I’m 82 and a half years old. If I live for those three years, I will be 85 and a half.
I can’t really imagine that life will be much different apart from the fact that I might not be alive.
Of course, if Mr Putin should happen to decide to bomb the UK, I might be under that bomb or another one. Not a lot to look forward to.
If the present Russian ‘Tsar’ doesn’t bomb the UK, maybe I will carry on living at the seaside and eating out once a week, ordering food, cooking food, walking Lola (who will be 12 years old – not so old for a small dog like she is) and enjoying the fact that I am still alive!
It’s really difficult to predict what one’s life will be like in three years when one is as old as I am.
Well, aside from http://www.whitehairedwoman.com, which is my absolute favourite, being my website, I like Google for looking up stuff, the NHS app for ordering my blood pressure tablets etc, and Tesco.com for my weekly shopping.
There are others I like which I don’t visit as often, like jigasaurus.com. Sometimes I like to go there and see what lovely jigsaws I haven’t got.
I don’t really buy old jigsaws any longer as I don’t have my own site now but, every once in a while, I go to an auction site and see a group of jigsaws that are very tantalising – and leave a commission bid. And, once in a while I am the winning bidder and it is then that I remember that the bid isn’t all I will have to pay! There’s the commission on the bid itself and also the postage and packing which can add up to more than my winning bid!
Another that I like is Amazon.co.uk. Since I gave up driving and with few shops within walking distance, I often need things I can’t get otherwise. I know that Mr Bezos really doesn’t need my pitiable sums as he has billions, but, at least, I am helping some people to keep their jobs and am buying things I need and having them delivered when I need them.
I used to spend many minutes a day on Facebook.com then transferred those minutes to Twitter.com, in the days before X. I am glad to say that I tired of Twitter before it became X! Mr Musk really doesn’t need my help to keep his children in the style to which they have always been accustomed and himself in ketamine (if the tales are true).
A website that I do visit every day is bookbub.com. This is mainly because every day they send me a list of books which I may be interested in buying and adding to my Kindle. It’s actually sent by Apple.com but, for some reason I almost always buy those that I want, from Amazon which always has the same books priced at 99p that are available on Apple. I think I like to buy them through Amazon as their website always tells me if I’ve already bought it! I hardly ever remember the names of the books that I’ve read, Sometimes I don’t even remember the name of the book I am currently reading!
Others that I like are in the form of apps on my iPad such as the weather, the news, tv channels, solitaire, and Wordle and other games on the New York Times games app.
So – asking me what is my favourite website doesn’t come with a simple answer, I’m afraid. If I am asked this question next November I might have a whole other list! Now, I’m stopping writing this – I want to go catch up on Miss Marple and Poirot!
When we came to England in 1958, no one dressed up and went trick or treating and so in our family we kids didn’t bother with getting dressed up and knocking on doors on the 31st of October.
In the 2000s, though, Halloween has become a thing, at least here in Broadstairs. Knowing it was going to be busy tonight, I bought two big boxes of sweets (each wrapped so fairly hygienic). I got out my witch’s mask with the big green nose, donned all black and added a long black coat, let my hair hang down, added my witch’s hat, put Lola on a lead so that she wouldn’t try to escape as she had done last year and I waited.
It wasn’t dark yet when the first little boy came to the door with his mum. I opened the door and he said “Trick or Treat!” I said something like, “Hello little boy. Do you want a sweetie?” in a cranky old witch voice. He grabbed one and ran down the driveway, mumbling “Thank you.”
Many, many children arrived at the door, almost all saying something like Trick or Treat or occasionally, Happy Halloween which, I don’t think is something that is said in America although it is almost 70 years since I spent a Halloween night over there so things may have changed.
Strangely, here in England, when the children say Trick or Treat, they seem to be asking me if I will give them a treat or play a trick on them – the total opposite of its meaning in America. I’m not going to point out their mistake, though, because someday, in the not too distant future, I may very well not be able to provide treats dressed as an old witch!
An interesting aside – I’ve been reading recently about the 6, 7 phenomenon, and, at the door this evening, a boy of about 8 ran up to me and said, “I’m going to tell you a joke. Six!”
And I burst out, “Six seven!“ He seemed to be equal parts thrilled that I knew his joke and sad because I knew his joke. I, on the other hand, was completely thrilled because I didn’t think I would ever have the chance!
