'Who is afraid of'.....Hyper-ageing!

Its doom and gloom time at IOM Today with the paper predicting a hyper-ageing population for the Isle of Man on the basis of UN reports. I have this mental age of hordes of people on zimmer frames collecting plastic on the beaches and getting bogged down in the sand. What will happen to the world's ocean when the Beach Buddies demographic age wise becomes critical.

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=42524&headline=Tuesday%20is%20n...

Hyper-ageing is nothing new the Japanese were banging on about this decades ago and even Chris Thomas MHK and COMIN member has written a paper on it. The Thomas family must be seized with trepidation when they see Chris sit down with a pen and paper.

As if to reinforce the newspaper message ‘the postie’ drops a couple of missives through the letterbox. Post was early today the posties obviously have a spring in their step after the Bank holiday.

The first is the gas bill. Manx Gas is guaranteed to assist the hyper-ageing population as if you are not killed of by cold then on opening the bill you will probably feel like ending it yourself. I toy with the idea of using the gas oven then realise I haven’t got one.

The second is a DVD. I’m adding to my copious collection of world cinema at the moment and enjoyed ‘The White Elephant’ (an Argentinian Film) immensely over the weekend but today's delivery is less exotic. It’s the 1986 TV dramatisation of the Vita Sackville West novel ‘All Passion Spent’ I saw it many years ago but thought I would reprise it as the film ‘Vita and Virginia’ is due for release in early September - I just know I’ll be disappointed so the DVD is a placebo. I’m into my Bloomsbury Set period obviously induced by reading to much biographical stuff on Rupert Brooke of late. Anyway ‘All Passion Spent’ seems apposite given the doom in the air down at Isle of Man Today over ageing population. I muse why can’t Editor Richard Butt be more literary with the headline and have titled today's paper ‘END OF DAYS’.

By the weekend Moulton at Manxnet TV should have caught up and will be able to ask the great man Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK about it. Howard given his new sartorial styling by that time will no doubt be decked out in a new sports jacket and matching corduroy with brown brogues and will brush it all aside with his customary flair. Anyway I hope to catch the story if hyper-ageing or the impact of a dissolute life has not caught up on me.

Image: Virginia Woolf - ‘Who is afraid of.’..hyper-ageing!

Bernard Moffatt