About Me

“Oh, I’m not going down to eat with those old biddies,” said my mother, in reply to my question about eating plans, “I will have lunch in my room, thank you.” Whereupon, she turned back to read her book and that was the end of any further conversation. Once, I did dare to remind her that she herself was an old biddy, so why was she complaining? She flattened me with such a look and frantically started her crossword. I never pursued it any further.

This all took place in very attractive nursing home amongst the hills of Wales, UK, where my mother spent the last ten years of her life. Unfortunately, I lived in Canada, and therefore didn’t see her as often as I would like to have seen her, because she was not only my mother, but my best friend. Let me tell you - I really needed her wisdom at times.

Mother was in her mid-to-late eighties when she started to describe other women as old biddies. In comparison, I’m a bit younger, but I’ve decided that the term old biddy suits me quite well. So be it.

Other than being an old biddy, my name is Susan E. Lancaster. I was born and brought up in England for the first 21 years of my life – and what a happy life it was. I was most fortunate in having wonderful parents and two super sisters.

One day, when we were all of 20 years old, a friend of mine, Sheila, joined me for lunch in Liverpool. The conversation was mainly about our work and our respective jobs. We both reached the conclusion that life in ‘old blighty’ was boring and we’d better think about doing something to kill the ennui and restlessness we felt before it was too late.

Within a week we had all the required documents in our hands to go to Canada, and we were booked on the Empress of France to sail on April 1st, 1960 to Quebec. What an adventure we’d lined up for ourselves.

We sailed to Canada as planned and arrived in Toronto on April 6th, all decked out in fur gloves, fur boots, fur hats, heavy coats and scarves. With half a dozen suitcases in tow, we made for the our hotel in 80 degrees of heat. There was not one speck of snow to be found anywhere.

The years rolled away for both of us and we are still in Canada, Sheila Briant in Toronto and myself living on Vancouver Island off the west coast of British Columbia.

I married a great guy just two years after arriving in the country. We have two boys and his parents came to live with us for thirteen years. Most of the time we also had a menagerie of dogs and cats. Life was total and utter mayhem most of the time.

Unfortunately, the marriage ended after 18 years and it was a very sad time for the entire family.

I spent several years on my own before meeting another great guy, Denis, my husband who has been kind enough to put up with me for twenty one years.

As mentioned, we live on beautiful Vancouver Island. Our companion is a dog called Rufus who tries his very best to keep some kind of orderly conduct around the place. Because he is part Lab and part Collie, his basic instinct ‘to herd’ is still there and he likes to make sure Denis, Susan and Rufus are all together.

In February 2009. I celebrated my 70th birthday and officially became an old biddy, with the whole of the rest of my life before me to do what I pleased.

I always wanted to do something for other people, either directly, or indirectly, so I decided to write this blog and hope that many, many people will get a daily dose of humour. I am sure you’ll get a chuckle from the posts because they are events/happenings/ stories/situations which we’ve all encountered time and time again.

I like:
 Being honest and open with people and slightly wacky at times
 Reading a variety of books
 Designing and sewing clothes when I have the time.
 Playing bridge
 Writing: children’s books, booklets, blogs and a business book.
 I like to be fairly well organized and in control of my life, but you would never guess if you saw my desk. I get stressed out if I know that order has collapsed.

I don’t like:
 Dishonesty
 Disorganization
 Husbands who don’t come to bed on time
 Beetroot
 Bananas

No doubt, as postings progress, you will get to know me a little better, but if you need an answer to something in the meantime, let me know.

I will also be including some articles by guest bloggers which I hope you will enjoy.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this entire blog to the memory of a lady who had a wacky sense of humour (we used to have unannounced competitions to see who could out-abuse the other)! Here’s to Annette.

Don’t forget to check out the other blogs and websites, listed on the right hand side of the blog. If you would like to be a writer, then you should visit susanlancaster.blogspot.com