Tap dancing in her 70s

Rosemary McGregor has just joined our tap-dancing class in Stirling.

She has waited a long time fulfil this ambition –over 70 years.

For Rosemary, the youngest of 11 children loved dancing as a child but her mother could only afford for one of them to have lessons and an older sister got the chance.

Now Rosemary, 74 years of age from Tullbody in central Scotland has finally fulfilled her dream.

But she is no newcomer to movement- something that quickly became apparent once she took to the floor. She already goes to Scottish country dancing, salsa and aerobics.

What does she think? “I love it, at last I have got the chance to try it for myself. I used to love watching  my sister perform.”

Older People get dancing and dating

Some members of our Keep Dancing class, Macrobert Arts centre, Stirling

Dancing oldies are causing a stir in China by creating major disturbances in the streets and parks by dancing early in the morning and late at night- they claim its their way of keeping fit. Quite quite right too!
 Read this account from the Wall Street Journal

And the New York Times  carried an article on a new dating service for the  over 60s which has also spawned  new jobs- consultants who help older people how to date.

Here’s some advice:

“ Don’t talk incessantly about — or show photos of — your deceased spouse. Don’t talk disparagingly about your ex. Don’t whip out your collection of diabetes, cholesterol or heart medications."

The Hot Tappers

Meet the "Hot Tappers!
 We are a group of  older women  ( OK one youngster has slipped in , yes the tall one) who meet once a week in Stirling Rugby Club to tap.

Our teacher, Anne Aiken, a former dance teacher from Ayrshire  thought her dancing days were over when she moved to central Scotland to be near her grandchildren.  Instead she has got a new lease of life and has started a tap-dancing class, the only one for older women in Scotland as far as we know.

An earlier photograph I took of the class has been selected for an exhibition in Edinburgh called "Creativity Scotland" aiming to showcase all the innovation and creativity in the country.

50 things to do for free

   Doris Lessing was asked a few years ago at Hay Book Festival during the Q and A session if she had thought of retiring.

 Why should I?” she replied. She was 87.

Today she is 90 and still writing.

  I concur.

  Retirement is a word I refuse to use. As far as I am concerned I have now moved into the “financially challenged” part of my life. And I intend to make the most of it. Starting with freebies.

   After a lifetime in journalism I know all about freebies: weekends at health farms, test driving new cars, golf in Marbella, lunch in the south of France, flights on Concorde. Oh yes I have done it, been there got the t-shirt, or as in the case of Concorde the key ring.

   I reckoned there would be a lot of free stuff out there once you became “financially challenged”. Maybe not so glamorous but free all the same and it was all a case of finding it.

  Well, I didn’t have to wait long. An invitation came from the doctor for a free flu jab, and I soon found myself in the queue at the local health centre.

    I go in and sit down. A young doctor, just out of medical school, turns around:

 “Stand up! You can stand up can’t you?” he says in a loud voice. He thinks I’m infirm and deaf. Eager to disillusion him I leap to my feet.

 “Yes, of course!” and this is the first inkling I have that the world I am entering is very different to the one I have known.

  Take phone calls. Once it was about double-glazing, new kitchens and invitations to time-share presentations. Now it’s more likely to be about aids for the elderly.

Yesterday I got one:

“Can we interest you in a stair-chair lift?”

“What do I want with a chair lift when I live in a bungalow?”  And I slam down the receiver.

   The post takes on a whole new meaning. This is great I thought at first as the

brochures and leaflets come tumbling through my letterbox. Until I started to read them.

“Have you thought of making a will?’ demanded one.

“You should,” it said.

Well that put a damper on my Monday morning.

   Another one invited to pay in advance for my own funeral.

“Dear Mrs Shaw (yes of course they know my name which they have got from the postcode)

Preparing for your funeral can save loved ones money and worry”.

Tough I think and chuck it straight into the bin.

   Suddenly I had become a sitting target for every disease that could affect the “financially challenged”. Arthritis, cancer, hard of hearing, Alzheimer’s, incontinence pads – what do I want with incontinence pads? I never knew such things existed.

   Except one leaflet. I keep it.

“50 fun things to do for free” when you reach a “certain age”.

    Well, I am all for anything that’s free and this looked different. A big glossy poster, the kind you can stick up on your kitchen wall, so I open it:

 “Jump in puddles”…I have never jumped in a puddle in my life and I have no intention of starting now. I might break a bone.

“Fly a kite.” What do they think I am? Six years of age?

“Go tadpoling.” Bit difficult if you live in a high rise flat.

“Pitch a tent in the garden and spend the night under canvas.”

 Do they know what Scottish weather is like?

    I check the sender: it’s the Co-operative will and funeral planning department.

.

French Frank Sinatra at 87

I read this article on the Huffington Post site and it is an amazing story. Charles Aznavour is still busy working at 87 years of age. He sees no reason to give up. So what's his secret? Well, he swims every day, eats only two meals and loves his work.