It took less than an hour for all the sweets in both big boxes to have been taken, though each child was very well behaved and only took one from the box. I am torn between buying 4 big boxes next year and being quite happy to remove the mask and the long black coat, put up my hair and hide from all the kids running up and down the pavement after only and hour!
This is me with my costume on. The hat was good but kept falling off so I ditched it in the end!
What would you do if you lost all your possessions?
CRY!
Then I’d work out how to replace at least some of it.
At my age, I couldn’t go back to work.
On the other hand, my needs would be simple – something to eat, a few clothes to wear, a bed, several sheets, a pillow and pillow cases, a duvet and cover, something to read, glasses to see with, fingernail clippers to clip my nails, shoes, face cream, tooth brush, toothpaste, a water flosser, a comb and a brush, underwear and socks, a nightie or some pyjamas, a bag of some sort, a phone, some Gaviscon for when I get indigestion, my tablets, (amitriptyline, statins, blood pressure), paracetamol for headaches, an iPad, some paints, brushes and canvases, a palette, some painting knives, a kitchen scale so I don’t eat too much of the things that make me grow where I shouldn’t, a bathroom scale to make sure I haven’t been eating too much of the stuff I mustn’t, and, oh, crap, I forgot, I’d need a home to store it all and act as shelter……… I guess my needs wouldn’t be simple at all!
Your life without a computer: what does it look like?
I spend a lot of time using my iPad (a smaller and more personal computer.) I really cannot imagine my life without it! I look up recipes, search for the reason behind new aches and pains, keep in touch with relatives abroad and those friends of mine who have email. I also search for information about films and tv programmes I’ve watched – who played which part? (Ah, yes, I thought it was him! Wasn’t he handsome back then!) or for ‘Whatever happened to so and so?’
It seems amazing to me that I spent the first 55 or 60 years of my life with no internet, no email, and no way of looking up some information that wasn’t in the 1950’s version of the Encyclopedia Britannica Jr. which I still had. Yes, I could go down the road to the library, if it was during open hours but I might forget to bother by the time I got there!
Nowadays, many of my evenings at home are spent watching things on my iPad that I missed seeing when they were originally on tv or at the cinema. Just at the moment I am re-watching the 7 Up series. If you are not in Great Britain, you won’t have seen it. It started in 1964 when a tv company decided to see whether one could look at children at the age of 7 and ‘see’ what they would be like later on in life.
The programme followed 14 children and interviewed them at the age of 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 56 and 63. I had missed the most recent programmes and was quite keen to see what had happened to those people. I’ve watched the first 2 of the 3 in the series and will likely watch the third later this evening.
Without a computer, my life would be very different and I’m glad to say that I don’t know what it would look like!
I like music. I like almost every kind of music. After 82 years of listening to music, I have gone from Elvis Presley to Elgar and Ricky Nelson to Rachmaninov – and lots of in-between music.
The first record I bought, a 45 for those who know their vinyl, was Jailhouse Rock. How was I to know that leaving it in the back of the car on that shelf next to the rear window, wasn’t a good idea?
I also bought Why do Fools Fall in Love by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. By the time I left America I had around 40 or 50 45s and I added a few more in the next few years. One of my favourites was Conway Twitty’s It’s Only Make Believe and another was Jackie Wilson.
In my 20s I was quite busy being a mum but I took the time to listen to music on the radio and watch Top of the Pops. I was quite fond of The Beatles, loved The Rolling Stones and enjoyed many of the pop songs of the 60’s and 70’s.
Then, I heard some Mozart! At every chance I got, I listened to Mozart concertos and symphonies and also some Vivaldi, and other, lesser known Baroque composers. At some point during the 90s, a new station on the radio brought me loads more classical music: – Classic fm. I listened to it all day and heard so much more classical music. It became difficult to say who my favourite composer was. Sometimes it was Hummel, occasionally Buxtehude!
At the same time as this new (old) music was educating me in new (to me) sounds, I had, first a teen-age daughter who watched the 80s version of Top of the Pops, introducing me to Boy George, Soft Cell, The Police, Phil Collins and more, then in the mid 90s a new grandchild who, within a few years was introducing me to Eminem, Avril Lavigne and Nelly.
I’ve forgotten most of those songs and their singers now and hardly ever listen to whatever followed the term ‘pop‘. Occasionally I hear something new on the radio which I add to my ‘must listen out for’ list which, over the last 20 or so years, has included Paloma Faith, Duffy, Adele, Alicia Keys also Gnarls Barclay, Pink, Passenger, and loads more. I’ve bought CDs and now I stream music from Amazon, but often I sit in complete silence – which I enjoy.
