Dear LPG, 

I have always been one for statistics and found a really depressing one not so long ago.  It is nothing that we don’t already know but ladies over the age of 65 make up the largest category of people who live alone and, while the men living alone at that age are shown to number just over half as many, the problems are all too apparent.   

I am a part of that statistic and, while numbers are all very well, the realities of living alone always seem to affect me when winter is really beginning to set in.  Please don’t think that I am trying to depress any other ladies or Gentlemen of a certain age that live on their own. 

I think that I am a reasonably happy person with an adequate social life, but as we get older the cold and dark have a habit of curtailing our evenings even though our need to curl up in a nice warm bed is not something that we want to do any earlier.

It’s at times like that that I miss the hug of a friend most of all but I find that my computer is the place that I can go to for one of those all-important metaphorical hugs.  Once I find something to Google, I find that the long nights just disappear.  I think that the sense of achievement and satisfaction can be one way forward and for me, there is satisfaction in furthering whatever project I have on the go at the time.

This got me thinking about the things we can do that leave us with the same fuzzy feeling that a hug does.  I believe that there is something in the thinking that some of the things we do can result in a feeling of contentment which is sufficient enough to leave us ready for a good night’s sleep.

One such evening not so long ago, I took a look on line to see what Google has to offer on the subject and I have asked LPG to share what I have found…

SN, Croydon 

SN shares the results of her Googling session…

(►►►)