Well, we’ve had a brilliant week at AofA. Firstly we announced who our keynote speaker is going to be at the Advantages of Age Awards 2025 on Nov 20th in London at Hoxton Hall. Info on that marvellous woman below. And then we shortlisted for those Awards and sent all the finalists the news. Everyone was so delighted - it’s so great to be able to celebrate all sorts of smaller organisations that are doing brilliant jobs on the pro-ageing front.
This is who we’re having as our keynote speaker AT THE AofA AWARDS 2025. Cathi Rae, 62, IS DR CATHI RAE AND AS WELL AS A LECTURER AND POET (her PHD was in Poetry), she’s based in Leicester and she is a flippin’ amazing AGE POSITIVITY MODEL IN THE FASHION WORLD. SHE IS UNABASHED IN HER OPINIONS ABOUT AGEISM AND A GREAT WEARER OF PRE-LOVED CLOTHES. She’s got 20,000 followers on Insta and is already forging a very strong pathway in this pro-ageing way. She is proud of her age markings....Tix for sale here - https://hoxtonhall.ticketsolve.com/.../shows/1173668477...
And we marvelled at this week’s Shetland Wool Week 2025. We wished we were there.
‘Last night we attended the Opening Ceremony for Shetland Wool Week 2025, there were lots of Aal Ower Toories to be seen, as well as lovely Shetland music, peerie Vikings and woollie funs!’ Posted by Shetland Wool brokers…
This question was prompted by someone I know - deciding to move to Worthing. She sold her flat in London and is on the move. She’s confident that she’ll make friends easily. So I asked the group what they thought. Most of them wouldn’t move unless they had friends in the new location. Others had successfully upped sticks and moved successfully. That was inspiring. Including one of them that had moved when she was 85, three years ago. And it’s turned out well. She said she did it spontaneously!
Photo for the Guardian by Jack Boniface
This was the story in the Guardian where Sarah Cook had sold her place at 60 and set off on a nomadic life with a tent and a bicycle and a few very precisely packed bags. She comes back to the UK to see her children and grandchildren but basically she lives on her bike. What a woman. She’s 67 now and has been on the road for seven years. Members were either in awe or horrified. I am the latter. Just at the thought of leaving my home behind.
If I were a Dad I would go. So brilliant to see Men’s Rites of Passage weekends happening. And this one - from Oct 16th to 19th - is at a very special venue in the woods of Snowdonia called Cae Mabon which was created by the magical ‘dad’ and storyteller, Eric Maddern. In fact, my son went on a weekend here 28 years ago which was a template for a Father and Son workshop and he’s never forgotten it, he was 11.
And finally a heritage plaque for Marc Bolan at his old home in Maida Vale. I love it that AofA embraces Shetland woolly hats and Rat Scabies from the Damned giving a speech about what a kind bloke Marc was. I didn’t realise they knew each other but they did.