Middle-aged, Free and Single

58 and Counting

‘Who am I?’ and ‘Where am I going with my life?’ and ‘What the hell happens next?’ – nothing forces you to answer those questions quite like a husband walking out on you when you’re 58. It’s 4 months ago today since he told me he was leaving, and it also happens to be our…

What a Way to Make a Living

I’ve been at my new job a month now, designing kitchens for a well-known DIY store. I feel like I’m back in the game. I took my eye off the ball for a while there, getting myself into a situation where my only income was the business I ran with my husband (you know, the…

A Change for the Better?

15 things that help during the menopause, and one that doesn’t. Another subject that, until recently, we didn’t really talk about. Can you remember when it was called The Change?? If it was spoken about at all? What a lot of things us women never used to speak about. And thank god we’re speaking about…

What’s your Last Name?

Back in May I changed my name by Deed Poll. I’ve had a fair few last names. My maiden name, of course, then my first married name. That name happened to be double-barrelled, so when we split up I dropped the first half and just used the second half. Then when I married again, I…

Supernumerary in the South Pacific – Fiji

On a bit of a lighter note than my last couple of posts… This is the third in what I’m grandly calling an occasional series, about my life as a wife in the Merchant Navy, with my first husband. It was all a long time ago – the early 80s. Long ago and far away….

A Bit of a Wobble

Had a bit of a wobble yesterday. Not a huge wobble – but there was a point when I basically just wanted to cry, and not for any very obvious reason. I didn’t cry – I was driving at the time – and when I got home there were things that needed to be done,…

Wee Need to Talk

Stress incontinence. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times (Gold Status and Physically Fit at 58). It has nothing to do with being stressed, and a lot to do with wetting yourself. It’s not something we talk about. I think it’s something we should talk about. Stress incontinence basically means you wet yourself when you…

My Mean Food Bill

A couple of people (online and in real life!) have asked me to go into more detail about how I keep my spending so low (average £17.88 a week over the last 6 months) – what do I actually buy? You already know (from Husbanding my Resources) what my rules are – use up what’s…

Playing Out

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. And it doesn’t do a lot for Jill either. So yesterday, I played. Well, first of all I had to do sensible things like shopping and putting a load of washing in and feeding the cat. But then I played. I took myself off to…

The Mistress of the House

Mrs Beeton. A fascinating woman – the Victorian cook who wrote a book about Household Management. I found a copy of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management in an antique shop and decided to buy it, and then started to find out more about her. I found more books – online, at car boot sales,…

Husbanding my Resources – revisit

When I found myself on my own after my husband left back in February, I gave myself six rules to follow, to make sure I was ‘Husbanding my Resources’. And no, the irony wasn’t lost on me – not then, and not now. I needed to cut back drastically on what I was spending, at…

Going Round in Circles

Is it possible to be zero waste? No. It absolutely isn’t. Of course it isn’t. Every single thing you own will be waste eventually. I’m looking around my room as I write this (I’m lying in bed…). Eventually the wooden furniture will be old and tatty and out of date and will be replaced. The…