What is your Mt Everest?

Image courtesy of Mount Everest Pictures

As I sit curled up on the sofa with a glass of Shiraz in hand, the TV news is reporting that a 68 year old Australian woman has just conquered Mt Everest on her third attempt.

Apparently she would have been the world’s oldest woman to achieve this feat but unfortunately an equally as adventurous 73 year old Japanese woman beat her to it by a few days.

Seriously? 68 and 73?

What kind of person, let alone one 20 years my senior, wakes up one day and decides that they should risk their life and limbs just so they can climb some big mountain in freezing temperatures? Risking death, frostbite, hypothermia, snow blindness and acute mountain sickness as they do it.

Obviously there are some people who wake up and say, “I will die happy having scaled the highest mountain in the world” and others, who shall remain nameless, who wake up and say, “I will die happy having perfected the lightest sponge cake in the world”.

Don’t get me wrong, I really admire people pushing the limits and living on the edge. I just don't necessarily 'get it'.  What is this adrenalin rush these adventure seeking individuals speak of?

I was born risk adverse and must have been standing in the shallow end of the pool when the adventure gene was handed out.

Being adventurous for me is leaving the house in blue eye shadow and wearing a low cut top. Risky behaviour would be leaving the house in a pair of brightly coloured crocs (no on second thoughts crocks crocs are not adventurous they are a universal sign that you have completely given up on life).

I don't seek out adventure but it has definitely sought me out...and frequently. If I ever found myself on Mt Everest it would be because I lent on a faulty plane door and fell out. I am one of those  accidental adventurers.

In fact my lack of courage to fling myself off buildings or out of planes has worked against me in life. Simply because my fear of most things annoys the hell out of those around me. Hence I tend to get pushed into things when I least expect it.

Do you remember when my friend pysically pushed me onto a dodgy chair lift over the Isle of Capri? She laughed and I cried mainly because I lost my new shoes in some poor Italian's vegetable garden as I travelled precipitously overhead.

However, this wine is clearly giving me some courage. What is stopping me from doing something like that?

I think that now I'm officially on the slippery slide into old age I am finally ready to make peace with my fear and do something more adventurous than baking.  I am going to do "something" I am terrified to do.

And ....drum roll.....







I have decided to SKY DIVE!







Well I was pretty certain about that for about 10 minutes at least, until the end of the News.

They finished the News with this footage of an 80 year old American woman who tried tandem skydiving for the first time. She was so game (and I'm just talking about the fact she wore a wig for this little adventure).....

Talk about terrifying…

So blogging friends, any ideas for what I should do instead?

I've perfected the sponge cake and now I need to up the ante a bit. Put your ideas out there …what adventurous thing have you done or what is on your bucket list to try? Clearly its the only way to make the news - some old bird doing something no-one expects.

What was the first music you ever bought?

The very first album I ever bought was the Bee Gees.

I was 13 and I also bought a Michael Jackson single at the same time.

Although my musical tastes changed with the passing years, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Bee Gees.  Maybe because of their Australian links, the fact they wrote incredible songs on par with Lennon and McCartney and perhaps because Barry Gibb was so hot.

It was sad to hear about the death of Robin last week but it has been good to listen to all his music again and take a trip down memory lane.

Music can magically take us to another time and place like nothing else don't you think?

So, what about you, what was the first music you ever bought?




The first and only time I will ever saw the Bee Gees live - 1989 Melbourne

Brave and Naked?

“She really has let herself go, hasn’t she?”


I stopped in my tracks.


For a minute there, I thought they might have been talking about me.

After all…. my butt is much larger than my self esteem....

I turned around to see two middle-aged women enjoying a latte, cake and pouring scorn over a magazine article.  About this woman.

Hilary Clinton.


Apparently this is what "a brave, naked face" looks like. Clearly they have never seen most of us on a good day then.


Hilary, who is 65 this year and travels all over the world at an exhausting pace as the US Secretary of State, has apparently “let herself go”.


I missed the fuss. I am so out of the loop. It’s apparently been in the press, in all its forms for the past couple of weeks.

Who knew that "letting yourself go" really means wearing your hair loose, a pair of glasses and no eye makeup?


This picture was taken after Hilary had been travelling in Bangladesh for three days straight. Sheesh, if I had done that, I probably would have been wearing a paper bag over my head and my PJs at least.


And here was I thinking that "letting yourself go" meant stacking on 50 pounds of blubber, growing facial hair, drinking gin for breakfast and wearing velour tracksuits day in and out…..

