Shopping and Sunshine.

I've been very busy this past week. After having my granddaughter staying with us for a few days I then had to get organised for a weeks visit to what I class as my second home,Turkey.
We're having a relaxing beach holiday for a week hoping that a good dose of vitamin D from the sun will keep me well for the rest of the year.
It's been so long since I have felt the heat of the sunshine on my face and there still doesn't seem much hope of us here in the UK having it for very long this summer.
This is to be an extra weeks holiday for us and as such I said I didn't need to buy any new clothes.
That didn't last very long as what girl wouldn't like a new top or swimsuit for going away?

What did annoy me was being asked in every shop if I needed a bag. I know the planet can't cope with any more plastic bags and this isn't a rant about not being given one it's just a question about what we do.

Going for our weekly shop we can take our bags for life,hessian bags,cotton bags or any other kind of bags we like to fill with shopping at the checkout and save the world from the dreaded plastic, but what happens when you're in a shopping centre or shopping on the high street?

TK Max.- Purchased  one pair of pyjamas
Asked,"Do you need a bag?
 H&M - Purchsed- A top and socks
Asked -Do you need a bag.
Boots- Purchased one lipstick, nail polish, nail polish remover wipes
Asked -"Do you need a bag?"
 Card shop- Purchased one card.
Asked "Do you need a bag?"
and so it goes on.
 I actually only had a small across the body bag when I bought all these things,you would have thought the assistant would have seen that.
Some shops just bagged things in plastic carrier bags without asking.
What I don't feel comfortable with is putting things like lipstick,wipes and other small things in my own bag.

Disclaimer:This is not my Mulberry bag it's my daughters.

I feel like I'm stealing them if they are not in a bag branded from the shop they were bought from. I wait for the hand of the security guard on my shoulder and check and double check I have all my receipts.
I also don't want to put new clothes I have just bought in my own bag and then put all the other stuff on top of them, not very hygienic.
Why can't shops go back to using small paper bags for small purchases? I could them put them in my own re-recyclable bag. There's not many designer shops or high end shops use plastic bags, most of them are paper or cardboard.
I have been reading that it takes more energy to recycle paper than it does plastic and also paper comes from trees so it means using more trees,I don't know what the answer is I just don't like putting those kind of purchases that I've mentioned in my own bags.


Back to my busy week. I've packed the suitcase which then had to be unpacked because it was too heavy and as we are only going for a week I had to remove the kitchen sink.
The house is tidy,well as tidy as it's going to be because after I put on my false nails I will be doing no more housework. I'm charging my kindle, phone and camera and I've decided not to take my ipad, I may have withdrawal symptoms but I'm going cold turkey for a week.
The last thing we have to do is deliver the dog to my daughter's house and get to bed early to get up at silly o'clock for an early morning flight.
Hopefully for a week I'll see no more of this

and be doing more of this

or maybe this

Whatever I look like there's sure to be lots of this

Cheers! See you all too soon!

A Blog Award.

Before the A-Z Challenge I was given this award by Rosalind Adam is Writing in the Rain
Ros has become one of my close blogging and twitter friends,we even play on line scrabble with each other although I don't think I have won a game yet. Ros has a lovely blog,she'll have you laughing at her poems and educate you with her knowledge of history but most of all you'll just enjoy her company. Thanks for the award Ros. Now to earn it I have to answer some questions.

1.If you could change one thing what would it be?
I would change the minds of any man or woman who ever thought about abusing children either physically,mentally or sexually. There has been so much in the news recently regarding sexual abuse, imagine if even the very thought of it never entered anyone's head. Those three girls from Ohio would never have been kidnapped and held captive for ten long years. Every child and young person should be honoured and protected, it breaks my heart to think of anyone having to go through it. That is what I would change.

2. If you could repeat an age what would it be?
I would love to back for just a little while to when my two children were very small, maybe when my son was nearly five and my daughter was two, I would have been 29yrs, yes, I would like to relive that again.

Then again....maybe not!

3. What one thing really scares you?
That one day I may not be able to look after myself and be in an old people's home staring at four walls.It's not something I dwell on but it scares me to think about it.

4. If you could be someone else for a day who would it be?
I would be a fantastic singer and appear on the west end stage perhaps as Maria in West Side Story. I would bring the house down with my wonderful singing voice and brilliant acting and I would be ecstatically happy. 

