Lifestyle Blogs (2,470)

I think the most difficult part of aging is admitting to it. Before that you live in denial and sometimes make a spectacle of yourself trying to pretend that you’re still young.

My general image was the first to suffer as I grew older. First I got tired of the all-night parties; next the long hair with the occasional pony tail went out the door. Then my dress code went to the dogs. Gradually baseball caps made place for wide brimmed hats, T-shirts went out in favor of golf shirts & button up shirts, shorts became longer, canvas shoes gave way to leather shoes, jeans moved on for cotton slacks, and finally the vivid colors faded into something more sober.

Mind you, I still wear jeans more often than I should but that is because I think I still can. The thing is, I still have the same body as when I was 25. Over the last 40 years I gained 5 kilos. My ex-wife told me the other day that my bottoms don’t fill out my jeans as they used to but then my six-pack is still there; somewhat depleted but still there. So, as long as I can wear hipsters, I will. See, still the young man syndrome.

And I don’t know exactly when, why or how it happened but my taste for alcohol has faded. It was no conscious effort. I just discovered one day that I don’t drink half as much as I used to drink. My current view on alcohol is that I gave it up 20 years ago. I feel so proud of it that I celebrate it regularly with a few glasses of wine or brandy.

But it is not all milk and honey. In the mornings when I get out of bed my knees creak like an old shìthouse door and when my feet touch the cold floor all I can say is “f*ck, I’m still alive”, based only on the assumption that ghosts cannot feel the cold.

I cannot read without glasses and more than often I cannot remember where I left them last. I frequently find them on my head after looking everywhere else for 30 minutes or more. But there are advantages to a short memory; I forgive those who did me short much easier and I can read the same books and look at the same movies after a year or so.

Not ideal but it could have been worse. I have not (yet) grown any unruly hair at the most ungodly places and apart from a spot of arthritis and hypertension, I enjoy good health. Most my friends have many more ailments and they enjoy their old age; and so do I.

Admitting to old age does not mean surrendering to it.


And enjoy whatever you do today.

I started 2017 employed and living in Scotland but knowing that the Scottish offices of my company were closing and we were being made redundant in April. I'd been offered a transfer to the English offices but wasn't at all sure I wanted to move back to England. So I went on holiday in February to Spain to think about it, to cheer up, to get some winter sunshine ...

Result - I fell in love with a house long on potential and decided to buy it, despite not speaking Spanish, or knowing anything about refurbishing large dilapidated 100-year-old rambling Spanish townhouses. Returned, put my house on the market, did a TEFL course and started teaching English online and found I loved teaching (phew). Income sorted, at least in theory. Sold the house in Scotland after 2 false starts, packed up and bought a super-cheap camper (never been a camping enthusiast) to get myself and my pets to Spain.

Problem - when it came to the crunch, because of the falling pound I could no longer afford the house in Spain, but went anyway because what else could I do? I'd sold up, turned down the English transfer, burned my Scottish boats. Plus I wanted to get over in time for a bloggers meet in September with a particular special visitor from Malaysia I had wanted to meet for a couple of years And wintering in a campervan in Spain would be warmer than Scotland (that turned out to be a very good decision, Scotland is having a stoater of a winter, brrrr)

Made the meet with barely a day in hand, then started some serious house-hunting (there have been blogs ) which ended when the house I had originally wanted dropped its price into my price range and wintering in the van was no longer required - luckily, since it is colder than usual here too, days around 16 to 18 C degrees, nights occasionally dropping as low as 8 degrees. The van was a wonderful stopgap but 8 weeks of living in it was an elegant sufficiency.

Since moving in, I have been bossed mercilessly by #1 CS buddy (building expert of note) into stripping old walls of dead paint and plaster, stripping down old wooden beams, doors and windows, treating walls then painting them, and even carrying 25 kg bags of building materials, albeit not very far or very fast. With his priceless help my shabby elefante blanco has become a stripped carcass, slowly growing room by room into a home and, hopefully, a self-funding future.

Writing has ground to almost a complete halt, and teaching has been on hold while the extremely noisy Spanish builders are in situ. My hands are calloused, I am semi-permanently paint-freckled, my hair stands on end 90% of the time, and my biceps are becoming alarming. As we are now working on the upstairs levels, my leg muscles are becoming steel springs. As you can imagine, after reading that, #1 CS buddy is not a romantic entanglement My Spanish-speaking CS buddies have also been worth their weight in gold.

