Trombone and parachute

I am continually delighted by the random nature of connections generated by the internet. A visitor to this blog was sufficiently interested to make his own very wonderful contribution (above) - click on the image to see it large enough to read.

Hugh also says "My old school song - in Birmingham - ended with "die of service not of rust", so I'm sticking to it. I've a friend in Chile who ferried hundreds of aircraft with the ATA in WWII. She did her first parachute jump at 65. Then another at 75. Then another, at 85, from 13,000 ft. Yes we can, to borrow a phrase."

Thank you, Hugh. May we all be jumping out of aeroplanes, literally or figuratively, at the age of 85; and never be afraid to blow our own trombone.

supercentenarian

Thanks again to Pat for this inspirational lady.

"You keep yourself active," she said. "You do things. You think about things. And then, don't waste time fussing about things you can't change. And then just be lucky."

Isn't that just common sense?

Never too old to exercise

Today I received an email from one of my computer training students asking for a session to help her to use her new digital camera. She's in her mid-seventies. I quote:

"Is 3.00pm OK? That should give me breathing space to recover from my morning session in the Gym."

And on the BBC news website this afternoon, I found this encouraging article.

I'm off to the gym so I don't get left behind.

Warning

Received by email today from a friend...

An elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%.

The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, 'Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again.' The gentleman replied, 'Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will three times!'

Blade runner

While working in London a week or two back, I came across this fabulous chap in the free Metro magazine. Just in case it vanishes from their site, I'm also preserving it here:

Old swinger in rollerblade gang

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Racing through retirement as a geriatric blade runner is Britain's oldest street gang leader – 71-year-old 'Dangerous Brian'.

More 'hip' than hip replacement, Brian Allen loves nothing more than to skate through shopping precincts and practise tricks with his gang of teenage speed nuts. He said: 'I've been skating all my life and there's no better exercise. 'I just love the speed – you can get up to about 20mph – it gives me such a buzz.' And while his peers may be playing bowls or going to tea dances the pensioner prefers playing roller hockey or rocking up to a roller disco near his home in Redhill, Surrey.

He added: 'I can do most of the tricks the youngsters do. Some people give us black looks but never say very much. The police sometimes ask what we're doing, but they soon change their attitude when I turn round and they realise I'm a relic.'

Mr Allen's wife, Brenda, 65, said: 'I don't worry about him going out there, it's keeping him active.'

Go, Buster

The Zimmers are one of my favourite examples of growing old disgracefully. One of their number is now 101, and hoping to break the record for the oldest person to run a marathon...

George Carlin's Views on Aging

Thanks to my (young-ish!) friend Paul for this, received by email. These are the views of the redoubtable George Carlin.

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

"How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30 ; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I was JUST 92."

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height.
2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop" And the devil'sname is Alzheimer's.
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER : Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,but by the moments that take our breath away.

An inspirational octogenarian

Pat has found me this blog. Judith has just turned eighty, is very beautiful (with fantastic legs, as shown in her 70th birthday photo!), is computer-literate and tenacious with it, and has a philosophy and approach to life that many of us - at all ages - would do well to emulate.

And she provides me with one of the best quotes I've seen for ages:

"You can't turn the clock back - but you can wind it up again."

Judith - from my 45 years to your 80 - I salute you.

How we got to 90

The BBC is good at articles like this one...

An interesting website

This just turned up in my in-box, via the WEETU newsletter (a local women's business enterprise network): In My Prime - For Mature People Re-Thinking Their Lives. Looks as though it could be worth a browse!

Aunt Ada Doom, eat your heart out

And again, many thanks to Pat for this one. The image is fairly large, so if you don't want to click on it, here's the text:

Evelyn Warburton rode to her 100th birthday party in a motorcycle sidecar Saturday in Berwick, PA. Warburton, who actually turned 100 on Thursday, suited up in motorcycle gear for the 10-minute ride from her home in Lightstreet to her granddaughter's house in Berwick. "It was fun today," she said. Her chauffeur on the green 2000 Harley-Davidson Ultra was George Crawford, a friend who has offered to take her to church on this motorcycle for several years.

Cruise ship retirement

I received this fabulous story as a powerpoint slideshow (courtesy of Malcolm & Sue, I might add), but you'll get the general gist by following this link to the excellent Snopes Urban Legend site...

Rappin' Granny

You go, girl...

