We were recently recommended a film which is showing at the local cinema here in Fuengirola.
As the weather was more Cumbrian than Costa del Sol we decided to spend a couple of hours in the Cinema.
The Exotic Marigold Hotel is at one level a fairly predictable and somewhat formulaic film with a very recognisable British cast.
At some levels it was more than reminiscent of Tea With Mussolini and appeared to have a number of the same actors cast as in that film.
There is no doubt that there is a certain, spirited, indomitable, elderly, English woman who manages to carry all before her and to withstand all the rigours life sends her way and to triumph in the end.
Often, as with the Judy Dench character in the film, these spirited women appear to blossom after their husbands die of heart attacks or other male, menopausal,catastrophes.
The classic of this elderly English woman was Aunt Dot in The Towers of Trebizond.
To be watching the film on the Costa del Sol was especially appropriate because of course the phenomenon of elderly men and women, leaving the UK and relocating to warmer, sunnier climes is very much in evidence here.
On any given day it is possible to review the progress of the ex pat community as, en masse, it wanders down the sea front in what in England is a promenade and what the Italians call passeggiata and in Spain is a paseo.
Like one of those pictures showing the ascent of mankind it is a reversal, from gentle walking, to walking with a stick, to a rollator, to a wheelchair.
This migration of elderly English people was predicated on two important factors, house price inflation and final salary pensions, both these factors are rapidly disappearing and after the budget's now notorious 'granny tax' the funding of elder care will take on a completely new aspect in the future.
All of this, coupled with the Euro Crisis and a poorer exchange rate, may well see less people choosing or being able to afford to relocate to a warmer climate in Spain or elsewhere and having to stay at home, even if the winter fuel allowance is retained at present levels and not means tested in the future.
I have visited India once, briefly, my flight was delayed and I was a day late in arriving in Cochin, so I had only two brief days in India, watching the film, I felt that I had in the two hours or so of the screening of the film, experienced as much of India as I had in my two days in Kerala where my hosts kept chuckling that I had 'missed' my flight because of 'mist' in London.
The film conjures up, as only art can, the sights, smells, mystery and magic of the sub continent.
I just hope that the Cabinet or the 'Quad' do not however have time to see the film, either in the cinema, downloaded or on DVD at some time in the future.
Why not?
Because it might inspire some blue sky thinking which might well appeal to the con-dem Government.
Old folk being a noisy nuisance about tax or fuel costs or bus passes?
Older patients making too many demands on an overstretched health service?
Old people refusing to give up their jobs in B&Q and make way for younger workers?
Well here is a solution, outsource their care and their accommodation and their maintenance to? .... well India is cheap and they respect their elderly.
We have, after all outsourced call centres and other commercial activities. This is just a logical step in a process.
I can see the bright eyed bushy tailed young civil servant leaving the Cinema for the nearest wine bar and busily developing the project proposal on his or her Blackberry or iPad and casting it under the bosses nose.
Soon the airports will be even fuller of elderly passengers being given special assistance as reluctantly or enthusiastically they accept the free tickets and set off to their specially selected elder care resorts in the sub-continent.
Take-away will be exchanged for get-away and a boring life in the old folks home for a bit of eastern spice.
What's not to like?
As the weather was more Cumbrian than Costa del Sol we decided to spend a couple of hours in the Cinema.
The Exotic Marigold Hotel is at one level a fairly predictable and somewhat formulaic film with a very recognisable British cast.
At some levels it was more than reminiscent of Tea With Mussolini and appeared to have a number of the same actors cast as in that film.
There is no doubt that there is a certain, spirited, indomitable, elderly, English woman who manages to carry all before her and to withstand all the rigours life sends her way and to triumph in the end.
Often, as with the Judy Dench character in the film, these spirited women appear to blossom after their husbands die of heart attacks or other male, menopausal,catastrophes.
The classic of this elderly English woman was Aunt Dot in The Towers of Trebizond.
To be watching the film on the Costa del Sol was especially appropriate because of course the phenomenon of elderly men and women, leaving the UK and relocating to warmer, sunnier climes is very much in evidence here.
On any given day it is possible to review the progress of the ex pat community as, en masse, it wanders down the sea front in what in England is a promenade and what the Italians call passeggiata and in Spain is a paseo.
Like one of those pictures showing the ascent of mankind it is a reversal, from gentle walking, to walking with a stick, to a rollator, to a wheelchair.
This migration of elderly English people was predicated on two important factors, house price inflation and final salary pensions, both these factors are rapidly disappearing and after the budget's now notorious 'granny tax' the funding of elder care will take on a completely new aspect in the future.
All of this, coupled with the Euro Crisis and a poorer exchange rate, may well see less people choosing or being able to afford to relocate to a warmer climate in Spain or elsewhere and having to stay at home, even if the winter fuel allowance is retained at present levels and not means tested in the future.
I have visited India once, briefly, my flight was delayed and I was a day late in arriving in Cochin, so I had only two brief days in India, watching the film, I felt that I had in the two hours or so of the screening of the film, experienced as much of India as I had in my two days in Kerala where my hosts kept chuckling that I had 'missed' my flight because of 'mist' in London.
The film conjures up, as only art can, the sights, smells, mystery and magic of the sub continent.
I just hope that the Cabinet or the 'Quad' do not however have time to see the film, either in the cinema, downloaded or on DVD at some time in the future.
Why not?
Because it might inspire some blue sky thinking which might well appeal to the con-dem Government.
Old folk being a noisy nuisance about tax or fuel costs or bus passes?
Older patients making too many demands on an overstretched health service?
Old people refusing to give up their jobs in B&Q and make way for younger workers?
Well here is a solution, outsource their care and their accommodation and their maintenance to? .... well India is cheap and they respect their elderly.
We have, after all outsourced call centres and other commercial activities. This is just a logical step in a process.
I can see the bright eyed bushy tailed young civil servant leaving the Cinema for the nearest wine bar and busily developing the project proposal on his or her Blackberry or iPad and casting it under the bosses nose.
Soon the airports will be even fuller of elderly passengers being given special assistance as reluctantly or enthusiastically they accept the free tickets and set off to their specially selected elder care resorts in the sub-continent.
Take-away will be exchanged for get-away and a boring life in the old folks home for a bit of eastern spice.
What's not to like?
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