It’s the lot of our lot to figure it out nobody but us, the oldish, the unyoung, the new old, can work it out how to be the age we are when the age we are and the age we’re in are doubly strange. In the past a few individuals survived to a hundred years … Continue reading The rise of the new unyoung
Writer's block, Part 1 I wrote the first draft of the first chapter of my next book. Unconcerned as always about the quality or even the topic, because a first draft is just that. (Significantly, the chapter was called I didn't want to write this book.) Months have passed since I wrote that first chapter. … Continue reading Too old to write another book?
So much fermentation in my kitchen! How come? Old digestive systems grow a bit cranky and tender. And it's so irritating when you realise you can't handle quite as much coffee as in your wild and wicked years of youth. But that's not why my kitchen has gradually become a bacteria brewery. For years I've … Continue reading Fermenting foods to soothe an older gut
"I was lucky. My mother taught me about growing old," said my friend. "That's interesting," I said, thinking about my friend's mother, now deceased: a brilliant, determined woman with a clear vision, years ahead of her time in the causes she fronted. She introduced modern dance to New Zealand. She fought for peace and workers' … Continue reading Lessons in ageing, from mother to daughter