Hello all, particularly Francis and Anne from Selsdon, who gave me instant encouragement.

This one is about sense of humour.

I always turn the sound down when the ads come on, but if I glimpse the Cow & Gate one with babies laughing I quickly turn it up because for me the sound of babies laughing is the best one in the world.

The third baby is the most engaging.

He is sitting in his high chair and the joke is so good he puts his head down on the tray and his arm over his head and just gives himself up to enjoyment.

He is literally doubled-up with laughter.

I think in some ways animals and even insects are more capable than human beings, but none of them can laugh ("laughing" hyenas don't count).

This gift of a sense of humour carries us through many a difficult situation.

One day, long ago, on the 68 bus, before the 468 was even a twinkle in London Transport's eye and you could go from South Croydon to "Chalk Farm Station (Underground)" without changing, I was coming home from work and at Camberwell Green the bus suddenly turned right towards Brixton instead of going straight ahead to Denmark Hill.

We all woke up from our dreams, real or day-, or looked up from our books and newspapers with a start and asked each other, "Where's he going?"

With admirable presence of mind, the driver turned into a handy bus garage, where he was met with shouts of amazement and mockery from the other drivers, "Can't come in here, mate, you've got to get rid of that lot first" and suchlike. He had a lot of ribaldry to endure while they shifted the other buses around to let him turn, as of course he couldn't back out into the traffic, with or without

his passengers.

Meanwhile, we, like the baby, were doubled up with laughter at the whole situation and our own and the drivers' witticisms, which flowed thick and fast.

It's not often that you get a busload of weary commuters laughing their heads off and I rather wished some such incident could happen more often.

We could all have been furious and the other drivers grumpy, but we laughed instead.

I reflected that probably in some of those better-organised countries, like Germany or Switzerland or Sweden, where the buses never come in 2s or 3s the funny side would not be so quickly appreciated.

Humour is this country's secret weapon.

And how you need it when you get old! One of my granddaughters wrote in my 80th birthday card, "Now, Grandma, you've got an excuse to be batty."

I am, and all. It's got extremely difficult to get out of the house. I am amazed at young women who walk down the street without a handbag, or even space for any pockets. My bag has to contain:

1. bus pass

2. purse

3.keys

4. tissue

5. asthma spray

6. crossword (for the inevitable wait somewhere or other)

7. glasses

8.pen

9. pocket address book (in case I forget the number of a house I've been visiting for years, or, worse, of one of those flats that you can only get into if you press the right button out in the street)

10. credit card

11. plastic bag (to avoid being given any)

12. donor card (in case I get run over, though probably my spare parts are too second-hand by now anyway)

13. s.p.o.k. (if you don' know what s.p.o.k.is, it's because you're too young to need one.)

I can't write s.p.o.k. out in case they have computers wherever my mother might be by now, and she told me never to talk about k------s in public.

Of course this means the handbag has to be large, and causes me to RUMMAGE.

The first rummage is outside the front gate and doesn't bother anybody except my husband, if no. 3 is missing. He doesn't mind, though.

We enjoy each other's mistakes, and that gives him an advantage for the day. Check-out staff and people in queues have to be encouraged to think it's funny.

One thing I rarely take and the thing the youngsters never go without is the mobile.

Which proves that we are not only Old, but Other. We can remember being young, but they can't possibly know what it's like to be old, so the understanding must all come from our side.