I wonder when society is ever going to accept that 65 should not look like 35? Hilary Clinton is a great looking senior who doesn't need all that war paint to hide behind.


As a former makeup artist I can tell you it's just a tiny bit sad to see women (regardless of the work they have had done on their face) who continue to wear the same makeup they did when they were in their 20s or 30s. Resembling a crumbling statue held together with spac filler and paint is not really the kind of look most of us are intentionally going for.


I wonder if this public ridicule is the reason why more experienced, skilled senior women are not out there doing incredible things in the public sphere?  Achievements don't matter but apparently your face really does.  The pressure must be enormous for anyone in the public eye not to succumb to plastic surgery. I can just imagine Hilary asking Nancy Pelosi, “Love your face Nance, where can I get one?”

I can understand why younger people are judgemental about ageing. However, what I really would like to know is why are more mature women are so critical of each other's looks? We applaud those who have managed to "maintain" their looks and denigrate those who just want to age the way nature intended. And, then vice verse. We need to stop taking it all so seriously.

And if like me you have to see the funny side in everything, watch this video by the wonderful blogger, comedian and book author Linda Lou – I love her spirit and talent.  Ageing is tough and funny but can be oh so liberating. We really should be grateful we got this far....without putting that bag over our heads.

It's all in the DNA

Somewhere or other.

Everyone looks at my daughter and me and says that there is no way that we could be related as we are nothing alike.

That might be a blessing for her but I continue to look for some evidence, other than her birth certificate, that we are in fact mother and daughter.

On face value I can see that it may not be obvious,

After all, 

I am tall and she is petite

I am blonde and she's a brunette

I am on the creative side and she is logical and analytical

I am a glass half empty and she's a glass half full

She loves Laboutins and I love flats.

She loves exotic food and I love it plain and simple.

She loves wearing patterns and I like block colours.

She loves travelling off the beaten track and I like staying on the well worn one.

She loves to cook and I love to eat, .......

BUT..... I  am telling you that if you look hard enough you will find the gene somewhere, even though it may be buried deep.

I was going through some photos last night after a beautiful Mother's Day and I found these.

Aww, see we are alike.....

It seems neither one of us knows how to use those giant velcro rollers.
Not only that but I hope I think we both have the same sense of humour ....because when she sees that picture....

And just in case she doesn't see the funny side, I really pray that she also runs just as slowly as me.....

PS As she is in the legal profession that photo may only have a short web life....

A belated Happy Mothers Day to all you Mothers, Step Mothers, Foster Mothers, Aunties who love like Mothers and Grandmothers.  Yes, its our differences that make it all the more worth while, don't you think?

What do you think is fair game for sharing with the world?

“For better or for worse, our company is a reflection of my thinking, my character, my values.” Rupert Murdoch

Do you suppose he regrets saying that?

It is fascinating watching the downfall of 81 year old Rupert Murdoch in the very arena that he spent all his life manoeuvring and negotiating in order to build a 46 billion dollar media empire.

However, it’s the kind of grubby end befitting a person who chose to buy silence and paid millions and millions of dollars to make The News of the World phone hacking scandal go away rather than expose the truth.

The News of the World publication was a gutter tabloid publication but it was one Murdoch was happy to own for 31 years. It clearly made him lots of money. Its reporters bribed police officers, hacked the phone messages of hundreds of celebrities, royalty, government officials and others whose personal secrets could be tabloid fodder and then filled pages of their publication which a celebrity obsessed public devoured.

And unfortunately when questioned about these illegal activities Murdoch utilised the defence strategy favoured by every pre-schooler when caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Deny. Blame someone else. Then claim it was an accident.

The absurdity of his defence made me think of Bill Clinton's attempts at defending himself in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal (although completely different scenarios). 

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never.” 

No-one believed him either and look how that turned out.

Murdoch first claimed that it was just “one rogue reporter” who was responsible for this illegal behaviour. Then, when the evidence became too overwhelming, the one reporter defence turned into “only one rogue newspaper”. More cringeworthy was that he said that the publication was an “aberration” and that he “would have gotten rid of it years ago if its readers had not liked it so much”.

If its readers had not liked it so much.......

What is it about us, the general public, that we love to hear the dirt about others’ lives, celebrities or otherwise?

Look at the rise of Reality TV and the increasing trashiness of magazines, newspapers and even blogs. I think social media has only exacerbated this. Sharing private moments is encouraged and bloggers/twitterers/facebookers seem to post more and more provocative, expletive laden, and confessional postings just to increase their followers. Hopefully, with the demise of British tabloids as we know them, the world may be turning. I hope so.