Rocky, wow. Would love a robot to do the housework! Good luck with your photography experiments. I like the little fellow, whose name I can’t remember, who can walk upstairs. He’s white with a dark face if I remember correctly. Even if he is a bit spooky. Fasting today and having a late lunch of hot water, honey and lemon juice. Was having a struggle so decided to do without breakfast and not eat until dinner. Up to now fine.

hermaj – as toms said my website is included in my profile, thanks for asking. Earrings there certainly are aplenty. It was my love of earrings that set me off making jewellery in the first place.

@hermaj, yeah of course I get that the guys filling the water cooler may just have been nice… but then he should’ve given up after I said “I’ll do it” four times, shouldn’t he? He basically shoved me aside and when I said I’d do it he looked at me with a really puzzled look.
This is China, where the women are still supposed to have white skin (they carry umbrellas when the sun is out) and the men are the only ones allowed to be strong. I call that a different form of patronizing 🙂

Well it’s bull as far as I’m concerned 😛 I can take care of myself and don’t enjoy it when men feel like they have to “serve” me. Maybe if they offer it once sure, but don’t steamroll over me like that because it’s ‘how men communicate’?

Nika…I hadn’t grasped the ‘four times’ either…sorry x

It was blowing a hooley today and every so often there was blizzard conditions. I had decided that today (which was a ‘two) would be a ‘ dance between the kitchen and the dining room day’ – the two rooms with hard floors – instead of walking.

However between the cards sitting on the table waiting to be posted and the dog with a ‘when’s my walk happening’ look on his face despite me telling him one day without won’t hurt you, I decided to brave the elements and head for the post box which is nearly a mile away. We live in a rural area!

So fleece lined winter jacket, boots, woolly hat, scarf and gloves donned off I went. Oh my giddy aunt! It was arctic! It didn’t take long to get to the post box, I was nearly running with the foce of the wind on my back but on the way back I was walking straight into the icy blast. Two steps forward and one back!! It was snowing like blazes again so by the time I reached home the front of my jacket was plastered with snow, my face was stinging and my fingers had gone numb. Even the dog was looking like he wished he hadn’t bothered.

The things I do to lose weight!!!! 😀 And all I had at the end of it, because it was a ‘two’, was a mug of black coffee and a self righteous feeling!!!

Hehe don’t worry about not noticing things guys, it’s all good :p And it give us more excuses to keep posting!

Wow Sylvestra, that sounds terrible! But also quite cool… haven’t seen a blizzard in a long time 😛

@rocky, I’m all for trying to be a good guy, don’t get me wrong 🙂 I’m one of those people who tend to try the same. But even you must realize that if someone says “It’s ok, I’ll do it” for FOUR times, it’s time to quit. Apparently that person doesn’t need your help.

Anyway, we’ve milked the subject of the watercooler long enough I think, it wasn’t that important anyway xD And I did change the water myself today! Mostly because it was early and no-one noticed I think 😛

Great post Hermajtomoni!! 😉

Oh dear…I can just see both of you in high dudgeon (where is that anyway?) and two very chastened receptionists!!

I have done this more than once …a car park attendant who was told in no uncertain terms that I was NOT his darling. One of the radiographers in the mammagram caravan who kept calling me ‘my dear’ and a nurse in outpatients – young enough to be my grand-daughter who addressed me as ‘honey’. they may think carefully before they do it to someone else!!

Do you think they have a ‘word of the week’ ….darling this week, lovey next etc etc. It’s probably a good think we don’t all attend the same GP 😀 😀

Can just imagine the poor receptionist popping tranquillisers if we all shared the same GP, but bet she wouldn’t use endearments again. I don’t mind my first name being used. I object to the lovey because they DO know my name but can’t be bothered to use it. I don’t mind when people call me mate, which is often used here and use it myself at times. Fasting today, have found it easier to not eat until the evening, so am going to do some sewing after the minimum of housework. Got to keep my mind off food!

As a .’Newbie’ I’m just enjoying reading through so much of what has been said here. I ought really to be doing the ironing but this is more fun!
I’ve taken the liberty of copying and pasting some of what has been said and adding my comments.
As you will notice I am not in the first flush of youth! 🙂
“I still have a way to go and can reasonably be described as “cuddly”. It seems to be widely assumed, at least in the UK, that when a person reaches a landmark age – in some people’s book it can be as early as 50 – he or she suddenly loses half their brain and becomes incapable of understanding anything but the simplest language, has to be spoken to very slowly and very loudly, ”

Personally I don’t think being cuddly has anything to do with it. Nor do I feel that young people patronise the elderly.
I do however feel that persons in positions of authority allow that authority to go to their (probably not highly educated ) heads.
Especially those who run Housing Schemes for Older People.
http://www.agenda-efa.org.uk/site/2013/07/the-current-shambles-in-sheltered-housing/
”
Should you, I and all the other kindred spirits form an Association of Hell’s Grannies? We could all wear t-shirts with such slogans as “Patronise me at your peril! or “Diss me if you dare!”.
Yes, we quite definitely should give it serious concern!
“I find it difficult to morph into the sweet little old lady that some of the less enlightened would have me be.’ yes, indeed!!!”
I’m afraid it’s far too late for me to become a ‘sweet old lady’ Nor do I wish to do so. I’d rather carry on as the person I am, old enough and healthy ( enough!) to defend the rights of older people to have fun while getting older and most of all to be treated with respect.
“Getting old is certainly a pain in many ways but much better than the alternative. Besides, getting healthy and losing weight almost always makes you look younger.” I hope so:)
We live in what used to be Sheltered Housing and isn’t any more.
Some of those who live here have ‘fallen into a black hole’ as far as care and concern goes.
This is where I give thanks to God that I have this ‘stroppy gene’ which has enabled myself and a friend to take on the powers that be and rock the boat right into the water with quite effective results, including having the cabinet Minister for Social Care in Surrey come to meet with us.
“there can be times when it is practical to appear helpless”
Definitely, and I don’t even feel guilty about it. Just try to make sure that the person I’ve requested help from feels really valued and appreciated.
Everyone on this earth needs to feel valued and appreciated. Especially those who render acts of kindness to others.
Along with many of you I find being bracketed as ” elderly”, or “old” or ” not quite with it” EXTREMELY offensive.

