JUDGING by the splendid pages of photographs in the Argus, Brighton was certainly the Place to Be on New Year's Eve, as crowds flocked to the centre of the town to see the fun.

If I am honest it would be my idea of hell, to be crushed, however kindly, by some 50,000 happy revellers among the mud and the empty bottles with rain dripping down my neck, but then for a lot of people it would be their idea of heaven. If the camera cannot lie a lot of people were having a wonderful

time.

Congratulations are due all round to the organisers, the police and most of all to the crowds themselves for

enjoying the fun with the minimum of aggro.

On the edges of the town the fireworks were everywhere, lighting up the sky rather more successfully than the much touted River of Fire which signally failed to ignite our TV screens.

So now that the tumult and the shouting has died, what will be occupying our minds in the year 2000, I

wonder?

Were the Government right to spend so much money on preparing for the Millennium Bug?

I seldom find myself feeling sorry for the politicians who would guide our every step, but I must admit I did feel just a twinge of sympathy when they were lambasted for spending telephone numbers on bug-hunting.

In the event there were few glitches, but had no preparation been done would there have been any more?

No one will ever know, but if there had been an outbreak of Y2K fever in our computers it would, of course, have been THEIR fault (whoever THEY are) for not foreseeing what might

happen!

Politicians usually manage to win whatever the situation, and it was rather nice to see their tails being tweaked for once.

The Dome does not look as though it is going to be an unqualified success, if the opening night fiasco is anything to go by.

The year 2000 has been coming for two thousand years so they can't really use the excuse that it sneaked up on them unexpectedly, and it ended up looking as though those famous organisers in the well-known brewery had been at it again with their usual high standard of success.

There are a number of issues affecting those of us in the Third Age.

The low rate of inflation is a two edged sword. In theory it keeps prices down, but it also affects our pension, and at the moment it looks as though next year's rise will be a derisory

80p.

If you are newly widowed you will lose half of your late husband's SERPS from next April as it is clawed back

by the Government, and in spite of protestations to the contrary, you may still have problems with long-term care costs.

There is a lot we need to keep our

collective eyes on in the near future and I shall be looking out for matters which affect our daily lives to bring to you.

Let me know if you have a beef you want aired.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.