Harder to decide than you might think …

I was just trolling through my file of WordPress Daily Prompts looking for some inspiration and this one seemed to call out to me:  “A classic question, revisited:  What are the five items you must have on a deserted island?”

Not easy, is it?

At least I don’t think so.  It takes some thought.

1. Right off the top I know I’d need sunscreen.  Lots of it, too.  Last thing I’d want to worry about is sunburn.  Or even worse, skin cancer.  I can live without make-up and hair dye, but I insist on protecting my skin from the elements.  If that doesn’t prove I’m a glass-half-full type of woman nothing will.  I know some of you out there are saying to yourselves, “You’re never going to survive.  So why bother with sun screen?”  Well, I plan on surviving.  Worst case, if I run out, I will have to forage for aloe and other plants with good healing properties.  Which

Day 263. Great Escape

Last December, Claire over at Word By Word reviewed “The Bridge Club”, Patricia Sands’ first book. Claire’s a fabulous reviewer and, the more I read, the more I wanted to read it. So, thanks to modern technology, it was downloaded and on my iPad in mere seconds.

It’s a book about a group of women and their friendship. A friendship they began as young women. Over the years the friendship grew stronger and stronger; and they became closer and closer. They were there for each other through thick and thin. Heartbreak and happiness, marriage, divorce and widowhood, sickness and health. The more they went through, the closer they became.

I loved the story because I saw my own friendships in it. I loved it, because the older I get, the more my friendships mean to me. The more I appreciate them. The more I count on them. And depend on them. I also loved it, because it takes place in Toronto, which I didn’t know when I bought it. So as I read, I visualized. I was there, with them. I could see exactly where they were, all the time.

The story was set here because the author, Patricia Sands, and her husband live here. And lo and behold, because she had read an exchange between Claire (Word By Word) and me, she (Patricia) decided to check out my blog. Happily she liked what she read and started following me. And one day, she commented we should meet for coffee. Which we did; and we talked and talked and talked. Like old friends. Like women do.

That’s when she told me she had another book, “The Promise of Provence”, coming out, in the not too distant future. She was at the

Day 244. Nice Day

When I went to bed on Friday night, I had all kinds of plans for Saturday.  I’d heard it was going to be warm, almost 60 degrees warm.  It’s been a long time since we had temperatures so balmy here, in Toronto.  So I had every intention of spending as much of the day as possible, outdoors.

I stayed up too late, though.  It was well after 1:00 a.m. when I finally got into bed.  So I was a bit wrecked when I got up.  I blogged, fed the cats and found myself back in bed, where I promptly fell back asleep.  I’m embarrassed to tell you what time I woke up.

Let’s just say I must have been really tired.

Not quite ready to venture out of bed, I started reading blogs.  One or two in, I found myself at Word by Word, one of my favourites.  I loved the day Claire was writing about.  Although it was raining in Provence, where she lives, she was going to an English book sale.

She talked about how, even though she doesn’t need any more books, it wasn’t stopping her.  I can relate.  I don’t need any more books, either.  I have stacks of them I haven’t gotten around to reading yet.  But I keep buying them.  I just can’t

Day 177. The Boomers

Have you noticed?  There seems to be a proliferation of movies about growing old, lately.  I’m not exactly sure why.  Could be, because so many of the screen writers, producers and directors are, themselves, in their fifties and sixties, and beyond.  Could also be, because so many of the great actors are, as well.  And they need roles they can play.

Robert De Niro.  Al Pacino.  Meryl Streep.  Tommy Lee Jones.  Judi Dench.  Maggie Smith.  Jack Nicholson.  Denzel Washington.  Susan Sarandin.  Jeff Bridges.  Samuel L. Jackson.  Helen Mirren.  Bill Murray.  Christopher Walken.  Bill Nighy.  Ben Kingsley.  Malcolm McDowell.  Diane Keaton.  Steve Martin.  Glenn Close.  Kathy Bates.  Sigourney Weaver.  Geoffrey Rush.  Liam Neesen.  And the list goes on.  And on.

Yeah, they’re boomers.  Hard to believe, isn’t it?

God knows they don’t want to be forced into retirement.  And we don’t want them to retire, either.  They’re way too

Day 18. Start Packing

There’s a WordPress blog that I’ve recently started to follow — Bucket List Publications.  The author of the blog creates a new bucket list every year; and the other day she shared this year’s list of 100 things she wants to do.  Yes, 100!  She has completed some, but still.  I was exhausted just reading it.  That’s what I call ambitious.  Anyway, she invited readers to share their lists, as well.

Her list intimidated me at first.  I thought, God, where do I even start?   Then my phone rang, and that was it for a while.  Then, without being aware I’d even been thinking about it, a couple of hours later a list popped into my head.  I won’t bore you with all of it, but I will say that out of 10 things I’d like to do, 5 were travel-related.  Even more interesting, at least to me, is the fact that out of those 5, I’ve been hankering after 4 of them for quite some time.

So I guess it’s time to stop procrastinating, and get on with it.

The one I hadn’t thought about doing before I read Lesley’s blog is learning to speak Italian while living in Italy.  Over the years I have wanted to learn to speak Italian, but I never considered doing it by living among the people — which one could do even for three or four