Tuesday 1 January 2013

100 Years is a Long Time

On this last night of the old year, I thought you'd like a picture of a cake representing 100 years.   Lilian was 103, little A was 3 at the time.  (Don't tell him I published a picture of him sucking his bottle! )


I don't know why Lilian had 6 candles on her cake, although I think 103 might have set the cake on fire! She blew them all out by herself, and was a very feisty old lady.  She passed away just under a year later, very peacefully, and even happily.  She said she'd done everything she wanted and it was time to go, but she was interested in her family right to the end.

Dates like 31 December and 1 January seem arbitrary to me - but I guess you need some specific point to mark the end of one phase and the dawn of another. And of course a century is another wholly arbitrary date -  but oh my goodness, how things have changed since this London travelogue was shot in 1904, two years before Lilian's birth.
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...or have they? Apart from the long shorts, this 1907 England-Scotland football match looks to me as if it could have taken place last week - not over a century ago!   (Even I have to admit that the pitch isn't quite up to modern standards, mind you...)



Who won, anyway?

No point in wondering what 2113 will be like, for I will never know. What's more, I don't care -  I am not the philosophical type, obviously.  But a happy new year, everyone! 

62 comments:

  1. You share a unique perspective. Thanks,
    Aloha

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  2. Happy New Year to YOU, Jenny. I would wish to live so long and die so well.

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  3. Happy New Year to you too!
    How amazing that she lived so long! Here's hoping for a great 2013 for both of us! Lord knows I won't be missing 2012.....

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  4. Hi Jenny,

    And yet your New Year's posting does take the cake and a bit of food for thought. And with a sporting thought, I wish you and your loved ones, a jolly good 2013.

    In kindness, Gary

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  5. Happy New Year! May you also be feisty and happy and interested in family into your 100's.

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  6. Oh good, someone else not joining in the philosophising. I just hope 2013 is kind to us all - do hope things settle for you soon and you can enjoy the new year.

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  7. Thanks for a year of taking us along on your travels. I hope 2013 brings you only the best. Happy New Year.

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  8. What a wonderful post and a fascinating glimpse of 1904 London. Have a fantastic new year, Jenny!

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  9. Happy new year, Jenny!

    Hope you and you'll family have a blast in 2013. :)

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  10. I hope that the year to come (and many more) will bring you happiness and the good health to enjoy it.

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  11. The game was played at Newcastle and was a 1-1 draw. Charlie Thomson and Bobby Walker the great Heart of Midlothian men were playing. I thought you would know that?

    Hopefully this year will be a good one for you.

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  12. Happy New Year Jenny! Enjoyed the little film of London, how fascinating to see those scenes from so long ago.

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  13. 明けましておめでとうございます, Jenny! That's "akemashite omedetou gozaimasu," in other words, Happy New Year. Alternatively, have a very lekker 2013! ;)

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  14. I was saying on my blog that dates and times don't really mean much to me. Somethings change, but other things stay the same.

    Happy New Year!

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  15. 103 ... wow! I can't see me living that long. Loved the cake and the way the candles were arranged. Well, Happy New Year, Jenny. I don't think it will be as exciting as the last one.... no games, no royal celebrations. At least we have a new royal baby to look forward to.

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  16. Happy New Year from sunny Singapore!! May 2013 bring you much joy and happiness!

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  17. Marvellous film footage and a lovely sense of relativity! Lilian must have seen so much and Little A is part of a fast changing world. Thank you for sharing this with us, Jenny!

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  18. It's so important for us to have time for old people. That 1904 footage is amazing. Those boys in the river - with old film like that one can never avoid wondering what became of the men and boys you see in the First World War.

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  19. Happy New Year,Jenny!!
    Feliz Año Nuevo, 2013!

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  20. Happy New Year Jenny!

    Who said The past is another country, and they do things differently there. All I know is that as Iget older I feel more like a visitor from another place.

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  21. Happy New Year! Wishing you happy travels in 2013!

