Friday 17 April 2015

A - Z Challenge O is for Old Age



My theme for this challenge is family and relations.

Old age “the final stage of the normal life span”

I thought I ought to check when this is supposed to start but there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on the starting age and of course it would depend on where you live and a lot of other factors.  The NHS seem to refer to 65 a lot but of course that was retirement age.  You would presume that now we have to retire later we don’t get to be old as quickly.

That’s partly backed up by information I found from the Office of National Statistics - over the last 50 years (1960-2010) the average life span has increased by around 10 years for a man and 8 years for a woman. The most common age at death in England and Wales in 2010 was 85 for men and 89 for women. 

There’s bound to be more up to date information around but you get the picture.  This of course refers to the UK and as I said before it would fluctuate widely around the world.  I could check out the statistics for third world countries but I think that would be depressing and in war torn areas it would be even worse.

However, I’m supposed to be trying to have positive thoughts!  Well I’m up and dressed already today and have put away my shopping delivery and tidied my kitchen.  One slight problem, I’m dressed in yesterday’s clothes and I haven’t seen the inside of the bathroom yet!  I had a lovely text from Tesco first thing advising me my shopping delivery would be delayed – it was due between 9 – 10 am but would now arrive between 9 and 10.10 am.  I worked on the basis that it was probably going to arrive towards the end of the time slot and might even end up being later.  Heck no!  At 8.45 am I’m still lazing in my bed just finishing my toast hubby had kindly brought up before he left for work when the recognisable sound of the Tesco van could be heard!  There followed a mad scramble to throw on some clothes so that I could at least be decent to open the door.

Anyway shopping sorted and kitchen tidied I decided to get today’s entry done and posted as I’m going out shopping later.

Oh yes back to old age – I think I might need to put a post it note on the front door to remind me to shower and dress in clean clothes before venturing out.  Don’t want to have a senior moment.  Yes I get those and I am not old!  Not by NHS standards anyway.  My body sometimes begs to tell me differently and the odd mental block isn’t encouraging.

I don’t mind the thought of living to 89 as long as I have all my mental faculties.  The thought of being frail doesn’t worry me too much as long as I don’t feel I’m being a burden to anyone but the idea of losing my marbles is very worrying having seen at first hand the effects Alzheimer’s and dementia can have on someone.

Probably why I’m obsessed with doing puzzles (words and numbers), reading, and anything else that keeps my brain exercised.  I’m sure blogging helps too and I’m pleased that so far I’ve been managing to keep up with the challenge.  I hadn’t really been blogging regularly for a long time but my change in circumstances gave me a good opportunity to get back to it.

It’s been fun visiting other blogs as well and getting ideas – there are lots of memes out there I could join in with but I’m taking it slowly so that I don’t get too caught up and neglect other things.  I’ve been working my way down the list of people taking part.  Fortunately it’s shrinking a little bit but there are still over 1600 so I know I won’t get to visit them all.  (I was no 1252 on the list when I signed up and today I’m at 1100 so at least 150 have fallen by the wayside before me.)

It’s very easy to get caught up if you find an interesting blog.  I’ve found a few that I’m following regularly having visited people after me on the list but I’m skipping quickly down the list when I can.  I like the way you can see by the colour which blogs you’ve visited. 

Hmm that’s probably my age showing.  I’m sure any youngsters or anyone with a bit of tech savvy is thinking what is she so impressed about, it should work like that.  But it hasn’t always.  I know!  When I was first taking part in meme there weren’t linky lists.  Well, having shown signs of old age I need to demonstrate I’m not there yet.  At least I don’t think I am.  Now where are my post its?

3 comments:

  1. You're 1093 today, so you must be getting younger!

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  2. Well I hope you did eventually manage to get washed and dressed! I have done similar in the past and the last time it happened I did actually forget until halfway through the afternoon when I realised I wasa bit whiffy1

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  3. I have been known to be in my PJs in the late afternoon. It's allowed if you're a writer and you don't have to have any guilt complexes as its accepted practice:D

    I've been hopping around the list too - one thing I've found is that not planning my posts means I've had less time to do that which is is a disadvantage I think. I tend to pick blogs with titles not just names - when it's just a name (like just plain John Doe not like you've got) I surmise it is often an author and they might be writing about writing which, on the whole, doesn't interest me. I prefer posts with more emotional engagement.

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