(Dec 3) PURELY coincidental of course, on Saturday, 1 Dec, there were free handouts of condoms to observe World Aids Day, and on Sunday, 2 Dec, a forum on Sex in the Sixties.

That's sixties as in 60-year-olds, when condoms are the least of the matter.

Early Sunday morning, just when you thought you could lie in bed and leisurely go at it, we attended a talk on the importance of sexuality in the silver years.

(Here, don't go thinking that people who can no longer do it, only talk about it.)

'Sex in the Sixties...and more' was a fringe activity organised by Singapore's Silver Industry Committee (SIC, what a cheerful acronym!) to draw attention to SICEX 2008, the first conference cum exhibition focused on the business potential of the silver industry (coming 10-13 Jan 2008 at Suntec Convention Centre).

The discussion was held in the National Library and the signs were promising: in the field of courting, everything imaginable is possible. (The rooms on the fifth floor are Courtyard, Imagination Room, Possibility Room.)

INFORMED AND ENERGISED

Shame it was not opened to the public - sex sells - because the panellists, all babyboomers, were informed and energised.

The modest audience was SICEX partners and supporters like the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, and SPRING Singapore.

Miss Jane Prior of Priority Consultants moderated Prof Kua Ee Heok from the National University of Singapore; Doris and Daniel Chan, a couple in their 50s; Mrs Ivy Singh-Lim gentlewarrior farmer; and Dr Jaycen Lim of Love Foundation.

The redoubtable Singh-Lim, who puts her money where her mouth is and never minces it, got it off and running. Are we talking penetration and orgasmic pleasures or about older people leading healthy active lives, she asked the topic be defined.

The panellists were in accord that obsessing about older people having sex was just a corner of the canvas, the big picture was relationships and intimacy, on several levels - emotional, financial, mental, physical and sexual.

The personable and learned Prof Kua gave us the benefit of his research with positive stories about Alzheimer's, senior citizens, Kinsey Report and declining urges.

Mr Chan, married almost 20 years, pointed it was not (about) the body, but very much the brain as well.

Meeting of minds, finding soulmates.

The Chans' daughter, Melissa, had dropped off at the library to meet friends.

Aren't you sitting in?

'Er,' the 17-year-old junior college student begged off, 'I would feel out of place.'

Ouch. Youth - the man from fumble - should have sat in and lent an ear to those who've been there and done that, multiple times over.

Listen and learn. From trial-and-error groping at 13 to warm-and-secure handholding at 76 (gravity, you old devil, you).

When pressed, Melissa did admit to the eww factor, ditto 24-year-old Xavier Wang from Health Promotion Board.

He said, 'Most of us think older people don't have sex.' So picture your parents rabbiting? EWW!

(And of course you came out of a lorryload of turnips.)

The silver age has unfortunately, and unfairly, been tagged at 45 and above (babyboomer).

On the subject of babyboomers, a Mr Anthony Bowers, who will have a products booth at SICEX, raised an even more riveting point.

The 30-something is not enamoured of the silver surfers. Because his generation are left to pick up the pieces.

'All that free love of your generation, and we've got Aids to deal with, all that fast living, and we're stuck with global warming.'

It was left to the wise gentleman, the lucid and erudite Mr Phua Kok Tee, CEO of Sage (Singapore Action Group of Elders) to close with the positive.

'This conflict of generation, we can cross the gap, babyboomers form a huge bulge in the population, and represent a market potential for you.'

Now there's a thought that's an absolute turn-on!