Comfortable shoes

29/05/201726/06/2017Leave a comment

Milly, Shula, Norina at Gavin and Phalla Wedding 2005, photo by Fraser Grey

If your shoes aren’t comfortable it shows on your face

There’s nothing worse than painful feet. If you say your feet are ‘killing’ you it’s not a joke they probably are. They’re killing your looks, they’re killing your mood, they’re killing your attitude toward yourself. You can’t love yourself when your feet are killing you. If you don’t love yourself you’re going to find it very difficult to love anyone else you may be around.

Don’t wear shoes that are painful and ‘kill’ your feet. Whatever attraction you think they provide, this is cancelled out by the effect on your temper, on the kind of person you are and even on your reaction to other people. I mean if all you can think about is your painful feet you’re not going to sparkle, are you?

I have to wear comfortable shoes, often I don’t like them and go without. I try not to think about my feet because they have always been swollen (I have lymphedema, another post later), so I concentrate…

On sparkling conversation.
Making my top half as attractive as possible. Successfully I think.
Being pleased with myself and not wanting what I don’t have. If you practice this you will then naturally be very pleasant to others, which will in due course radiate back to you. You create an aura around yourself, people want to be close to you, they warm themselves on you.
On doing good and feeling good. If you feel good other people feel good. It’s nice to be surrounded by approval. Approval is a glass house for personality and if you are happy you will live longer and you will enjoy living longer.

There’s not much use in living longer if you don’t enjoy life and since I’m practically 100 I know what I’m talking about!

How to be Loved by Others

23/05/201726/05/2017Leave a comment

Milly & Shula Rich, Niece Caroline & Phil, sitting on the sofa all smiling

Me with Shula, my niece Caroline & her husband Phil

Look people in the eye and show kindness

My mobile phone is always with me but phones and technology can take over people’s lives. We can forget to show kindness and politeness to each other. I see people walk around with their heads down and their eyes on screens, earphones in their ears, meanwhile the world passes by without notice. With all the technology on offer the fact that there are living, breathing human beings around us is often lost!

We live in a world that really doesn’t exist, locked into technology. Where will this go? Communication as we know it will be gone.

Actually, your face changes when you speak differently, the face follows thoughts, feelings and the spoken word. If you always speak gently and respectfully you will look so much more attractive. In the words of Roald Dahl:

‘If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely!’

A delivery person knocked the other day with a package I had to sign for. When I signed I really meant it when I said what a pleasant and courteous delivery it was. As I said this to him you should have seen his smile, and all over such a simple, considerate acknowledgment.

I think most times people accept deliveries they just scribble on the pad offered to them and that’s that, they never think of the feelings of the deliverer. Seeing his reaction it occurred to me how easy it is to be gracious and respectful to other people. That’s very important. Look people in the eye and show kindness.

Always compliment graciously. It makes such a difference when you give someone a compliment and you see their face change. It shows you are acknowledging they are human and deserve to be treated well.

Older people, and I suppose I must count myself as one now, historically have often criticized the young. That’s not right, so think before you speak! Find something nice to say to people if you possibly can, you might say ‘oh what a nice colour your jumper is’ for example, and watch the change in their expression and the way their face softens and engages with you, it will make your day as it made mine!

Cheerio

Milly

No. 1. IN OCTOBER 2017 I WILL BE 100 YEARS OLD

06/05/201725/04/2017Leave a comment

Milly Rich, 97, showing the photo of her and Cyril Fletcher in 1969, almost 50 years later

Five things you didn’t know about me with some wisdom, humour and beauty tips

Having so far enjoyed a century of life’s delights and demands, I have more than a few pearls of wisdom to impart! I am hoping that my regular blog posts will offer a little bit of laughter alongside my experiences on how to make the most of whatever life throws at you… and sometimes how to throw something back at it. Please take from it whatever personally works.

