Gorgeous Forties

My Desert Island Selections - Part 1

Marion Ryan says:

Well how spooky is that?  I was driving home from somewhere last Sunday, singing along to a song on a CD compilation of very old songs.  What was the song?  "Young Girl" by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap!  You'd have to be a Gorgeous Forty to remember when that came out.

Suddenly I realised I was crying and God, it felt good.  It made me wonder what songs other Gorgeous Forties remember with such fondness that hearing them again after so many years would make them cry.

And the spooky bit was Jane Tilton blogging the very next day about Desert Island Discs (see below) which requires the week's guest to choose their top eight pieces of music (and books, Jane?) and Claire Raikes picking up on the idea and wanting to share her favourites too.

So how great would it be to share, perhaps, what we'd take to a desert island with us - our top 5 books, top 5 pieces of music and our one luxury item...

You Know You Need to Change Your Career When...

Anne Walsh says:

1. You fantasise about working in a tollbooth on the M50

2. The highlights of the day are tea breaks and lunchtime.

3. You know you have said all this before but you can’t remember when.

4. You keep ringing the talking clock because you know the clock in work is slow by a few hours.

5. You go to work and when you return home you have no memory of what happened in between.

6. You wonder what the new person at work is so enthusiastic about.

7. You volunteer to do the photocopying for everyone.

8. You wish your customers would leave you alone…they always seem to want something.

9. You pretend to be on the dole when people ask you what you do.

10. You create a calendar that shows how many days you have until retirement.

Surely I'm Too Young for the Big M?

Marion Ryan says:

Claire posted the other day about the menopause and though I still find this all a bit "nudge nudge wink wink", in our forties it's certainly a lot more relevant than it used to be.  And we're at an interesting age.  Some of us still getting pregnant, aligning ourselves with the younger generation, others getting menopausal and confronting our old(er) age.

I'm not an expert myself even though I think I'm three quarters of the way through it.  I was interested though to find the answer to Claire's question: surely I'm too young to be menopausal? 

Here's what I found out...

Everyone Hurts These Days

Being a victim is the thing to be these days. It's the place where you can complain about being "hurt" (like the Garda Commissioner on publication of a report that lambasted them for corruption, incompetence and general mismanagement...PLLLEASSE!).

It's the place where you get lots of sympathy for what you have suffered, where you are not encouraged to move on and transform what you have learned for the benefit of others. It's the place where you are encouraged to tell your story over and over and wallow in your suffering.

I think acknowledging our misery and pain is important, but then we need to take responsibility, stop looking for someone to blame and MOVE ON. Let's face it, most of us have people in our lives who seem to be constantly in victim mode...no matter where they go or what they do. If it was raining gold, they'd complain they got bruised by a big nugget.

Girlfriends

Passed to me by my friend, Aly, and with no author's name intact so I'm afraid I can't acknowledge her.

Time passes
Life happens
Distance separates
Children grow up
Jobs come and go
Love waxes and wanes
Men don’t call when they say they will
Hearts break
Parents die
Colleagues forget favours
Careers end

BUT

Girlfriends are there
No matter how much time
And how many miles
Are between you.
A girlfriend is never farther away
Than needing her can reach.
When you have to walk that lonesome valley and
You have to walk it by yourself
Your girlfriends will be on the valley’ rim
Cheering you on
Praying for you, pulling for you
Intervening on your behalf
And waiting with open arms at the valley’s end.
Sometimes they will even break the rules and walk beside you
Or come in and carry you out.

Girlfriends, daughters, daughters-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law
Mother, mother-in-law, aunties, nieces, cousins and extended family

Bless our life

The world would not be the same without them, and neither would I.

When we began this adventure called womanhood we had no idea of the
Incredible joys or sorrows that lay ahead.
Nor did we know how much we would need each other

Or that every day we need each other still.

Be who you are and say what you feel
Because those who mind don’t matter
And those who matter, don’t mind.

My Guilty Friday Pleasure

Every Friday I have a little routine. I go to the local shop and purchase a copy of the Irish Times (for the jobs, you know) and Now. For those of you not familiar with Now, it's a celebrity gossip magazine full of interesting information about how much Victoria Beckham really weighs (7 stone apparently - about a bag of spuds), who is lurving who in Big Brother (just about everyone) and how to dress like a soap star.

