Running two journals

Hello everyone

Does any grandmother out there keep a journal or a diary? I guess writers are more likely to call the place of their daily recordings a journal whereas non-writers may prefer to say they keep a diary. Pretty much the same thing, really.

I'm writing a journal for my one and only grand-daughter. I started when she was born nearly three years ago. The entries are spasmodic; every four weeks, but it's better than no journal at all. I love reading the earlier entries and I just hope my grand-daughter enjoys reading about her early childhood days when she is older. If I had a journal like that, I would treasure it. All the day-to-day things are mentioned; the passage of lives, decisions, developments and so on. I'm hoping the journal paints a picture of her development and gives a good impression of life in these times

Do let me know if you've ever considered a journal for your grand-child. I'm hoping to press on with it until the little one goes to school. So far, I have only one grand-child. Heaven help me if any more turn up!

Best of health and happiness to all.

Camille.

Where to live in these "golden years"?

Before I forget, if you are visiting this site why don't you also have a look at Elderwomanspace. There's a link on this website.
Marian Von Eyck McCain set up Elderwoman and Elderwomanspace for women in later years - arguably the best years of our life!

My topic today concerns a not uncommon dilemma - people 60+ trying to decide where to live. It's certainly concerning me and my Significant Other. If you're quite healthy and active, your mind turns to bucolic bliss - no barking dogs all around your suburban block. What about those ten acres in peaceful surroundings? A dog, maybe a horse - or someone else's horse to feed. Then, if you're on the "wrong" side of 65 you start worrying about if you and your husband/partner are up to it. Of course, there's always the ride-on mower!

I spoke with a wise woman yesterday, who also happens to be a family counsellor. She said we need to plan only seven years ahead. If the country option succeeds over the city option, well, if needs be you can move back later. The city has a lot to offer those in later life - access to all necessary services and facilities. By this stage we've also worked up good relationships with our doctor/s and others who contribute to quality of life. Perhaps the trick is if you're heading to the country, make sure you're not more than an hour away from the city. This way you can still keep in touch with friends and have access to your usual services.

There are plenty of places within an hour's drive of Melbourne - you don't have to be isolated. An hour's drive is not too taxing. Of course, some country areas have good train services so you don't necessarily have to drive into the city.

I'm glad we don't have to make this decision for two years. But, it has to be made. We're not the type to go into a retirement home and would love to experience plenty of space - a spacious house on a "spacious" block of land. Of course, then you have to think of family - you don't want to be too far away.

Yes, it's a real challenge working it out. I'd love to hear what you've decided. Do drop me a word on the blog. It's amazing the variety of solutions people come up with, just when you think you've considered every angle.

Best of health and best wishes,

Camille.

Where to live in these "golden years"?

Where does the time go?

Hello Everyone

Just where does it go? My only excuse is that I have not yet achieved Life Balance. Ah, the holy grail...

I can just imagine what will happen when I return to university. The good news is that (if I pass my subjects) I will have finished my Master of Arts degree by end of 2009. It's been a terrific ride with some wonderful tutors. Although I'm much older than most of the students (probably nearly all of them) I've been treated as one of the crowd, Have had some fantastic fun while learning and recommend it to those who had to leave school early. You CAN do it.

By the way, the Black Dog Institute will be featured on our website any day now. They have requested a link on our website to them and Raema and I are happy to help. The Black Dog Institute is a not-for-profit, educational, research, clinical and community-oriented facility offering specialist expertise in depression and bipolar disorder.

I gave a talk at Warrandyte in Victoria this week. A terrific group of women came and seemed to enjoyed learning more about how to manage our health better in these later years. I must have been convincing as nearly everyone bought a book and also some Loris and Lucy greeting cards (you can view them on this website). Proceeds from the talks and cards and some of the book income are going to cancer and osteoporosis education and research.

Raema (co-author and sister) and I are just as passionate about the subject (post-menopausal health) as when we started on the book a few years back. Jo Ashman, the owner of Taste of the Yarra, put on some fine finger food and Warramate winery brought some delightful wines to sample. We had a raffle and Mandy of the Nillumbik Women's Network won a Loris and Lucy's Later Life Guide.

Talks - I haven't had time to follow up on giving talks so if you would like us to make a presentation on women and later life health, please get in touch through this website or my other email: cstrathdee@bigpond.com Would love to hear from you.
At the moment Raema and I are operating in the Melbourne area only. however I am looking into some regional 'gigs' if there's the interest. We're keen to look into how we might help with heart health education, too. Enquiries are underway... Sorry to sound vague but I'll be able to be more descriptive when things are nailed in. No point in jumping the gun.

