Memorandum Monday

As a lady of a certain age, the recent programme on the BBC, 'How to Stay Young', was naturally of more than passing interest. The presenter of it was Angela Rippon, a spritely 71 year old.  It was quite interesting to see the various tests and research that was going on to see whether the physical age of your body matches the number of candles on your birthday cake.  And you know what they say, the more candles, the bigger the cake - which can only be a good thing.  

One thing that came across from it was that it isn't necessarily things like crosswords and Sudoku that keep your brain active, although they are good to keep it stimulated, it's learning new things.  Like a language or trying hard to find something new to write about for Sian's Memorandum Monday meme.  OK, so Angela didn't mention Sian by name but as I heard her talk about learning new things, it was pretty obvious to me that was what she meant!  

So, we hosted a Curry Night for some friends on Saturday and after we'd eaten we were sitting in the lounge where the men were smugly saying how their weekly badminton games were keeping them youthful and active (in the interests of full disclosure, I need to add that immediately after coming home from badminton and having a shower they meet up again in the pub thus undoing all the good work they'd done in the previous hour).  I mentioned a 'sit and rise' test that I had seen on the programme which showed how fit your leg muscles are.

Before I explain the presence of the Ibuprofen gel in the photo, I should explain that after a couple of gin and tonics and a glass of wine, having a go at doing the Sit and Rise experiment seemed like a good idea.  Find a clear space in the lounge, stand with one leg crossed in front of the other one (so far so good) and lower yourself into a sitting position on the floor without holding onto anything.  Angela makes it look easy peasy lemon squeezy.  Just watch her showing off here.  (NO I'm not bitter that a 71 year old can do it effortlessly when I, a mere 58, fell over twice. I blame the gin)  Third time lucky, I managed to get sitting down (rather inelegantly, thank goodness I was wearing trousers) but as my bottom hit the floor, I felt a tweak in my knee.  As I was the only one who managed to even get that far, I was too smug to admit that I may have done some damage!  But this morning when I got out of bed, my first thought was 'Where's that pain killer gel?'  I think I probably should have read the small print before I had a go:

Clearly a controlled environment isn't 11.30pm in the middle of the lounge.  Have you had a go yet?  Come on girls, we can't be beaten by Angela Rippon!