Matcha Matcha Life

I have not had a cold or viral infection of any kind since August 2014. Working as a Health Visitor with babies, children and young people in a variety of settings from private homes, clinics, hospitals, children's centres  nurserys and schools meant constant exposure to every bug going. Now in retirement I am still constantly bombarded with bugs via my two granddaughters who as they both go to nursery and school frequently succumb to every virus going and happily off load them onto their unsuspecting grandparents. 

 I was musing on my robust good health over the last eighteen months despite close family members succumbing to colds and flu and came to the conclusion that this phenomenon was down to the inclusion of a couple of new dietary practices I have been indulging in. 

One is the addition of bone broth/stock to my normal cooking a few times a week. Although this is not for the non meat eaters and vegans this practice deserves a separate post and I will hopefully get around to writing about it at a later date. The other is the regular daily consumption of Organic Matcha Tea. I'm not sure which of these two dietary additions are responsible for my increased resistance to colds and viral infections etc maybe both of them are to blame, however, I am convinced that Matcha is the main culprit and I will continue to drink it and chuck it into smoothies every day. 


I originally started to drink Matcha because apparently Zen Buddhist monks drink it to remain calm and alert during meditation and I thought it would help with my meditation practice and alleviate my hormonal mood swings. These still appear to be present now and again despite being post menopausal. On further research I discovered a host of other health benefits attributed to consuming Matcha tea www.domatcha.co.uk. 

Although Matcha is not cheap I am definitely a calmer more contented soul with the added bonus of no colds or other viral infections since embarking on my love affair with the green stuff.  In addition I have noticed much improved hair and nails more energy and flexibility when walking and exercising and a wonderful sense of well being (this last one may however be due to retiring ).

Bill's fault

If there is one month in the whole year when I feel the need to drink its got to be January. January in my view does not have a whole lot going for it, however, despite this along with half the population I embarked on the dry January challenge with my lovely husband. We have successfully completed dry January for the last two years so we were both optimistic about refraining from alcohol until the end of the month. We were both doing well and resisting temptation until Bill Bailey.

We were given tickets to see Bill's show Limboland for christmas. Now I'm not blaming Bill he wasn't drinking with us and didn't bend our arms etc but we went into London for the evening, we were enjoying a late lunch/early dinner before the show, one thing led to another and before we knew where we were a lovely bottle of red was placed between us and our dry January challenge was over. I have no idea who ordered it? Not us !!! because we were doing the challenge and we wouldn't do that. Also it would appear that someone else had drunk half the bottle without us even noticing very strange.

Anyway the show was hilarious full of extremely funny accounts of events in Bill's life. There was the saga of a family trip to Norway to see the Northern lights which was so funny I was practically wetting myself (especially after all that wine) and ended with Bill stating that they never saw the Northern lights but he later found out that they had been visible from Dagenham whilst he was away. He also contemplates the true meaning of happiness interspersed with musical ditties including a dark and sinister version of happy birthday. All in all a wonderfully funny evening full of laughter which is just what I need in January. billbailey.co.uk

Strange reactions to early retirement.

There have been some strange reactions by some following my decision to take early retirement. Won't you be bored? Excuse me? I'm not retiring from life .What are you going to do with yourself all day at home with nothing to do?  Really?  Can you afford it? How will you manage for money?. Well yes clearly we have less money coming in than when we were both working under half to be exact, however, it seems to me that money gets spent or not as the case may be.

Although I enjoyed my job recent changes meant I was spending so much time at work stressed tired and de-motivated that I found I was spending money just to alleviate all the negative emotions that came from a less than harmonious work environment. In short I was miserable and frankly less than contented.

We are fortunate enough to have no major outgoings  apart from the usual food and utilities however I was still managing to get through most of my salary each month on pretty much nothing very much. I can honestly say up to now I have not missed my salary and the returns far outweigh the extra money I have given up. I spend lots of quality time with my husband, kids and two granddaughters, I read, I knit, I bake and cook, I do more yoga and meditation. We are also extending and renovating our house with a view to letting it to hopefully travel for a year. I do not have time to be bored. I have only been retired since October 2015 but I'm having the time of my life.

The pics are taken in Klima on the Greek Island of Samos from the beach at sunset. This is where I would like to spend a lot more time and was taken in October the week after I retired. We have been to Samos three times now and although I have never been in favour of holidaying in the same place twice ( the world is a big place) I love it and we aim to go back for a month this year.

I've changed my name

This is a short post because I used to have a little blog called fifty something or what. I never actually posted anything in that place 1) because I was not in the right place for blogging and 2) I realised that there are literally hundreds of blogs with fifty something in their title. I am still a fifty something woman but this blog is dedicated to my ongoing commitment to living a contented life wherever I may be and more to the point whatever I may have.