Life must be busy; I sprayed my hair with Glen 20 (disinfectant product) the other day instead of the regular hair spray.
As I told the girls at Warrandyte on Monday, I've also been known to walk out of the house with my fluorescent orange ear plugs in. I wear them when I'm blow-drying my hair to protect my hearing. As my hearing is pretty good, I don't notice I've got them in and get into the car to shop, etc. Last week I had some capillaries - a whole stack of nasty purply ones from child-bearing decades ago -removed so I'm now sporting a support stocking. Try getting out of the house in a hurry when you have to wear one of those. I'm sure my blood supply is going to be cut off and my leg become gangrenous.

This week has been busy with grand-child, walks, gym, yoga, talk at Warrandyte, business matters, birthdays, and probably much more that I can't remember. I will promise to blog more often - Loris and Lucy have been receiving quite a bit of interest on their website and it's a lovely feeling. Let's hope our women's organisations, general health organisations and women's support groups in our directory (lifted from our book) are helping visitors to the site.

Do blog a message back. It's great to receive your thoughts -

Until next time,

Good health and fun times,

Camille.

Sincere apologies for lapse in blogging

Hello everyone,

I do hope you decide to come here and visit even though I've neglected my blog site lately.
There's been family matters (health), I've been giving talks about our book, Loris and Lucy's Later Life Guide and finishing off the academic year. Only three units to go now for my Master of Arts (Writing and Literature). Tonight I have an interview on ABC radio - I thought all the media stuff was over and done with but this one popped up. Of course, I welcome and appreciate any opportunity to talk about women and health/wellbeing.

This week I gave a talk at WIRE - Women's Information and Referral Exchange in Melbourne, Australia. This organisation does a wonderful job of providing support and advice for women, no matter what their problem or situation. As always, it was a pleasure to meet women and hear their views. I always come away with ideas for my next talk which as it happens, is to a Warrandyte group. For those who are not Melburnians or Australians, Warrandyte is about 20km east of Melbourne (in Victoria), heading toward our famous wine country, the Yarra Valley. The valley is named after the Yarra River. A delightful restaurateur, Jo, has organised a light lunch for the event and this will occur before the talk. A glass of wine and good food should put everyone in the right mood!

Since I last entered a blog a close relative has had a heart stent placed in an artery. Luckily, she was aware of the family history re heart and had all the right checks before finally confronting surgery. How lucky we are to have this lifesaving operation in our generation.

As heart health issues are becoming more important to women I hope to be able to contribute in some way to disseminating information on this subject, particularly in the country areas. I'm now looking into this possibility - combining perhaps talks on general later life health with a special mention for heart health. Of course, our book has a Heart section.

Do send your messages and stories about life in 2008. Love hearing from fellow bloggers.

By the way, to all those golfers (I'm not one yet but...) - how good was Tiger Woods' win in that latest championship? He's a genius - and all with a bung knee, too. What an inspiration! Never give up!

I promise to blog more frequently while the uni holidays are on.

In the meantime, wishes for good health and fun to all.

Camille.

Beating the blues

Hello everyone,

It seems the hardest part of getting out of a mental down (the blues) is to move out of a vegetative state into an active one
The rewards for the effort are considerable, though.
Last week I was all over the place trying to get my work and family stuff sorted. I've been studying for seven years now and I suppose with the end in sight, are sort of ennui sets in. It's like a marathon runner heading towards the finishing tape! It's all about that last final effort when you're at your lowest.

The good news is, I prised myself away from the house and went for a walk along a river - Melbourne's great Yarra River.
At Warrandyte, about 20 kilometres out of Melbourne, the river runs sparkly clean. Although it was low, showing the effect of our drought, the water rippled over the rocks and the ducks were feeding and skidding in -that humorous way they do, feet out front and sending up spray everywhere. You have to laugh when they put their beaks down to feed and their fluffy bottoms tilt up as though to warm their nether regions in the autumn sun.

Just as I was watching the show, a young woman came by on horseback. Horses are a great love of mine - I actually said to myself before I left home, "i'd really like to pat a horse today" and that's the way it turned out. Such fine looking animals. I patted her horse and we had a good chat about riding in that area and how long it took her to find the right horse (two years).
After that I had a walk and headed off for a coffee and scone. By this time I was feeling wonderful - all gloom and doom gone.

I guess the reason for sharing this is to say - 'make the effort, try really hard when you're feeling low to get out there'. Nature and fresh air, not to mention a friendly chat, can do us the world of good. I know there are much more serious cases- many folk suffer from deep depression. In that instance, there are several avenues to pursue - your own doctor in tandem with support organisations that specialise in treating depression. Speaking of this, you will find in the PDF we have on the Loris and Lucy website, a list of these organisations (pertinent only to Australia, for overseas blog readers).

