My Blog 2

Why does no one ever tell you how brilliant ageing can be? In later life, you know what sparks joy: loving new things, discarding old things. It’s finally time to live as you want to live, not as you’re told you should. I t started with a tweet. I wondered why people like the Edinburgh fringe so much , when it sounds like my idea of hell: loads of “theatre” (with capital-letter ACTING); audience interaction; comedians; circus-type things. Edinburgh itself is gorgeous , so am I just a misery guts? That is a rhetorical question, obviously. The answers came thick and fast. I would love the fringe, apparently, if only I got taken to the right shows. Then I could go to 10 in one day! But I know myself. One artwork a day is quite enough, ta. Then, of course, came the inevitable low blow. I was told my attitude is a sign of ageing, because I don’t want to trek up to Scotland, where the best joke this year, apparently, is a zinger about cauliflower florets . Jesus. I want my ...

The Biggest Wastes Of Time And Effort We Regret When We Get Older There are things we all do, or don't do, that lead us to waste far more time and effort than we realize in the moment. We spend a lot of energy looking for shortcuts to save time, and sure, those shortcuts add up. But when I look back, my biggest time regrets aren't spending too much time on Twitter or fb mismanaging my daily tasks or relations. Those are bad habits, but there are bigger, more systematic time wasters that have really gotten in the way. Fixing these will free up a massive amount of time and energy. Not Asking for Help My first week on my first job out of university, my boss handed me a huge spreadsheet. He told me to organise it in a way that made zero sense to me. Being a quiet, timid person, I simply nodded, walked back to my desk and stared at that spreadsheet for like an hour, hoping to make some sense of it (yep, just like George Costanza an...

How to Plan a Successful Road Trip Whether you’re going for a weekend, a week, or a month, there are some general rules to live by. A good road trip means more than just getting there and back. Photo by Jen Judge . One evening two decades ago, on a Thursday after work, a friend and I loaded our climbing gear and drove 17 hours from Boulder, Colorado, to Smith Rock, Oregon, where I’d always wanted to climb a classic test piece called Chain Reaction . Another time a friend and I drove from Sta Maria CA to the Oregon border to go fishing for salmon. We didn’t arrive until 2 p.m. Friday and were too knackered to climb or fish. That left a day and a half before we had to load up and return to Colorado or California in time for work Monday morning meetings. Though I sent the route, I don’t consider that trip a success, other than the fact that we never fell asleep at...