I love this thread. Unfortunately its not only age that brings on the patronising attitude. I have advanced breast cancer, and since being diagnosed with cancer so many people around me have lost their minds. They now either see me as a saint or a child :lol:.

No more invites for drinks or parties, actually I don’t get invited to anything that happens after dark. Now its coffee and cake, and everyone must speak softly and slowly and not mention the “C” word. Heaven forbid I’m having a shit day and express that, well then I’m reminded that I must not think like that and I must just “be positive!”. My circle is getting smaller, I don’t have the patience or the energy to deal with that stuff. 😉

Well done you Lizzypb.
Personally I think ‘rants’ are good for the blood pressure.
Something which really annoys me is when one makes a legitimate complaint to someone’s line manager only to receive a reply that it’s been ‘looked into’ and there’s no case to answer. That’s without them even bothering to speak to the complainant to hear their legitimate complaint.
This is not how we addressed complaints when I was teaching.
We had respect for both parties and heard both individually, then together.
It’s so disrespectful to imply that being of a certain age means you don’t know what you’re talking about.
GRrrrrrr!!

Having said all that, I firmly believe life is for LIVING and ENJOYING.
I am grateful every day of my life for a most wonderful husband who helps to make it so.. even though he doesn’t want to trey the 5.2 🙂
Sunday will be our 46th Wedding Anniversary. No 5.2 that day. We are going to a lovely Chinese Restaurant 🙂

This is a poem written by a Nurse. It says a great deal about how we perceive people or how some don’t wish to even bother to look, really look, at the person.

“Crabbit Old Woman”

What do you see nurses?
What do you see?
What are you thinking when you are looking at me?
A crabbit old woman not very wise
Uncertain of habit with far away eyes
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply,
When you say in a loud voice ‘I do wish you’d try’
Who seems not to notice the things that you do
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe
Who, unresisting or not, lets you do as you will
With bathing and feeding the long day to fill
Is that what you’re thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes nurse,
You’re not looking at me.
I’ll tell you who I am as I sit here so still
As I use at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of ten with a father and mother
Brothers and sisters who love one another,
A young girl of sixteen with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she’ll meet:
A bride soon at twenty my heart gives a leap
Remembering the vows I promised to keep:
At twenty five now I have young of my own
Who need me to build a secure and happy home.
A young woman of thirty my young now grow fast
Bound to each other with ties that should last:
At forty my young ones now grown will soon be gone
But my man stays beside me to see I don’t mourn
At fifty once more babies play round my knee,
Again we know children my loved one and me,
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead
I look at the future I shudder with dread
For my young ones are all busy rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and love I have known
I’m an old woman now and nature is cruel
‘Tis her jest to make me age like a fool
The body it crumbles, grace and vigour depart,
There now is a stone where I once had a heart:
But inside this old carcase a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells,
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I’m loving and living my life over again
I think of the years all too few – gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last
So open your eyes nurse, open and see,
Not a crabbit old woman
Look closer – see ME.

Crabbit Old Woman, also variously titled Look Closer,[1]Look Closer Nurse, Kate, Open Your Eyes[2] or What Do You See?,[3] is a poem written in 1966 by Phyllis McCormack, then working as a nurse in Sunnyside Hospital, Montrose. The poem is written in the voice of an old woman in a nursing home who is reflecting upon her life. Crabbit is Scots for “bad-tempered” or “grumpy”.
The poem appeared in the Nursing Mirror in December 1972 without attribution. Phyllis McCormack explained in a letter to the journal that she wrote the poem in 1966 for her hospital newsletter.[4]
This story was corroborated by an article from the Daily Mail on 12 March 1998, where Phyllis McCormack’s son wrote that his mother composed it in the 1960s, where she submitted it anonymously to a small magazine intended just for Sunnyside with the title “Look Closer Nurse”.
The next year, the poem was published in Chris Searle’s poetry anthology Elders (Reality Press, 1973), without title or attribution. Subsequently, a wealth of urban legend has sprung up surrounding this humble work. Most of the legend associated with this poem attributes it to a senile elderly woman in a Dundee nursing home (or sometimes an Irish nursing home), where a nurse found it while packing her belongings following her death.[5] Searle himself was quoted in 1998 as saying of the poem’s authorship: “I don’t think we’ll ever know. I accepted it as authentic.” (i.e. as the authentic writing of an infirm old woman).[2]
The poem, which paints a rather sad picture of a decrepit woman’s final days in care, has been quoted in various works written for and about the caring professions in order to highlight the importance of maintaining the dignity of the lives of elderly patients. It is also included in the Edexcel IGCSE English Literature poetry anthology.

Rather wonderful don’t you think?