Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Strictly Boomers
It's Autumn and time for a new series of Strictly Come Dancing. I'm rooting for Felicity Kendall, Peter Shilton and Ann Widecombe, all 1940's baby boomers. Some of them may not look elegant on the dance floor, but I love their chutzpah.
Monday, 10 May 2010
64, but feeling 34
Maureen Lipman is reported to have said recently that she still expects to be looked at when walking down the street. "I still think I am 34."
There is no doubt that, in spite of what we see in the mirror, we can delude ourselves about the effect of the passage of the years. It is the reaction of others that brings the truth home.
There is no doubt that, in spite of what we see in the mirror, we can delude ourselves about the effect of the passage of the years. It is the reaction of others that brings the truth home.
Monday, 3 May 2010
Technology that spans the generations
It seems the new iPad is a hit with the elderly - and anyone else whose eyesight is not so good. The fact the text can be enlarged, and is backlit, makes reading a pleasure again.
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Too old at 35
According to Disneyland you are too old to dress up after your 9th birthday.
A 35 year old and her 8 year old daughter dressed up as princesses for a day out in the theme park. The woman was wearing a wedding dress from a charity shop, but Disney would not allow her in until she had changed into jeans and a shirt.
Shame on Disney: we need to nuture our sense of fun at any age.
A 35 year old and her 8 year old daughter dressed up as princesses for a day out in the theme park. The woman was wearing a wedding dress from a charity shop, but Disney would not allow her in until she had changed into jeans and a shirt.
Shame on Disney: we need to nuture our sense of fun at any age.
Monday, 19 April 2010
Dress sizes
A comment seen in a fashion article about the unreliability of dress sizes: "A size 12 for a 25 year old is not the same as a size 12 for a 55 year old."
At first sight this seems nonsensical, but, on reflection, perhaps it is merely observing that we change shape as we age? Instead of being 36-26-38 is it possible that the average woman becomes 26-36-38?
Heather Hosking
At first sight this seems nonsensical, but, on reflection, perhaps it is merely observing that we change shape as we age? Instead of being 36-26-38 is it possible that the average woman becomes 26-36-38?
Heather Hosking
Thursday, 15 April 2010
Kontakthof
Pina Bausch has been described as one of the most influential choreographers of our time.
Until her death last year she was Director of Tanztheater Wuppertal. Kontakthof is a piece of dance theatre she created in 1978, but in 2000 its creator decided that it should be performed by ordinary people aged 65 or more. Then in 2008 the performers were teenage school children. Both versions were performed in London recently. In a review I read by David Dougill he said the teenagers were admirable, but acting their parts. The "oldies" brought their "lifetimes of experience" and lived the performance.
I like the way this piece of theatre recognises that the feelings and desires of older people are just as worthy of exploration as those of the young. In using these performances in counterpoint it seems that a new level of meaning and emotional response can be found to them. A lesson to be learned from this then?
Heather Hosking
Until her death last year she was Director of Tanztheater Wuppertal. Kontakthof is a piece of dance theatre she created in 1978, but in 2000 its creator decided that it should be performed by ordinary people aged 65 or more. Then in 2008 the performers were teenage school children. Both versions were performed in London recently. In a review I read by David Dougill he said the teenagers were admirable, but acting their parts. The "oldies" brought their "lifetimes of experience" and lived the performance.
I like the way this piece of theatre recognises that the feelings and desires of older people are just as worthy of exploration as those of the young. In using these performances in counterpoint it seems that a new level of meaning and emotional response can be found to them. A lesson to be learned from this then?
Heather Hosking
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Happy Endings retirement living
When I read to an audience a fictional piece I had written about the Happy Endings Retirement Village, the name got a laugh. So did my description of 80 year old women, stringy and brown from endless Pilates classes and tanning sessions. But it's no joke.
Writing in a Sunday supplement Fred Redwood tells of a retirement development called Memory Lanes and of the "lively programmes...about interaction and stimulation, not leaving people to sleep through their days." I'm an advocate of not writing people off as too old to do interesting things, too early, but sometimes it concerns me as well that there could be pressure in the other direction. Maybe some of us just want to take it easy after a lifetime of work, and should not be made to feel guilty about it?
Talking of guilt, the same article quotes a property analyst reporting that few elderly people downsize their homes. The suggestion is that they should be prepared to do so for the benefit of younger people. Link this to the idea that elderly people need a lot of medical care that could otherwise be used for the problems of the young, and we are on a slippery slope.
Every life, young or old, is as important as any other. If the old want to rattle around in large properties rather than cram their possessions into a studio flat, we should let them.
