Yayyy! Menopause!

Hormonal warning t-shirts
available from Zazzle.

I have the ultimate secret weapon against Piglet's impending teenage hormonal mood swings. Menopause! Being an older mum, I will be able to out-hormone her.

I had a couple of years to get used to the impending 'Change'. A little while back, I started getting irregular and unusually heavy periods. I sensibly called up the NHS Helpline and went to see my doctor. Medical professionals spoke to me like this: *hushed whisper* "It's your age." ??? "It's the CHANGE!"

Barbie and Ken as Apollo 
and Daphne - available on ebay.

Sheesh, I felt like I was not human any more. As if I was about to metamorphose like some ancient Greek maiden being pursued by randy Gods or evil Fates, turn into a laurel tree or waves on the ocean shore or something. But then I reflected that half of the population goes through this 'Change'. There seem to be a lot of human-looking ladies walking about with elegantly coiffed white hair. I figured it must be survivable.

The Eternal City

I had a wonderful and surprisingly inexpensive holiday in Rome. I promised a couple of people tips and thought I would share them here.

Going to Rome offers exciting learning opportunities for piglets of Piglet's age (11), as they have usually done the invasion of Britain by Romans in history at school, and will give a cursory glance to splendid examples of renaissance art. (Accompanied by exclamations of prudish horror - "ugh! gross" - if these are nude studies, LOL.)