I am passing the award on to .
Amanda's Brand new blog at Keeping Up Appearances  she's just started blogging and I'm loving her blog.

Michelle at Ardour of a Dreamer 
I came across Michelle's blog just before the A-Z challenge which she completed.Michelle is a young blogger from Michigan U.S.A and writes about her life and the things she loves.
  
Val, a writer from the Netherlands who blogs about her life on a barge and lots of other interesting stories you can find her at Watery Ways 
The first two blog I choose are quite new so please show them some blog love and give them all a visit.

Ladies please do not feel you have to accept the award and answer questions, know everyone is busy.

 
     

A- Z Challenge.Staying Fabulous and Fit after 50. Z is for Zaftig and Zest.

After my W for weight post there was only one word for Z and that is
 Zaftig- Having a full shapely figure, pleasantly plump.
Hmm... I don't mind the first part but not too happy with the pleasantly plump description.

I lied, there's more than one word for Z my next one is,
Zest- enthusiasm, vigorous enjoyment. Va va voom.

 We can exercise everyday, eat healthy, take care of our skin and posture, do all the other 101 things we have to do to be fabulous and fit after 50  but if we don't have that zest for life none of it will do us any good.
As every year passes I'm more and more grateful to be here.

I was born Cystic Fibrosis which is the most commonly inherited disease in the UK as 1 in 25 of us are a carrier of the gene. CF affects the lungs and they fill up with sticky mucus,a breeding ground for germs resulting in repeated chest infections and breathing problems. If I am in your company and you have a sore throat or a cold then nine times out of ten I will end up with a chest infection.
 The pancreas can also be affected by CF making it difficult to digest food and absorb nutrients resulting in slow growth and poor weight gain. I am extremely lucky in that my pancreas doesn't seem to be affected in this way.

 Even though I was classed as "failure to thrive" as a baby and despite lots of hospital stays and chest infections I slipped through the net and didn't get my diagnoses until I was 28yr. A child with CF in the fifties wasn't expected to suvive infant years so I suppose the older I became the less likey they suspected what was wrong with me.
Today life expectancy for someone with CF is 41yrs ( I screwed that number up for them!)  but young children and teenagers are still losing their lives or suffering a life full of medication, physiotherapy and hospital stays. We are so close to finding a cure it's only money for research that is preventing it.
When I was finally diagnosed the shock was unbelievable but I  then received the proper care and attention which had been lacking since my birth, doctors started believing me when I was unwell and that's the reason I'm still here folks, real good care from the CF team at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow and a lot of luck.

That is why I have a zest for life, I enjoy every minute of it even when I'm doing nothing very productive.
Sometimes life can be a bit of a struggle and after I have a particulary bad time and I think I'll never recover I have to pick myself up dust myself down and start all over again, with ZEST.


Zest is the secret of all beauty. There is no beauty that is attractive without zest.
Christian Dior
 

If you have zest and enthusiasm you attract zest and enthusiasm. Life does give back in kind.
Norman Vincent Peale

 I've did it! I've reached the end of The A-Z Challenge 2013. I couldn't have done it without the support and loyalty of my blog, facebook and twitter friends who have came back day after day to read my posts, thank you all so much, you all know who you are. I hope you have all taken my advice and are now Fabulous and Fit.
 As for new friends if you left a comment on my post and I haven't visited your blog it's because I couldn't find a link so if you're reading this please leave a link or your blog name in the comments, thanks. I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings .

 When I started this challenge I looked like

 Now after 26 posts I look like 

There's only one thing left for me to say....

That's all folks!

A-Z Challenge. Staying Fabulous and Fit after 50. Y is for Youth.

 Youth 

If youth but knew, if age but could.
           - Henri Estienne. 

How many times have you said to yourself , I wish I could go back and do it all again with the head I have on me now? We thought when we were young that we knew it all. We knew better than our parents and teachers, then when we are older we realise that we knew nothing and our parents and teachers were the ones with the wisdom.
How I wish I could go back to my secondary school days and  get my head down and study.

