While we’ve been masking, isolating and sanitising our way to dodge around the virus that has targeted us in the grey zone, there have been many other good and interesting events happening in the world.

Here’s a few of the notable happenings in the grey zone that you may have missed over the last few months.

Tea drinkers unite and live longer.

“The black tea drinkers are getting older,” the head of Unilever recently told investors, “They are consuming less,” he said and will soon “start to fall over”.

According to Unilever cups of tea are falling out of vogue with young people. As a result, the firm is struggling to grow its black tea brands in western markets like the UK and the US.

Unilever’s chief financial officer, Graeme Pitkethly, said that although young people do drink tea, it tends to be “quite high-end, expensive products”. Pitkethly was quoted as saying “I drink five or six cups of builder’s tea a day, but unfortunately we are dying at a faster rate than generation Z and millennials are consuming it.”

The consumer goods giant has said that Generation Z and millennial consumers much prefer herbal teas and coffees instead. Over the last two years, demand for black tea has fallen while demand has risen for herbal and cold tea infusions.

Researchers reported young people’s tastes have changed with black teas being seen as too strong, needing sugar or honey to sweeten the tea in turn losing out to herbal teas which were more appealing with floral aromas and they are perceived as healthier.

A legitimate reason perhaps; unlike theories of the rise of Instagram which means that beverages need to make a big impact so that people want to take a photo of their Starbucks Frappe topped with cream.

Like any seasoned tea drinker firmly in the greyzone, the health benefits of tea are easy to find. Researchers at the University of California and Brown University found tea improved eyesight; those who drank at least one cup were 74 per cent less likely to develop glaucoma. Totally practical and appropriate reason to savour a good cuppa.

Leave me comment to let me know if you like a nice cup of tea and how you like your tea.

Grey hair- it’s not because I’m old!

Scientists at Harvard University have shown how stress can speed up the greying process. Biologists found that stress causes nerves involved in the fight-or-flight response to pump out a hormone which wipes out the stem cells used to make hair pigments.

Stress can be considered a form of accelerated ageing. The discovery has raised hopes for treatments that can slow down or even halt normal age-related greying. A breakthrough if you don’t find greying hair appealing!

Perhaps another reason to slow down, de-stress and perhaps forego or delay children who are surely the largest contributor to premature aging.

It’s time to destress – now where’s that nice cup of black tea?

Making news in the zone

Class is always in style

Dame Judi Dench has become British Vogue’s oldest cover star, securing her first front page for the style magazine at the age of 85.

Dench began her acting career in 1959 on television. Over a 60-plus year career she earned her national treasure status, playing roles such as M in the James Bond franchise and as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love, for which she won an Oscar in 1999, aged 64.

Commenting on the couture she wore for the photo shoot, she says, of one outfit. “The cloak I was made to wear! Like five foxes fucking on my back!” she said. “A battered, mangy old cat… A great big orange bruiser. What’s that about?”

Who knew gardening was an extreme sport?

Brian May has complained of “relentless pain” after he was taken to hospital following a gardening injury that tore muscles in his buttocks.

Writing on Instagram, the Queen guitarist said: “I managed to rip my gluteus maximus to shreds in a moment of overenthusiastic gardening. So suddenly I find myself in a hospital getting scanned to find out exactly how much I’ve actually damaged myself. Turns out I did a thorough job and I won’t be able to walk for a while or sleep, without a lot of assistance, because the pain is relentless.”

One tough hood.

George Hood, a 62-year-old former US Marine, broke the world planking record with a time of 8hr 15min 15sec, adding an extra 14 minutes to the previous record. Hood had lost his 1hr 20 sec record in 2016 to Mao Weidong, a police officer from China, who set a new record with a time of 8hr 1min.

Eight hours is a long time spent with your face hovering 20cm away from the floor of a gym. Hood reportedly trained for up to seven hours a day to set the new record.

Planking performed by a grey veteran is a safe and healthy core body exercise. Not a dangerous death inducing activity,  brought to infamy by young Instagramers who planked to fame at cliff edges in search of  the perfect photo opportunity.

Playing on

Playing football as a professional had remained a distant dream for Eez Eldin Bahder for decades. At the age of 75, he registered with the Egyptian Football Association as its oldest player yet. The father of four and grandfather of six, started playing football in the streets of Cairo at the age of six. Though he carried on playing as an amateur, he abandoned his dream of becoming a professional striker pursuing his work as a civil engineer.

October 6, a club which plays in Egypt’s third division had signed the 75-year-old Bahder who scored a penalty on his debut to secure a 1-1 draw. The grandfather needs to play just 90 more minutes for his team to be officially recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records. Should he play the second match he will beat the current holder Isaak Hayik, who played keeper for Israel’s Ironi Or Yehuda, aged 73.

Culture Zone.

This year, 2020, marks an era when cultural icons of our younger years moved into the grey zone.

• Mad Max. The low-budget film of a dystopian future was released in Australia in 1979 but this year celebrated the 40th anniversary of its US release where Australian accents were dubbed with American accents and the title changed to the Road Warrior.
• MASH the movie. While eclipsed by the TV series which ended in 1983, the original movie turned 50 this year. The movie starring Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland and Sally Kellerman is still recognised in the top 100 comedy films of all time as judged by the BBC. I do prefer the TV version with Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers and Loretta Swit.
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• Friday the 13th: The maligned slasher movie which evolved into a franchise well into the 2000’s, this year turned 40. A hockey mask would never again be seen as a piece of innocent safety equipment.
• The Female Eunuch. Germaine Greer’s feminist masterpiece 40 years on, came to be regarded as a funny, angry, clever and hopeful attempt to change women’s lives.
• Let it Be. The single and the album were released in 1970. The song gave the Beatles their seventh consecutive year charting a number 1 hit, sharing the all-time record, at the time, with Elvis Presley. The album marked the final Beatles album, recorded as the fab four before they disintegrated and moved into their solo careers.

Hopefully this provided a welcome break from the virus targetting the greyzone.

So…till next time.