No more concessions for Boomers

What's the one Big Fact about me that is obvious to all and affects every aspect of my life?

It's that I'm old. A senior citizen. An old age pensioner. A Boomer. I was born in 1952 and I'm very nearly seventy-one - the actual birthday is only six days off. 

No other fact looms so large. Yes, I'm female, single, and live alone, with no children of my own. Yes, I'm a sixties' grammar school product. Yes, I'm British, and voted for Brexit. And although not very right-wing, I'm normally a Conservative voter. But none of these lesser facts counts so much. 

It's rather odd that despite being old - at least by the standards of not very long ago - there is nowadays nothing terribly special about my having lived seven decades and more. And there are people like me all around. It was once remarkable to be alive at seventy, and amazing to survive even longer. No more.

The old are in fact a major force, still active, still demanding attention, and with voting power that no political party can ignore. We are the ones with the time and the will to turn out and vote. Electorally, the old are a fearsome and highly sensitive majority. We have long memories, common-sense, life experience, and quite possibly a good education. We have been fooled in the past, and are wary of being fooled again. We don't suffer misbehaviour or levity, and we are sniffy about idiotic trends. A politician's nightmare! 

So the old get pandered to during and after elections. Hence the absurdity of retaining things like the £10 Christmas Bonus that every State Pensioner gets in December. (A whole host of people on benefits also get it, but it's particularly associated with pensioners) It was worth something when first introduced in 1972. Now it will buy you little more than a large gin and tonic. I'm amazed that it hasn't been scrapped, or absorbed into another benefit or pension, but it continues. It's become symbolic. If taken away, it would cause an outcry. It would be seen a mean-spirited stab-in-the-back for every pensioner. And yet doing away with this very small amount might help fund something worthwhile elsewhere. Better equipment for schools; new diagnostic machines in hospitals. I wouldn't mind, and I'm sure other oldies like me wouldn't either.

All this said, I've noticed a growing trend not to offer admission concessions to older persons. It continues for the young and the disabled, and quite rightly. But increasingly I enquire in vain about having something off for being old. 

Not all old-age concessions have vanished yet, but it's safe bet that within five years they will be a rarity. And I suppose the reason is that senior age does not nowadays automatically mean poverty and a disadvantaged life. Indeed, I think that for older persons a life of shabbiness and economic misery has become rather the exception. Not everyone in my age bracket is comfortably off, but compared to thirty years ago there are many more sprightly oldies around who clearly can afford pleasant holidays, nice meals out, and more than one fulfilling interest or activity. None of my friends is totally awash with money; but nobody is so strapped for cash that their life is grey and monotonous. 

This being so - at least among the kind of persons who would be interested in visiting museums and cathedrals and stately homes - it has become recognised that the average elderly visitor has plenty tucked away and need not be offered a discount. They even bump the price up, by suggesting a Gift Aid enhancement. (They can whistle for that. I always say that I pay no UK tax - it's a fib, but I'm damned if I'm going to pay over the odds)

It's understandable that age concessions are fading away, and of course it's commercially sensible, but even so I do think it's a pity. Too high an admission price puts you off. If a bit were lopped off to acknowledge one's long super-worthwhile life and years of garnered wisdom, the difference would make the transaction so much sweeter, and the price might well be paid. I know the young think that Boomers don't deserve favours like age concessions, but they are wrong. They might deny it, but in time they will come to see that being old is a very special state, needing adequate recognition. 

Being mischievous, I could suggest that anyone envious of a Boomer's life tries out the aches and pains and sagging anatomy that go with it. Why, they can do so in advance, simply by putting on a headset and sampling an AI-fuelled cyberworld in which they can be themselves in fifty or sixty years' time. Cool.  

I have a birthmark!

Well! I'm very nearly seventy-one, and I've never known before that I have a birthmark! It's on the back of my neck, but above the hair line, so it's not usually visible. My hairdresser Anne - who comes to my house - discovered it while cutting my hair shorter at the back (I was ready to try out a bob). 'You've got a birthmark, Lucy, under your hair.' 'Really? Are you sure?' I hadn't known. 'How big is it?' 'Not very big, and it'll still be covered by your hair.'