My brother in law has read through this and commented on how nasty women are to each other and how trivial the information is. I then point out thoughtfully that at least this is about PEOPLE. Men think that sports are serious and that's just a GAME.

Apparently, it's serious to spend hours discussing whether or not it was worth paying X millions for some twit to move to another football club but NOT serious to find out if Kate and Pete are on or off. I mean, really? And of course the biting, kicking, gouging and general assaults on a playing pitch are NOT cruelty?

A Chunk of Chocolate

Lorraine, one of my coaching clients, mentioned at the weekend that she was doing some decluttering, for which she would reward herself with some chocolate.  I casually asked her what sort of chocolate she liked and this was her response.  I'm reproducing parts of it - with her full consent - because I love to hear her passion and dedication to the subject, which incidentally she brings to every area of her life - her work, her horse racing and Elvis too!

"What a great subject for a chat! I love anything with milk chocolate in or on it! I am definitely a Cadburys girl...I love their purple wrapping...in fact whenever I see that colour I just think chocolate!

Friendship and False Teeth

Friendship's a funny old thing, isn't it?

I've just had my oldest friend to stay.  I don't mean she's a hump-backed old dear with a bus pass and false teeth but that she's been my pal for ever such a long time, almost thirty years I reckon.

If we'd been contestants on some Blind Date type of show we'd never have chosen each other in the first place.  She was the non-smoking teetotal sensible 'attached' semi-Welsh scientist.  She went to lectures by day and studied by night.

I, on the other hand was single and semi-Irish with the common sense of a plank of wood.  I smoked, drank and now and again, if I could find no-one to play with, would slope along to a lecture on Mediaeval French or Swahili morphology on the basis that I'd be bound to meet someone interesting in the student bar afterwards.

First Class Mum!

I travelled to Dublin yesterday, back to the village I lived in for several years before we moved to Tipperary, in order to sort out a bit of business.

Rather than go and sit for several hours on the car park that is the M50 in the rush hour, Jake and I took our time heading home and called in to see his former best pal whose mum, Pat, I first met in a parenting class just a few weeks after our boys started Junior Infants.

Pat told me that after four long years she'd finally finished her degree this summer.  She wondered if the effort had been worth it.  Four years of pizza dinners, she said!  Picking up her books to start studying when the children were in bed and finally closing them at 2 and 3 in the morning.

Meet Anne Walsh

I am a trainer, writer, coach, Life Blueprint  facilitator (see the work of Laura Berman Fortgang), computer lover.

I adore crime fiction (John Connolly, Elizabeth George, Jeffery Deaver, Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben, Henning Mankell) and personal development.

Most people comment on my sense of humour..dangerously dark. Friends say they feel great after talking to me, that I’m practical, honest, straight, easy to talk to. They also tell me that I’m a great person to brainstorm with as I can always see options. My strengths are my warmth, my enthusiasm, my can-do attitude, my desire to serve others.

I’m willing to take risks. My first job after University was in West Africa…as a teacher, when I had never taught. I left a job I was miserable in (with no job to go to) and found work I really enjoyed…I left a cushy job in Dublin to move to the west coast of Ireland…again with no job. I’ve been self-employed since 1997. My weaknesses are that I’m impatient, not VERY detail-oriented and can be a bit of a martyr from time to time.

I’m too short for my weight (I’m really 7 foot tall and a supermodel). I love technology. I love everything to do with learning and growth. I live in Connemara on the west coast of Ireland, where I can see an island with a 5^th century stone church on it. I can walk to a deserted beach in 10 minutes. When I have my morning cup of coffee, I can see the Twelve Bens from my window. I also work as the Irish partner of a European project UNEC and am having a ball working in a multi-cultural group. The plan is to make it a course to deliver to companies all over Europe to give trainers/educators the skills to work successfully in a multi-cultural environment.

I’m married with one son. My son has believed (until recently) that I was 21. I had him when I was 12. Of course that is slightly inaccurate…

My vision for the next year is to “make my spiritual self strong”. I’m embarking on a course to be a spiritual director in September . I also plan to build up my online presence so that I have 1,000 subscribers to my website www.annewalshcoach.com and convert my other website www.vision-reach.com to a membership site.