Until next time,
Best wishes and good health to all.
Camille.

PS I'm looking into going horse-riding again - on a regular basis.

Making up is hard to do

Hello blogger friends,

First of all, thank you Jaz for your recent blog. Yes, technology today can be intimidating but it's like trying to work up courage for one's first swim with sharks... well, got to admit haven't tried that one yet but if there's a krypton type diver's cage, then I might give it a go.

I've made a pun here with this headline "Making up is hard to do". Most of the over 50s out there will remember the song "Breaking up is hard to do" (was it Neil Sedaka?).

Now that we're that bit older, I wonder if many women out there are tired of asking well meaning (mostly) 19 year old female sales people what's best for their skin and how to apply light, flattering makeup but invariably leaving the counter unsatisfied.
I don't think this is a shallow subject and I acknowledge and respect those who don't wish to wear makeup at all.
But many of us still like some blusher, lipstick and a bit of action around the eyes. The important thing is to go light on everything and avoid bright eyeshadows.

I'm talking about this because in a few questionairres received after talks on health and wellbeing, many women want to know how to look good on a budget. This includes skin care and makeup. I'm wondering how you folk out there view this subject.
Would you please let me know? I'll tell you why if and when I receive some responses.

One thing that really bugs me is the age unfriendly compacts, etc that are around. First of all, you need your glasses on to undo these receptacles and second, it takes a while for stiff fingers to open the damn things - they're so small. Who hasn't lost their patience and almost thrown something at the wall? Let's not get into those cellophane packets - I've been known to stab them with a sharp knife. Talk about the perfect material for a moon landing - tough and almost impossible to break open.
I apologise if all this sounds trivial - but it's day to day stuff that can get you down. Manufacturers need to be aware of our ageing population and make friendlier packaging.

Segue-ing to Prime Minister Rudd's 2020 Summit - where is the representative for the ageing part of the Australian population, which is big chunk. I haven't seen a mention of Noeline Brown, our new Ambassador for Ageing, mentioned anywhere - but Cate Blanchett has been given generous coverage. Noeline, you'll just have to lose 35 years, get down to a size 6, become a famous movie star and have your second/third baby.

Good health and lots of laughs,

Camille.

Getting the hang of blogging

Hello everyone

At last I feel like a part of the blogging fraternity. I've made contact with The Older, Wiser Women website (thanks, Barbara) and the Elderwoman website (thank you, Marian).
It's wonderful to be in touch with like-minded souls across the globe. Quite mind-boggling (no pun intended) as I'm a pre Baby Boomer and the most we had in the way of communication when I was in my teens was speech, the phone and billet-doux (love letter for those who haven't dabbled in French).
If someone had told me I'd be conversing with people here and abroad on a machine like a typewriter but with pictures, I would've said "go take a cold shower" and stop watching sci-fi movies.
Anyway, dinner must be prepared - my significant other has been cooking lately so I'd better make the effort tonight. I'm cheating because I bought some marinated chicken drum sticks - all I have to do is throw them in a pan and boil some rice. Maybe make a salad for those antioxidants.
The university work (scriptwriting) is finished in preparation for tomorrow p.m. I'm a 65 year old Masters student who loves hanging out with youngies. Mind you, the hanging is limited - I don't get to go to their clubs, etc. Sadly, I've missed all that. Couldn't get to uni when younger and only took up further education in my later years. I did university entry exams at 30+ and during my fifties I got cracking again. Hope to finish my Masters next year. Anyone out there doing the same?
Raema and I are proud of our book - that was a major commitment - and now the goal is to finish my studies and get hooked up to the blogging world. I feel we can achieve a great deal by laughing together and sharing information and stories about our later lives.
Also, research shows conclusively that isolation is not good for one's health. Blogging is a very effective way of staying in touch with the zeitgeist generally and making contact with the older woman's tribes. www friendship is a great thing. I'm using the word "tribes" now, having seen Marion employ it on Elderwoman's blog. I think it's very apt - and we don't have to belong to just one tribe - we can belong to a few or several.
I trust all dear readers here will be patient with my blogging efforts. I'm new at this but learning all the time.
If you have a moment, please leave a blog. I get such a kick out of hearing from you.
Maybe tomorrow Lucy will post a comment. She has this uncanny knack of jumping out of the book with a mouth full of words - still Raema (co-author of Loris and Lucy's Later Life Guide and sister) and I humour her.

Stay well and happy,
Camille.