Show Notes
On this week's Midweek Catchup, Kaye gets home from holiday to no power, no kitchen, no running water, and a chest freezer of the dog's raw meat that had been switched off for ten days. Six inches of blood at the bottom. She's calling it the abattoir. Karen, meanwhile, has spent the fortnight losing to a squash plant that's trying to take over the garden, washing up in a baby bath, and keeping an eye on her husband's brand-new pre-diabetic diet — which is going about as well as you'd expect when there's homemade ice cream in the freezer and half of it's already gone.
They're also both Fringe-bound. How To Be 60 is on stage on the 7th, 8th and 9th of August, 2:45pm, at the Gilded Balloon at the Museum, and the tickets are going fast — 83% gone at the last count. Kaye reckons they ought to rehearse. Karen would like to know what exactly there is to rehearse about two people talking to each other. Tickets: https://tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/event/14:7161/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from How To Be 60 with Kaye Adams
On this week’s episode, we’re joined by Amanda Prowse, who says she found her power at 50 thanks to an Instagram post about birthday cake. The bestselling novelist wasn’t published until her forties, and she talks about the fear that ran her life before that, losing her brother Simon, and why she now thinks getting older is a privilege. She also talks about The Boy Between, the book she wrote with her son Josh about his depression, and what she got wrong trying to fix it. There’s the question from a therapist that changed how she saw him, her grief for her dogs Dottie and Bo, and a lifelong ambition to drive a lorry. Her latest novel, The Way Home, is out now. Get in touch with your thoughts at [email protected]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this week’s Midweek Catchup, we read out a listener’s mum’s diary of good deeds, including the day she cleaned her husband’s toothbrush and warmed his feet. Karen is calling in from Spain, where she has been recognised three times since leaving home and is not handling it quietly. Kaye is in a London hotel, having forgotten her room number and tried most of the doors on the third floor. Kaye also owns up to a crisis of conscience about colouring her hair. With so many women going grey, does carrying on with the dye mean letting the side down? Karen has a theory, and it involves eyelashes. We also look ahead to Friday’s episode with bestselling author Amanda Prowse, who talks frankly about parenting adult children. Get in touch with your thoughts at [email protected]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this week's episode, we're joined by clinical psychologist and broadcaster Professor Tanya Byron, of The House of Tiny Tearaways fame. She's six months off 60 and celebrating all year with friends she's known since she was 11. Tanya wrote much of her new book, You Are Not a Diagnosis, at her mother's bedside. Her mum lived with Alzheimer's, the long goodbye, and was in Tanya's words a model of courage, acceptance and distress tolerance. When her father died, Tanya wanted a diagnosis of depression so she could be cured. What she had was grief. She tells Kaye and Karen why we rush to pathologise ordinary feelings, why we've lost the why and gone straight to the what, and how getting back to real conversation might help. Plus old-school bingo. You Are Not a Diagnosis is out now from Penguin Life. Get in touch at [email protected]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this week's Midweek Catchup, Lildl has stopped selling full-fat cottage cheese, and Karen, who eats it daily for her bones, is touring the supermarkets for the perfect lumpy, not watery, pot. Kaye finally ditches her grim old water bottle and nearly vomits at the £40 price of a new one. And there's chocolate orange mini rolls for Mrs Pre-diabetic, a family holiday to Malaga, a hedge boundary row, and your treasured heirlooms, from 1890 steps to a curling stone. On Friday we're joined by Professor Tanya Byron. Get in touch at [email protected] and follow Kaye on Instagram @kayeadamsofficial. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this week's episode, we're joined by Louise Doughty, who found a rusted black suitcase at the bottom of her late mum's wardrobe and nearly put it out with the bins. Inside were scores of undated letters charting the secret affair her parents had in 1950s Melton Mowbray, when her dad was a married man and her mum was his boss's secretary. Louise tells us how she pieced them together, why her parents took the story to their graves, and how losing them to Alzheimer's and a sudden heart attack almost hid who they really were. There's also a sister who kept fishing things back out of the bin liners. She was right, as it turns out. Louise also talks about what clearing out a family home teaches you about stuff, why 63 is her favourite decade so far, and admits she may have been the worst-dressed student of the early 80s. Her memoir, On This Spot Fell One Tear of Love, is out now. Whether you've cleared a parent's house or are dreading it, this one stays with you. Get in touch with your thoughts at [email protected].