Silver Screen.......

By and large, getting older doesn't have much to recommend it.

I'm approaching 60 (no, I can't believe it either) and already bits are dropping off, or not working properly (or even at all!) and gravity is exerting its inexorable toll.

I should be looking forward to retirement in two year's time but that dubious achievement has now been put back till I'm 66.  

Another 8 years!

Buggrit doesn't even come close.

So I have to content myself with the small concessions available to over 55s.  Such as the Silver Cinema scheme currently run by the Odeon chain.

If you're a regular cinema-goer, you'll be aware of the frankly outrageous prices charged in order to sit in a darkened room with people who have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how to behave.

They chat continuously, usually loudly, play with their mobile phones, rustle bags, slurp drinks and generally carry on as though they're at home in their sitting rooms.  

I don't know if there are documented incidences of cinema rage, but I've come close a few times.  Especially if I'm positioned in front of a seat kicker.

But I digress.

So.... Silver Cinema.  If you're over 55 you can go to selected viewings of current releases for the princely sum of just £3.  Plus, you get tea, coffee and biscuits beforehand too.

What's not to like?

But the best thing.  The very best thing, is that as soon as the film started, there was complete and utter silence.

No chattering.
No rustling.
No slurping.
No texting.
No seat kicking.

Just the occasional sigh, or cough.  People laughed in all the right places.  Nobody brayed like a donkey.  As a cinema-going group our etiquette was exemplary.

Granted, the queue for the toilets afterwards was somewhat longer than usual.  And it took us a bit more time to negotiate the stairs.  But we all emerged blinking into the light with a shared warm glow of camaraderie.

I suppose it helped that we saw The Lady in the Van, which caused a general feeling of gratitude that at least we weren't in such a parlous state as poor Maggie Smith.

We will most definitely go again, although next time we'll get there a bit earlier as all the best biscuits had gone by the time we got to the front of the queue.

Useful tip there by the way.

As an aside, we were telling PP's nephew about it, and he asked if they were modern films, as though, given our advancing years we'd be offered a selection of old black and white movies!

Laugh?  I nearly started......