You sometimes see birthmarks in more prominent places, some of them awkward or embarrassing for the person concerned, so I was relieved that mine was out of sight. I've juggled with mirrors since, to get a good look. Anne was right: it isn't very large, and certainly not the bright scarlet colour sometimes seen. So I'm not much concerned. Still, if I ever have to undergo a spell of chemotherapy, and temporarily lose some hair, or even all of it, then I might be more self-conscious about that patch of darker skin on the back of my neck. 

What's curious is that Mum never told me. And also that this birthmark was never listed as an identifying feature, on my passport for instance. Perhaps she was reticent about drawing attention to what in her younger days would have been regarded as a defect in a child, even though my birthmark must be simply a matter of skin pigmentation. (It has absolutely never given me trouble) 

Apparently there are also many superstitions about birthmarks, and although I doubt whether Mum would have given credence to any of them, there was - when I was a child - still much everyday belief in old wives' tales and similar nonsense. Mum would want me to be free of comment from other mothers. She'd want a perfect child. (I must have gradually disappointed her)

I've never been one for tattoos. Now it seems that nature has willy-nilly given me one. And of course it may be that if I do ever lose my hair, and the thing becomes obvious to all, I will get remarks like 'That's an unusual tattoo! It looks just like a birthmark!' Oh well.

And the bob? Well, here are a couple of shots, taken by Anne with LXV:

A true bob would have shorter hair at the back. I'm getting accustomed to this length first, then may proceed to something that reveals more of my neck. I'm a bit wary of going there all at once, as (a) I feel my neck is rather thick, certainly not graceful, slender and elegant; and now (b) I need to get used to having a birthmark that would be all too visible on a windy day. (Although it must have been revealed many times on windy days in the past, so why am I worried? Silly me) 

As you can see, I wear Starfishie all the time. My little starfish pendant - a souvenir of Orkney - comes off only at bedtime. She goes well with other favourite neckware items too. And Starfishie will go nicely with my seventy-first birthday present, a silver bracelet. That'll be the subject of a post to come!  

It was indeed a fire

I have now had a chat with the nice man at EE who is handling my mobile phone service complaint, and who will stay on the case until there is resolution. 

He told me that they have had a fire in the electronics cabinet at the local 4G mast (or more properly, 'tower'). A lot of electronics have been destroyed, and it will all have to be replaced once the health and safety checks have been made, to ensure that it is safe for the engineers to do their work. It seems to me that the local 4G service won't be restored until much later this month. (Just as well I'm going away on another holiday)

Although my two-year SIM-only contract with EE finished on 27th April, and that (in their words) I am 'out of commitment', my complaints advisor has happily authorised a waiver of next month's direct debit payment of £25.01. I think that, for now, that's fair enough. So far I have suffered only some minor inconvenience, as I can use my phone for everything if I drive off to some place not far away. But it's a nuisance all the same. I can't keep reliably in touch with anybody, nor check my bank, savings or credit card accounts, to name just two of the many, many daily uses I have for my phone when at home. The odd text does get through: apparently there is still a residual 2G service in the background, although it is very sloooow. 

Often my phone shows no signal bars but nevertheless a 5G icon. The man explained that there is in fact a single low-power 5G transmitter in the village, and my phone must be detecting it, although it can be for test purposes only, because at present there is no official 5G service here at all. (Good to hear about, though. Perhaps this small 5G foothold is the precursor of a full 5G service sometime)  

I hope my next door neighbours will let me set up Wi-Fi calling on my phone, using their Wi-Fi (as I have none of my own). It'll only be on a 'just in case 4G ever fails' basis, and therefore wouldn't get used at all in normal circumstances. I'll feel less cut off then, especially after dark.

But I continue to think it's a waste to spend money on a new high-speed fibre-broadband installation and a contract to go with it, whatever the virtues of having an alternative to 4G. I would never get full value for money from it, partly because I'm away from home so much, and partly because I consume so very little 'home entertainment'. There are many more urgent calls on my income. Besides, I urgently need to restore my savings to what they were, and then take them forward so that one day I can address presently intractable problems such as how to afford a new car, or a new caravan, or modernise and redecorate my home.

