Come and find me

Hello all my bloggie friends.
Steve has helped me set up my new blog.
www.alwaysforeveryoung.blogspot.com
Come and join me for some fun and lots of giggles

Tangent: Precious Life

This is the scan of my friend's baby.
It is a reminder of how precious life is.
At 22 weeks pregnant, this new person is already 'half-cooked'.....waiting to enter our world and become a wonderful human being.
No matter what scientists do, attempting cloning etc etc....no matter how modern technology keeps evolving, this is still the most miraculous creation of all kind.
(Of course, I couldn't decipher which blob was the eye, nose, kneee or elbow.)

I drew this while on holiday, as 'family' and 'motherhood' was very much on my mind.

If you think of an ocean liner, consider fathers to be the rudder and mothers to be the engine.

To a woman, her family and motherhood are like the whole 'body' while her career and friends are like the 'tail'.

To a man, his life and career and having fun are like the 'body' while his family is like the 'tail'.

Treasure that little baby, Jaimie, nestling inside your womb, protected under your arms, and close to your heart, as that's where he/she will always stay till the day you die.

Tangent: Top 25 movies

Another one of my new blogging friends, shakymouse, has tagged me to name my best 25 movies of all time.

Here they are in no particular order:

1.) The Piano
2.) Grease
3.) Reservoir Dogs
4.) Silence of the Lambs
5.) Schindler's List
6.) Cry Freedom
7.) Mrs Doubtfire
8.) Some Like it Hot
9.) Dirty Dancing
10.) Charlie Chaplin - Gold Rush
11.) The Pink Panther (1)
12.) Shrek (1)
13.) The Shawshank Redemption
14.) The Godfather
15.) One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

16.) The Green Mile

17.) Doctor Zhivago

18.) L A Confidential

19.) Rainman

20.) ET

21.) Four Weddings and a Funeral

22.) Gone with the Wind

23.) The Wizard of Oz

24.) Singing in the Rain

25.) Dancing with Wolves

I bet a psychologist would have a great time analysing me!

Tangent: True Blue Blogging Award

I've been awarded the True Blue Blogging Award by studiololo.
Thank you so much Laurel.


This award is given to people who stick by you in blogland and make it fun to blog, creating a ring of communication and friendship.

The past 6 months have been an incredible adventure for me with my blog. I started it for fun after watching my sons blogging away, and am now totally hooked.

I do so enjoy signing in almost every day and reading what my new friends are up to, marvelling at their artistic talents, giggling at their funny endeavours, crying with them when they are sad. I had never intended to become besotted with blogland, but I am.

I would like to present this award to the following people who have been there for me with consistently encouraging words and feelings. Laurel you are definitely one of them. I salute you.

Here are the others whose comment come straight from their hearts, who lift my spirits, who give me lots of new ideas, and who make me laugh out loud.

auntiemim's

beammeupscotty

lynn-getting my feet wet

prozacville

switchsky

teric

Supposed to be only 5, but I am cheating with 6.

You're all a bit nuts, odd, lovely and loving ( 'birds of a feather stick together').

Bingle Jells and Nealthy Yew Hear.

Fifty-six: Value my friends

This is Lorraine, Hilary, Jamie and me having a good old gossip at work.

Hello girls, thanks for being my friends! Have a great Xmas and a good rest away from Cruella!

(painted a few weeks ago, entitled 'Italian women'....ha ha, that's us girls!!!)

Tangent: Happy Thanksgiving

I/we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, but to all my new friends- have a happy one!

Five things I am thankful for:

1.) To live to 60 (in February )which most of my family didn't do, due to heart disease or cancer.

2.) My hubby and sons (my 'boys').

3.) My long and fulfilling career as a teacher.

4.) My sense of humour and relatively good health.

5.) My quirky, eccentric, funloving, friendly, caring nature.

Think of five things you are grateful for this thanksgiving!

Tangent: I've been tagged

My chest infection has turned to bronchitis, so am still at home feeling rough, but blogging away and enjoying the solitude around me, and the wet plop-plop sound of rain on the window pane. As long as I sit here quietly the coughing and burning chest pain ceases for a while.

What a lovely surprise to get tagged.

I decided to trace this tag backwards to try to find its origin, and managed to go back 14 posts till I was stopped with a 'this blog is open to invited readers only'. This was a mammoth exercise, but great fun. Along the way, I posted a comment on each and every one of these people's blogs, so am hoping to make some new friends.

