farmdoc's blog post number 69

When I was a kid I thought it’d be pretty terrific to get a telegram from the Queen – as people did on their 100th birthday. And I wondered how the Queen knew when people’s 100th birthdays were. The last Australian telegram was in 1989. So now Her Majesty sends greeting cards, according to her website from which you can download an application form. And Buckingham Palace’s Court Post Office is getting busier: As per a 16 June 2008 Medical Journal of Australia paper, between 1901 and 1971 the proportion of centenarians in our population ranged from 13 to 16 per 10,000, but since 1971 it has doubled each decade to reach 120 per 10,000 in 2001. And it’s likely to double again by 2011. In 2006 Australia had 797 men and 2,357 women centenarians. Due to declining fertility and improved survival, centenarians are the fastest growing age segment of our population. Surprisingly (to me anyway) well over half of them live in private dwellings, with 27% of the men and 14% of the women living alone. Studies refute the popular notion that the older you get, the sicker you become. Rather the evidence indicates the older you get, the healthier you have been. Yes, but when the Queen sends congratulatory cards to Australian citizens, does the British Government or the Australian Government pay for the stamps?