Jack LaLanne

Pat in America is finding me some great inspiration for this site. Meet Jack LaLanne, who at nearly 93 is still working out, and could pass for many years younger. Visit the Washington Post website for a video of an interview with this irrepressible man (who frequently serenades his wife Elaine), and some fabulous photographs of his years as a fitness guru.

Comments I particularly relish include:

• "Ninety-three years young, and I still keep my wife smiling occasionally..."
• "You want to feel better, look better, live longer?.. you've got to earn the right to it."
• "Do something for the most important person on this earth. You."
  
• One of the first people to advocate avoiding processed foods, LaLanne is known to say,"If man made it, don't eat it."
• Considered one of the first modern health evangelists, LaLanne... likes to say "Billy Graham is for the hereafter, I'm for the here and now."
• LaLanne began advocating weight training in the 1930s even though doctors at the time thought the new practice would give people heart attacks and lower their sex drives. Science has since proved LaLanne was right.

There's also some interesting data about him on Wikipedia.

Forgetting to get older

I just had a great parcel from my friend Pat in America, who, much to my delight, takes inspiration from this blog and my Rector's Wife Revamp blog. We had a discussion a few weeks back on the "too old to run" theme, and yesterday I received a parcel including this newscutting (click on it for a closer look):



My favourite phrase is "I forgot to get older". That's one bit of absent-mindedness we could all use.

A bit of googling produces Fan's website, and dozens of other press references to her achievements. What an excellent lady. Thanks loads, Pat.

More about the Zimmers

A great article on the BBC site today about the Zimmers, who I mentioned on this blog a few days ago. They've covered The Who's "My Generation" - even though one of their number did prefer to call it "The Generation Game".

And I'm delighted to read there that Power to the People: The Great Granny Chart Invasion broadcast on Monday 28 May, 2007 at 2100 BST on BBC2. Less delighted to realise that I found this out two hours after the event. Never mind - I'm sure they'll be back...

Meeting the Red Hatters

I joined the Norwich chapter of the Red Hat Society yesterday. A superb bunch of ladies, they made me feel very welcome - especially as I'm likely to be the only "pink hatter" (under 50) among them for the time being! (Anne-Marie, who I'd met earlier on that day and who tagged along, is also a pink hatter - but she has her great celebration come August...)

Here's a sample of their fabulous and celebratory nature. All power to you, ladies; I look forward to growing old disgracefully.

Malcolm & Sue

When I ran (OK, jogged) my first Race for Life a couple of weeks ago, with my personal trainer, Kim, it was her dad Malcolm with his wife Sue who took all the smashing photos of us by following us around the course. They kept popping up all over the route, encouraging and cheering us on, and being ready with the water bottles so we didn't need to carry them!

Malcolm is 74, started running in his 50s, and is staggeringly fit. I asked him when I (puff, puff) finished my first 5k race in 39 minutes, "how long would that have taken you?" He thought about it for a moment, and said "well, I did one the other day over some pretty rough ground, so it was a bit slower than usual... that took me 22 minutes." A quick Google finds Malcolm running some very impressive times, including a 10k in 48:30 - you can find the evidence on the Athletics Data website. Notice that he has a habit of coming in first rather a lot...

Sue is also a runner, and was disappointed that the R4L was fully booked so she couldn't join us - although she'd have been showing us her heels if she had. I was grateful that she could take photos of us instead!

Oh, and they've just started using a computer, too.

Malcolm, Sue - you're a huge inspiration to us all.


Malcolm with Henry the hound

Late Bloomers

My American friend enjoyed this new blog, and has made a contribution along the lines of Tolstoy's Bicycle: Late Bloomers (75 Remarkable People Who Found Fame Success & Joy in the Second Half of Their Lives). That's on the UK version of Amazon; the USA version also has a preview in their Online Reader.

The oldest surviving Tommy

My husband has a worrying enthusiasm for films and books about wars and death - the amount of information we have on our shelves about Hitler & co. has to be seen to be believed. However, he has just suggested a worthy addition to this list: Henry Allingham.

Henry is the oldest surviving veteran of World War I, and all being well will celebrate his 111th birthday on June 6th. He has recently been in the news for his visit to a school to talk about his experiences: as one student put it, "he's lived in three centuries". Allingham credits "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women — and a good sense of humour" for his longevity.

He'll turn up all over the internet if you search, but here he is to start with:

• Wikipedia
• BBC News: visit to Staffordshire school