Faffing Friday Edition #27

Sex After 60, Cool Comfort Tech, Thriftmas, Ultimate Bubble & Squeak Recipe, Taking Back Misogynistic Phrases, A Delightful Celebration Of 99 Years On This Planet & much more this week ..

My Faffing Friday ‘Stacks are basically a curation of my week - what I’ve been doing, reading, watching, scrolling, eating, buying.

SUBSTACK UNIVERSE 🧡 I thought I might make these discoveries a monthly or so addition to Faffing Friday. I find someone every day whose work I want to read. I spend more time here on Substack now than any of my other social accounts.

I love a good round up .. Of course I do as that’s what these FF posts are all about. Here’s one from

Sali Hughes

with her November Favourites.

The Power of Words: Rethinking How We Describe Aging from

Therapeutic Musings

will really getting you thinking. Are you still fun and wild or do you buy into the words used to describe older people like decrepit, feeble etc?

Jenni Baden Howard

has welcomed

Bobbi Brown

back to

The Midlife Beauty Edit

to share her holiday beauty secrets and tips.

A Travel Guide post from me - part of my benefits for my paying subscribers - a Luxury Stay In The Heart Of Edinburgh.

At just £4.99 a month why not treat yourself for Christmas? Or give a subscription as a gift to a friend.

I have lots more to come here in 2025.

SHOPPING 🛍️ Nothing purchased online over the last week apart from these two nightdresses in the M&S sleepwear offers. I love their Cool Comfort™ range - technology in design to keep you cool in bed {obvs!!}. As much as I love PJs I can’t sleep with my legs encased!! I always size up so I am super comfy.

The rest of my purchases this week have been offline in the form of stocking fillers for the family. I had lunch with a friend last Friday in the picturesque North Yorkshire village of Helmsley. It was all dolled up for Christmas and it was such a pleasure to shop in independent stores and gift boutiques. I bought something in nearly every shop we went in. As much as I love shopping online you can’t beat the dopamine hit of discovering something new in real life.

I bought some chocolate and marzipan fruits in the most divine shop that was a bakery downstairs and upstairs it was a foodie paradise.

Talking about shopping, I learned this week that most Britons might spend part of their festive budget on gifting secondhand. According to some research by Vinted as many as 84% of us might be set to change our Christmas shopping habits.

Are you in the 84%?

I’ll be honest I’m not quite ready for this big a change yet but I will definitely consider it. I am much more about experiences than things, though, when it comes to gifting.

EATING 🍽️ Around about now if you’re like me you’ll be wondering how your festive menus are going to pan out especially if you are having family and friends visiting or staying over.

I look forward on Boxing Day to what is lovingly called our ‘Ultimate’ Bubble & Squeak. It’s the easiest thing in the world to pull quickly together. You basically mash up left over potatoes and veggies from Christmas lunch, fry it for a couple of minutes, then mould it into a sort of large patty shape and serve it in individual wedges with a fried egg on top. We usually have a side of extra turkey and ham, whatever is going. The beauty of it is you can tailor it for anyone who is vegan/vegetarian, too. The simplest stress free time in the kitchen you can have at Christmas and everyone loves it.

Mr B has ours down to perfection after many years but here’s a simple recipe to follow if you’ve never tried it or what to simplify your existing recipe.

It goes lush with a glass of fizz 🥂

STREAMING 🍿 I feel like I’m the only person I know who hasn’t started watching Black Doves. I’m starting it this weekend, though.

I’ve been catching up on lots of bits this week that I hadn’t finished. I like a tidy watch list so I did just that and tidied it up.

I did start Season 5 of The Parisian Agency last night. I love this show, Paris, the dynamics of a family business, the scenery, the properties, Paris!

This is a Season 4 clip as I can’t seem to find newest season clips yet as only came onto Netflix last week.

Jane Fonda is 87 later this month and she’s sharing her ageing well secrets and tips in this video. I’m not keen on ageing ‘gracefully’ though .. I prefer ‘disgracefully’. I think she has a foot in both camps to be honest.

I catch myself saving lots of media like this that reminds me of my recent Tedx Talk experience. This was one of those times where when JF shares that we can gain an extra 7.5 years of our lives by some interesting changes that caught my attention.

This is a snippet of my talk where I discussed our mindset as we age:

“A study by Harvard University of 14,000 adults over age 50 found that a positive attitude about ageing could actually boost health. That there’s a connection between mindsets and health behaviours.”

SCROLLING 🔍 If you’ve got this far it’s a good idea to come back over the weekend as there’s always lots to read and digest in the recs ⤵

Wrinkles could once wreck a public career in France - how older French women are redefining the aesthetics of ageing.

Taking back the phrase ‘ taking care of ourselves’ - had to share the image too!

From earth-shattering orgasms to erectile dysfunction, talking about sex can be taboo for any age group - sex after sixty.

And if you do nothing else this weekend you MUST watch this video of Dick Van Dyke as he celebrates his 99th birthday in a Coldplay video .. it makes my heart sing .. it’s delightful.

That’s all folks, Edition #27 of Faffing Friday in the bag.

All Faffing Friday archives are here for your delectation if you want to catch up or are new here.