Emma Soames
Carers probably need holidays more than the rest of us yet they are also the most unlikely to ever take them. After looking after someone on a small pension with meagre benefits, paying for a holiday is out of the question for thousands of people. And there is also the organising and funding of respite care for their dependant. Together it puts holidays into the realm of a fairytale for many.
The Respite for Carers Trust is looking for people who have not had a holiday in a year or two – but most of the carers nominated so far have not had a break in a decade. Some of them are well into their eighties and still caring round the clock.
We are also learning that people who need breaks the most are the least likely to apply. It takes a special mindset to dedicate your life to the needs of someone else and many carers feel guilty about going leaving their dependant. It tends to be concerned relatives or friends who recommend carers to us, rather than carers themselves.
If you want to apply or know someone who would benefit from a break, please complete the simple form on our website or send an STA to Saga Respite for Carers Trust, The Saga Building, Enbrook Park, Folkestone CT20 3SE. The list remains open until the end of August, 2008. We believe that all carers should get their batteries recharged regularly: we can’t make that possible, but we can provide proper holidays for some who need them more than any of us will ever know.
The bold African print is a great way of cheering up one’s wardrobe for the height of summer but, if not used judiciously, I’m afraid it gives rise to yet another trap for the older woman to fall into; a Mama Ramotswe moment. It descends so easily on those of us larger than a size 12; it’s a look that doesn’t really play outside the weekly market in Lamu.
This new problem needs to be added to an already long list of sartorial traps to which our radar needs to be closely attuned: there’s the bar mitzvah flap (so called after all the aunts in sleeveless dresses who take to the dancefloor at these dressed-up dos), the too-short hem length which render the hills alive with the sound of sheep, and Grand Canyon collapse when one’s cleavage begins to look too much like an ordnance survey map.
I fear that in a few years time I will be clad in a nun’s habit but for the moment I shall continue to pick my way through these minefields which worryingly seem to increase every summer.
Thanks to some very helpful information from readers I have at last found a few acceptable shopping trolleys. Do not be tempted, as I was, by a trolley in a groove-driven fashion store. These are made by people cracking ironic fashion jokes: try putting a couple of bottles of wine in one and watch its wheels do the splits.
Let us start with a trolley optimistically called Paris from the online company Marketeers (www.marketeer-london.com). Its handle allows you to attach it to a supermarket trolley. So simple, so brilliant. My only criticism is that it may not cut, or should I say, carry the mustard for those over 5ft 6in.
You should also visit Rolser (www.rolser.co.uk), a website almost entirely dedicated to shopping trolleys from Spain, where they appear to believe that trolleys oblige the owner to amuse other shoppers. My favourite is the Mountain Original: simple, light and comes in solid colours.
I am not keen on hauling around a copy of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn but if that look trundles your trolley, you will find them all at Rolser.
For those prepared to suffer for their cart, and ladder tights along the way, there is nothing to beat a lovely old wicker basket on wheels. English Willow Baskets (www.englishwillowbaskets.co.uk) has one with a walking-stick handle: effortlessly countrified. Though it shrieks Mapp and Lucia (do we care?) it does allow you to meld effortlessly into those rural events where jars of marmalade are sold with gingham hats.
Finally, the prettiest trolley was a delightful red model from a shop selling wedding gifts in Avignon. Only the French can make a trolley so stylish that it features on a young woman’s wedding list.
This article was first published in the August 2008 edition of Saga Magazine.