Play-my Generation!

Today we were booked to go on a horse trek, but due to the weather once again changing quite dramatically from prolonged snow storms to brilliant sunshine we decided to cancel, maybe try again tomorrow or Tuesday. Instead we went down to the local beach and I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few children there with their parents, playing games and running around. Earlier in the week we had seen a television programme that was showing parents trying to help their offspring have a better lifestyle, in the presence of the usual consultant. One of the things they were encouraged to do was have 'structured exercise' this involved one of the kids running with his dad, whilst the other swam with mum, ok this gave them family time but whatever happened to play?
When we were kids, after school, weekends, holidays were spent 'Playing out', we never hardly saw our parents and had the most amazing adventures many borrowed from the popular books of the day. Groups of us used to go swimming from the age of 5 years, cycling was just something you did, we used to cycle everywhere. From the age of 10 years a gang of us used to go to the cinema on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons to watch the latest adventures from Hollywood. We even got in to see "From here to Eternity" and the talk at school for weeks after was about that "kiss," sur la plage! Heavy stuff.
Glad to read in The Guardian that credit card penalty charges are to be cut, with overdraft charges to follow soon. Thank goodness for that say I, but you guessed the banks and credit card companies are to appeal as their profits will be slashed Yes!