Although I’m 99 I don’t feel any age in my head, I’m me and if I want to do something I have the confidence to do it, that’s what ultimately counts. I’m not necessarily aware that it’s self-confidence, I just never doubt myself. I think of new businesses and ventures all the time and if I want to start something I just get on with it…

No. 2. My beauty secret is ‘neglect’!

03/05/201725/04/2017Leave a comment

Photo of Milly Rich with Cyril Fletcher in 1969 on Tom Tom TV Series

FIVE THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ME WITH SOME WISDOM, HUMOUR AND BEAUTY TIPS

…. and that is the truth. I don’t do too much to my skin and never really have done. My only regime now is a splash of water and Aveeno moisturiser. I’ve heard I’m in good company there as supposedly Jennifer Aniston does the same.

Having said that, there are a few things I believe you should never do if you want to keep a smooth, youthful healthy skin, the most important being never smoke.

Smoking is bad for your complexion – the effort you need to maintain the balance of the cigarette in your mouth gives you lines you would otherwise never have … and your eyes are affected, being scrunched up against the smoke. People definitely don’t look good smoking.

Smoking really took off with women because they thought it was sophisticated, but it honestly did nothing for them. If people are not socially adept they can be awkward with their hands so it did offer something to keep your hands busy.

People didn’t know that smoking was bad for you, in fact one particular brand of cigarette, (‘Craven A’), advertised they were actually ‘kind to the throat’. Another brand, Players, used the slogan, (which was really crafty), ‘You’re never alone with a cigarette’. This was really subtly nasty.

No. 3. The ‘Great Beautifier’

30/04/201725/04/2017Leave a comment

Milly & Moss with a card from the Queen for 70th Wedding Anniversary, 2009

Milly & Moss with a card from the Queen for their 70th Wedding Anniversary, 2009

FIVE THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ME WITH SOME WISDOM, HUMOUR AND BEAUTY TIPS

………In my opinion, is your expression. Nothing is more pleasing to look at than a pleasant expression. Nothing wins people over so immediately as a kind natural face. Don’t look forbidding… smile… not an ingratiating or a servile smile, just a ‘pleased to see you’ smile. Be a happy person; don’t frighten people before they’ve even come into your personal space.

If you worry too much you will never look young, because worry marks your face. You have to learn not to ‘wear’ your personal problems, because what you think, ultimately affects your expression.

You can’t, I suppose, change your thinking any more than you can change your circumstances, the only thing you can change is your point of view. That’s something you can practice.

For example, if you want something but can’t afford it, the thing to do is to think of how you can get what you think you want as if money were no object. Write it down, prune it and accept it as a possibility, then you can have anything you want. My ideal though is not to want anything, I’m not a ‘wanter’, I’ve always been like that and life has been very good to me.

No. 4. I keep my troubles to myself (unless specifically asked to share them)

27/04/201725/04/20171 Comment

Milly & Moss in ‘Let there be Love’ a Mel C video, 2011

FIVE THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ME WITH SOME WISDOM, HUMOUR AND BEAUTY TIPS

Don’t unburden yourself on others.

You can sometimes sense that a person is going to unload their troubles and unburden themselves on you.

I don’t want to know what keeps somebody awake at night.

People think its good to unload, but I don’t want to be dumped on.

No. 5. Early to bed does not necessarily make you beautiful

25/04/201725/04/2017Leave a comment

Milly asleep (I always sleep on my back!)

FIVE THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ME WITH SOME WISDOM, HUMOUR AND BEAUTY TIPS

I’m a beauty, or so I’m told, but I’m also a night bird; I go to bed in the early hours of the morning and I get up at lunchtime.

When I get up and stagger to the bathroom I put my hair up quickly. I hardly ever wash it and I have no grey hair.

I have porridge for breakfast and watch what I eat. My daughter, Shula doesn’t eat food – she eats calories! She goes to the gym, she’s 70 but looks amazing but she works at it. I don’t like moving around much, the most active part of me is my tongue!