AofA's Hot To Trot Talking Points
Every Friday
Who is going to Womad? One of the best festivals in the UK, it has moved and didn’t happen last year, so delighted that it’s on again in 2026. I am going with my son, his partner and grandson plus meeting up with an old friend and her sons, partner and grandsons. We’re going to boogie. What I love about Womad - I went to the first one - is discovering new bands!!!
We’re wishing Jean luck with her struggle to prevent part of her land becoming a road. This was in the Manchester Evening News.
‘Meet Jean, the grandmother who is refusing to sell part of her garden to developers behind a £45m road scheme in a bid to save a 500-year-old tree.
Jean is fighting plans for a new link road that would cut straight through her two-thirds of an acre plot.
The retired school secretary and piano teacher claims the council-backed project would bring a 60mph road just yards from her property and destroy crucial wildlife habitats.
Jean, who has two grown-up children and three grandchildren, also argues that the proposed 3km Southern Link Road would do little to relieve congestion, despite its £45 million price tag.
Her main worry is the impact on wildlife and an ancient oak tree standing in a neighbouring farmer’s field, which she describes as a local landmark.
Jean moved into her three-bedroom bungalow in 2003 and its current value sits at approximately £575,000, but she worries the bypass will make her property unsellable.
Jean says she has point-blank refused to discuss selling any portion of her land and has not entered into negotiations.
We hope you get the answers you want Jean!’
This is a perfect AofA story. A Taiwanese couple who have become a social media phenomenon because they dress up in unclaimed laundry at their laundry! What more could we want. ‘Chang Wan-ji and Hsu Sho-er, a couple of Taiwanese grandparents who own a laundry, became a fashion phenomenon. 🧥✨
Tired of accumulating clothes that their customers forgot and never claimed, their grandson had the brilliant idea of dressing them and photographing them with those abandoned clothes.
With poses worthy of a catwalk and an overwhelming attitude, they showed that sustainability and style go hand in hand at any age.’
Credit: @wantshowyoung
Paul Cook has turned 70. Congratulations! Photo of him and Phil Lynott by Chalkie Davies.
There was a general consensus that Ann Droid, the series by Diane Morgan (also starring as the kind and hilarious care robot, is funny and poignant. Linda, played by the wonderful Sue Johnson, has lost her husband and then her grown up son moves out again, eventually likes her care robot. They form a dastardly duo and there are some very poignant moments.
I just wish I had Apple TV. New documentary by Sasha Waters on poet, Mary Oliver. ‘Artist Sasha Waters has captured a new way of seeing the esteemed queer poet Mary Oliver and her wonderful world of nature and love in her new documentary, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World.
The documentary opens with American TV host Stephen Colbert choking up while trying to get through Mary Oliver’s famous poem, The Summer Day. Eventually, Colbert makes it through the final line, reciting: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”’