How can we age well?

There are so many articles out there about “healthy ageing”, but most of them are bizarrely vague. Like ads for menstrual products or incontinence, they seem to be convinced that we’d all run away screaming if they actually mentioned what ageing is actually like, so we’re left with commercials of silver-haired couples taking romantic strolls on the beach, senior women lifting two-pound weights in yoga pants, and similarly-aged men mowing the lawn and looking purposefully at the horizon.

The last time I went camping, it was 2009, Leeds Festival, and I SWORE I would never do it again, until last week.  My darling sister has taken to camping. She bought herself a tent, a really posh BBQ, and a kettle that whistles and there is no stopping her, and to be honest, I have now caught the bug too and am making plans to do the North Coast 500.

This week I got to thinking about bad news.  There's been a few smatterings of it around my world recently with good friends bearing up under the weight of it, and other stories of grief, or loss.

For me, the important thing is making sure you have all your pillars in place.  

have had a pretty varied life in terms of how I keep fit and healthy.

Once upon a time, it was 2 hour aerobic and step classes in Aberdeen, wearing outfits that looks like I should be using them to floss my teeth (thongs I tell you!!! Thongs!!!), then it was weightlifting following a manual written by Gladys Portuguese, then it was hanging out with boyfriends that were bad for my health and nightclubbing far too much, then it was the boyfriend who used to pick a fight with me when we were out running so I would pick up the pace, shouting, 'come back here and say that you b*stard!'

Caring for the skin you’re in: staying sun safe

Massage therapists see a lot of skin. All colours, all textures. Freckles, scars, stretch marks, moles. Skin with lots of hair and skin with none. Skin doesn’t surprise us.