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