Britain is still a country where old men can laugh at themselves being old

The Gaurdian newspaper in its 'Notes and Queries' earlier in December had the questions :

When do we start to become old?
And when do we cease to be young ?
Are they the same thing ?

They elicited the following reponses today from :

* David Robinson, East Sussex :
' More than half of the people on the bus are younger ? To reverse the ageing process, simply move to Bexhill on Sea – even in your 60s, you'll still be one of the youngest on the bus.'

* losttheremote :
'In Spain, a lot of people consider that the first time you get spoken to by a younger person using the formal "usted" form is a moment that indicates that, if not old, then you're not young any more. A sign of even greater age and infirmity is the first time somebody offers you their seat on the tube.'

* Dave Heade, Faringdon, Oxon :
'You are old when you look around at a funeral and instead of thinking: 'I'll be at the funeral of these people one day' you think: 'These people will be at my funeral one day'.'

* JeMoi :
'When we start repeating anecdotes, unaware that we may have inflicted them on our audience before.'

* shpod23 :
'If you feel flattered when people think you are older than you are, you are young. Once you feel flattered when people think you are younger than you are – you are old.'

* dunnock49 :
'It's so true that over a certain age you 'have a fall' rather than 'fall over' and wonder 'what else you can do while you're down there ? I am oldish and disabled and, in agony, after a bad fall in the bathroom, before struggling to my feet I wiped round the skirting boards. My most recent one (luckily there are few) in the bedroom saw me tidying up things under the bed I didn't know were there.'

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