Nadine Williams

Boomers Bubble To Burst as Retirees.

If ever there were prophetic words uttered recently, they were delivered by high profile demographer Bernard Salt to the National Press Club.

He gave yet another gripping scenario of what it means for society as the first boomers reach pensionable age next year – 65 years after 1946, which triggered the post-war baby boom, which continued in high fertility rates until 1961.

He poured forth facts which cannot be fudged: Within a matter of  years, we will have 4.5 million retirees – a  whopping 2 million more than the 2.5 million retirees at present.

“I have a very confronting observation for you,’’ he said.

“Whatever amount of money you are able to raise, it ain’t gonna be enough.  We will be working longer, you will be paying more taxes, we will be dragging in more skilled workers – and it still isn’t going to be enough.

“And that all comes down to the expectations of the baby boomers, the “me’ generation.’’

He warns that politicians have not grasped the reality of what lies ahead.

“We need to get more people to pay more tax to fund what is required in the health system,’’ he said.

AJA – 100th year

Leak: the new four-letter word.

“Leak’’ is the new four-letter word, according to veteran political journalist, Laurie Oakes in accepting the highest accolade in journalism – the 2010 Gold Walkley Award – this week.

Oakes had pulled off the political news coup of the year, following two sensational leaks from within the Australian Labor Party camp which impacted negatively on Julia Gillard’s credibility in this year’s election.

He reported on Gillard’s role in the axing of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and – from Labor’s inner sanctum – he confronted her on her opposition to granting paid maternity leave.

Paid maternity leave has been the Holy Cow of women voters for decades and the skulduggery involving Rudd’s removal, an elected Prime Minister in his first term of office, was an emotive issue with voters.

The glittering Walkleys event televised this week celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the Australian Journalists’ Association, the media union, now the Media, Arts and Entertainment Alliance.

Holding up his award, Oakes told the gathered media elite:  “Thank you Julia’’.

He then slammed the Gillard Government over its handling of  the arrest of Wikileaks founder, Australian Julian Assange.

““Leak is a four-letter word… To brand Wikileak as illegal with there is no instance of an breach of the law was demeaning of our government and as journalists we should make it clear that is our view,’’ he said.

Relationships are cornerstone for healthy men

Close relationships can form the cornerstone for a man’s whole life but friendships with other men are also an important source of support and understanding, says the Adelaide Northern Division of General Practice.

In a handout prepared for Mens Health Week, the ANDGP recommends men need at least three other close friends and mates who they can talk to and feel comfortable sharing their lives.

Healthy relationships are not limited to those men have with their wives, partners and family, but also the ability to talk man to man to a close friend is one of the important planks of health and longevity.

“Often the harder something is to talk about the better you will feel when you finally express it,’’ he says.

The value of friendship is self-esteem is often usurped by the importance of the primary relationship, but the Australian Men’s Shed Association believes community-based Men’s Shed groups provide a valuable place for men to build on mateship and fulfil some important emotional needs.

The broader the ripple effect that men have built for themselves beyond the nucleus of family, the better equipped they will be to overcome conflicts and stresses – the other side of every healthy relationship, says ANDGP.

“Being able to handle and deal with these differences is part of establishing and maintaining a healthy relationship and part of being a man,’’ says ANDGP board chairman, Dr Simon Hall.

Dr Hall, a northern suburbs GP, says maintaining good relationships builds a stronger mental attitude and resilience.

Contact Mensline Australia on 1300 78 99 78.

Beauty Betrays Us

How we feel about the ageing process is rarely the hot topic shared spontaneously over coffee. It’s a bit like broaching the subject of sex
at a dinner party 60 years ago. Absolutely taboo.  However, I found this insightful passage by author Susan Johnson in On Beauty, one of the “Little Books on Big Themes’’ published by Melbourne University Pressin 2009, which captures her thoughts on ageing.

“Now of course I have grown old, or at least beyond the moment when a woman’s beauty is supposed to matter. I have arrived at the precipice, between middle age and old age, not yet one of Helen Garner’s women in The Spare Room, women in their sixties who have learnt to avert their eyes from their own reflections.

Rather, I am at that moment when I am compulsively drawn to mirrors, to watch age break across the surface of my face. I am 52 years old and the face I have had all my adult life is leaving, moment by moment. The disintegration of my features is both fascinating and terrifying and for the first time I can see that ageing is like something breaking up, like watching a well-known object crack into a million pieces before your eyes.’’

Susan Johnson has written six novels and a memoir. She lives in London where she is working on a seventh novel, My Hundred Lovers.

Quiet Encounters of a Feathered Kind

Waterbirds in all their diversity have added a wonderful dimension to our seachange lifestyle.

Right now we are busily counting nine ducklings paddling alongside mother duck across the waterway towards our jetty.

The babies are being tossed about somewhat in the wake of inclement weather and we breathe a sigh of relief as they all follow mother duck scrambling up the embankment.

Whew!

I ponder on how we all seem to cohabit peacefully as they waddle across the neighbour’s lawn even though The Marina at Hindmarsh Island, where we live temporarily,  has encroached mercilessly into their natural habitat.  The Marina  is lined with big, new McMansions, but these seemingly flimsy feathered creatures of myriad kinds flit and fly around the constructed islands and glide amongst the natural marshes and reeds along the banks.

