…..I have white hair, I walk more slowly than I used to, I always wear trousers or leggings, I am short.

That could be any one of lots of people?

I speak with a very soft accent that has evolved from Ohio American to not quite British English. I still say ‘banana’ rather than ‘banarna’. (American friends, the ‘r’ inside English words makes the vowel in front of it somewhat longer, it isn’t pronounced like the ‘r’ in ‘farmer’. Real, proper Brits don’t actually pronounce either of the ‘r’s in that word – it sounds more like ‘fah-mah’. But, the ‘r’ in ‘trend’ or ‘screen’ is pronounced just as in American English.)

I am overweight but trying to lose some. I’m more pear shaped than apple shaped. Even when I was skinny – from childhood until late 30s – I was the same – big hips, small bust.

I have short legs which are sturdy. Nowadays my ankles tend to swell in hot weather. Both of my knees have been replaced but I can’t fathom what it was that caused the cartilage in them to disappear! I have never been sporty, never run when I can walk, never climbed mountains or even monuments if there was a handy lift.

I wear glasses. When I was young it was discovered that my right eye had astigmatism and I was prescribed glasses. I found wearing them made everything look like it was tilted. I gave up wearing them almost immediately! In my 40s I discovered that I couldn’t see to read as well as I had so bought some over-the-counter reading glasses. I continued with those, changing the strength as necessary but, it was in my late 70s that I slowly found that my vision was so bad that I could no longer read LOOP on my local buses until they were quite close. (The LOOP is a great service here in Thanet, joining the 3 small towns of Ramsgate, Broadstairs and Margate.) So, now, I wear bifocals. (I tried varifocals but didn’t get on so well.)

In early 2018 I had white hair down to my waist and found it annoying to look after. I wore it up in some sort of bun but I always looked a bit messy 5 minutes after I finished fixing it for the day. So, I decided to go to the hairdresser and have it cut short. After the cut, I quite liked how it looked, then I washed it myself and it didn’t look so great. I bought a special machine that would give my hair a bit of a wave but, that was useless – so I had it cut, even shorter! I liked it when I came out of the hairdresser – and you can guess how I felt a couple of days later! It never looked great. Nevertheless I continued going to the hairdresser every few months and having it shaped and dressed.

In January last year (2023) I decided to let it grow. In April, around my 80th birthday, I had a big party and invited many of the people I know. My hair was just long enough by then to be pinned back and ‘up’ just a bit. Now (July, 2024) it has reached well past my shoulders. It is still messy – but occasionally, with a lot of hairspray, it stays in place for an hour or two.

I quite like being on my own, but not all the time. When Julian goes away, painting, I have a lovely time not cooking for two, in fact, not always cooking for one! He has been away for the past ten days and I have only turned on the oven twice, once to cook 2 chicken breasts and the other time to cook some salmon. On those evenings I also cooked some veges and ate hot meals. The second chicken breast was a lovely treat for Lola the next day but I had the second piece of salmon, cold for lunch with salad – salmon is my favourite fish. (Tuna is a close second!)

I am a quiet person. I don’t generally raise my voice though there are some people, now in their 50s I think, who might disagree. I was a primary school teacher for about 10 years and I often seemed to be raising my voice to be heard above the cacophony of 30-odd young people. I’m happy to say that many of them don’t seem to hold it against me!

I have blue eyes, almost no eyebrows (I’m not sure why). I have a small nose, a rather long upper lip and a small chin. When I smile I almost look like I have cheek bones and try to remember to almost smile rather than let my face fall into repose which either looks like I’m going to burst into tears or that I am angry or very bored! When I was younger, people passing me in the street would say, “Cheer up, it may never happen!”

Well, I can’t think of anything else to describe me so will end here. Cheerio, ‘til next time!