Today I am 85 years old and I am celebrating having been allowed to live for this many years. My only complaint about today is it is going to be 37C (99F) in Perth but with airconditioning everywhere I am sure I will keep cool. I often threaten to have my birthday in June but have as yet not been able to convince the rest of the family. 😎
Phil is taking us all to lunch at the nearby Kardinya Tavern. It has good food and a great free salad bar which very few restaurants have these days. I am looking forward to getting together with the family once again.
When I think back over the many years I have walked this earth I can't help thinking of all the changes, especially technological, that have taken place during that time. Some of them I am very grateful for but these days there are many I don't even understand. I enjoy my desktop Mac computer but apart from that there is little we have that we didn't have years ago. We do have a mobile telephone which is only switched on if Phil goes out and he or I need to contact each other, or it goes with us when we go out together in case of emergencies, car breakdowns etc.
We of course first had television in Perth in the latter part of the 1950s but it is far less enjoyable these days than it was back then. There was such a diversity of wonderful series and Phil and I often sit and talk about them and try to remember as many of them as we can. I doubt the TV stations can afford to buy new shows and this results in constant repeats and repeats of repeats. I think with DVDs and all these other sources of films etc the television stations are struggling to afford good shows from Australia, let alone the UK or US.
Otherwise my life goes on, albeit slowly, and I am determined to try and keep it going as long as possible. We recently learned that a medication we both take for diabetes has been trialled on animals giving them longer lives. It has also been proven to help prevent some cancers. The name of this medicine is Metformin and it was the subject of a report not only on Catalyst but also in an article in our local newspaper. Our endocrinologist tells us we must continue to take it regardless of any other medications we are on. Phil and I may have begun taking it too late in our lives to be much help but perhaps it is helping us live just a wee bit longer which, at 85 and 87, one can only hope for, despite all the aches and pains that plague us from time to time.
P.S. We had a very quiet New Year's Eve. We watched a couple of episodes of Poldark on DVD and had a small amount of red wine with our meal and at midnight a small glass of muscat. I'd intended to go to bed soon after midnight but there was an English soccer game on TV and Phil decided to watch to the end of the game. Unfortunately the result was not the one we had hoped for but that's sport for you. He's not a fan of soccer (much prefers our Aussie Rules) but personally I think he was too lazy to get up and go to bed. A very late night meant sleeping in on the first day of the year and just virtually doing nothing except get our meals. Oh yes, I did strip the beds and wash the sheets!!! Phil of course hung them out to dry and with today being to hot he was able to bring them in early this morning.