No local 4G again! EEk!

I get my mobile phone service from EE, supposedly the outfit with the best geographical coverage in the UK. That's important: I live in the sticks, drive about the Sussex countryside almost daily, and, as readers will know, regularly take off all over the country with my little caravan in tow. I want to stay in touch all the time, and expect a usable mobile internet service in most places. Certainly at home! But since mid-morning on Saturday 3rd June I haven't been able to get the usual 4G service in my boudoir. 

EE were on it, and sent me messages almost at once, speaking of a problem at my local mast. 

Well, I'd like to drive over there and have a word. Just as you can when BT Openreach (or whoever) are fiddling about at one of the green cabinets up the road. But I can't. All these service providers keep their mast locations secret for security reasons. So I have to rely on intermittent updates by text, which don't say much. I pick them up when away from the village, at some spot where the lucky locals can take their mobile phone service for granted.  

I have already lodged a complaint and told EE that I will claim compensation. I did that fourteen months ago, after storms damaged the local mast and I was without any service for several days. Like now, I do appreciate it wasn't EE's fault or intention that I should be incommunicado at home, having to travel elsewhere to pick up and send messages, and do things on the Internet. But we had a contract, and they were in breach of it. And indeed they readily agreed to waive a month's direct debit payment as recompense, which seemed proportionate compensation for the actual inconvenience the incident caused me. I will expect at least that this time. 

Complaining has elicited a little more information about what's wrong. Apparently there is a 'health and safety' issue at the mast that is currently preventing the engineers fixing the problem. EE don't say what that is. Have they had a fire? Is an escaped tiger occupying the electronics hut? Who knows. 

Yesterday they told me that the next update would be a week ahead. Really? It looks as if I'll be on the road to Lincolnshire by the time they send the text.  

I don't of course have home broadband to fall back on. I got rid of that a couple of years ago for reasons I explained at the time, chiefly that it was costing too much for the limited use I made of it. There's now no working landline - I had that disconnected when cancelling the broadband. It was only a rubbishy copper-wire connection, decades old, that was way past its best. If I ever want a physical connection again, it will have to be a spanking new fibre-optic one, right into my home. But what's the point, when I'm away so much, and most of the time 4G is good enough for all my needs? In any case, I'm a keen believer in wireless-only. 

This post is going out courtesy of my next door neighbours, who have kindly let me use their own home broadband, via Wi-Fi, for situations like this. But of course it's a kindness, a lovely favour not to be abused. I'm rationing myself. Mostly, I drive off to Burgess Hill and do what I need to in the car park next to the mast in the town centre there, which is fenced in and not secret. It puts out a 100% 4G signal to my phone. That's great, but it's a bind having to make a special trip there, and sitting alone in my car is not a thing I'd want to do after dark. Nor if I felt unwell. 

I'm in robust good health at the moment, but I won't always be so chipper. For the future, for the times when a runny nose, or lashing rain outside, makes me reluctant to fire up Fiona for another session in Burgess Hill, I think I should consider taking forward a possible enhancement to using 4G at home. 

I can have a 4G/5G aerial installed on my chimney outside, connected to a special router indoors. That will pick up a much better signal than my mobile phone ever can unaided. Indeed, a signal from more than one mast. There would be an installation cost, of course; and the ongoing expense of a suitable data-only SIM card, just for that router. Still, the router's SIM card could be quite cheap - I never consume that much data. The monthly cost of it would certainly be less than a conventional broadband contract. Something for later in the year, then, when the caravanning season has finished and I'm home for the winter.

I can also buy a portable router, with little aerials like a DAB radio, that would sit on a window sill. Again, with its own data-only SIM card. That might work too, although not as well as a proper fixed installation with a high-up external chimney aerial. On the other hand, I could take it with me on holiday. 

Meanwhile, I hope that EE have snared that tiger.