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  22. To you and yours, a Happy New Year as well, Jenny!
    You are so right about the dates being arbitrary, but it is apparently important for most people, no matter where they live, to mark the passing of a year in some way.

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  23. I loved the bonnet in the first clip. My grandmother had one like that on the shelf in her wardrobe and a natty black straw boater both preserved from her young days.

    Thank you for all the pleasure your blog has given me this year...and looking forward to the next.

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  24. Let's enjoy life day by day!
    Happy New year to you and all the ones you love!
    I simply wish to read more of your beautyful and rich posts!

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  25. 103 is quite an age! And things have and haven't changed I suppose, depends what aspects of life you look at. Interesting films. Happy new year to you Jenny!

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  26. How precious, you are a gift to us all as well. Thanks for being a fellow blogger dear blogging friend!

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  27. I think I have adopted your "don't know, can't guess, not sure I want to know" attitude for 2013. And this is a first for me. I think my age is showing. Happy New Year!

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  28. Oooh that's some cake Jenny! I hope 2013 is a year jam-packed with love and fun and all good things. Love Linda xx

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  29. Well, I think I can make some sure-fire predictions for 2013. The world's population will continue to rocket, politicians will continue to lie, the weather will be just as unpredictable and the rich will get richer. Who needs a crystal ball?

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  30. Happy New Year to you! Dates are arbitrary indeed (and age is just a number). Here's to a wonderful 2013 filled with many more travels and adventures!

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  31. Happy New Year! Who is it that said "the more things change, the more they stay the same"? Fun to see the old photos.

    Darla


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  32. Thanks, once again I am grateful for these great comments! and special thanks to Adullamite for the score - I was hoping you'd know. Yes Dominic, I often think of the people we see in these old films, every one of them probably dead by now eevn if they survived both wars. How amazing that film allows us to see these long ago ghosts.
    Um, Mrs E, I guess it IS a matter of age, after a while new things (like new years) cease to surprise :) Rourousha, I'll take the lekker greetings. Much as I love things Japanese, I do like that word! I sometimes wonder what its roots are. Afrikaans, I guess? Fly in the web, I remember old straw hats dating from that period hanging around the family home. Gave them to the kids to play with - they'd probably be worth a fortune in a vintage shop now! and thank you for such a kind comment.

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  33. Jenny, I love these old films! There is something touching in them and a bit sad. The entire century passed! All the best in New Year!

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  34. wow i can't imagine getting to that age---beautiful cake :)

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  35. Hello Jenny

    And a very Happy New Year to you and may it bring joy, prosperity and good health and lots of new and interesting discoveries. The combined birthdays for Lillian and A is a beautiful way to embrace their ages.

    Thanks for your beautiful blog

    Helen xx

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  36. Happy new year, Jenny Woolf!
    When can I expect your book on the Victorians?
    No rush, I was just wondering! xx

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  37. ha happy new year...cool on them being 100 years apart...now that is a cool generation gap...i am sure they can learn much from each other....smiles...

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  38. Was just going to give you the England v Scotland score from 1904 but I see that I have been beaten to it. One other significant difference between then and now though is the proximity of the crowd to the pitch - there are a myriad reasons why that couldn't happen today. Love the idea of a travel writing blog from Europe including Cardiff, France and Estonia. I love travel and I love Europe.

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  39. Lilian had seen so much in her lifetime and A was just beginning his. She must had interesting stories to tell.

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  40. Apparently we can expect to see a lot more centenarians. Indeed their numbers have rocketed in recent years. That's a strange thought to get your head around: A demographic that is increasing faster than any other in an advancing age. Think what changes the first half of their lives brought. Oddly, I think compared to the second half, it must have seemed more miraculous. There were so many inventions up until about 1950 and after that, mostly, it was just refinements on those inventions - kind of more of the same. Except the internet of course, which brings us all fortuitously here.
    Happy new year, belatedly as we are now several days in. I am expecting it to be better than the last, which for me was mostly a bit rubbish. 2013 will be better. I feel in me bones. Especially the humerus.

