Dear Yuen Yin and others,

Ageing is really a time relative concept.
When I was young, I wanted to grow older quickly, and to look older as well. Well, at the age of 22, when I went to the casino in Macau with Kwong Yin and two other HKU friends, I was the only one asked at the door to show my HK re-entry permit. To add salt to the wound, at 26, Kwong Yin had to sign in for me so that we could go to the Mandarin Club in Sydney for a meal (There were poker machines at the club, and that was the time before I had my driver's licence, and we don't have ID card in Australia). Somehow, strangers will link an older face with maturity and sense of responsibility as well.

Jokes aside, aging is more a phenomenon of the mind than body, provided that we treat the body well. Recently we celebrated the 71st birthday of a colleague, and she has no indication of retirement yet. She is not a workaholic, she just enjoys working. At least that is what she tells me. She says that she feels stimulated when she is working alongside younger people. Mind you, she is not a high ranking staff in our department. She works in our Specimen Reception (I work in the largest Virology Laboratory of New South Wales). Years ago (5-10) when the administration wanted to make life difficult for her so that she would retire, they sort of put her onto a new job that involved learning to use a pathology - based computer system (I think she was at the laboratory wash up team at that time), she just took it upon her own stride and performed an excellent job. Recently, she knitted more than a dozen scarves for her favourite girls in the department saying that knitting will help with her arthritic hands. That reminds me that the prescription given by an orthopaedic surgeon of our Team for my mother's arthritic hand is mah-jong, dosage : optional.

I have watched some former colleagues deteriorate soon after retirement. They had no activities planned for the rest of their life. A few other colleagues took up voluntary work after retirement, eg bush regeneration, hospital work or working with older people. They look so much younger and energetic. Recently, a University for Third Age was set up, another avenue for the older generation.

The Aus government is worried about looking after the exploding population of aging baby boomers. The burden on the diminishing younger population is only going to increase. Apparently, the govt is looking into changing the superannuation scheme, making it possible for retirees to work part time, or abolishing the retirement age, as is the case in our hospital. I for one will not like to work till I drop. I am still looking for things that I would like to do on retirement while working hard at maintaining good health.

Best wishes
Sau-wan.