HOW PEOPLE CHOOSE TO LIVE

Non-smokers have flocked to pubs since they went smoke-free in July, a government survey has found. And public support for the smoking ban is at an all-time high. The State Government survey found that weekly pub attendance rose from 21 per cent of NSW adults to 26 per cent since the new regulations were introduced. About three-quarters of all adults now approve of the ban in pubs and clubs, and four out of five support the ban in gaming areas.

Balmain MP Verity Firth, the Government's spokeswoman on cancer, said the ban had been well received by the public, with only 88 complaints lodged to the Health Department since July 2. "As predicted, smoking bans in enclosed areas are extremely popular," she said. "Removing second-hand smoke from enclosed public places is an enormous step forward for public health -- it will save lives and spare others the misery of watching family members or friends die prematurely."

Anti-smoking campaigner Simon Chapman, Professor of Public Health at Sydney University, said he was not surprised the ban was successful. He said smoking rates in NSW were now at historically low levels, with only 13.9 per cent of the population puffing on cigarettes. "There are a hell of a lot more people out there who don't smoke, than do," Professor Chapman said. "You hear so many people who say they used to hate going to pubs because of the smoke."

You spy a work colleague -- whose hair is beginning to grey as he approaches middle age -- stepping out of a shiny new red convertible. There's no sign of his wife, but you can't help but notice the sprightly Keira Knightley lookalike sitting in the passenger seat. Soon the office rumour mill goes into overdrive - obviously this man is in the midst of a mid-life crisis.

It's a familiar scenario that affects thousands of Australians in one form or another. And then there are the celebrity offenders. At 60, Harrison Ford left his wife of more than 20 years, hit the nightclub scene and got a gold earring. Most conspicuously, he hooked up with actress Calista Flockhart, who had just turned 40. Michael Douglas married a woman 25 years his junior, boldly announcing to Catherine Zeta-Jones on their first date: "I want to father your children."

Now there's country crooner James Blundell, who was outed this week as having an affair with an Australian Idol contestant. When Jesse Curran was learning to walk, Blundell, who is best known for belting out pub hit Way Out West, was working as a jackaroo. This week's revelation that Blundell was leaving his wife of nine years for a woman 20 years his junior timed spectacularly with Curran singing in Idol's semi-finals. But rather than making headlines for her version of U2's One, it was the 23-year-old's affair with the 43-year-old father of two that became the topic of conversation around the water cooler.

The relationship also sparked debate about whether Blundell's behaviour constituted a mid-life crisis. Does such a phenomenon even exist in 2007? For a start, not all mid-life crises involve extramarital affairs and shiny red Corvettes. According to some experts, the traditional definition of a mid-life crisis is changing, just as the nature of society is changing. Chief executive of Relationships Australia NSW, Anne Hollonds, describes a mid-life crisis as a stage in a person's life when they question their direction and values. "It's wondering if life is giving you the satisfaction and the meaningfulness that it once did," she says.

But rather than only applying to balding men in their 40s and 50s, Hollonds believes mid-life crises are affecting adults in their 20s and 30s. "If anything, they're starting earlier because we're hearing of people in their 20s and 30s having crises," she says. Sydney psychotherapist Jim O'Connor, from Clear Day Consulting, says the traditional mid-life crisis has "morphed." "The traditional mid-life crisis occurred because we were taught to get educated, get married and have children and then in mid-life we think, 'Is this all there is?' " O'Connor says. "And then we start to change and question our values and start to experiment. Typically for men, they have an affair and start doing things they denied themselves in the past."

O'Connor says the present generation of twentysomethings and thirtysomethings are living life in reverse. "The interesting thing is that people are doing all that reckless abandonment stuff at the start," he says. "So they're going from the traditional model to the person who leaves high school and travels and goes to university and does lots of drugs and drinking and nightclubbing and spends lots of money and then - in their late 30s when they have smashed it and they're burned out - they think, 'Oh my God, is this all there is?' "At this point they do two things: continue to indulge themselves or get more traditional views, so the bachelor who's been shagging everyone settles down, and the woman who's travelled the world and shopped herself silly and pursued a career thinks, 'I'm going to settle down and have a family'."

O'Connor says a mid-life crisis is a reaction to both anxiety and depression, prompting the sufferer to look for pleasure. This is why some men seek younger women, he says. "Men in society aren't taught the skills to cope with their own emotions so they do tend to look for drugs and alcohol and sex to manage their own emotions," he says. "Yes, women suffer as much as men but they're socially set up far better for it -- they talk to their girlfriends and have support networks. What makes the male with the younger woman thing more understandable is that you have a mature man who is fairly capable, and a young emerging girl looking for guidance, and he can be enormously confident because he is much older -- and she finds the security of that most attractive."

Hollonds says men are attracted to younger women during mid-life crises because they made them feel younger. "Apart from the sex, I guess if you're anxious about losing your youthfulness then you want to hang out with younger people," she says. Although the traditional mid-life crisis would involve one big "flip-out" -- or one dramatic life change -- Hollonds says adults in their 20s and 30s are constantly re-evaluating their lives and adjusting to suit.

"By the time men (settle down) these days they may have had a number of different lifestyles, so they're not suddenly going to change their lifestyle in their 40s and 50s because they've had an atypical lifestyle from what men had 50 years ago," she says. "I think there is a lot more questioning all the way along, and not just one flip-out."

While the term mid-life crisis was originally associated with men, Hollonds says women are increasingly suffering from them -- especially on career paths. "We have career women who find themselves around the age of 40 wondering if they've wasted their lives," she says. Randwick counsellor and psychotherapist Andrea Kroser says women are not affected by mid-life crises to the same extent as men. "We see them more in men," Kroser says. "It's not so much a mid-life crisis with women so much as obstacles they encounter."

