Old people eh? What can you do with them !!!!
And there's a lot of them about - as my light-to-moderate wife Lois and I keep discovering every day when we open up our copy of the local Onion News for East Hampshire: and a quick "heads up" - this story may upset some readers "of a nervous disposition", as people used to say!
But the story brings a wry chuckle to the cheeks of Lois and me this morning, because it reminds us that we ourselves - Yours Truly and "Mrs Yours Truly" as I jokingly call her (!), are not so far off "senior-dom" ourselves, and in only 8 months time, we'll both be octogenarians just like that poor old maintenance guy, would you believe!
my light-to-moderate wife Lois and me - a recent picture
All the signs are there! Just this morning, Lois and I spend a couple of hours at Haslemere Hall for the local U3A "coffee morning for new members" - talking to other "old codgers", and we consider joining some of their many special interest groups.
We've already joined local man Joe's "Intermediate Latin for Old Codgers" group. And this morning Lois expresses an interest in the Country Dancing group - unwisely in my view! - and also signs us both up for a 2-hour First Aid course: e.g. what to do if somebody looks like they've maybe had a stroke, or they starts choking - all fun stuff haha! I express interest in the Comedy and Humour Group, because I think learning some jokes to crack when somebody starts choking, for example, could help to "lighten the mood" and keep the "patient" calm, do you think?
I wonder.....!
I try to assure one of the co-ordinators that Lois and I "can cope with the internet", but she seems unconvinced, and insists on giving us a bunch of phone numbers "in case we find that easier". Oh dear, we must be looking really feeble-minded and doddery today: what madness, isn't it !!!!
flashback to this morning: we take part in the local Haslemere U3A
"coffee morning for new members" - Lois is centre in the dark pink coat
talking to the leader of the Intermediate French Conversation group
Later in the day, we play a more conventional grandparent role by "being there" for our 15-year-old grandson, Isaac, who pops in to spend 30 minutes or so with us while waiting for mum Alison, our 50-year-old daughter, to stop by and take him to a piano lesson or something like that (!). Isaac is a future rock star who has his own boy-girl band much in demand for "gigs" at local pubs and local village fetes, which is nice!
An old codger called Colin (not me!!!) finds he is paired up with 25-year-old Charlotte, a Welsh girl from Swansea.
She's initially confused and bewildered by Tokyo - "nothing like Swansea" - and it's a feeling I remember myself from way back in 1970, that's for sure!
(left) our daughter Alison with son Isaac (15) who spend some time with us
this afternoon, and (right) publicity material for Isaac's 5-piece boy-girl rock band
Well, Lois and I might be looking a bit feeble-minded and extra doddery today just managing to make our way to a local old codgers' coffee morning 5 miles away from our home, just over the county line in Haslemere, Surrey.
But could we, if asked, find our way around Tokyo, Japan - theoretically a much tougher challenge?
I doubt it, personally (!), even though it's a country where I spent a year of my youth, as a student, back in 1970-1971, and during that year, Lois came to stay with me for 3 weeks, back in March 1971, a year or so before we eventually got married.
flashback to March 1971: Lois and me in Japan,
the year before we got married
I say all this because there's a new game show, "Worlds Apart", starting tonight on Channel 4, where a bunch of old codgers are each paired up with somebody young who they don't know, and they have to find their way around Tokyo solving puzzles and the like and winning little coin-shaped "tokens" for correct answers, and all that kind of malarkey; the pair earning the fewest tokens being eliminated, and with a grand prize of £50,000 for the winning pair. You know the kind of thing!
Here's Charlotte introducing herself for the cameras.
Eventually the two make contact - somewhere in the so-called "Harajuku district", or some-such nonsense!!!
They've each been given little iPads or something similar ("Good Luck!" with one of those, Colin haha!). These iPads tell them (a) where to meet up with each other and (b) how to get to the next location, where they'll be given their first puzzle to solve.
Yes, to solve their first puzzle the pair first have somehow got to get to Takeshita Street, which Charlotte mispronounces as "Take-a-shit Street" - oh dear !!!!!!
Poor Colin (again) !!!!
If I were criticising the show, I would say that there must be some off-camera skulduggery to get the old codgers to the street they're supposed to be making for.
The youngsters have their Google Maps (or some-such nonsense (!)) to get them where they want to go. But there's no way the old codgers could manage that on their own. I found it difficult enough during my first 2 months in Tokyo back in 1970, even though I was only in my early twenties and could read, write and speak Japanese!
flashback to October 1970: me, newly arrived in Tokyo for my study year,
at Shakujikoen train station, trying to work out how to buy the right
ticket for the right line, and put my money in the right machine
to get me to my college - what madness !!!!!
My other criticism would be that the puzzles that these old-codger-young-rascal pairs have to solve seem a bit petty and "footling", compared to the challenges of travelling around Tokyo. For instance there's one puzzle where contestants are given some "quotes" and have to decide whether they were written by Buddha or are just a bit of dialogue from a Hollywood film.
What utter utter utter madness !!!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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