Getting Old - Live Life Full !

Thiru Onam 2011.

To all my  friends Happy Onam !

Hi friends

A thought for you  before the spirit of Onam evaporates. You should find the time to reinvent yourself.  At our age, don't waste your time blackening hair or trimming your mustache. Leave it to our ladies, let them look good. This is the age, when you have to be what you want to be.  You don't get a second chance to know how you look with grey hair.

Time is not on your side.  So do what you feel like doing.  You have the right to be wrong at times.  After all you have worked hard all these years to earn money, loving family and good friends .  So now do something which you wanted to do for yourself, without caring for what the world says.

Did you read my previous note on my 'wall' about the professor and glass jar?

In the not-that-far-away-evening of your life, you should not feel sorry, that you could not do this or that  !!!!!!!!!

So to all my 50+ friends; it is time for you to reinvent your life.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my happy life, my loving family for less gray hair or flatter belly.

As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra bar of chocolate, or for not clearing my office table, or for buying that foolishly expensive electronic device that I may seldom use or  book  I didn't need, but looks great on the drawing  room shelf. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, carefree or extravagant. And I like my imperfections.....

So -  whose business is it - if I choose to read or play on the computer until 3 AM and sleep until noon? I will enjoy myself to those wonderful songs of the 60 &70's.   I am , at the same time, entitled to be disheartened when a friend breaks, for his own reasons. Let them go and be also happy. I have mastered to treat the bygones as bygones. Or consider, perhaps they were never really  in their heart, friends at all !!!

But, let it be; just as the famous song of the music troupe Beatle's, 'LET IT BE' ; regarded one of the world's all time 100 great songs. [ One day I may post the song and its lyrics here]......

 I know I am sometimes forgetful- wedding of a colleague's son, the baptism of the carpenter's daughter, or the meeting of the municipal ward committee. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten.  I  always remember the important things. The club meetings, friend's picnics or a treasured family reunion, even if it is on the other side of the globe.

Sure, over the years my heart has sometimes been broken. How can your heart not break when a loved one is sick, or when a child you know suffers, or when someone business gets ruined? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and  compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.  

Like every one else, I have seen some  dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with getting older. I am so blessed to have lived this  long to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. My stugggles past - troubling then - now brings a  smile to my face 

So many have never laughed, and so many have forgotten to live, before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think or do.

I don't question myself anymore.  

I've even earned the right to be wrong.  

I like getting old. I have learned what will happen to my body and mind, as I become 60, 70 or beyond. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever,   but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day, or when  I feel like it,  watch the news at night  - nursing  a glass of Black Label. Roast  cashew nuts in ghee, garnished with pepper and red chilly powder go very well with it. Try it. It's really good. Have fun. 

Friends please do what you feel like doing......

and yet  don't forget to help some one in need, as far as you can.

MAY GOOD FRIENDSHIPS NEVER COME APART !  

MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE A RAINBOW OF SMILES ON YOUR FACE AND IN YOUR HEART FOR A LONG TIME..........

And this is your  Thommachan,
The Foot Hill Farmer. The Professor. The Friend.

At the Leaning Tower

As was mentioned in a previous post there is more to Pisa than the renowned tower. Yet tower is like the cherry on the ice cream; the main draw. Below is a gif with 3 typical Pisa images

This is the Google Map screen shot of train route we took to the city.

The track at many points  is quite close to the shore and so offers a panoramic view of the Mediterranean. 

 Arrive at Pisa Centrele Stazione the main rail station after 3 1/2 hour journey 

Without English it is difficult to get by in Italy. Our friend Sr. Philsy is fluent in this tongue.

Through the gate of the historic city wall the glimpse of the tower.

To go up the tower you have to go to the ticket office to buy your tickets, if you haven't already pre-purchased them there is usually a two hour wait. So get your tickets as soon as you arrive then buy  some souvenirs from near by kiosks or visit the church while you wait your turn.

The tower leans far more than I had imagined, especially if you take the view from the street behind as it lets you use normal buildings to see just how much the lean is.

 

 Venician Mask

 The area around the cathedral and tower is beautiful and can easily take several hours.
The Pisa tower is one of the four buildings that make up the cathedral complex in Pisa, called Campo dei Miracoli or Piazza dei Miracoli, which means Field of Miracles.

The work on the leaning of the Tower began in 1173. Thanks to the soft ground, it had begun to lean by the time its builders reached the third story, in 1178. Its architect and engineer tried to correct this by making the remaining storeys shorter on the side - but to no avail. It kept leaning more and more. Over the next 800 years, it became clear the 55-metre tower wasn't just learning but was actually falling at a rate of one to two millimetres per year. At one stage, the Tower of Pisa was more than five metres [ 5.5 degrees] off perpendicular.

After the restoration work performed between 1990 and 2001, the lean of 5.5 degrees, is now at about 3.99 degrees. This means that the top of the tower is displaced horizontally 3.99 metres (12 ft 10 in) from its base; returning to its AD 1838 position. The tower is safe for another 200 years.

 

No visitor, leaves Pisa without the photographic evidence of   the  support  given by them to the leaning tower.  Here is the contribution of Idukki District, India.

The city of Pisa is on the banks of the Arno River. During the Middle Ages the city grew as a great economic and political power due to its port and powerful army and so began its golden artistic period.

Hungry and tired a refreshment in a food joint  near the station before the journey back to Rome.