30 Things I've Learned Since I Was 50 ...

It's nearly a whole year since I was dragged kicking, screaming and drinking gin into my fifth decade but after the initial, frankly terrifying, trauma of getting there, being 50 hasn't been the long dark tea-time of the soul that I was expecting.

True, I might as well dance through the precinct every Wednesday afternoon in nought but tassels and a tutu for I have become one of the invisible women. That age group of women whose opinion and ideas excite no-one and mean nothing except, perhaps, to supermarket retailers. Still, could be worse I suppose. I could be Angela Merkel. Or Kris Jenner.

Street Photography

I'm always fond of a good Instagram hashtag and one of my favourites is #streetphotography, though the definition of what constitutes street photography can be confusing. Especially to some of the 'young ladies' who post on the Instagram hashtag apparently. 

So if street photography isn't just photos of streets (though it can be) or naked ladies (which it is some of the time on Instagram *rolls eyes*); what is it?

Street photography is capturing a scene as you go about the, preferably but not necessarily, urban world around you. It's not reportage (there's no story or meaning to it), it's not documentary (for much the same reasons). It's not landscape, it's not a portrait, it's just a scene that catches the eye .....

The Dictionary of Teen: - On Fleek

There are many baffling moments in the parenting of teens without them developing entire new words to baffle you with as well, but they do it all the same. This is another in an occasional series of  The Dictionary of Teen ... 


On Fleek: 

Meaning the same as on point but used particularly in reference to successfully groomed eyebrows and evenly applied eyeliner...

Why Whitby?

Why do you always go to Whitby, they ask. Well, my mother asks. Every single time we go. And we go a lot. We went  again at half term, as it happens.

I first went, for the day, when I was 18 years old with a friend as a celebration after we'd finished our A level exams many, many years ago. While there we did all the Whitby things: bought lucky ducks, went up the 199 steps to the Abbey, and visited the Romany fortune teller in the harbour.