I would hate not to have music of all kinds in my life (with a few exceptions!) but I would also hate to have to listen to it 24 hours a day! I like quiet, I like solitude, but I also like to dance! and, when I hear some music I think I can dance to, I go into the kitchen, where nobody can see me and pretend that I am young and dance – until I have to sit down, which sadly isn’t too long, nowadays.
This isn’t me but she’s almost as old as I am so she’ll do.
Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.
When I was a sixteen year old girl, living in London and going to school at the USAF base in Bushey Park, I had three month long summer holidays. Between my sophomore and junior years I joined a few other American students and worked for several weeks at the International Food Fair which took place in the Olympia Exhibition Halls.
There were, I think, different areas for different nationalities but the only one I can remember is the American stands so, maybe it was only the American Food Fair – it’s so long ago I just can’t remember for sure. I was lucky enough (I thought) to be working on the Betty Crocker stand.
It was our job to stand behind the counter on a stage and mix a cake or other dessert from a packet of a Betty Crocker cake mix, showing how easy it is to make these fantastic items.
One morning, I decided to make a packet of Date Bars. This was an item that I had made before at home several times – and I always enjoyed trying the finished article! So, I introduced the mix, showing the two bags inside the box. One of the bags, the largest, contained the base mix which was oatie and delicious.
To the contents of the bag, I imagine I had to add some melted butter or margerine, then to press half the mixture into the cake tin. When that was done, I had to add, perhaps warm water – I just don’t remember – to the smaller bag of the pair, which was an amount of dates, probably cut up into tiny pieces.
The trouble was that, at the time, on that particular day, I didn’t remember, either! I remember adding something to the date mix but it wasn’t the right thing or it wasn’t enough of the right thing! There I stood, in front of quite a large audience, supposedly showing them how easy this mix was to make and it was anything but easy. The date mix was supposed to be spread over the base but it wouldn’t spread and it wouldn’t come off the spoon I was using to pick it up and it wouldn’t come off my fingers and I just kept trying and trying and……. finally had to admit to all the people standing there, that I had done something wrong somewhere along the way.
I think I must have been very close to tears! I have forgotten how I got off that stage into the area where the audience couldn’t see me. I’m not certain that I went back on that stage again, though I probably did, as the job paid quite well and, anyway, the same people wouldn’t pay to come and see me do it again. Would they?
Some people eat to live whereas some live to eat. I come into that,second category, nowadays. I don’t think I have always loved food though some foods I have always loved. Today, my days are punctuated by mealtimes and I am almost always looking forward to the next meal but, not necessarily looking forward to preparing it!
When I was a young mum I subscribed to a cookery book club. Almost every month I would go through the offers and buy another. I remember two in particular. The first was a paperback from a series and contained mostly healthy, nourishing food that could be made for a fairly small amount of money.
There were stews and roasts and desserts galore and I tried out quite a few, though there were a few I never made. I never got close to cooking a meal that contained tripe! No matter how cheap and healthy it is, the inside of a cow’s or sheep’s stomach is a bridge too far!
The second cookery book was a Good Housekeeping publication. It had ‘how to’s’ as well as recipes. How to set a table, how to clean a fish or butterfly a chicken breast, even how to remove a chicken’s bones without taking it apart! There were a lot of things that I didn’t bother with! Also, there was a special section of the book on ‘foreign’ foods of various sorts. I remember, particularly, an American recipe which used corn meal and eggs, and was called Spoon Bread. I made that wonderful concoction more than once! Sadly, I have lost that recipe and, if I still had it, probably wouldn’t make it nowadays, having lost the enthusiasm for cooking after so many long years.
I started cooking meals for the family when I was around 15. Our mother worked full time and often would ask me to make the meal for her, my two sisters and myself. When I was 21 and had had my daughter, I stayed home and cooked for us all almost all the time and went on doing it for those of us who lived with Patty until I met Julian – and then I cooked for Julian, Veronica and myself plus any friends who happened to be there.
In the earlier days I was trying out the stews, pasta with meat sauces, chile con carne, chicken, cauliflower cheese etc. etc. Then, later, Veronica became a vegetarian and I tried to make meals that were meaty but leave meat off her plate. During that period I spent a LOT of time reading the ingredients on packets and tins.That was in the days before vege burgers!
