Life and Death and everything in between - part 1

It is a truth universally acknowledged... that we exit this world the way that we entered it. We dependent on someone else bathing, dressing, feeding us, turning us over in bed, checking on us in the night. It is a concept touched in 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Yet, a newborn or young baby receives, generally, more attention that the elderly despite needing many of the same basics of life. We would never leave a baby on its own, but it's the easiest thing to deposit someone in a hostel or nursing home and let someone else worry about them.

Nearly every Sunday, while visiting my Grandmother in her room at the hostel, I would think to myself that I hardly see anyone else visiting their relatives up there. One of the other residents was the mother of someone with whom I went through high school, and not once did I see him up there. The government pledges baby bonuses and other monetary incentives to help new mothers, which incidentally is OK by me, but the funding and the responsibility for the aged often falls short. In my Grandparents' case, too often the DVA pension would go up and then the age pension would be adjusted so that the increase was cancelled out. The cost of age care just never seemed to be a priority.

The crunch came recently, when nursing homes and residential aged care facilities were forced to close due to the owners owing in excess of $23 Million dollars, having gone into resident's bond money, and not paid staff superannuation for years. If there is no government regulation on this, then why don't we see the same thing happening for the other scenarios? Out of these closures and the news being reported, it has become quite clear that the government have not been providing the same level of protection for these residents, their money, and for the staff that care for them, as it would for other citizens. This is despicable, and tends to reinforce the "dump them and leave them" attitude.

What it does make you realise is your own mortality. In my case, this could be me in 50 years time. Left in some nursing home bed with no-one to feed me, wash me, or even talk to me. Our population is aging but the the moral sense of responsibility is not ageing with it.

It makes me extremely angry.

Eight things I noticed on my trip to town

I've just been into town for a little shopping trip and a look around. A couple of books, a coffee and an extra battery for my laptop later, I thought I'd note down eight things that I noticed or came to mind on my little trip:

1. It's very common for people to stop at tops of escalators or in doorways while they wonder where they're going next without realising they're holding up a stream of people.
2. We drive on the left but tend to walk on the right (or all over the place in some places, e.g. Myer Bourke street store).
3. Some people have a knack of walking right in front of you and somehow moving in front of you again when you attempt to walk around.
4. There seems to be very few places for someone to sit down and have a relaxing cup of coffee without there being heaps of people also sitting, talking, walking or being pretty painful also having a coffee in the same place.
5. If you walk down Bourke street Mall, looking at your friend behind you while calling him a "stalker" then I'm bound to call you a something that rhymes back.
6. Hopetoun Tea Rooms in Block arcade do a respectable latte in a cup.
7. Apart from Myer and DJs, there is no dedicated Apple shop within a hop/skip/jump of the Bourke street Mall.
8. Whoever writes the "humorous" Mother's Day cards should quit now and start looking for a new job (there were some terrible ones in Myer)

Approaching 40

OK, so I know I'm still 21 months off, but already I'm thinking of the slide that is the road to 40. I remember back to when I was in this position approaching 30, the attitudes I had to life, people, situations, my dress sense, and now feel in a similar place again 2 years out of hitting 40.

I remember a couple of years ago noting the "40" thing that makes people want to wear tighter t-shirts and jeans, possibly in order to show that the body, now it's 40, is still in good shape, and thinking that I'd never do that and remain true to my (hopefully) better dress sense. Without realising it, I have, over the last few months, invested in a larger number of t-shirts, possibly to show off that my body, now that I'm approaching 40, it's still in good shape..! Without realising it, I've subscribed to the one thing I always thought was a bit funny. Having said that, t-shirts are a lot more comfortable at time, so I'm prepared to give in on that bit!