I’m not quoting any names - against blog rules, for one thing. They can identify themselves, if they see this blog. However, this whole change in my life is pretty much a direct result of joining CS a few years ago and being lucky enough to make some quality quirky friends here. Funny how life works out.



It has been an interesting year. 2018 promises to be even more interesting. I use that word deliberately - I’m told there is a Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times”

Feliz año nuevo to all and may 2018 bring you happiness in the things that really matter.

I'm leaving comments open, would be great if you talked about your 2017 if you do comment or that this will spark other blogs about the year gone.

..................................... Yes, no Doubt whatsoever.




I can sense it.


Hope your year will be as fantastic as mine.

I trust each and every member of CS will find happiness and whatever they are seeking in life's race

Greetings to all here,

I wish all the best for 2018,

The last months of 2017 alot has been happening in the life of Fly,

I am now a grand-father to boy of two months old..::yay:

Have been working all over Netherland last year so there was not much time for the blog,

I see the old faces and some new ones, Nice also some of my nemesis are still in town, Good

Apace of good news from last year Robert Mugabe have been outsted from Zimbabwe ,How very Nice

We will await him at the International justice over here in Den-Haag,SOON

Well let us hope there wilbe lest Malcontent,lest hate mogening here on BLOG CITY,

Have a good day every-one Walk-Good..

Mine started with my best friend and my sister deciding they like each other and wanting to date, I am now more uncomfortable than I have been in a long time because I'm probably going to lose both of them.

I was telling a friend yesterday how I lost my keys (luckily only briefly) (left them on a shelf in a shop) while out shopping yesterday, and she said she has never lost her keys when out, but has accidentally put them in the freezer before now.

Which reminded me that a couple of days ago I found I had left the cheese out on the counter but had put the knife in the fridge.

She said she'd once opened a tin of beans, thrown the beans in the bin and put the tin on the plate.

We're not both senile - she'd done the beans years ago. Once we had started swapping stories, we remembered things going back decades.

Don't laugh unless you have never walked halfway up the stairs, then realized you couldn't remember why ... or find something in a place you can't possibly have put it, but there's no-one else to blame.

If you have been daft, you've got lots of company out there

Life is like a lottery: coincidental, random, capricious and incomprehensible.

I didn't even know what a blog was until about 20 or so minutes ago, so this is more likely than not my first and last blog. I never said I hadn't ever read any before, they seem to have been around even when I was a kid, in a verbal format, the folks called it gossiping. At any rate I read that it can also serve as writing practice, a diary, or
weblog, or a daily journal of sorts. I'll use it here briefly as a platform to improve my grammatical skills. I was raised in a small Southeastern Texas County, my father raised hogs primarily, although there were also poultry,
several goat's, a milk cow, and a couple of rather old horse's. An only child I spent much time alone, reading, hiking about in the many acres of those piney woods.I hunted, fished, and walked those woods until they were like a second home. My closest playmates lived nearly two miles away, and there was no phones, electricity, gas, or running water, unless you counted Roberson Creek, which wound it's way through the pines about a mile and a half from our place. It was a hard life, winters especially, but I wouldn't change a thing. Since I've carefully avoided politics, religion, sex, race, relationships, or any subject inviting conjecture, or conflict I'd like the reader if knowledgeable in the area to comment on my grammatical errors so I can continue to work on the mistakes. Thank you.

I question myself. What would be the result of the death of the ego ? I mean the astral has a memory, a personality, a history and the mental being empty make it easy to go in the life of ours isn't it ??

Out just the other night. A friend and I meet up at a local bar. We both have a few drinks....sitting around talking and such. Another person we both know, a friend starts talking with us. He pulls out his phone and starts sharing some sexually explicit videos of women.

I'm a straight guy, so I decide to watch a couple of his videos....of course while he is holding his phone right in front of my face. Okay, the first two made be just sit there in disbelief, but the third one still has me just....well...

There are two women laying down with their legs spread...naked. There is a third lady who is aligning them with each other. What happens is just outright disgusting in my opinion. I can just imagine that you are hoping I will share what I seen, but believe me, it is probably going to be disturbing for many here....and while for others...I don't know.

Anyway, the point of this whole blog is what my friend said to the the guy showing us the video...and the guy's answer.

My friend asks, how can you satisfy a woman like that?

The guys says, I don't know...but I stay away from women like that.

I know there was mention of sex toys destroying the sensation of female anatomy.....but with what I seen and from the responses that came from that....I am starting to think that a horse can't sexually satisfy some women.

Is this a new way in society for women...with the sex toy industry?

....and men are suppose to be the pigs?