TheAgePage Blog

This is Sarah's blog with her thoughts and opinions on older people & their place in British society.

This page shows the latest news post from TheAgePage. If you go to the main blog then you can leave comments and read the rest of the articles.

The perhaps-not-quite-so Big Freeze

Posted: 6 January 2009 | 6:34 pm

I see that £25-a-week cold weather payments are due to be paid to millions of pensioners since temperatures dropped below zero in 'The Big Freeze' as it has been coined – and are set to continue, and that some 600,000 people will receive them in the London area. I was in Wimbledon earlier today and the temperature was a chilly -9 degrees, so I'm glad that they have had some good news for a change.

My central heating system at home died on the first day of the very cold weather last month and is unlikely to be replaced until after the cold weather finishes, so it's been a bit like my childhood in the late fifties, with extra clothes, woolly hats and rugs over knees while working– and hot water bottles at night. I say a bit, because at least the frost isn't on the inside of the windows...

However, as one of the reminiscence cards in Many Happy Returns 1940s reminds us, this is nothing compared with the very cold winter of 1947, when many villages were cut off for days without electricity and the night time temperature in Kent plummeted to an astonishing -21 degrees on 24th January, when it was so cold in London that Big Ben started to miss beats.

The 'Big Freeze' then lasted over two months, with snow as deep as 7 metres in the North, and this was followed by a thaw that brought severe flooding across 30 counties – and all while the country was nearly starving at the end of the war. So really, we have little to complain about.

Intriguingly, the Big Freeze of '47 was followed by a long hot summer, so I'm just hoping that history repeats itself in 2009.

Image: BBC.co.uk Philip Pitcher, High Wycombe

Crossing the generation gap can be very rewarding

Posted: 31 December 2008 | 6:05 am

Regardless of what happens in the coming year in the world of politics and the economy, let's hope that community will finally surface as something we can all support - so why not make a new year's resolution to try... Read more

Sharing happy Christmas memories with older people

Posted: 19 December 2008 | 5:51 am

This can be such a lovely time of year to reminisce – even if bittersweet for many. Why not enjoy some fond memories with a much older person and bring some of their past happy Christmas images back to life?Many... Read more

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge

Posted: 11 December 2008 | 5:38 am

I came across this book by Mem Fox while doing some research this week. It is quite wonderful and touching and so true of my own experience – and I 'm sure it will resonate with many others, too. The... Read more

Showing off

Posted: 3 December 2008 | 6:31 pm

In the days when I was producing audio visual programmes, I was lucky enough to win a number of awards. I say I merely because it was me they were given to. Of course, the truth is that each programme... Read more

Home is where the heart is

Posted: 28 November 2008 | 8:59 am

Did you know that although two-thirds of elderly people would prefer to die at home, nearly the same number, 58 per cent, end up spending their final days in hospital? It will surprise few that hospital is about the most... Read more

Getting on in care homes - having a chat

Posted: 18 November 2008 | 3:43 am

There is no doubt that person-focussed and relationship-centred care is definitely where it's at. Its benefits spread far and wide - to everyone in the home - both cared-for and carers and other staff alike. Reminiscence activities and conversation should... Read more

BBC focusing on a fickle group instead of fastest-growing audience

Posted: 10 November 2008 | 6:58 pm

Published in the FT, on 27 April 2006 This letter was published in the FT and written by a friend of mine Dick Stroud who runs the consultancy 20plus30 which advises companies about all aspects of marketing to the 50-plus... Read more

Ross and Brand

Posted: 4 November 2008 | 5:22 pm

Mark Easton's blog on the BBC website I responded to auntie's dilemma on Mark Easton's BBC blog... The discussion about the two conceited characters at the centre of this furore has many interesting twists and turns of course, (especially issues... Read more

No surprise there, then

Posted: 1 November 2008 | 8:16 am

Health rather than money is the issue worrying people most about old age, a poll for the BBC News website suggests. Poor health can play a major part in loneliness - if you aren't well enough to get out, you... Read more

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