An Age of Magic

Elderly Brits choose between eating and heating in the winter

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I was watching a television report this morning regarding the pverty levels amongst elderly pensioners in the UK. The really sad thing is that many will, once again, have to choose between heating their homes in the cold weather or buying food. How on earth did things ever get to this stage in this day and age…?

One old lady I saw this morning said she spends the days in the winter sitting in her bed as she cannot afford things like a tankless water heater or even a fuel heater; she has her meals in her room and that is her life until the cold weather passes. And she has done this for years.

Relocating to a warmer climate is not an option for people like her - there are too many of them and they cannot afford to do so.  I cannot see why pensioners in this situation cannot have their electricity for free from December until March. It’s the very least the Govt could do.

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The American voyage

We are off on a long haul trip to Australia next year around June and have decided to break the trip up with a visit to the USA. I have one place in mind that I especially wish to visit - the Waltons House in Virginia.

Okay, you might think that it is a bit ‘hick’ but I’ve been a Waltons fan since I was a small kid and still love to watch the show.  But Virginia is not the easiest place to land in immediately from Europe. Plan is to drive from NYC to North Carolina and take in the Outer Banks seaside region - maybe rent a condo for a few days - and then drive onto Virginia from there.

Of course the last stop will be Walt Disney World in Orlando…I told you I was a big kid!

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China identifies internet addiction

It had to happen at some stage soon; China has become the first nation in the world to identify the disorder ‘internet addiction’. Don’t laugh about it either - obviously this is a very real condition. Just take a look at so many kids today - not just kids, adults as well.

Doctors in Beijing have released a diagnostic definition of the addiction amid increasing concern over psychological problems said to result from overuse of the internet. According to the definition, based on a study of more than 1,300 problematic users, symptoms of the addiction include yearning to get back online, mental or physical distress, irritation and difficulty concentrating or sleeping.

In fact I will go one step further and compare the condition to autism; the way some people can sit and stare at a computer screen for hours at a time and remain impervious to anything else going on around them is just like an autistic child playing obsessively with a toy.

Obviously the ability to be ‘autistic’ is something many people are capable of and it just requires something like a computer and the internet to bring it out.

One more reason to pull the plug and get the kids to play outside…if they remember how to!

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