my nanna

In the midst of lots of thinking, writing, living and talking about art and art-related type things, it's time for a sentimental post.

For the last week and a bit, my Nanna has been visiting London from Australia and I wanted to tell you all about her and the great time we've had.

Nanna turns 77 this September and she's the spunkiest old bird I know. [She reads this blog and will be absolutely mortified that I'm blogging about her, and the 'old bird' bit probably won't help matters either.]

Here are my top 5 reasons why my Nanna rocks:


1. She is on a galivant around the world - visiting her family here, after 5 days in Singapore, is off to Chicago on Tuesday, is back here for a bit, is hoping to squeeze in a trip to Paris [with me] before she heads back home via 2 days in Tokyo. All on her own!

2. She's a wicked techofiend - she is here with her new laptop, which she has mostly managed to set up on her own, is access the wi-fi in the hotel she's at, bought a new digital camera on her travels too - and when she came over to check out my new pad the other day, brought with her a mobile photo card reader! What a gal! She's not great with sending text messages, but always replies to my ones with O k (note the space), loves trawling the net and is up with the basic photo manipulation software! In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I can convert her into twitter! Ha!

3. She's into 'doing stuff'. Last night we went to Royal Albert Hall to see the English National Ballet doing Swan Lake ('quintessential' anyone?), the other night we saw Mousetrap at St Martin's Theatre, the night before last her and her cousin went to see Chicago (the musical, not the US City which she's leaving for in a few days' time, although the irony wasn't lost on her) and tripped up to the London Eye. And when I suggested we go rowing on the lake in Finsbury Park (in the pirate boat, of course), she was totally up for it, despite a very inexperienced oarsperson. *ahem*.

4. She copes with my language. In fact, she just ignores it now, which I appreciate no end. I do tend to tone it down, but sometimes a thoroughly appropriate 'fuck, fucked, or fucking' will escape and she just lets it slide. That sounds like a lame reason why she rocks, but I know very few septegenarians (except Rob's mum) who can deal with us young 'uns and our appalling language.

5. She is smart, independent and stylish. She has always been 'smart' in all senses of the word - in fact she studied biology via correspondence in between her 3rd and 4th child, just because she found it interesting - and her fashion still isn't what I would call 'old'. Certainly she's not got the latest from Topshop or Primark, but there's no twin set for my nanna. I really admire the independence she has strengthened in her twilight years. She still drives well, travels (see #1), has opinions about all kinds of things, is interested in life and uses her brain.

What a fucking role model hey.