Here are THE RULES:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as their links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

My five facts (you decide whether they're random or weird) are:
1.) I planned to spend my 50th birthday sitting on the top of table mountain thinking about my life, when it rained and they closed the cable car for the day. I did it, but later.
2.) I'm a member of the 'mile high' club.
3.) I'm passionate about causes and I spend time helping them, instead of just thinking about them.
4.) I have a Living Will.
5.) I am still studying and try to get a new diploma every year.

I am tagging:
studiololo

teric

auntiemim's

liderata

debra

Happy posting girls, while you grind your teeth at me!!

Tangent: Burlesque club

NO THIS IS NOT ME!
My future daughter-in-law had her 'hen party' last Saturday night at a Burlesque club in London.
Sixteen of us joined her there, and it was lovely meeting her family and friends at last.
We all settled down in a merry mood, to an evening of wining, dining, giving her funny little gifts and of course the 'cabaret'.
Now, I think you all know by now, I'm no prude. But something about Mama Jo-Jo's act left me feeling slightly sick.
She was also the emcee for the evening and the burlesque teacher who had trained all her 'girls'. (yes, and a very shrewd business woman drumming up new business on a Saturday night).
Most of the acts were good, professionally done and some even had talent.
Her message was 'be confident about your body, flaunt it, show it, enjoy it, no matter what size, shape or form you happen to be'.
That's all very well, but I must say this sight did rather put me off my delicious cheesecake.

Maybe, I'm more of a prude than I thought I was!

Tangent: Creative Blogger Award

What a thrill. Found Focus_ret has bestowed on me the title of 'Creative Blogger'.
Thank you F_r.
The rules state that I should choose 6 deserving people who might appreciate this award and pass it on.
That's easy.
Here they are:
1.) Prozacville
2.) Auntie Mim's
3.)Switchsky
4.) ElizT
5.)TeriC
6.)The Finest Muffins

You all brighten my days!

Oh, by the way, this is me striving to be better every day in every way!

Thirty: See my bro again

My brother and I have always been very close, and losing our parents while still only in our early thirties, cemented this bond even more.

In 1986 I emigrated from South Africa to England, and since then have only seen my bro sporadically. I know there are lots of families where siblings don't communicate very well, or see each other often, and I feel sorry for them, as we are best friends. Over the past 21 years we have both missed so much time together, although thanks to relatively cheap international phone cards, we talk every week. But somehow it's just not the same.

I used to travel to see him quite often, but since my back surgery I cannot manage long journeys, so he comes here. He tries to come every year or 18 months and for this I am very grateful. He only manages about 10 days at a time and this speeds past within an instant.

We 'connect' immediately and start a 'downhill race' against the clock. How does one cram the past year, into such a short time? I get so weary from the excitement, urgency and whirl of him being here, but I hate going off and sleeping as this seems to waste more valuable time. I feel like a thirsty person gasping for a few sips of precious water. The expectancy of the arrival and the terrible anguish of the departure (which we have both learnt to hide in order not to upset one another) overwhelms me. After he leaves, I feel so wrung out, so unnerved, so upset, so incomplete, only to start all over again the next time.

He is the only living soul left in this whole crazy world who has shared my history, and I can't wait till we are together once more.

Tangent: Friends, old and new

Me and Rayna - South Africa - December 1984





Being an Aquarian, which is known as the 'friendship' sign of the zodiac, I find it very easy to make friends. Or should I say, I seem to 'collect' people who consider themselves my friends, like others collect stamps or theatre programmes.

Everyone is drawn to my cheery nature, my enthusiasm, my youthfulness and my energy (their words, not mine), as well as my 'always there for you' personality. I am a real chatterbox who loves the odd bit of gossip; okay, okay, I love the whole bit of gossip.

Mostly, I suppose, I rely on the 'when you laugh, the whole world laughs with you, when you cry, you cry alone!' principle, and this makes me a people magnet, specially those who need to cry and cry and cry. They get some sort of internal message that I provide a good 'shoulder' for anyone and everyone.

But as far as considering them my friends, there are very very few.

My 'old' friends are not those old in age, but in longevity of friendship. I met Priscilla (who I've mentioned before) when I was 4 and she 5. They lived in the house behind us and it was 'like' at first sight, and 55 years later, we are still very much 'in like' with each other.