While fans may be curious as to why Blundell decided to part ways from his wife Lidia, he has indicated there is "more to this than meets the eye." Curran met Blundell when he performed at a race meeting in Broken Hill last October. His manager Neil Richards said the singer was "happier than he has been for some time". Blundell even wrote a track for his new love on his latest album, Ring Around The Moon. But while Blundell may be walking on air, his wife is not, and their sons Travis, 5, and Briar, 9, are caught in the middle. As Kroser says, people do get bored in relationships, particularly when children are involved. "Often children have come between them (a couple) in the early days of marriage and they never reconnect," she says.

O'Connor says Blundell's sudden change in direction should not be viewed negatively. "It's not always an indulgent thing, he's caring for this girl (Curran)," he says. "He has the experience, the knowledge, the talent, the connections and the money, and out of the kindness of his heart, he's happy to do that (care for her)." Kroser says mid-life crises can be avoided by people establishing a good work-life balance. "I think if people are comfortable within themselves with work and have achieved what they want and the relationship is good, they won't have a mid-life crisis," she says. "So if you're content within yourself and your relationship, that shouldn't happen but, you know, sometimes people do just disconnect from each other."

Monticello, Kentucky: - Here on the calm waters of Lake Cumberland, at a dock off the Conley Bottom Marina, sits La Louisianne, a houseboat whose broad flank is emblazoned with a simple motto: Laissez les bon temps rouler. “Let the good times roll.”

Appropriate for a boat that looks, on first inspection, to have been created purely for pleasure. Like so many of the vessels here, La Louisianne resembles the nautical equivalent of Versailles. These floating palaces, which can travel no more than a couple of miles an hour, retail for hundreds of thousands of dollars – sometimes for more – and boast water slides, Jacuzzis, and jet-ski cradles. Most houseboats measure between 60 and 110 ft. in length. Many never leave the dock.

Taken together, the buoyant mansions constitute a bobbing neighborhood for retirees or boomers looking for something more exotic than a Gulfstream RV. This close-docked community, nestled in the foothills of rural farmland, reflects a peculiar nexus of creature comfort and a very American kind of frontierism. "We love it – it's the Redneck Riviera," says Vince Messina of Cincinnati, who calls himself a member of the "Ohio navy" and has been visiting the area for eight years. His current boat has five bedrooms; each is equipped with a flat-screen TV. "The great thing about Lake Cumberland is that we can have a private waterfront estate that moves whenever we feel like it," Mr. Messina says.

The "Redneck Riviera" is a familiar refrain here at Lake Cumberland, which sprawls across Clinton, Laurel, Russell, Wayne, and Pulaski counties in southern Kentucky. The lake was artificially created in the 1950s by the construction of the Wolf Creek Dam, and now covers more than 60,000 acres. That entire expanse, from tip to tip, is dotted with houseboats – small boats, medium-sized boats, but mostly large, shiny boats.

Recent concerns over the strength of the Wolf Creek Dam have prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to lower the water level in the lake, thus decreasing chances of a serious – and costly – breach. But on a recent afternoon this spring, Lake Cumberland was alive with energy. From the hill overlooking Conley Bottom, the boats were visible in every direction. Beyond, lay the wind-chopped water and the bright, leafy Kentucky forest. "I'm never in a hurry when I'm down there," says Messina. "I'm on lake time."

Besides fishing, and the occasional fast-moving speedboat or Sea-Doo, Lake Cumberland is fairly tranquil, as outdoor vacation destinations go. Like Messina, many houseboaters are here for the languid pace – the grilling, the sunbathing, the snoozing and chatting. "You develop a dock family if you will, a dock community," says Jack Sniff, an avid houseboater for almost 15 years. "Typically there are about 30 boats on our little pier, and basically we know everyone's names – we know the kids's names, the dogs's names."

Mr. Sniff, who moved with his wife from Lafayette, Indiana, has used his knowledge of the lake to create a floating condo business. He now owns a small fleet of luxury boats, and rents them out to eager visitors, of which there are many. His business, Bluegrass Floating Condos, is in good company. In nearby Somerset, Ky. – the self-proclaimed "houseboat capital of the world" – factories line the highway. Stores advertise all manners of amenities pertaining to the houseboat, from rain gear, to barbecue gear, to fishing equipment. A host of specialty magazines track the latest technological advancements, from stereo systems, to home-theater systems, to high-end water slides.

There is one particular stretch of road that seems to be lined wholly with bait shops. Hulls, awnings, and various marine supplies cover lawns and peek out of garages. The houseboating culture is the lifeblood of this part of Kentucky, and most everyone who lives near Somerset works for a manufacturer or in a related industry, or owns a palace of his or her own.

"Houseboats have come a long way," admits lanky, lean Jeff Foley, who works for a company called Sumerset – it's spelled differently from the town – one of the premier manufacturers in the region. Most sell in the $500,000 to $1 million range. Foley has been working for Sumerset for 12 years; in the past few years, he says, the boats have grown exponentially in scale and luxury.

The Sumerset complex is a cavernous place – hundreds of feet in length – and spills off, in a series of smaller warehouses, towards the highway. In the airy, glass-enclosed showroom, prospective customers walk through two full-sized model houseboats, with five bedrooms each. An artificial pond was created near the parking lot for houseboats to be tested before they are shipped off across the country, from California to New York. In the factory proper, Sumerset employees such as Foley labor over the multistep building process – vessels are opened up, cut apart, put back together. Furnished, and outfitted with all manner of drapery and lush, rolling carpets, each interior will eventually resemble that of a multifloored mansion.