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  41. Jenny, Happy New Year to you and your loved ones. Many thanks for your sweet comments. Yes you are right about the homemade gifts, they went down very well, even with my teenage neices. This year I will start a bit earlier though! Much love, Linda x

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  42. What a long life Lillian had lived Jenny.I enjoyed those videos too - Dave

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  43. And a Happy New Year to you too. I haven't read all the comments so perhaps someone has answered that it was a draw; 1-1.

    I think the 1904 view of London is marvellous. I suppose cars and lorries provide the hustle and bustle nowadays notwithstanding which it all seems to have been faster in those days.

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  44. It's so nice to meet you, Jenny. I'm jumping over from Gary's blog. I wish a wonderful New Year.

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  45. Great film footage. Some people live long lives – I saw that a 114 years old lady just passed away in North Carolina – 114 years… I hope you’ll have a great 2013 with much fun, happiness and lovely travel.

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  46. Hey Jenny!
    I just mentioned you in my last post, hoping that your book on The Victorians will come out this year. (I even showed a lopsided photo of your book, your Lewis Carroll book.)
    Hope you are doing well.
    Love,
    KAY

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  47. Hi Jenny,

    Please don't think I'm self-promoting, however, in the spirit of this great community, I have mentioned your good self in my latest posting.

    In peace and goodwill,

    Gary

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  48. PerlNumquist, I sometimes in my own mind compare the coming of the internet to the arrival of motorized traffic. I don't know why motors should have made more changes than, say, electricity, but somehow it feels to me as if they did. I have never managed to work out why!
    Gary, that is such an honour! thank you. And Kay, thanks again. The Victorians book won't be out in 2013 but the Lewis Carroll Japanese translation will - probably in the autumn. I'm seriously thinking of going to Japan then, although in recent weeks and really months my travel plans have been on hold and will be for a while I fear. Great to meet you Joylene, and I love your blog! Thanks Stephen, I have found your blog very interesting. And actually thank you to everyone who has commented.

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  49. That travelogue is a little gem. What a find! Turn of the century Britain is a period that intrigues me -- that period so shortly before the country was wracked by war. I'll be excited when your book on The Victorians lands!

    Like so many here, I have been an avid Downton Abbey follower. One of the things I've found interesting is that really, it's just today's story told with pretty gowns and in a big house, a century (well, now a little less) ago. People worry about losing their homes, couples have spats and disagree, there's always the rebel child and the one who can't seem to get a date. War takes lives; so do epidemics. At least now we don't have to wear corsets!

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  50. Happy new year! We won't be here in 2113 but apparently our children will have a longer life expectancy. Maybe they will be here!

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  51. And to you a Happy New YEar, same as the old year, most likely. Loved seeing the films! Thank you. 103 is such a long life...she must have been a very patient woman!

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  52. No, the shorts are too long!

    Happy Belated New Year to you, dear Jenny.

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  53. Thanks for showing these old films Jenny. I'm always amazed to see moving images from long ago where ordinary folk and bystanders are caught by the camera. Their gestures and body language are so similar to our own and make us realise that they really were were living, breathing people.

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  54. Love the travelogue film. Lillian must have been a lovely lady. Happy New Year, Jenny.

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  55. That was a wonderful little video, made all the better with the advertisement of Pears soap and Izal toilet roll.

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  56. Happy New Year, Jenny!

    What a bit of serendipity. I had just entered a post and entitled it "100 Candles", not having seen yours (I swear I was not plagiarizing). It was my grandmother's 100th birthday last weekend. I missed the grand, family reunion in Asia and participated only via video. Is Lilian your granny? I think she might have liked to have met mine, who is still pretty feisty even when she is conversing with people she can't see (cataracts) or remember (Alzheimer's). What an interesting time of great change they both live(d) in. Loved seeing all those gentlemen in bowling hats on that clip.

    I hope you and your family are doing well and enjoying 2013 so far!

    Jenny

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  57. 103! My Grandma was 105 when she passed in 2011. Marvelous to have someone with so much living wisdom in your life, isn't it?

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