Staying Sassy | If you are:A woman over 45, in her prime and wants to feel it - Soul

Forever Friends

Forever friends – and top tips for keeping them

I have to say I am a lucky woman. I have friends I do not deserve. Why? Because I have spent the past 20 years putting work, clients and then more work before the people who are important to me. It is not that I do not think about them – but I have not spent enough time with them.

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Toxic friends – how do you spot them? And top tips for escaping them.

We are all enthralled with the news of Theresa May being attacked, even threatened by fellow MPs who are strong of words and weak of backbone – preferring to stay anonymous while sending out aggressive threats such as requesting she brings ‘her own noose to backbencher meetings’.

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Attached and lonely – tips for women in relationships but lonely

This week, the BBC is revealing the results of their survey and research into loneliness.

Helped by people such as Professor Pamela Qualter

The BBC surveyed over 55,000 people and shone a light on a rarely discussed subject. Just some of the worrying results are:

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It’s been a funny old summer

It was my birthday yesterday. At exactly 2.30 in the afternoon, I had been on this planet 56 years. I don’t feel it. Part of me is still ten years old (even younger when in a bad mood) and I still want to dance and sashay like my 25 year old self. But reality is that, unless I outlive my amazing Aunt Maudie who left this mortal coil aged 111, I am way past the half-way mark.

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Top tips for dealing with a workplace bully

After 25 years in consulting it takes a lot to shock me. But when one of our Sassista team arrived in the office at the end of a day’s work, sobbing and shaking we knew there was something bad going down.

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Lest we ever forget

Well it’s been a funny old week. I have cried more in four days than I have in four months.

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A mother’s gift

Mother’s day. It is bitter sweet. I love to hear how Annie (she of Annie Reviews who, if you read the last blog, you will know loves to feed ducks and give them weird names) is buoyed up by flowers and hugs from her daughter. Then I remember that my Mum has gone. There is no-one to hand a bunch of flowers and just say thank you.

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Courage in everyday women

Two weeks ago I wrote about my dear friend Don who had taught me so much through his gentlemanly kindness and generous spirit. There is no doubting that the past weeks have had a daily gap - no more chats over the fence, advice on the budding flowers, review of Welsh rugby and how we were truly robbed by a bad call (yes – officially pronounced!) on a definite try. His sister and I speak daily – but the gap is ever there.

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Fallen Angels – when charity and wrong go hand in hand

For most people over 50 the name Oxfam has become the catch-all for charity giving. ‘Give it to Oxfam’ is the usual term just as ‘get out the hoover’ is the catch-all for cleaning and ‘pass the kleenex’ for tissues. To most of us Oxfam is the symbol of good, giving, generosity of spirit and that warm feeling of having done something for the less fortunate.

NathanMathis

Photo Credit: Jonathan Bachman/Reuters

Well it’s been quite a sassy year!

As we get ready for a new year, it is good to look back on the passing twelve months and think where we have been, what we have endured, what we have learned, what we have laughed over, loved and loathed. By doing this we can look forward and think about making next year even better.

Networking and human trafficking

Another week and another fabulous group of strong women. This week I was a guest at TWIN – The Women’s Insurance Network – for an evening of networking, sharing stories, fundraising and listening to the story of Ella’s Home – more of which later.

Our first Staying Sassy seminar!

This week saw the first of our Sassy seminars – ‘45 and very much alive’. I faced a pretty tough audience – twenty very independent, strong and feisty women from the London Welsh Club. My audience ranged from 45 to 85 and not a shrinking violet amongst them.

Retirement – is it the death of life?

Thoughts on making retirement positive

Well, operation catwalk is now in real competition with work so not much progress. The spin cycle has been worryingly demoted to the bottom of the to-do list. We are now well into September and I am back to work with a bang.

Bank Holiday mindfulness and getting happy

Why is ‘busy’ brandished by so many people? Radio Four’s series Oliver Burkeman Is Busy has been analyzing the modern fetish of busyness. In this week’s programme they covered the warped phenomena of telling people how busy we are as a sign of relevance, importance, value, status, competence, and financial worth. In business, not being busy, has become a threat for ‘only the busy’ are getting anything done.

Children, old people and lessons in simply being kind

Many of us have been struck this week with the wonderful documentary on Channel Four in which a group of little children – just four years old – transformed the lives of a group of elderly men and women in a Bristol Retirement Complex.

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