Middle Aged? I Don't Think So!
- 5 Feb 07, 04:13 PM
Over the weekend I was out with a group of friends, all of whom are somewhere in their fourth decade. Not surprisingly then, our conversation turned to the subject of aging ¨C or more accurately anti-aging. Now most of them had heard me on The Saturday Magazine interviewing jungle ¡®celebrity¡¯ Lauren Booth who hit the headlines during the week with her suggestion that as soon as they turn forty women should just let themselves go and slide gracefully into middle age. Talk about putting the pigeon among the cats!
First off, we all agreed that if 50 is the new 30 then there is no way girlfriend that 40 is middle aged. Secondly, not one of us had an elasticated waistband on between us ¨C although I must admit to having enjoyed a brief flirtation with that particular feature post Christmas. Thirdly, still on the fashion front, we had all managed, in our opinion, to stay on just the right side of mutton without tipping over into mumsy. Mind you, there was one slightly dubious moment when one of our number with a particularly fine figure for a mother of three, lifted a pair of long shorts before being steered in the direction of those very fashionable knee length trousers. She couldn¡¯t see the problem as they were only a few inches longer, but as I tried delicately to explain ¡°It¡¯s not the inches sweetie, it¡¯s the mileage.¡±
Then there¡¯s the hair. I looked around the table and did any of us have grey hair? Yes, all of us, but now ask if any of us had it on show. Most of them have started the process of blonding up, although I¡¯ve decided to stick to the Rita red ¨C that¡¯s as in Coronation Street, not Hayworth. I am never going grey gracefully, to the extent that I have made a solemn and binding pact with one particular friend that whichever of us ¡®goes¡¯ first, the other will make sure that even in our coffins there are no nasty roots ¨C nice ¡®n¡¯ easy, just like that.
Actually none of this is easy, and it gets harder every year. We all have jobs, families, relationships, commitments, and in most cases the budget is more Primark than Prada. But we are resourceful women, we can multi-task, and we find the time to slap on our makeup from somewhere. And the reason? It¡¯s nothing to do with society¡¯s expectations. We do it because it makes us feel like ourselves.
So Lauren Booth, our Saturday afternoon was not like a scene from Last of the Summer Wine, it was all shoe shopping and frothy cappuccinos. We may need our specs now to read the menu but our role models will always be more Carrie Bradshaw than Norah Batty. But that¡¯s just us.
The general consensus as the sun went down and the cappuccinos turned to cocktails was that whether it¡¯s saggy and baggy or smooth as a baby¡¯s behind, you have to be comfortable with the skin you¡¯re in.
As for me, just like my mates, I take the Winston Churchill attitude to wrinkles¡..I will battle them on all fronts and I will never surrender. Realistically I know gravity will get me in the end but while there's breath in my body and age-defying miracle cream in my bathroom cupboard I will go down fighting.
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