ‘To listen to the society we live in’, says Levine, ‘you would think that you have to stay young – and look young – to be happy. And we literally buy into that message, spending millions on age-defying cosmetics, surgery, drugs…We live in a society that is very ageist.

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-35090707495823453352009-05-18T13:20:00.002+02:002009-05-18T13:49:44.056+02:00

We met again a few days ago. The oldest of us eighty five, the rest catching up fast. In the 1950’s we had been college students and this bi-annual meeting is an attempt to keep in touch. We meet in a Catholic monastery where everyone else seems old as well. One of us introduced his experience as a trustee of a small charity in Africa. He told us at some length about his recent visit there, and

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-60867647095056711012009-04-23T19:36:00.003+02:002009-04-23T19:54:22.817+02:00

It was announced by the government’s Minister for Women, Harriet Harman, last Autumn that the broadcaster and writer Dame Joan Bakewell had agreed to be a Voice of Older People, acting as an "independent and informed advocate" on older people's issues. As a seventy five year old herself, her role would be to raise the profile of age equality issues and encourage public debate around age

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-69680052002257819302009-04-21T10:10:00.004+02:002009-04-21T10:29:12.762+02:00

….but I miss Him’. So begins Julian Barnes' recent book ‘Nothing to be Afraid Of’ which I am now reading. Influenced by his admiration for the French pastoral writer Jules Renard, the book is an uncompromising look at the inevitability of death, a subject which in these postings we have evaded until now. Barnes insists that his book is not an autobiography but instead a tapestry of memory and

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-10677854537276143832009-04-08T18:36:00.003+02:002009-04-08T18:41:43.722+02:00

I’m concerned that these postings shouldn't be inappropriately down-beat. Its true that tracking the process of getting older can be dispiriting and especially so if you want to be honest as I do, and as many others do who bring to the attention of a wider audience the perils and pitfalls of ageing. However, there are many good things about getting older. And of those surely having lost of good

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-31637048992280926692009-03-30T10:20:00.003+02:002009-03-30T10:37:20.242+02:00

…said one of my nearest and dearest. She went on, ‘you’ve been saying that you are old for years and now it’s true’. The plain message which if not stated but certainly hinted at, was that there should be no more talk about being old. Does that imply 'old' is an estate, a condition that can be defined, immutable, a goal which I had now reached. ‘Talk about something else’ was the hidden inference

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-49522020958009696312009-03-18T15:52:00.004+01:002009-03-18T16:00:44.219+01:00

Publisher, novelist and literary editor Diana Athill has worked closely with many authors, including Philip Roth, Norman Mailer, John Updike, Mordecai Richler, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Rhys, and V.S. Naipaul as well as writing many books of her own. She has recently published what she says is her last book, ‘Somewhere Towards the End’, and appropriately for someone in her early nineties, the book

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-45317896794100594632009-03-12T19:04:00.002+01:002009-03-12T19:10:35.089+01:00

This is the title of a new book by the journalist Irma Kurtz who has been an agony aunt on the magazine ‘Cosmopolitan’ for 36 years. I am grateful to R.R. for drawing my attention to an interview with the author in a recent edition of’ The Times’ of London.Kurtz says, ‘we really are pioneers. This generation of old people, there's never been anything like us before. We live in the present. It has

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-69952608167426345002009-03-03T10:37:00.003+01:002009-03-03T10:45:58.233+01:00

Last year a 98 year old woman in the UK wrote to her bank manager thus….I am writing to thank you for bouncing my cheque with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three 'nanoseconds' must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honour it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my Pension,

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-72730526143167487162009-02-23T13:35:00.004+01:002009-02-23T16:04:55.682+01:00

…is an experience not to be recommended, but which frequently affects older people between the ages of 40 and 60, most often men, particularly those who are overweight or have a diet that is high in protein. During the 17th to 19th centuries the links with rich living were a target for laughter, caricature and cartoons. The great Dr Johnson suffered acutely from it. Even the public perception of

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-25116373204608227952009-02-16T11:10:00.003+01:002009-02-23T16:06:33.001+01:00

…..said the young lad to his mates, as we got on board the bus. And they did. ‘Thank you’, I said as I moved forward and then muttered ‘you’ll be where we are one day’, which as my wife pointed out to me was much less gracious than he had been. It’s becoming a new experience, people’s concern for me! I was in Birmingham to see a friend last week and we had lunch at a self-service restaurant. ‘Can

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-86287315053964108732009-02-10T12:50:00.004+01:002009-02-10T13:01:50.242+01:00

This was the title of a Channel 4 TV programme I watched yesterday, exposing the ageism that is rife among employers and recruitment agencies. A series of people were interviewed with ages ranging from early fifties to seventy. All of them had lost their jobs and were finding it virtually impossible to find another. Affected by the present financial crash, many of them needed to continue working

