We are making the assumption that “ageing” refers to becoming old, not older. We are all ageing from the moment we are born and at every stage there are signs that we are getting older. The transformation from infancy to childhood to adolescence and so on. And the tell-tale signs are always there.

Perhaps many of you know it but this speech from As You Like It has always summed it up for me:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Some of us are approaching the last scene of all!!!:D

I am concerned that the kernel of the story is being muddied by side issues and the publicity they generate, which are not necessarily relevant.

The enquiry and the police are going to have to be clear and very focussed in order to produce a proper outcome.

I always knew the Navy had rubbish techies – now we know why!!:diablo:

Pagen – politicians have been “in bed” with the media and the press in particular for decades. This is nothing new.

I’m happy to await the FACT of the judgement in September.

Ah, but you forget one crucial point, my friend – Germany is not Greece!!

Excrement throwing is the last thing this matter needs. In fact that is just taking the debate down to the level of the proles for whose benefit the hacking took place.

Cold incisive interrogation is what is required.

As it has been for many weeks, but still the EU coughs up, as any thought of endangering the Euro is unthinkable. I reckon the unthinkable will have to be thought by the end of the year. If the German Constitutional Court rules against further German support in September the project will be on very rocky ground, as it deserves to be.