Why was I so desperate to leave school at sixteen? Up until then I was doing well, although a little push from my teachers and parents and I might have been persuaded to stay on at school. I could have been there another two years instead I went to college, yes, I studied and became a Nursery Nurse and I loved it but I secretly wanted to teach, I just didn't think I was clever enough. Looking back with maturity, I could have done it, I should have done it but my head was too full of boys, and going dancing and music. I was young. 

On a lighter note. I see the toys of today's youth and wish I as young enough to enjoy playing with them. All the things we didn't have as youngsters. I remember making furniture for my Sindy dolls from cardboard boxes and matchboxes. Look at the stuff girls have today for their dolls. Sindy has cars and caravans, scooters, large houses, the list is endless. Battery operated cars that children sit inside and press a button and it moves. I didn't even have a bike, I had a scooter. Trampolines, huge ones in everyones garden. I want a jump on one of those. I always wanted to work in  toy shop as a Saturday job while at school instead I ended up in a sweet shop and it wasn't as good as it sounds.

When I was seven or eight years old I had friends at school, twins, who lived in a fancy house with a huge garden, I lived in a tenement close so a garden was a luxery for me.
 In their garden they had a shed which had been converted into a playhouse for them. It had a tiny child sized table and chairs, lace curtains on the window and rugs on the floor.We sat at the table with a china tea set and had a party. Their mum brought us sandwiches and cake. It was like another world to me and even today I remember it vividly.
In our garden I will relive my youth through my granddaughter, we will have a shed and convert it into a playhouse and it will have a table and chairs and lace curtains. It has to be big enough for me to fit inside and when it's ready my granddaughter and I will have a tea party and I will have come full circle and be reliving my youth again. I can't wait.

What is youth except a man or a woman before it is ready or fit to be seen?

Evelyn Waugh (1903 - 1966)

Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life.

Herbert Henry Asquith (1852 - 1928)

I am not young enough to know everything.

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

You can only be young once. But you can always be immature.

Dave Barry (1947 - )

 What would you like to relive from your youth?

A-Z Challenge.Staying Fabulous and Fit after 50. X is for Xanthippe

It's that time again,the time when this horrible letter has to have it's day.It really should be banned from the English alphabet. I found it hard to relate X words to my topic so don't be too hard on me.

The X word none of us would like to be used to describe us is
 xanthippe -ill tempered woman
We all get a bit ill tempered from time to time. When the phone rings at tea time just as you've put the dinner on the plates and it's someone calling you by your first name like a long lost friend, telling you he's not selling anything than goes on to talk about insurance and PPI's. The phone gets slammed down and I become a xanthippe.

I'm not like that usually, I'm a lot more patient now than I've ever been. I only ever loose my temper with inanimate objects that don't do the job they were make for. If the washing machine doesn't work it gets a kick,If the computer freezes it get shouted at and if I can't open that packet of ham for my lunch....I might be a xanthippe after all.

Another X that we wouldn't want to be described as is
Xanthodont  - One with yellow teeth.
With the letter B I spoke about not wanting to have botox and most of you agreed with me. I would however have cosmetic dentistry work done if I needed it. I would love to have my teeth whitened but I have a few crowns and the treatment wouldn't work on them, and at a few hundred pounds a crown I couldn't have them replaced. It's an expensive business.
A few TV programmes have showed people with really awful teeth have cosmetic dentistry and the difference is amazing.The person has so much more confidence to face the world.

 I'm finishing the letter with an X  I don't mind being called.
Xenodochial - Hospitable and kindly to strangers.

If someone talks to me at a bus stop or while out and about I will chat back, I have had many a good conversation with people I have never met before and am never likely to meet again.

I am hospitable, If you visit I will always offer you tea and a chat,of course if you prefer coffee I will offer that too, I am very xenodochial just please don't visit when I'm in the middle of writing my blog or you may find I turn into a xanthippe.



I don't get angry very often. I lose my temper rarely. And when I do, there's always a legitimate cause. Normally I have a great lightness of being. I take things in a very happy, amused way.
Julia Roberts
 

When I sell liquor, it's called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, it's called hospitality.
Al Capone

A-Z Challenge Staying Fabulous and Fit after 50. W is for Weighty Issues.

too much of this

Cake!!!