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-293354355758950882009-01-29T16:36:00.001+01:002009-02-13T09:54:18.641+01:00

I have spent much of my working life amongst older people and have tried to be sympathetic, as they told me about their aches and pains. I have watched people searching in pockets or purses for change as they paid for their bus fares, with other passengers impatient at the delay, and have watched people carefully walk across pedestrian crossings, trying to achieve the process before the lights

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-73231909696104681062009-01-19T09:31:00.004+01:002009-01-19T10:13:29.421+01:00

I see the Oxford Institute of Ageing is holding its second Spring School in April, following the apparent success of its first such event last year. The institute describes itself as multi-disciplinary and believes that the production of high quality, strategic research, informed by good policy and practice, will lead to a greater understanding of societies as they age. An excellent aim. They

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-78246889458732025402009-01-09T15:36:00.005+01:002009-03-02T16:04:28.401+01:00

This week we became conscious of old age at it most acute.S. had her ninetieth birthday last year and there was a great celebration for her family and friends to mark the event. It was a wrench when at about the same time she decided to move from her fine Georgian house. She was part of a community of like-minded people who met socially and had their annual party in her huge garden. Missing them

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-38206702210437432022009-01-05T21:16:00.002+01:002009-01-05T21:19:23.290+01:00

I have been looking again at Wikepedia’s article on Ageing - one of my early reference points for these blogs. Ageing is described there as the accumulation of changes in an organism or object over time, a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow, says the article, and expand over time, whilst others decline. Reaction time, for example

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-61975347224612478822008-12-24T13:00:00.003+01:002008-12-26T10:31:47.543+01:00

During the nearly 50 years of our marriage, work has taken us around the country. In the process we have made many friends and ‘The Christmas Letter’ from some of them has become an annual ritual to which we look forward each year. At a time of economic and political gloom, this year everyone seems as cheerful as ever. And whilst there are sad references, with news of several elderly people dying

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-88652810342130104952008-12-16T12:27:00.003+01:002008-12-16T12:34:00.020+01:00

This is the arresting title of David Lodge’s new book, which I have just finished reading. Often very funny indeed, it tells the poignant story of a retired professor of linguistics, Desmond Bates, who is growing deaf and it recounts his adventures in coping with the affliction, and, often unsuccessfully, in trying to conceal the fact from others.He gets involved in conversations and situations

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-84127402984602265282008-12-05T13:04:00.002+01:002008-12-05T13:10:05.710+01:00

I’ve heard those words from my doctor before. Going to him with a small list of physical problems, with one exception comparatively minor things, he had a look at where the pain was, and suggested a blood test and an X ray (both addressed before the day was done). And once the result of those are known, he said, it will be easier to work out what’s wrong. The minor ones are more difficult. It’s

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-78824231200461899812008-11-19T21:43:00.002+01:002008-11-19T21:47:14.712+01:00

Most Mondays and Wednesdays I attend a cardiac rehabilitation class held in the Sports Department of a local school. There are about a hundred members and on each of the five sessions every week about twenty of us go through what has become a familiar routine. For the first twenty minutes we walk around the perimeter of the gym, called by our instructor to exercise our arms and legs, sometimes

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-59435221127104805632008-11-10T13:20:00.001+01:002008-11-10T13:23:42.686+01:00

Broadcaster and writer, Dame Joan Bakewell, has been appointed as a champion of the elderly by the government’s Minister for Women, Harriet Harman, who says that the 75-year-old has agreed to be a Voice of Older People, and will act as an "independent and informed advocate" on older people's issues. Her role will apparently include raising the profile of age equality issues and encouraging public

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-54269563833180525432008-11-06T10:15:00.001+01:002008-11-06T10:18:32.082+01:00

It must always have been so, but the gap between the generations, especially between the quite young and the very old, is for me a constant sadness. There are all sorts of rational causes to do with it : education, family values, the immense effect of the media, social background ( how can us older people not be careful about money and waste when we grew up in the harsh years of war when

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-29382487845682852432008-10-28T10:56:00.002+01:002008-10-29T22:02:12.894+01:00

You guessed – this is not going to be one of our more cheerful postings, though – as always I hope – an honest one. I came upon this phrase about watching the remorseless process of ageing at the same time as I saw an article by Dr.Luisa Dillner of the British Medical Journal publishing group. She describes how the body changes as we get older. Here are some of the signs, familiar to many of

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17986131.post-4266196451709715992008-10-11T15:31:00.003+02:002008-10-20T13:57:52.576+02:00

There’s a striking picture in today’s ‘Guardian’ taken from behind, of an elderly man with broad, hunched shoulders, white hair leading to a bald head. It is the Republican candidate for the U.S. Presidency, John McCain who is 72 years old. At the end of his term, if he wins the election, at 76 he will be near to my own age.Mc Cain has had much governmental experience since becoming a Senator in

Euroresidenteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09720730325379243865noreply@blogger.com0