AofA's Hot To Trot Talking Points
Every Friday
This week I’m back from a very very hot Greece to a hot London. It’s our picnic this week on Hampstead Heath - you’re very welcome - details below. And it’s Glasto time.
Anyone remember this Glastonbury 1986? I was there. And just drove in with my orange beetle and press pass. Hardly any security. I had interviewed Michael Eavis for the Times, and he commented that he thought I was more Time Out. Which was true.
'As [Glastonbury]) Festival opens its doors we take a look back at the festival in 1986 with this series of images by Rab Lewin.
Glastonbury 1986 was a hot one on Worthy Farm, with performers on the original pyramid stage including The Cure, The Housemartins, The Pogues, Madness and The Waterboys.
Rab: “After a fraught year of basic college in Edinburgh aged 19 my friend Kathleen suggested we go to Glastonbury. So we hitched and made it in 12 hours, sleeping one night on the side of the motorway under a tarp with a hippy guy and his dog. We arrived at the festival site without a tent, but one was provided instantly. Back in ’86, it was still known as Glastonbury CND Festival, and security wasn’t like it is today.
“I photographed a number of bands whilst on mushroom tea only to find out later I had no film in my camera! I met Tim and became friends, we communicated for 25 years afterwards. I also met Danny from Manchester who has also become a lifelong friend. It took me three days to hitch back to Edinburgh.”
Full gallery online at BCA.
All photos © Rab G.P Lewin / BCA. All rights reserved.'
Atlantis featured a piece on the changing mores of society and posited a question I’ve wondered about for years myself - what if intimate friendship was prioritised over partnership as in marriage? What do you think? Especially when you meet a partner later in life….your friends have been around for years longer… I tend to think they take priority.
This is going to be an amazing evening at the Vagina Museum although it looks like it’s a sell out already. The UK’s biggest and safest Tantra teacher Jan Day - who has a book out called Living Tantra - a journey into sex, spirit and relationship - is in conversation with author Marianne Power whose newest book Love Me (with two chapters Tantra and Sex School about her workshops with Jan) and moderated by Costa Prize winner, author Monique Roffey as the moderator who is also working with Jan. Should be an inspiring coming together. As it were.
Sunday, June 29
Advantages of Age Summer Picnic
The Annual Advantages of Age Picnic! Our annual picnic is back at Hampstead Heath, London. Meet old friends, make new ones.
Date and time
Sunday, June 29 · 12:45 - 4pm GMT+1
Location
Hampstead Heath Railway Station
4 South End Road London NW3 2PY
Get directions
About this event
Event lasts 3 hours 15 minutes
Just reminding you about this PICNIC...BRING A POEM, A SONG AND LET'S MEET UP.
We're meeting at 12.45 pm precisely (15 mins waiting) at Hampstead Heath Overground station outside by the fruit stall and then we'll go off and find somewhere on Hampstead Heath.
Do come along and meet other AofAers.
We'd love to meet you if you're new or one of the less new!!!
The BBC website reported that the speed of your walk can predict your chance of being hospitalised etc… ‘The speed at which you walk can reveal profound insights into your brain's rate of ageing – with slower walkers having smaller brains and fundamental differences in crucial structures.
It might seem trivial, but how quickly you can walk from A to B can reveal a great deal about the inner workings of your body and mind. Research has shown that the speed at which you walk to the shops, the local park, or the bus stop, can predict your chance of being hospitalised, suffering a heart attack, and even dying. In fact, a person's gait speed can even be used to reveal their rate of cognitive ageing.
The walking speed test is a way of assessing someone's functional capacity – their ability to perform daily tasks around the house and maintain independence. It can also reveal how frail a person is, and predict how well they will respond to rehabilitation after a stroke.
Although it is normal for people to walk more slowly as they age, a precipitous decline in the speed of someone's gait could indicate that something more serious is going on.
"When a person's normal walking pace declines, it is often associated with underlying health declines," says Christina Dieli-Conwright, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who studies the effects of exercise on cancer prognosis.
"It might be that the person has a chronic condition which has meant that they haven't been moving as much or have become sedentary. That means that, more than likely, they've experienced a decrease in muscle strength, and joint mobility, which unfortunately leads to further health declines," says Dieli-Conwright.
A simple technique
To perform the walking speed test, all you need is a stopwatch and a way of measuring distance, such as a tape measure. There are two common versions.
If you are outside and you have lots of space, you could try the 10m (33ft) walking speed test. First, measure out 5m (16.5ft), followed by another 10m. To get started, it's recommended to walk for 5m to get up to your normal speed, then walk at your normal pace for 10m. To calculate your walking speed simply divide 10m by the number of seconds it took to walk that distance.’
Heather Small hailed her mother and all her qualities as a mother on Windrush Day which was on June 22nd. ‘Will always remember and pay respect to the shoulders we stand upon, like my Mummy, and so many others of the Windrush generation.
Greetings from Limerick, Ireland.
Never been to Glasto, and unlikely to go now as it sounds HELLA busy and loud and crowded.
Thanks for the tips about waking gait. I have chronic osteoarthritis in my feet, but am finally being referred to a specialist.
Enjoy the picnic!
Interesting points! Old friends are precious, even more so as we can lose them too, not just to mortality but to strange shifts in their thinking. Some people stay at heart the same person; others have various challenges, including health, and become someone totally different and no longer interested in the friendship. That’s been a surprise to me in this life.