Opinions on Forever Young (3) - none.

Having extolled the virtues of indoor rowing for the over 70s, can I add these two photos as reasons for walking. We are lucky to be able to go out of our front door and have an hour in the hills.

I would have thought singing was a great choice of activity for the over 70s. See Tuesday 19th January, 2016 - Chris Rowbury's reasons for singing. And another reason - winning a competition. Honley Ladies are a champion choir in the Mrs. Sunderland Festival 2017 and third overall on the gala night. A brilliant effort. 

Good session down at Heritage Keys last Saturday, alternating somehow with Mrs. Sunderland. David Thorpe presented recent research into the early days of Huddersfield RL's ground, up to 1914.

Ian Van Bellen was there, looking really trim. He lived round the corner from me in Waterloo. No it's not exercise but it is mental stimulation for the over 70s to engage in project work and to see yourself in print or other evidence for all your effort. Do please click on Huddersfield Heritage.

'My generation: having a ball at 70' Times February 25th 2017 by Valerie Grove is another in the current crop of articles on ageing well. It is about those of us who were born around 1946/7. It's light and funny and shouldn't be taken too seriously. After reading it a couple of times, however, I confess to being irritated. It's a bit smug, SE centric and caters for the comfortably off who have good pensions and are socially well-connected. Many of the northern pensioners are not so fortunate.

  Yes there was rationing and other deprivations in the fifties. I wasn't aware of them and neither were the rest of the kids on Willow Lane, Hillhouse. I was aware of a grumpy soldier who returned from the war. He put more shape on my life than any economic hardship. I don't see many kids going without today, even in poor families.

  The swinging sixties? I lived in Liverpool in the sixties and free love passed me by. We had a brilliant time though. 

  Yes, our kids are struggling to get on the housing ladder despite working hard. So yes we are lucky and yes we also worked hard. I wonder what the motivation was?

  I could go on and frequently do and thanks to Valerie for getting the juices flowing.

  Finally death. My daughter will have somewhere to live.

Any of you oldies got an opinion on being Forever Young (2)

Any of you oldies got an opinion on being Forever Young was a great way to link music, senior singer/songwriters and trying to stay fit into our sixties, seventies and older - Exercise and ageing.

There are millions and millions of words written on this, so I'm not going to make a significant contribution. Great then that I can quote an authority on the subject, Matt Roberts, writing in The Times, February 18th, 2017, entitled 'How to exercise after 40'. Can I make a short list?
    (1) We need to lift weights because it is quite normal to lose muscle as we age, hence the percent of body fat increases. This keeps up our strength. A bonus is the improvement in bone strength (ladies note).
    (2) Get the pulse, breathing and sweating going twice a week to maintain stamina through healthy heart and lungs. The extra here is mental wellbeing.
    (3) Pilates. The core, especially abdominals and hips. According to my coach, Ann Little, pilates is the way to tone muscle from the inside out. The spine is a particular beneficiary.
    (4) Stretching. Trying to keep suppleness going.
    (5) There are other recommendations such as interval training, yoga, lunges and squats, but I have no personal experience of their benefits.

  There has to be a number of questions here. How safe is this? Can I start for the first time in my sixties? I have diabetes, angina, parkinsonism and so on; is this for me? Exactly how heavy, how fast, how long, and how often? I've read it somewhere that a good stiff 20 minute walk, five times a week would do it (and golf doesn't count).
  Well, Matt has some great news. Two or more days off a week and take care over 30 minutes per session. It is sensible/essential to get the okay from your doctor if you worry about your health. She is more likely than not to say "go for it", starting slow with help maybe from your local gym's professional trainer. This raises the question of cost - maybe a good investment when your risk of heart and stroke disease falls and you feel better about yourself. Do I follow this advice - yes - I am one of the lucky ones who enjoys exercise for its own sake. See video on Facebook (for some reason it will not load on blogger).
  The web is not consistent and some of it is contradictory, so no change there then. The best NHS site for guidelines could be this.

  Motivation - getting going and then keeping going. Are there any Tricks about setting goals and freshening them up regularly. Weight loss, a specific challenge (e.g. charity fund-raiser), joining a group and so on. Give yourself a break if you don't meet your targets. There are still people who are very athletic and competitive over 70 - let them.

We have a men's section in the ladies dominated pilates class down in Holmfirth. It's a liberation movement. There's arthritis, angina, diabetes, and grumpiness. Then there's coffee in Scufflers.

So we've got coffee and exercise. Where are the senior singer/songwriters?

Here's a swinging sultan - Knofler

Detectives and doctors: from Sherlock to Rebus

Who left a paper hankie in his pocket?

Reasons to go ballistic (1)

And this was after we had picked and poked through all the washing.

Any more stories of coffee and cafes?

Ann Talboys 
'Pickfords' cafe in Leek, north staffs. Frothy coffee in glass cups and U6 on the jukebox was Norman Greenbound Spirit in the Sky. Vintage 1966 to 1968. Happy times.

Dave Walker
Studio 58, Huddersfield. Mid 1960s. My future wife, otherwise known as the childbride, and I used to do a spot of courting over coffee on Sunday evenings and sometimes after school. She went to Leeds and I Liverpool. We were married in 1972.

There must be some more stories out there. Prize for the best one - one of my moka pot coffees, if you don't live too far away.

Avril Carrick 

Hillfoot cafe in Bearsden, Glasgow. Formica tables juke box playing Rick Nelson and a coffee lasted all evening.

Any of you oldies got an opinion on being forever young?

Utube - Forever Young

Coffee and cafes - a short history

Link to The Examiner

Cider Press, Netherthong

Nice americano

For all you black coffee guys

Jenson and silly grandad

The rules of the game - use all of your pieces with no siding as an ending apart from a terminus station. The permutations are probably infinite - a mathematician's heaven. Just one piece unused. I usually end up with two circuits that look integrated but are in fact separate. The loops here are connected but not in both directions.

It's a meerkat

Evening meal in Scarborough.

And the connection between all these - Jenson and silly grandad. Well not the evening meal in Scarborough.