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Jane Deegan's avatar

Thanks for the laughs! I will be 60 in a little over 4 years. Gasp. Can relate to so much to the memory stuff. I blame menopause still.

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

I do too - definitely! It seems to come in waves of vagueness and I no longer even try to remember what an actor/TV series/book is called. (Also, mid fifties is YOUNG by today's standards. I look back on it wistfully!) x

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Jane Deegan's avatar

Lol. Thanks. I look back to 50 wistfully

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Pam.taylor1@btinternet.com's avatar

I had a similar experience to your's recently - had a photo taken for my passport renewal, only for the passport office to reject it - no reason given - maybe like me they thought no one would ever want to go on holiday with someone who looked like the sad soul in the photo.

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

That's crazy isn't it? So you're left thinking, What's wrong with it? (I'm sure it's not you - it's THEM)

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Gina Ferrari's avatar

That’s hilarious and so true. Free prescriptions, senior rail card and now a bus pass… I’m embracing it all. Not so much the bingo and rain hats though.

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

I wonder if those plastic rain hats are extinct actually? X

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Gina Ferrari's avatar

It’s been a while since I have seen one but thinking about it does anyone actually have a shampoo and set any more? They seem to go together in my mind. Probably for the best!

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Elise V Allan's avatar

Laughing out loud as I read this on the bus, with my bus pass, which is now 7 years old, and so the photo has started to look quite good. I expect in another 5 years it'll look gorgeous. Give it a few years, Fiona

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Ha - I hadn't actually thought of that - that the more we age the more glowingly youthful the pic looks. Bring it on! x

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Linda Boa's avatar

I laughed all through this...I only get a photo taken the day I've been to my hairdresser. And that brain fog? I thought it was menopausal...you mean it doesn't go away? My son's building a house and I said to my partner, what do you call the bit under the floor that supports the whole structure...yes, I couldn't even remember the word "foundations."

Just Seventeen was the highlight of my world growing up on Mull, with my Kays catalogue clothes - that and the NME taught me there was a world out there. I was bereft if they missed the ferry.

And hey, at least Mark King is a great bass player...there's that...

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Would you still get your Just Seventeen but a bit late? (If ferry missed). I think my fugginess IS still meno related even though am 60 - mainly it's much better, but I get 'episodes' sometimes. I think someone pulled the plug on my final vestiges of oestrogen around November 2. x

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Linda Boa's avatar

Yes, the next day if a school day. But having your hopes dashed…devastating!

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Between Dog and Wolf's avatar

Haha this made me chortle. I live in Ayrshire and am 64. I went with my plain face to get a photo taken and came out with something that resembles Trump’s mugshot. Never mind I’ll just keep paying the full fare. 😂

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

I'm just back from my dad's in Ayrshire today! I could have waved my bus pass at you! Honestly, get the pass - however displeasing the pic, when it comes back the pictures is miraculously smudged, all definition lost. x

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Rafael Concepcion's avatar

Oh poor luv! How I feel your pain! I’ve been poking around through my 5000-odd books looking for the first-person story about a real thing that happened to a real Russian girl during the Battle for Leningrad. My amused wife had to remind me that’s called a “memoir.” This girl worked in a gallery or museum and was trying to prevent priceless art pieces falling into the hands of the Wehrmacht. I want to read it again because that’s where I learned the story about the desperate civilians eating all the cats and allowing the rat population to go off the chart. Well, I’m darned if I can remember the title of the book. All I know for sure at my age of sixty-seven is that it was written by a young Russian woman and her name contained every letter of the alphabet at least once, and the letters k, r, s, v, y and z appeared several times each, all in one person’s name! (Who knows what that works out to in Cyrillic!) I’ve been stooping, squinting, groaning, grumbling about dead torch batteries, and finding every stupid second-hand book I ever bought except the one I’m looking for. Just hang in there, luv, it only gets better from here on!

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Rafael Concepcion's avatar

Luv, I’m just pivid over losing track of that book! “Pivid”? you say? Yes, that’s another Concepcionism that means you’re so beyond pissed that you’re livid as well. I could have sworn that it was right on the shelf between Defoe’s Moll Flanders and Alberto Moravia’s The Wayward Wife. I’m still keeping an eye out for it but hope is fading fast. Two other things you might be interested in are the roles that Russian women played in WWII as snipers and ace fighter pilots. I don’t have any books about this but I’ve seen some fascinating YouTube videos about these extraordinary women and their contributions to the war effort. ‘Bye for now, luv!

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Rafael Concepcion's avatar

That doesn’t ring a bell. I’m still looking for the book in my house. I hope I didn’t loan it out, because it was so cool I’m sure I’ll never see it again. The book you mentioned sounds great too. I’d read it in a heartbeat. ‘Bye for now, luv!

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Thanks you Rafael! Now I want to know what the book is... it sounds fascinating. I might have to conduct my own search. Will report back! (If I remember!) 😄

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susan walker's avatar

If only you looked like PV, all THIN and CHEEKBONES to die for. She just can’t get over how GREAT she looks on her ID card (obviously not an old person one, she’ll never be 60) and pities everyone who doesn’t look as good in theirs. Her first attempt at approval was rejected too though as she was wearing a bikini in it. Abs like walnuts!

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Y'know I think they rejected my first one because it was too AUDREY!!! 😄x

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Francesca Bossert's avatar

They are always terrible. I bet Helena Christensen and Giselle and Christie and Cindy all look like the ugliest mugs in Prison Break too. I bet. I’m due to renew my Swiss passport soon…. I’ll keep you posted! You always make me giggle! 🤗

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Thank you Francesca! Good luck with the renewal! I can't believe we used to cram ourselves into photo booths in the old days, just for fun... x

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