Happy Friday everyone! I don’t know about you, but I am
ready for the weekend after a long and eventful week. On cue the weather is set
to turn for the worse tomorrow and Sunday after a sunny end to the working week
here. There really is truth to the old joke, “What do you call the day after
two days of rain in Auckland?” “Monday”. Thank you, thank you, I’m here all
night, try the veal. Don’t forget to tip your waitress. Or, even better,
subscribe to this fine website! 

A couple of pieces today to mull over this weekend – both
about getting old. Here in Aotearoa, Statistics NZ has just released figures showing that the number of us over 85 has trebled in the past 30 years.  One out of every 60 New Zealanders is now
over 86, compared with one in 150 in 1981. 
The median age is up 2.2 years on a decade ago and is expected to reach
43.5 years in 2061. Hopefully by 2061 I will be one of those pulling that
median age upwards and will have 85 in my medium-term sights.

And hopefully by 2061 I will still be on course to emulate this
growing number of high achievers in the US. The number of centenarians in the US has roughly doubled in the past 20
years.  Apparently there are now 72,000
US citizens who, if it wasn’t for 1776, would have received a congratulatory
telegraph from Her Majesty.  (Does anyone
know if the late Queen Mother got a telegraph from her daughter when she hit
100? That question has always interested me…) By 2050 the number of those in
the US who have notched up tons is expected to grow to anything from between 265,000
and 4.3 million! This increase over the past 20 years is not just due to a
growing population – they are also a larger chunk of the population, growing
from 15 per 100,000 in 1990 to 23 per 100,000 today.

If you do end up achieving this no mean feat yourself apparently
you will probably exhibit the following
traits:

-
A positive but realistic attitude;

-
A love of life and sense of humour;

-
Spirituality;

-
Courage; and

-
A remarkable ability to accept the losses that come with age but not be stopped
by them.

How many of these traits do you have right now? If you want
to hit 100 then perhaps you need to start developing some of the above areas
that you are lacking in.  But whether we
get there or not, we all need to realise that the population is getting older
and that it is expected to do so for a long time yet.  Maybe it’s time to invest in mobility scooter
manufacturers...