MY FIRST BLOG!

Hi everyone my name is Jackie and I am excited to tell you all I have now officially become a GGB (that stands for a Glam Gran Blogger!)

I can't wait to have some fun with you all, and I really hope you help me by sharing my blogs with as many people as you can, after all its time we showed the younger generation what us 'Glam Grans' are made of!

So here I am a Glamorous Grandma of 68 yrs young, with loads of energy both mentally & physically. I want more than anything to connect with others like me so we can share our enthusiasm for life, and I have decided it is never too late to learn, so here I go!

This is  great opportunity for me to do what I love the most, and that is to write. I have always enjoyed writing my down my thoughts and feelings, whether it be writing letters and emails to friends, family & business colleagues, or writing memoirs and a book (which is not finished yet!)

I feel as if I have a wealth of experience to share with everyone, mostly about business, but also family life, and I really hope you will all join me on my 'blog adventure'

Let me start by sharing with you how I got here today, because I want to motivate those of you that feel once you reach my age its time for you to slow down and retire and slip on those comfy slippers and dressing gowns ( its OK if they are sexy looking, but definitely not comfy looking!)

Oh no!! Never fall into that trap or you will be wasting the best years of your life, after all this chapter of our lives is the time that we have the time so we have to make the most of it.

OK , if you are around my age or older, first let me congratulate you on learning how to find and read blogs! Yah, you can now tell your kids have joined the blogger community. If you are a lot younger than me then chances are this blog will be boring because you'd rather be on Twitter, or Instagram, possibly Facebook. There has been research about the kind of people that use Facebook and guess what everyone...its us, not the young kids, thats because they don't have as much time as us, and certainly not as much to say!

We earned that time after spending years bringing up kids and struggling with work and husbands (we'll come to those later!) We never had enough time for ourselves , we were always on call for the family so we deserve to have enough time to use Facebook right?

I currently live on the Costa Del Sol in a beautiful beach front apartment with stunning views as you will see by the picture above. My husband & I spend most of the year here flying back and forth to the UK to stay with our daughter Katie and 2 gorgeous grandchildren, but can't wait to get back to the sunshine, so we don't stay too long!

Then, lucky us we have a son Rob and another gorgeous little granddaughter living in Florida near to my sister, so we visit there in the winter for a couple of months! Lucky us.... well not lucky, just reaping the benefits of hard work most of our lives, positive thinking, and making the right decisions!

My husband & I have been married for 48yrs and we love travelling and going to the theatre when we are in London. We also love living in the sun and make the most of our lives together, especially after my husband almost lost his life in 2003...but that comes later!

So why am I learning about blogging at this stage of my life? Because I want to prove that us Glam Grans still have brains!! 

We also have time as I said before, so we should be using that time to keep our brains active!

I want everyone to appreciate that as we age we are so lucky to have great experiences and memories to share with others. Often these experiences can help the younger generation in many ways, from business to bringing up a family. 

We've been there and 'worn the tee-shirt' as they say!! But of course our kids may think we are interfering so instead of telling them what we advise, maybe we should all write blogs for them to read!! Ha Ha!

For me the best years of my life were in my 40's although I never realised it at the time, it was only when I reached my 50's and 60's that I noticed the skin that used to be plump and firm on my body and face had started to travel south! Suddenly every time I bent down I saw a sagging mess! I did actually try and fix some of this (unsuccessfully) and I will be sharing this with you in the future. Now I've got your interest right?

So why do we love to reminisce? I run a fabulous Facebook Group called 'Glam Grandmas' and most of my 2,500 members love to recall memories and often make contacts with old friends and family through the group. They love to display pictures of their beautiful grandchildren, and I am thrilled that I have given them the opportunity of posting these pictures for everyone to 'like' and comment on.

I enjoy reminiscing too, but love meeting new friends as much. I have met so many fun friends of my age through travelling and business, especially here in Spain where many ex-pats have done the same as us and swapped the rain and the miserable weather in the UK for the Spanish sun.

So lets talk about grandchildren for a bit...they are the 'icing on the cake' the best thing that ever happened to us, and there is no denying this. But there are so many of you out there who do not have gorgeous grandchildren to boast about, some of you through the choice of not having children, some of you who have estrangement with your grandchildren, and some of you who are still waiting to become grandparents. My promise to you is that my blogs will not be full of my grandchildren so keeping reading on!...

WOW! 68 yrs old, no I cannot be that age, I feel like a teenager sometimes. I have a life long friend who I still giggle with when we reminisce. We still call each other by the nickname we invented when we were 15yrs old and we still talk about sex and men and all the things we shared as teenagers. So no, I will never give into being old, because age is just a number. I love still being able to enjoy travelling, dancing, walking on the beach, listening to music, and laughing drinking and socialising with new and old friends.

My mother died when she was almost 93yrs old, she was incredibly vain, alway ensuring her hair was tinted and immaculate, also that her clothes all matched in colour even down to her hankies! She ate healthily and exercised by riding her bike up until the age of 85yrs old. Sounds like a perfect life eh? No unfortunately it wasn't, as she lost the love of her life at 75rs old when my amazing dad passed away from a massive heart attack. He left a void in all of our lives especially as he was my mentor and lived life to the full immigrating to the USA with my mum in his 60's after being a London cab driver. My mother had always suffered from a chemical imbalance in the brain which brought on depression and anxiety. We didn't discover this until she was 90yrs old when her doctor put her on medication which completely changed her personality making her a happy caring mum, my sister & I could not believe the huge change in her, and at last I had a mum that called me darling!

I never believed my mother could survive without my dad, he idolised her and spoilt her for the whole of their married life, yet she surprised us all with her stoic attitude and living in an over 55's community in Florida, she continued to live happily for 17yrs without the love of her life. It was during this time that I realised the strength of a woman, we are all incredibly strong and I witness this from stories I hear every day of my life.

How many times do you hear of a mother who fights for her child, husband, or family? I was one of those  when I fought to save my husbands life 16 yrs ago (more to come about that in my future blogs)

So now I have your attention, I am sure you will want to hear what went wrong with my cosmetic surgery, and how I saved my husband's life. 

So keep reading my blogs and can assure you that you won't be disappointed!

See you next blog!