My other dear friend, Rayna, who I met at 20, is still my dear friend after 40 years. I shared a flat with her the year I started teaching and we used to talk and giggle late into the night. We have recently re-connected after many years, and it's the same as back in 1969.

Nowadays I seem to be drawn to the younger generation, making friends with Christine in Kuwait, she at 30, me at nearly 50, and now I have a new 'best' friend, Lorraine, she at 30, me at nearly 60.

I find it exceedingly hard to keep 'floating' acquaintances for too long. They are linked to me usually by rather a weak, common link, e.g. work, or an art course or a short holiday meeting. But, when I do make a true friend, it is for life.

Maybe it's because most of us live continents apart from each other, that we have remained friends.

My definition of a good friend is:
someone who is as interested in me, as I am in her.
someone who says she cares about me and means it.
someone I feel I could ring in the middle of the night if I were in trouble and she would drop everything and come.

So, here's to you, Cilla, Rayna, Chris and Bev! Quality, not quantity!




Me and Rayna - London - December 2006

Tangent: Orgasm or prozac

The choice is quite simple, prozac or orgasm? orgasm or prozac? The two are not often mutually compatible.

I've been married three times, twice to the same man. No, I don't feel ashamed of it, I'm way behind Liz and Richard. Anyway, these days it's more the norm than the exception. At least I married my second husband again, just to gain some credability, and have had a much better marriage second time/third time around. I know it's all a bit confusing, wierd and wonderful, so welcome to my world!

Depression was never a stranger to me. We were familiar friends by my teenage years, long before depression ever became fashionable. I felt as if an enormous black hole was reaching up to engulf me and drag me down, down, down and there was nothing I could do to help myself.

In those days it was very much a case of 'pull yourself together, for heavens sake!' and the more this was said to me, the deeper I sank. I could no more pull myself towards myself than fly to the moon- which hadn't been flown to yet. I used to wake up feeling dead inside, heavy (which I was anyway, weighing about75 kgs- 12 stone by then) and full of dread. No one can ever understand this feeling unless they have truly suffered with it.

A lot of people will say, 'I feel depressed' today, or 'I feel so down' but often that is not true depression. We who suffer from it and have suffered from it know that you rarely go around saying 'oy, am I depressed, oy, am I depressed.' It's rather a 'becoming' emotion than an 'arriving at' emotion. It creeps up on you so gradually that often you aren't even aware of it till you reach that unenviable stage of not being able to get out of bed, let alone eat or dress yourself (some have the overeating 'thing' till they can't anymore) and still the dread grows.

Fifty years ago you were scoffed at, glared at, questioned and harrassed to 'stop this nonsense for heaven's sake!.' It just wasn't possible in most cases. A lot of my dire unhappiness and foolish decisions could've been avoided if they had invented prozac by then, certainly for me.

Oh, yes, I was put on antidepressants, but ohmigod, they totally annihilated anything I had left, making even thinking harder and the side effects were horrific. When I failed to stay on them, or failed to adjust to the side effects, I was always made to feel like 'a failed' person so further blighted by my unwillingness (or so it was thought) to try to get on with the happy pills. They were more like zombie pills than anything close to happiness I ever experienced.

So, you can imagine, in the late eighties, when my doctor told me I was depressed and should try prozac and some counselling, I decided on the latter. However, thank heavens for the counsellor, a nice, friendly, empathetic, homely little woman who entered my life and advised me strongly but firmly to try prozac- which was then the new wonder drug for depression.

I have never looked back. I have taken it intermittently since then and can honestly say that without prozac I would not have managed to weather the menopausal storms. Women who are prone to severe pms will ultimately struggle even more with the crashing thrashing hormonal waves of the menopause. I have blessed prozac every day for saving me from that.

I know it hasn't always got good press; claims of suicide, changed personalities etc, but if it works, it works, and for me it works.

There is one drawback- isn't there always that one?

After prolonged use of this drug- in my experience - one loses most sexual urges. Of course the 'meenie menos' can do that too, but those who gulp down their 40mg flouxetine with their breakfast probably can expect this to occur eventually. After all if it calms you down and balances you wonderfully ,then it has to be calming those fierce and famous sexual storms too.

Personally, I would rather have 40g for breakfast than that 'BIG O'. Must be reaching 'SIX O'