d, as he described his 87th year. His secret and his advice was: "Think young and stay young.?An old woman from Missouri, USA, gives this advice . "Drink a little whisky and some warm beer every day." An English lady centenarian just said, "Take a cold bath every morning." On her 102nd birthday Miss Julia Thompson 2xplained the secret of her long and happy life. "Never have anything to do with men," she said. The shortest, simplest piece of advice came from Mr.Jim Chapman, aged 103. "Just keep breathing," he told reporters. What about Mr. Izumi? "I watch TV," he said, "and I never worry."

But do you really want to be a hundred? What's wrong with the old saying, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die."?

　

5. Colleges for Old People Blooming

China has set up 916 colleges for senior citizens, educating about 200,000 people in the pastfive years.

The colleges offer more than 60 courses ranging from calligraphy, painting and gardening to qigong, massage and foreign languages.

The students are mainly retired government functionaries but, according to an official from the Association of Colleges for the Elderly, the colleges are trying to serve senior citizens from the whole of society.

Some institutions are already giving courses in gardening, crop planting and animal husbandry to old people from the countryside. According to a poll conducted by the Harbin senior citizens college in China's northeastern province of Heilongjiang, of its first 200 graduates, 71 per cent had recovered from chronic diseases since their registration, and 85 per cent were "very confident" that they will live longer.

Many of the students are again working for the society instead of being just consumers. During each semester, about 60 per cent of the students of the college serve society while studying.

　

6. The Fulfilment of One's Dreams

It's only natural to look forward to something better. We do it all our lives. Things may never really improve, but at least we always hope they will. It is one of life's great ironies that the longer we live, the less there is to look forward to. Retirement may bring with it the fulfilment of a lifetime's dreams. At last there will be time to do all the things we never had time for. From then on, the dream fades. Unless circumstances are exceptional, the prospect of growing really old is horrifying. Who wants to live long enough to become a doddering wreck? Who wants to revert to that most dreaded of all human conditions, a second childhood?

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