Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair

I had planned to go to a monthly coffee morning at the Neurocentre in town today, just to get a feel for the place used by the Brain and Spine Foundation, of which I've recently become a member. The weather however was dismal, and I was still exhausted after my trip out yesterday, so I spent the day instead on some simple domestic chores and going through all my blips, to see what picture of me the journalist would have got when she did the same last week. It doesn't seem that much has happened in the last nearly-three years (see, I told you my memory was shot), but reading what I'd written, and the comments received on certain days was a very powerful reminder. I would never have taken the time to keep a diary the same way I've committed to Blip; it's just so flexible. Post any pic you want, write as much or as little as you want, but just recognise the day somehow.

Ah yes, the hair; this is mine, 18" of the stuff cut off by the hairdresser 30 years ago, and amazingly still looking as good as it did when I wore it long enough to sit on. I've never been able to grow it that long since, even after the brief flirtations with the '80s curly perm, layered mullet and middleaged bob before I settled on the current look. Looking at it now I mourn the naturally rich colour and the young person who wore it; I looked good then and didn't realise it (I can say that now). My daughters are the same - naturally stunningly attractive but so insecure about their appearance that they have to cover it with artificiality to feel good about themselves. I know their pain. What has always amazed me is that there are people out there who are decidedly lacking in the looks department, yet either unaware or so accepting of how they appear that they are full of confidence and fun. After an initial double-take (if they are particularly strange-looking) people always seem to be drawn to the person beneath and the rest falls away. How liberating that must be. I wish I could have been like that in my teens and after, and I wish that for my girls.

Africa is dark grey today and I'm wondering what other forgotten item from the past will float to the surface... That hair was in a bag at the back of a drawer and survived two house moves unseen until now.