I am essentially a planner, but I love spontaneous events. There is something wild and wonderful about an unplanned experience in your life. Nothing too dramatic and certainly nothing bad – a sudden fall or, worse, a sudden death – are not part of my thinking…

I cannot keep my secret quiet any longer. I have suffered in silence for years. Only my closest friends know the situation and they tend to sympathise. It’s not really my fault, but I really HATE shopping. I always have. Let’s try to ‘unpack’ this little problem…

From time to time, there is an item in the news concerning old people and driving. One of my favourites concerned the late Duke of Edinburgh who had a car accident when he was in his late 90s. The car he was driving had ended up on its side…

We all know that our sense of time changes as we grow older – with everything speeding up at an alarming rate. One of the most notable markers of this is the age of our children – and even more so – our grandchildren…

I have always loved to write. Should you give it a try? The answer depends on what you want to do – and be. Many people think that this is a glamorous activity, but I can assure you that it is not. You sit at home on your own, in your own world…

I like being old. At nearly 80, I think I am allowed to say so. Indeed, I like being old so much that I wrote a book about it. But that doesn’t mean that everything about being old is wonderful. Far from it. And one of the things I like least is the loss of friends…

One of the great joys of having grandchildren is the opportunity to relive the pleasures of childhood. We love to get on the floor and play with their toy trains or construct houses from plastic blocks of one kind or another…

Something made me think about ambition recently. Did I feel it was a good or bad thing in people, especially my friends? The answer is complicated. On initial thinking, I tended to feel that ambition, when not taken to extremes, is a good thing…

Finally, you have reached the age when you are beginning to think about downsizing. Perhaps you have familiarized yourself with all the practical and even emotional difficulties involved and have decided you are not quite ready to take the plunge?

It began as a sort of shadow at the corner of my eye, while I was watching the television. Something seemed to have moved, but I couldn’t work out what. Perhaps it was just a figment of my imagination. But the second time, there was no mistaking it…