Then came the days after Veronica went to university. I went back to cooking normally for the two of us. Julian’s favourite was my lasagne. I think my version of lasagne wasn’t really very Italian but it was tasty!
Cooking nowadays is a boring chore! I do it because we need to eat, but I always try to cook something that tastes good so that I can look forward to eating it. Most of our meals are simple. We have chicken a couple of times a week, cooked in different ways; we have a couple of fish dishes – usually a white fish and always, salmon; and we have the occasional mince dish which Julian particularly likes. (I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before.)
For the last 4 weeks or so I’ve been on a diet. I’m writing this right now because I was sitting here thinking how hungry I am and thought this would take my mind off thinking about being hungry – and it has worked! (But I’m still hungry!)
Now, down to my favourite foods!
1. Anything Italian – there are many Italian restaurants locally 😄
2. Indian food, though I can’t really eat it in the evening anymore as I get indigestion and can’t sleep. 😢
3. French food (that isn’t tripes aux oignons ☹️)
4. Pastries, cakes, ice cream, custard, donuts, cinnamon buns, pies and cheese – all the things I shouldn’t eat but do from time to time – not all at the same time, I hasten to add! Also, not while I’m on a diet!😩
We go out to eat once a week now. Thanet is full of restaurants and we’ve tried a fair few but we’ve not come close to trying all of them, yet.
Every morning when I get up (after 8 almost always, after 9 sometimes), I open the curtains in my room which I share with a certain middle-aged dog called Lola, open the window and look out at the day. Lola is always ready to look out, as well, because there are four cats living next door. One of the cats (Naia) almost never goes out, so it won’t be her that Lola sees in next door’s garden but it could be Viktor or either of the others whose names I haven’t yet learned. The two most recent cats are both grey. One is always ready for food when I’ve gone round to feed them, the other is much slower to come from wherever he’s hiding. Their feeding likes and dislikes are not relevant to this story, though, so I’ll get on with it!
One summer morning about four weeks or so ago when we looked out we were amazed to see a juvenile gull walking around in next door’s garden. It’s easy to tell a young gull because they have brown spots on their wings and back whereas adult gulls are white with grey wings and back and the tips of their wings are black with white spots, as are their tail feathers.
We had seen the young gull the evening before when he had enraged Lola by sitting on the roof of the conservatory. (At the moment, and as long as it’s warm enough, I spend time in here watching tv or reading.) The youngster seemed to be okay but found it difficult to stay on the ridge of the roof and ended up walking along the trough which sits between the house and the conservatory. He climbed through the balusters on my balcony and after a while, because we couldn’t see him easily, we stopped looking up and soon forgot about him.
So, there he was, sitting on the lawn in next door’s garden. We watched him for a while as he walked back and forth, extending his wings but obviously not going anywhere soon. Lola paid no attention to him once she realised he wasn’t a cat and I needed my breakfast so went downstairs.
The next day when we looked out, the gull was still next door wandering about the lawn, I was going to write a text to Simone who lives there when I received a text from her. She said she had seen the young one and was keeping her cats in so that they wouldn’t go after him.
Pepe enjoying an apple.
Time went by. Every day Pepe (that’s what they called him) was still there in the garden, spending time tossing plastic pots around and eating the food they put out for him. The cats were not interested in going anywhere near him and the local foxes seemed to have found better places to go. Then, Pepe decided to go exploring in Simone’s house! The garden door was open and in he went, snooping in their kitchen/diner. Not finding anything interesting, Pepe departed, leaving a calling card in the shape of a gull poo!
Things changed! On the 1st of September, I realised I hadn’t seen Pepe for a couple of days. As if she had read my mind, Simone wrote and sent me a photo. Somehow, Matt, Simone’s partner, had put Pepe on the roof where he was joined by his mum (or dad – difficult to tell with gulls).
Pepe and his dad (or mum.)
Pepe had been practising using his wings and going on very short flights and they hoped that, being up high, he would take to the skies. It seems that that is, indeed, what has occurred. Pepe and his parent have left the roof and flown away – possibly to the beach where, even at the beginning of autumn, there are lots of people eating chips out of cones of paper, just waiting for a young gull to swoop and steal their snack!
Fly Pepe. Soar and realise the freedom of a bird at last!
More Pepe photos thanks to Simone.
Pepe drinking on the deckingMatt giving Pepe a helping hand up to the roof!
White Haired Woman 