"DO you know any good exercises for flattening your stomach?" asks Vera Copp.

"It's just that I go to the gym and do exercises every day and it's still like this," she says, patting what looks like a pretty trim midriff to me.

Vera likes the gym. That's why she moved to her Boscombe apartment, because of its proximity to the place where she likes to pump iron, swim and have lunch with her friends.

When she's not at the gym she may be driving around in her MX5 sports cabriolet: "I love it, it reminds me of the MG Midgets I always owned".

Or she may be on her world travels: "Last year I went to Greenland."

Or she may be busying herself with the affairs of the Bournemouth Natural Science Society, of which she is an active and enthusiastic member.

Vera is 90. She was born in the same year as the Battle of the Somme.

Beautifully dressed and made up ("I always put make-up on when I get up, it's a habit") Vera celebrated her first nine decades with a birthday party at the BNSS's premises in Boscombe.

"I gathered that something was going on but I couldn't believe it when 150 people turned up.

"I walked in and I was absolutely astounded."

She completed the day with a spin round Bournemouth in a friend's Ferrari.

"Lovely" but "a much harder drive than I'm used to" she says.

"I think I prefer my MX5. I adore my car."

Her 90th year has been as eventful as her 89th - and all those before it.

In between being BNSS's president, Vera accompanied her daughter to Greenland and has also visited the Arctic and is planning a couple of hectic day trips with Bath travel to Venice and Pompeii for 2007.

She enjoys visiting cities but her great passion is for geology, which she took up as an interest when she retired, 30 years ago.

"When I retired I thought I can study anything I like and geology sounds rather interesting', so I took an Open University degree," she says.

After her work as a civil servant, marriage, children and retirement from Reading to Bournemouth, she was delighted to discover the Natural Science Society, just along the road.

"I look after the Geology section," she says, eyes sparkling.

"I have to find 12 speakers a year and take care of my two rooms at the society with all the specimens."

They go on field trips and record new sites.

"What I find is that people are very kind on these visits.

"I've got two new hips and a pacemaker and they will take my arm over the difficult bits.

"People are very mannerly in the way they help me in an unobtrusive way.

"I couldn't travel by myself now. I can't just behave as if I'm 20 still."

She gives it a good go, though, dressing in smart jackets and fashionable frocks that wouldn't look out of place on a 40-year-old and attending all manner of social events, from productions at Lighthouse to concerts at Meyrick Park.

It goes without saying that she's been on the internet for five years: "I had to force myself to learn it and it was difficult at first," but now she uses it to email her son and daughter and grandchildren.

She also likes to try new things, like Indian or Greek restaurants.

Is this her secret? She looks a little puzzled.

"I suppose that yes, I am open to new things, turning to geology was a new thing, but with the experience of your life behind you, when you get older you know what you want to do."

She tells me her mother was just like her, interested and with a wide circle of friends.

"I think it's in my genes," she says.

Doesn't she ever feel, well, old?

"I'm very lucky, health-wise the only trouble I have is forgetfulness.

"I always have a pen with me and I write everything down in case I promise to do something and I forget to do it.

"I think it's distressing to promise something and forget to do it."

Does she think that her seniority brings peace to her life?

"I suppose so," she says, reluctantly.

"A serenity and wisdom perhaps. I enjoy things even more now.

"The knowledge you acquire during your life helps you enjoy things more deeply."