Weight must be the most talked about subject. Every time you pick up a  newspaper or magazine there's some sort of new diet that guarantees to shift your excess pounds without any trouble at all. Every night there's another television show about fighting the fat. We are constantly told we are risking our health by what we eat.The problem with weight is, we all know how to loose it, we all know how to eat healthily it's just a lot harder to put into practice especially as you get older.

not enough of this

I used to be able to loose a few pounds no bother at all but now it just will not shift,I know I have to exercise as well but when I was younger I didn't need to, the weight just came off without much effort.

The scales lie.

During this A-Z I've been saying we have to be happy in our own skin and love ourselves for what we are and I do I like being me,I am happy, but we all know when we've put that few extra pounds on and have ate too many potatoes or cakes. Clothes get that bit tighter. I don't know if it's to do with being older but my extra pounds seem to gather," up top" it's no wonder I have a sore back carrying that extra weight. I just want to be a bit lighter or at least not keep putting on the pounds.
If you're one of those lucky people who can eat what you want and never gained a pound then I'm in awe of you, how does it work?

 I'm going on holiday in a few weeks and I want to feel good in my clothes instead of having to buy a whole new wardrobe in a bigger size, I refuse to buy anything bigger. So I'm trying to eat healthily without saying the dreaded D word.

When I saw this postcard I knew what my problem was, I'm too short. If I was taller I'd be slim, I'm only 5ft 3in and yet, in school I was about the third tallest in my class,what happened?

I'm very easily lead where food is concerned. If hubby says he wants a curry, I'm right there with him. If he says he wants fish and chips, I'm handing him his car keys. Hold on! Yes! Hubby is to blame, now I know why I can't loose weight and it's not my fault!

I have everything I had twenty years ago,only it's all a little bit lower.
                                                               - Gypsy Rose Lee. 

The weight comes off, you know? If you stop with the bread and the pie, it really does. It really works.
Philip Seymour Hoffman

As I mentioned previously, the tools that allow for optimum health are diet and exercise.
Bill Toomey

A-Z Challenge,Staying Fabulous and Fit after 50.V is for Vitamins.

I go through phases when sometimes I take lots of different vitamins depending on what I read is good for you and sometimes I just can't be bothered as they don't seem to do anything for me. I would like to have more energy, brighter skin and a healthy digestive tract. So what vitamins should we be taking?

1. A good mulivitamin.

2.Fish oil supplement, omega 3 fatty acids.
Works as an anti-inflammatory.

3.Vitamin D, since we don't see the sunshine very often here we may be deficient in vitamin D. A blood test will tell you if you are. Being deficient in Vit D could lead to an increased risk of heart attack,Parkinson's disease, high blood pressure or Alzheimers

4.Calcium, Taking a calcium supplement could decrease your chance of having Osteoporosis.

5.Magnesium. Low magnesium levels can cause migraines,fatigue,and high blood pressure.
Instead of taking a supplement, two servings of pumpkin or sunflower seeds will give you your daily dose.

I also found one I haven't heard of before it's called Resveratrol, it's the antioxidant found in red wine, which is what they were talking about when we were told drinking red wine was good for you. I think I'll just stick to my glass of red wine it's probably cheaper and more enjoyable.
As with everything consult your doctor before taking anything new.

There are many more vitamins and health supplements we are advised will be good for our health, you would need a small fortune to buy them all. I'm all for trying something new but if you can't feel a benefit from taking them how do you know they are doing you any good?
We could write down our symptoms that lead us to taking a supplement or vitamin and keep a diary to see if anything is improving. Or have our blood tested to steer us in the right direction to what vitamins we are lacking.
Apart from seeking out what vitamins we should be adding to our diet perhaps we should be looking at what we eat and how we can add more healthy foods. There's always a lot of talk of cake on twitter and on blogs and while cake is lovely and scrumptious it doesn't really do much for our health and welfare. As long as we are eating healthy a little of what you fancy does you good, just not too much of it.

All those vitamins aren't to keep death at bay, they're to keep deterioration at bay.
Jeanne Moreau

I gotta tell you, right at the top of my list would be taking vitamins. I know that over the years doctors have said they're ridiculous and all that. But I started taking my vitamins at an early age. And I take them every day. Every bloody day! So I think that's number one. For whatever reason, I feel active and pretty good at my age.
Regis Philbin
 Do you take any vitamins that you can feel the benefits from?