Senior Moments

Ray's sister gave us a money box, which if you had an incident of a senior forgetfulness, you were required to put a coin in the money box.

For some years, from the beginning of Covid, I never paid cash anywhere. Now at times I do, and I get change back, with coins going into the Senior Moment money box. Today I emptied it into the device at the bank and it slowly counted the coins, rejecting one foreign coin, and the total was $30. Amazing how it mounts up.  

Senior Moment fell out of fashion for 'brain fog'. 

Call it either, I have no idea where I was going with this post below. I really should have pasted in the FB link, and I would have remembered. But wait, I did put the link in that takes you to Huffington Post but to nothing specific. Oh well. Tough tittie. My words of wisdom will not be written. 

A horrible irony: The Internet was a boon to introverts, who have found a social life they never had and "met" countless people on Facebook, etc., and who are very comfortable in correspondence, such as in interviews like this,

The Aussie Pension

There is some detail I will leave out to keep this simple. The Australian old age pension is for eligible Australians who are permanent residents or citizens who have lived in Australia for a certain period, are retired and are 67 years old or more. There isn't a retirement age in Australia but 67 is thought of as a de facto age. 

The pension is paid by the government from its general revenue, taxes if you like. Generally, wages and pensions are paid every two weeks. 

The maximum pension is about $600 a week. The pension comes with other benefits, such as cheaper electricity, gas and water, along with local government rates and medications, the latter mostly costing no more than $7.50 per prescription.

The pension is asset and income tested, but with your owned home and personal effects such as furniture, jewellery....and perhaps expensive art work hanging on your walls, are all exempt. Your motor car is not exempt, so if you take money from your bank account to pay for a new car, just because you have a lower bank balance, that means nothing. But your car is an asset that can be devalued, quite a lot as soon as you drive out of the car showroom. My new car was immediately devalued by $9,000. So at each pension review, your car's value will be part of the consideration as to what you are paid. When my next pension review happens, that will be taken into account.

I think the old age pension cuts out when you have around $720,000 in savings or in private superannuation, the figure including the value of your car. 

Superannuation, that is a scheme to provide you with money for your old age is a contribution from you and your employers to a private profit making organisation or a workplace/union based not for profit. The latter generally perform much better. Your employer may pay around 10% of your wage into super, with you paying perhaps 5% or more. You can also put in extra money, say a lump sum from your savings or whatever.

So, say you have $500,000 in superannuation, from which you draw an income of $1,000 each week, you will still receive the government old age pension, of about $115 each week.

If you have minimal money, you will receive the full pension amount of  $600 per week, plus if you rent in the private market, an extra amount.

If the dollar figures seem high to people overseas, remember Australia is an expensive country to live, and the wages quite high, with the minimum wage now being about $1,000 a week for a full time 38 hour working week. 

AU$1000 = US$700 = GB£530 = €610.   

A crabbit old woman

Think back to when you were young, your hopes and dreams, your lusts and dislikes, your insecurities, the pleasure you had from successfully rearing a family, maybe not perfect, but you did your best.

Ingrid lives in her care home Nonna's Castle in Waterloo and she posted something that caught me.  You can read Ingrid's post here, but a snip to read.

At the next table was a man sitting with his wife severely handicapped. She lay in a special wheelchair, couldn't speak and eat alone and what was awful was her look she always had her mouth wide open and two teeth were missing. At the beginning I really was afraid and disgusted when I saw her and admired her husband who came each afternoon to look after her.  

Ingrid became used to the woman's appearance, and the woman referenced may have once been gorgeous looking, outgoing and the life of a party. In old age you don't know what people's lives were like.

One of Ray's sisters told me she wants a photo of herself in her young and party days next to her future aged care bed, just to remind staff of who she once was. 

The use of the word crabbit indicates this is quite old, but it's still very apt. 

"Look Closer Nurse"
What do you see nurse, what do you see
Are you thinking when you're looking at me 
A crabbit old woman, not very wise
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes 
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice, "I do wish you'd try" 
Who seems not to notice the things that you do
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe 
Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will 
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill
Is that what you're thinking, is that what you see
Then open your eyes nurse, for you're looking at me

I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still 
As I use at you biddings, as I eat at your will
I am a small child of ten with a father and mother
Brothers and sisters who love one another
A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet
Dreaming of soon her lover she'll meet
A  bride soon at twenty my heart gives a leap
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep
At twenty five now I have young of my own
A woman of thirty, my young growing fast
Bound to each other with ties that will last
At forty my young sons will now grow and be gone
Af fifty, once more babies play around my knee
Again we know children my loved one and me

Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead
I look to the future, I shudder with dread
For my young are all busy, rearing young of their own
And I think of the years, and the love I have known
I'm now an old woman and nature is cruel 
Tis her jest to make old age look like a feel
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigour depart
There is now a stone where I once had a heart
But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells
And now and again my battered heart swells
I remember the joys, I remember the pain
And I'm loving and living life all over again
I think of the years all too few - gone, so fast
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last
So, open your eyes nurse, open and see
Not a crabbit old woman, look closer, see ME

Aids for the ageing

I was in Port Melbourne and there is a rare shop there, a Reject Shop. They used to be everywhere. It is somewhat like a $2 shop/£1 shop. I had no intention of buying anything there but I did. I bought some tinsel, I checked the price of the store's dishwasher detergent tablets to confirm it was still the cheapest, and I bought a twin roll of small garbage bags.

Then I found myself in the old person's aisle. So I bought a set of steps and a kneeling mat.

Lordy, I had spent over $20. 

"Kosov, are you impressed with what I have bought?"

"Yes Andrewww."

The steps are brill and I am sure in the future the kneeling mat will be useful. I've been using a milk crate to reach shelves. The steps have non slip feet. 

"Kosov, when Phyllis returns you can borrow the kneeling mat." While he has a deepish voice, he shrieked, Andewww. What fun to shock young people. I remember being shocked myself when I was young at what some gay men would come out with, much worse than I did to Kosov about the kneeling mat, or Phyllis for that matter.