Grow old disgracefully.

needmoney

Thought i'd just pop in here for a chat.I've been feeling very low just lately with bad arthritis pain, the last two days have been much better for me. I have been doing lots of my own research as I've not had much help from the medics and I came across 30 ways to grow old disgracefully.

Anybody want to up the count with your own ideas:D link below incase you're too bored to read further.
Sadly, however, a new survey by the charity Arthritis Care says that ‘as many as two million people living with arthritis are frustrated with the outcome of consultations with health care professionals’. They say they receive neither adequate sympathy nor help to manage their symptoms. Four out of five GPs ‘seriously underestimate the impact arthritis has on people’s lives’, according to the charity. The result, they say, is that many sufferers become resigned to a life of pain, convinced that the condition is something they just have to put up with.
Part of the problem is that the mainstay of managing the painful symptoms of osteoarthritis, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as ibuprofen, can be disappointing as they may not provide complete relief and can have unwanted side effects.


http://www.saga.co.uk/health_news/article/6F69DFE6-3E9B-11D7-B8B8-00508BAEC55C.asp

ttoli

Needmoney
Really sorry to hear of your pain, My late mother too suffered greatly until She started daily doses of Feverfew tablets (Health Food shop), no side effects and really helped ease the pain.. Good luck

needmoney

Thanks for that ttoli, nice of you.
No tips for growing old disgracefully from you or anybody else though. I thought somebody would have posted something deliciously disgracefull.:D

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Aha, a challenge ! How about this -

Take your motorbike test and splash out on a Ducati Monster

and donate your organs a bit sooner than you planned to

needmoney

ha ha Wicked Dora but a bit too much for me ta.
Took a few motorbike lessons last year but don't think I'll be continuing this year.
But challenge - yes. I thought there'd be a few more perhaps I posted in the wrong place thought it would be a bit of fun in here.:o

Bogof_Babe

Must admit that most of the suggestions on your link seem more like being in denial than growing old (dis)gracefully - i.e. who in their right minds would actually want to do most of those things? I like the one about screening out unwanted phone calls, and buying a Winnebago (we are looking into more modest campervans at the moment) but the idea of going to a disco, with or without people young enough to be my grandchildren, appals me. I've looked forward to a bit of peace and quiet for decades!

My suggestion is to take retirement as early as financially viable, thus getting out of the rat race, and then arrange your lifestyle to reflect the re-evaluated importance and simple pleasures of time v wealth. Sit back and enjoy the Aldi economy coffee while watching the rest of the world rush by.

My other tip is to turn the TV off more often - be selective. Check the radio listings each day as well as the TV, especially BBC Radio 4 and 5-Live. There is a wealth of free entertainment (in the broadest sense of the word) 24-hours a day. The small-hours output of the World Service is excellent for insomniacs too!

tummteetum

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other peoples' gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Jenny Joseph (1932 -)

seven-day-weekend

We left our son in England and ran off to a mountain in Spain.

margaretclare

Bogof_Babe wrote:

Must admit that most of the suggestions on your link seem more like being in denial than growing old (dis)gracefully - i.e. who in their right minds would actually want to do most of those things? I like the one about screening out unwanted phone calls, and buying a Winnebago (we are looking into more modest campervans at the moment) but the idea of going to a disco, with or without people young enough to be my grandchildren, appals me. I've looked forward to a bit of peace and quiet for decades!

My suggestion is to take retirement as early as financially viable, thus getting out of the rat race, and then arrange your lifestyle to reflect the re-evaluated importance and simple pleasures of time v wealth. Sit back and enjoy the Aldi economy coffee while watching the rest of the world rush by.

My other tip is to turn the TV off more often - be selective. Check the radio listings each day as well as the TV, especially BBC Radio 4 and 5-Live. There is a wealth of free entertainment (in the broadest sense of the word) 24-hours a day. The small-hours output of the World Service is excellent for insomniacs too!

It's aimed at the Americans obviously, the mention of a Winnebago.

Yes, turn the TV off. In fact, don't turn it on unless there's something really worth watching! It dulls the brain, a constant diet of visual, aural and mental dross - it's brainwashing. We are getting to watch TV less and less, and we're approaching the age when we'll be given a free TV licence - are the 'Powers that Be' trying to tell us something about what they think we *should* be doing/how we are assumed to want to spend our time?

We're away on holiday for a week from tomorrow morning, something which is a new departure for us, self-catering in a farm cottage in Yorkshire. Needless to say we intend to get out and about, we have a box of groceries to take with us but we certainly will not be cooking many meals - breakfast only, because we're surrounded by gorgeous pubs. This is where we'll be staying: http://www.valleyviewfarm.com/couch.html

We wouldn't have gone away in August normally but we wanted this particular cottage because of the bathroom. I can't be away in September because I'm starting GCSE Maths and once it starts, I can't miss any.

We're going to be away over Christmas, and this again is something new for us: http://www.travelscope.co.uk/Christmas_Cruise.html We decided on this because Christmas is so over-hyped for months in advance and then it arrives and is a complete non-event. So we go to church, come home and have a nice meal - so what, no different from most Sundays. If it is a success this year there's no reason why we can't go somewhere different every Christmas. In addition, we've been invited to a get-together of international friends for next July at Niagara Falls, and we're planning that. So it's not so much a question of being 'in denial' as having a lot to look forward to and having a positive attitude to life. As Woody Allen said: 'life is a b**ch but it's better than the alternative'!

Having said that, I can't believe I'm 71 - I don't know how I'm supposed to behave, what 71 behaves like! Except that I don't get along with other older people who seem to do nothing but whinge and complain about everything under the sun. I avoid them!

Margaret

novice-saver

seven-day-weekend wrote:

We left our son in England and ran off to a mountain in Spain.

I must say we're sorely tempted to run off and leave our parents and daughters..

It's probably irresponsible, rather than disgraceful, for us at the moment.

KMK

I am off to Sheffield to the Rolling Stones' concert over the Bank Holiday. Does that verge on the disgraceful use of a pension and does it make me a "Honky Tonk Pensioner"?