Heather Hosking
Writing in a Sunday supplement Fred Redwood tells of a retirement development called Memory Lanes and of the "lively programmes...about interaction and stimulation, not leaving people to sleep through their days." I'm an advocate of not writing people off as too old to do interesting things, too early, but sometimes it concerns me as well that there could be pressure in the other direction. Maybe some of us just want to take it easy after a lifetime of work, and should not be made to feel guilty about it?
Talking of guilt, the same article quotes a property analyst reporting that few elderly people downsize their homes. The suggestion is that they should be prepared to do so for the benefit of younger people. Link this to the idea that elderly people need a lot of medical care that could otherwise be used for the problems of the young, and we are on a slippery slope.
Every life, young or old, is as important as any other. If the old want to rattle around in large properties rather than cram their possessions into a studio flat, we should let them.
Heather Hosking
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Swimming with Stanley
In spite of Bryan Appleyard's exhortations to us baby boomers to grow up, I am still working hard at staying young. I try to swim for an hour at least once a week. I have a great role model in Stanley Grenville whom I meet at the Carn Brea Leisure Centre. He is 80 and still swims 100 lengths every day.
Heather Hosking
Heather Hosking
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Juliet and her Romeo
In an adaptation of Shakespeare's play opening at the Bristol Old Vic on 10 March Sian Phillips (aged 76) plays Juliet, and Michael Byrne (66) is Romeo, but they are playing characters in their 80's.
"There's no reason why falling in love at the age of 80 should be any different from falling in love at the age of 15" the director Tom Morris said in an interview with Bryan Appleyard of The Sunday Times.
The play needed very little adaptation, and with the senior citizen lovers it is their children who get in the way, not parents.
Other productions featuring the subject of ageing or the old are Kontakthof at the Barbican with dancers over the age of 65, a play at the National Theatre - "Really old, Like Forty five", artist Louise Bourgeois exhibiting her work around the world at 98, and Judi Dench (75) playing Titania in a new Peter Hall (he's 80) production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In his excellent article Bryan Appleyard bemoans the fact that the world at large and the baby boomer generation in particular are obsessed with staying young. He concludes by suggesting that it is "Time to grow up."
Heather Hosking
"There's no reason why falling in love at the age of 80 should be any different from falling in love at the age of 15" the director Tom Morris said in an interview with Bryan Appleyard of The Sunday Times.
The play needed very little adaptation, and with the senior citizen lovers it is their children who get in the way, not parents.
Other productions featuring the subject of ageing or the old are Kontakthof at the Barbican with dancers over the age of 65, a play at the National Theatre - "Really old, Like Forty five", artist Louise Bourgeois exhibiting her work around the world at 98, and Judi Dench (75) playing Titania in a new Peter Hall (he's 80) production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In his excellent article Bryan Appleyard bemoans the fact that the world at large and the baby boomer generation in particular are obsessed with staying young. He concludes by suggesting that it is "Time to grow up."
Heather Hosking
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Germany's magic formula
Monday, 1 February 2010
The insidious triumph of the facelifting classes
The heading of this post is the title of an article by Minette Marrin, a columnist on The Sunday Times. She points out that no matter how vigorously people like Emma Soames of Saga claim that women of 50+ are having a fantastically improved time, there is no escaping sexist ageism. Unless women look young, they will not be treated as young, and there is growing pressure to 'have work done' to keep that youthful appearance. Minette says that the idea of growing old gracefully is going out of fashion and that this is not something to celebrate.
I think most 50+ women manage to avoid looking quite so 'thin-lipped,slack-eyed,and grey-haired' as the image Minette conjures up, without surgery and major expenditure, but agree that there is unfair pressure. It begins with "to colour or not to colour?"
Heather Hosking
I think most 50+ women manage to avoid looking quite so 'thin-lipped,slack-eyed,and grey-haired' as the image Minette conjures up, without surgery and major expenditure, but agree that there is unfair pressure. It begins with "to colour or not to colour?"
Heather Hosking
Terry Pratchett
I have been intending to begin this blog for months, but is only today that I finally made a start. I have been prompted by hearing what successful author, Terry Pratchett, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, intends to say in his BBC Dimbleby Lecture. He will advocate the creation of tribunals to which individuals wishing to determine when their lives shall end, and their families, can apply for approval.
An aunt of mine, who suffered a stroke, but lived for another year, during which she was immobile, and could not care for herself, would have agreed with him. She questioned constantly why she was being kept alive simply so that she could suffer all manner of indignities.
Heather Hosking
An aunt of mine, who suffered a stroke, but lived for another year, during which she was immobile, and could not care for herself, would have agreed with him. She questioned constantly why she was being kept alive simply so that she could suffer all manner of indignities.
Heather Hosking
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