I now have a mini electric chopper and for a healthy breakfast I used it to grate the following:

• An Apple
• Celery
• a Carrot
• some Dates and Walnuts
• Top with some Yoghurt and Honey

Delicious and quite a change from my usual Laughing Cow Cheese on Toast!!

The New York Times has just featured an article about the work of my friend Ari Seth Cohen and his wonderful photos of "glam older women" and his blog Advanced Style, introduced in 2008, which declares itself “proof from the wise and silver-haired set that personal style advances with age.” And there is a new photo of yours truly! Take a look here!

Thanks Ari – I look forward to seeing you again on your next visit to London!

One of my presents this holiday season was what I understand is called a "NetBox" or "NetTop" – a tiny little PC the size of a small book which sits under my TV and connects to a camera sitting on top. Now I can Skype with my family from the living room, which is much more relaxed than doing it from my laptop. Here I am drinking a cup of tea while talking to my son in Germany. This really is the shape of things to come!

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Seasons Greetings and a very Happy New Year to all the wonderful people I have met here online over the past year. As I have been spending so much time on my computer, my daughter and son-in-law bought me this fantastic and very comfortable chair as a gift. I will now be able to relax more and enjoy the messages I am receiving from all over the world.

Right now I’m snowed in but warm, with a visit from my son and daughter-in-law, and looking forward to more spring-like weather.

All good wishes,

Rita (a.k.a. The VOG)

The best parts of winter are here now – when the snow is crisp and fresh and hasn’t been around for more than a few hours. What a beautiful photo of a Robin my grandson sent me – thanks Zac!

However lovely it is, I hope the snow won’t be around for too long as it makes it so hard to get out-and-about.

I wonder how many of my fellow bloggers order their groceries online and what your experiences have been?

Each time I personally have done so I have had hysterics after sitting for well over 2 hours to set up my order and then having some problem crop up. Whenever there is a problem a call to “Customer Services” receives the same reaction: “we’ve just changed our software and are experiencing difficulties on the website” – not one of them can resolve my problem and they just leave me to abandon the order.

Fortunately I’ve usually managed to solve things myself after that and still have the order delivered – and the delivery men are excellent and so friendly and helpful.

My trusty old Grundig PVR video recorder gave up the ghost, taking with it my video library on its hard disk. One of my grandsons stepped in and very generously bought me a new Humax box, and I was getting used to its new terminology – “Reservations” are programmes I’ve set up to record. All was going fine until all of a sudden a big block of the evening showed “No Reservations” on the programme guide. A call to the most helpful customer service line resulted in an email with ten different points I could check.

I was just about to embark on this voyage of discovery when I looked in the newspaper TV Guide and discovered that a film with Catherine Zeta-Jones was showing that evening. Check the title!

I trust this got as good a chuckle from you as it did for me and my whole family. Just please don’t tell the very helpful man from Humax who put so much time into compiling a list of suggestions for me!

After my husband died over ten years ago, no one prepared me for the probability that I would, in time, become all of the following:

Some magnificent women really Embracing their Age on Ari Seth Cohen’s “Advanced Style” blog:

http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com/2010/10/embrace-your-age.html

Magnificent at 80!