Some tips on life...

This follows on with the flow of my thoughts from my last post.... I wish I could paint tattoo these on my arm... so I can be reminded every day that to wake up is a good day!

Written by a 90 year old

This is something we should all read at least once a week!!!!! Make sure you read to the end!!!!!!

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio .

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 42 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short – enjoy it..

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.

9. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

10. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

11. It's OK to let your children see you cry.



12. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

13. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it...

14 Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

15. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

16. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

17. It's never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.

18. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

19. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

20. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

21. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

22. The most important sex organ is the brain.

23. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

24. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

25. Always choose life.

26. Forgive but don’t forget.

27. What other people think of you is none of your business.

28. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

30. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does..

31. Believe in miracles.

32. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

33. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

34. Your children get only one childhood.

35. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

36. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

37. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

38. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need.

39. The best is yet to come...

40. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

41. Yield.

42. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

The oldest youngest person I knew.. in memoriam

This is my Great Aunt Joan who died this week.

She was the most inspirational woman that I know, despite pain, blindness and problems breathing later in life she always sounded like a twenty year old on the phone full of happiness and joy.. she died aged 93.

When I last saw her she said "Penny, life is short, enjoy it as much as possible as when you get to my age it is what you look back on".  I always said to her that she was the youngest oldest person I knew.  It made me realise life and age is about your outlook and being young is not a number, Joan proved that to me.

She never talked about her problems and did her best not to let people know that she couldn't see and didn't like inconveniencing anyone.  She was one of the first policewomen in the UK and was an early light in burning a path for other women to work in the police force. She married  my great uncle (she was 20 years younger) and then lived an exciting colonial lifestyle in Africa.  She never had children but my connection with her I felt like she was my second Mother.

When my actual Mother died I thought a lot about the meaning of life.  As I found journals and journals when I was clearing out my parent's house.  Pages and pages of her life, all neatly written in her beautiful handwriting.  Journals about looking after my Grandma, Journals about shopping lists, her campaigns and her life... too many books to put in a suitcase and take back to Australia or to my sister's.  So we read them to each other and then they were consigned to the recycling skip.  How that haunted me... her words.. her thoughts.. just .... gone.

I think there is writing DNA in my blood.  The need to write, account, to express, wonder, explain, just to feel that words somehow fill a life.   I have no children, no real relatives that will one day sit and look at my journals.. and so this blog kind of fills a void.

I live here with no confidantes, I never was bought up to confide in anybody, everything I experienced was kept within my skin and memory.  This blog is for me a testimony that I did actually live, that through life's rollercoaster my writing is a cathartic expression of what is happening to me.

I hope I write to explore, to shine, to query, to wonder, perhaps some of what I write is too near the bone and putting oneself 'on the line' is too near the line.

But somehow being alive to me is about expression, experiencing and emotions.  This blog is a testimony to a small life... mine.  It's not so interesting, important or entertaining, but at least a few words can make me feel that I am living it... 

Concert Going..

We don't get much in the terms of quality entertainers coming to Cairns.. the nearest they get to where I am is Brisbane - About 2,000 kms away!

But we have been privileged recently to have

Jimmy Cliff........

If you don't know who it is you will definitely know the songs.

Many Rivers to Cross
I Can See Clearly Now
You can Get it if you Really Want
The Harder They Come

He is 65 and still bounding over the stage.. almost at one point tripping over the Feedback speakers in front of me and me only cursing that I didn't have my video on my iphone filming it.

I was positioned right at the front, but have to say I was very disappointed with the quality of photo taken in poor light condiions with my iPhone.  The best effort I could come up with was the picture below.

The concert itself was wonderful he exuded music through every pore and in the venue that was a lot of sweaty pores.  With not a fan in the place in the tropical heat and 500 people dancing to the Jamaican reggae beats, we got to feel totally in the tropical groove.. including wiping away the waterfall of sweat drops cascading down my face and trying not to stick to the sweaty person gyrating next to me.

And then followed two weeks later.. Chris Isaaks graced Cairns Convention Centre.

3,000 people with not a spare seat  His classics, Wicked Game, Blue Hotel and a cover of Ring of Fire, it's one thing hearing his amazing voice on radio, but seeing him live really is a total 3D experience.  He is such an endearing man - even encouraging people to come up and take photos of him "better to take photos now, as I won't be looking any better towards the end of the night".

I had taken my Canon 300D SLR camera with me (not trusting that iPhone quality any more).  I had also attached my telephoto lens... which had been fostering some tropical mould on the inside of the glass lens.  Despite keeping it in the freezer it was still prevalent, but luckily on a long zoom, the mould on the inside doesn't notice.. whew.. so this was the first time that I had used it.

Ironically, I managed to get right down to the front and was literally standing at his feet - so close that if I had used my camera it would have only shown a pimple on his nose.  At one point he looked down directly at me and all I could limply say as I felt a bit embarrassed was 'hello'... well what else can one do?

If you are wondering who I am going with.. well Jimmy Cliff was indeed with my imaginary friend.  My friend Clarissa (a girl that I last saw when we were 17 and I found out she lived locally and we have now become firm friends!) found out that it was standing room only and since she had had a recent back operation was unable to make it, so I was able to sell her ticket.

For Chris Isaaks I went with Clarissa and her husband.  Whilst Clarissa and her husband stayed in the seats I was boogying out at Chris's feet.... so it was lovely to go with company..  It's funny that my time in Port Douglas most of my friends have been couples... just call me 'Spare Wheel Pen'.

I was so close that all I could offer up when he looked at me was a weak 'hello'

He went off for a wander among the crowd.  He sat on one lady's lap who whispered in his ear 'your getting heavy'  and she wasn't talking about his type of music!

Even his guitar is named after him!

A mirrored suit.. let's hope he doesn't break it.. 7 years bad luck

His cover of 'Ring of Fire'

The echo of Stevie Lingers on...

Despite getting on with life and trying not to think too much about what's happening with Stevie in Finland.. keep seeing reminders of him everywhere haha!

Stevie set the trend...