The Unorthodox Website Blog

A group of 1950s-style rock’n'roll and Roots Music fans meet up in central London once a month for a drink and a meal out, and for the occasional outing and gig. Some of us have been on trips to the USA together, visiting venues and places of interest associated with the music we love, most of which comes from the Southern States aka ‘Dixie’.

We had a meet-up and meal last Friday. Most of us are around the same age, mid-60s, some a bit older, some younger. A remark was made that we probably had another 10 years of active life ahead of us if we were lucky.

As we get older, and see others get older (my mother is 95), we naturally get to thinking about what happens when we slow down, perhaps get more forgetful and/or decrepit, and if we are on our own, who will take care of us.

CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE THEM!

‘CINDERELLA’

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Ugly Sisters (Eddie and Tony)

Dandini and Wicked Stepmother (Anne and Dot – Tony’s mum)

Footman, Prince Charming, Dandini, Wicked Stepmother (Sharma, Maureen, Anne, Dot)

Cinderella and Fairy Godmother (Elvina and Modupe)

Baron Hardup and Buttons (Hilda and Carmen)

Prince Charming (Maureen)

‘COYOTE STEALS THE FIRE’

Tree Spirit and Fire Spirit (Carmen and Tony)

David Cameron and others in the Conservative Party have recently been promoting the idea of cooperatives. Does this mean, while New Labour have been converted lock, stock and barrel to unbridled privatization and capitalism, the New Tories are being converted to Marxism?

Unlikely in the extreme, but perfectly possible they are desperately trying to gather some votes from the more leftwing section of the electorate.

However we should not dismiss these ideas just because it may be a vote-catching exercise, or because they come from the Tory Party. We should, however, be wary as some ‘cooperatives’ seem to be just a way of the State, local or other public authorities abdicating their responsibilities.

Examples of this are when pressure is put on council tenants or parents of State schools to form housing or education ‘cooperatives’.

Towards the end of next month I will hit 65, which in Britain at present for men is when we are eligible to collect our State pension. They are, of course, trying to raise it so that we all slog our guts out and drop dead at work before having a chance to retire or collect our pension. This in itself is a very short-sighted policy, and a completely false economy when millions of younger people with families are unemployed and living on State benefits. Why employ people over 65 or over 70 who will probably by then be on higher salaries than much younger people, and who must surely get less efficient as the infirmities of old age creep in? I retired at 62, but already I was very deaf and couldn’t hear visitors on Reception very well.

This was the subject of a pretentious and rather silly Horizon program on BBC 2 the other night. When not showing children, and adult mathematicians, counting upwards, it was discussing whether there was a biggest number.

This utter nonsense was presented as science or mathematics. What a load of drivel! The term ‘biggest number’ is absolutely meaningless unless it is qualified: biggest number of what: Tomatoes? Gold ingots? Atoms in the Universe? Stupid mathematicians and kids being persuaded to count on TV?

As a few pointed out, obviously there can be no absolute ‘biggest number’ as you can always add one, two or any other number to it to make a bigger number. So of course numbers can stretch into infinity either above or below zero.

The program then went on to postulate on the nature of infinity, and that if it existed there must be many exact carbon copies of Earth and us on it with the same thoughts, etc.

Good old fashioned packaging

Yes, there is undoubtedly a fiendish plot to deprive us ‘oldies’ of many of the basic necessities of life. The plot takes the form of completely unopenable wrappers, jars, etc.. Many of these are described as ‘childproof’ but of course we know that really they are ‘oldieproof’. Undoubtedly the Illuminati, a race of Alien Reptilians, the Freemasons or possibly the Compulsory Euthanasia at 40 Society are behind it all. 

Such things as those plastic bottles of cooking oil which my mother, at 95, finds absolutely impossible to open and which even I, at nearly 65, have difficulty with. I struggle with the little plastic seal, which often breaks as I try to pull it off. My mother simply punches a hole in the plastic bottle and squeezes the oil out thru that, a quite messy procedure I might add, so I wouldn’t advise it.