I was browsing the Into today when I came across an interesting piece.

“SOME residents in a nursing home drank too much while socialising locally, putting their safety at risk, inspectors have found.”

Now this is not a maximum security home for the bewildered we are talking about here.  This is a nursing home which “mainly caters for people aged over 65 who are independent and need little support for their day-to-day activities, such as walking, washing, dressing and eating.”  The key word here is “independent”.  These are people whose only distinguishing feature is that they are getting on a bit in years.

So the inspectors disapprove of their drinking?  So fucking what?  What precisely is “excessive”?  What precisely is “challenging behaviour”?  Who the fuck are these moralistic, holier-than-thou interfering “inspectors” anyway?  What fucking right have they got to judge people’s behaviour?

I enjoy a pint or five.  That occasionally causes little problems such as a wee head in the morning [usually if I have been drinking out of damp glasses].  Sometimes if there are a group of us we can get a little rowdy.  Sometimes the apres-pub Vindaloo might make a sudden and dramatic return to the outside world.  So what?  It’s my life, my body and my choice.  I am old enough to make my own choices and I am fully prepared to take [and suffer] the consequences.

Some would say that at my age I should know better, but what does that mean?  “Better” presumably means that I should be living my life according to their standards and that just is not on.  They can go fuck themselves.

“All of the residents smoked and, although a smoking room was provided, staff had not properly assessed the risk they might face lighting up unsupervised.”

So a perfectly normal mature person has to be supervised now while having a smoke?  Why?  And if the residents choose to smoke outside the smoking room that is a problem with the law and not the residents.

So now there has to be a 47 point “action plan”.  These residents who are enjoying their well deserved retirement in a way that they see fit and proper have to be told to toe the line.  They have to obey the rules.  They must be good quiet little citizens and not cause any hassle.

I just hope those “inspectors” find themselves in some home when they retire and that they are bossed around, nagged and castigated for trying to lead their own lives.

And I sincerely hope they are miserable.