It is a very special privilege to be able to experience nature so intimately and I have taken to keeping watch and counting how many varieties share our environment.

Am I really a birdwatcher? It is a pastime I never dreamt I would enjoy so much when I retired. Our camera is always at hand to capture exotic images of them.

Such as the unique ibis which have been feeding on the cut grass on hectares of vacant land earmarked for future growth in retirement village housing.  They were close to the verge and quite beautiful to watch, dramatic black and white feathered water birds, their long black curved beaks incessantly pecking at the ground.

It is impossible to go shopping without noticing all the birds – countless galahs sitting on the telephone wires, a dozen black cockatoos settled on an old gum near the Hindmarsh Bridge and a few pelicans gliding along the Goolwa channel.

For the first few weeks after we arrived here, each morning we would check if the white heron, who frequented the swampy island across from our jetty was still in attendance.  She would stand serenely for hours until one day when she was bothered by a fellow heron, who came flying in to woo her affections. And we do miss her since she flew south with him.

A solitary pelican soon took her watch, gliding past in a majestic manner.

Any number of birds fly overhead and the constant cry of seagulls adds to the roar of the Southern Ocean close by. But nothing causes as much joy as a pelican flying high above us with its awesome wingspan outstretched.   

However, our first bird encounter was anything but peaceful. A mating pair of plovers were dangerously aggressive as we took our first stroll down our road. Land on one side of the road is still vacant, subdivided with “for sale’’ signs.

The plovers rose up from the grasses on the land and repeatedly swooped on us and squawked in a menacing manner. And they weren’t having fun, flying far too close to our scalps at full speed to leave us in any doubt of their intent.

Visions of Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds sprung to mind as we fended them off and it wasn’t until we succumbed to their demands and hot-tailed for home on the far side of the road that they flew away.

We worked out that plovers nest on the ground and, of course, in September, they had set up house on that large strip of empty land, oblivious that it is the last Spring they will do so.

Their behaviour springs to mind now as I sit on the terrace and watch one plover plunge from a height diving into the water to pluck up some poor fish silly enough to swim too near the surface.

Despite our altercation with plovers, we have become avid birdwatchers and are beginning to photograph waterbirds in their habitat.

Who knows? Santa may bring binoculars.

Our quiet encounters with the birds so brighten our days and we will miss their presence when we eventually move back to town.

The Three D’s of our Dream Home – Decisions on Design, Detail.

 The time of dreaming about our custom-designed retirement home is over.

Today we signed off on the pre-construction phase of our new home and behind us are a thousand small decisions about detail.  This is as much fun as choosing tiling in a retail showroom to the mundane business of selecting finishes on skirting boards, the style of cornices or the colour of fascias.

We have acted as artists at a palette choosing finishes and colours and textures under the direction of our instructor, Stellar Homes’ client co-ordinator, Michelle. On paper, we are delighted with our selections and look forward to a stylish home finished in practical neutrals with the odd splash of colour and interesting finishes.

Ours is not the normal project home because it is tailor-made by building designer, David Frazer who chose the basic colours and products of our home – roof, brickwork, window frames and doors and so on. He incorporated our existing spa-bath and two leadlight feature doors from the old demolished house into plans. We chose our own leadlight front door later and we provided all our own appliances instead of having them included in the builder’s price.

This created extra work for Michelle at Stellar Homes’ selection centre and we spent about eight hours answering her myriad questions. It was exhausting, but like the artist when he has put the last brush stroke to masterpiece, we, too, were pleased and convinced that our retirement home will be a wonderful place in which to live out our lives.  

For the novice it is inconceivable at the beginning of the building process that the client (us) has to make so many decisions to turn the plan into working drawings which sub-contractors can use to build a co-ordinated, tasteful product.

Houses are products and anyone who doubts the use of this word should visit a Display Village soon to see all the magnificently presented “products’’ on display.

Nothing can be left to chance, not even the waste outlet for the spa bath. So, here we are, husband Olivier and I, signing page upon page of working drawings, and most important, signing off on the modest list of extras to obtain our fixed price contract.

The most important thing you can take to the building drawing board is the ability to listen – and to be prepared to adapt or drop tightly-held wants  for reasons of affordability, safety, sometimes  aesthetics and functionality. 

Affordability at a certain age is paramount and over the past few months we have stuck to the bottom-line budget. It forced us to replace wants with needs.  We needed to decide whether to have a timber kitchen or a timber floor in the main living areas of the house because the budget didn’t stretch to both. Both were big budget items which would have a dramatic impact on the style of the home. So we chose a silk finish Laminex kitchen and a solid timber Brushbox floor laid on batons.

Boomers who build don’t have time on their sides as first home buyers do when signing up in their 20s or 30s to pay off debt, so determining the budget is paramount. What size home do you need, can you afford? Then keeping to that budget is vital, especially if one has to dip into superannuation funds.  

It begs the first question to ask is “Can I afford this new house and still have enough funds to live well within its walls?”  Building is not the most cost-effective way to house oneself in old age, but rebuilding in one’s 60s for safety and future disability, can avoid the need to move to more suitable housing in old age.

Without a firm resolve to keep to builders’ selections included in the basic price of building the home – at least in most areas – one could well end with a mortgage at the age of 70.

PS: We did weaken with heated towel rails, mixer taps and shower nozzles on vertical bars, while upgraded door furniture was also on our extras list.