The 40+ Life
A place for conversations with women over 40. From careers, health, relationships and lifestyle to personal style this is The 40+ Life!
The 40+ Life
Jayne Sharp - Menopause, Mayhem and making it Funny
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Welcome to the very first episode of The 40 Plus Life—and what a way to kick things off.
Joining us is the brilliantly funny and refreshingly honest Jayne Sharpe, the Instagram and TikTok comedian who’s become the unfiltered voice of midlife women everywhere. If you’ve ever laughed (or winced) at the realities of perimenopause, chances are you’ve already met her iconic characters—turning hot flushes, brain fog, and “arm knees” into comedy gold.
But this conversation goes far beyond the laughs.
Jayne opens up about navigating her 40s through big life changes—marriage, motherhood, identity—and the unexpected freedom that comes with finally not caring what everyone else thinks. We dive into the chaos and comedy of perimenopause, the symptoms no one warned us about (hello, forgetting the word for window), and how humour is helping women feel seen, understood, and far less alone.
We also get real about:
- The moment her content went viral—and the overwhelming response from women (and men) worldwide
- The surprising mental load of brain fog and why it can knock your confidence
- HRT, sleep struggles, and the small changes that can completely transform how you feel
- Sobriety, social media burnout, and learning to switch off in a world that never stops scrolling
- Why midlife might actually be your most confident, authentic era yet
Honest, hilarious, and deeply relatable, this episode is a reminder that midlife isn’t something to endure—it’s something to redefine.
🎧 Expect laughter, truth bombs, and plenty of “that is SO me” moments.
Find Jayne Sharpe on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jaynesharp/
If you enjoyed the episode please do subscribe and leave The 40+ Life a review.
Follow The 40+ Life on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/the40pluslifepodcast/
Find out more about TV Presenter Katy Pullinger https://www.instagram.com/katypullinger/
Welcome to the very first episode of the 40 Plus Life. Today's guest is proof that midlife and perimenopause doesn't have to feel too serious all the time. You'll know her from Instagram and TikTok, where she's built a fiercely loyal following by saying the things women over 40 are thinking, but maybe haven't dared to say out loud. Her menopause characters become a hilarious, unfiltered voice for women navigating midlife in real time, turning our hot flushes into laughter. She's hilarious, she's relatable, and she's redefining what it means to age out loud. I'm so excited to welcome comedian and content creator Jane Sharp to the 40 Plus Life podcast. Jane, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me. You're my new best friend now, thanks to that. That was great. Thanks. Who's she talking about? She sounds amazing. Well, you feel like my new best friend because I love watching your videos online. And you know, you make me laugh. And what better a friend is there to have than that? Well, so where were you at when you came into your 40s? What was happening in your world? So 40s, I was pregnant.
SPEAKER_01I was just about to get married. What else? It was it was all of getting married for the third time as well, by the way. So there was a lot of change. It's it's that kind of re I don't know, you feel a little bit like you're reborn again at 40, don't you? Something gen definitely, definitely changes. Where you feel like you're coming out of your chrysalis, aren't you? And suddenly you're a butterfly. And it's I'd never felt like that ever before. Certainly not in my teens, my teens, my twenties, my thirties. Yeah. I'd gone through all sorts of like real sort of awful mental issues in my 20s and 30s. I didn't realise at the time. I was just like, yeah, okay. I was probably just that nutty woman. And then suddenly, 40s, you're like, can breathe. Everything's fine, everything's normal. And and suddenly I don't really care too much what anyone else thinks, which was really, really nice. That's a nice little cherry, cherry on top, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00I bet, gosh, because um that sounds like you kind of went through the ringer then in your twenties and thirties.
SPEAKER_01I guess well, I guess it's something out of the ordinary, I guess. It's just that whole not really knowing who I was. Like I say, I've I'm now onto my third and hopefully final marriage. I got married really young to the loveliest guy, um, like my childhood sweetheart, but we were just too young. So that was that was absolutely traumatizing when that all fell apart. And then later I was I'm never gonna get married again. And then sure enough, I got married again to the father of my eldest, so obviously no regrets there at all. But that didn't that didn't work. And yeah, I I was single for quite some time and then I met Ross and then we've had Piper, and now I'm like, oh, I actually feel like I know who I am now. It's that's I'm really sad. I'm now 48 years old and I've finally sort of figured out or figuring out who I am, which is which is crazy.
SPEAKER_00But I think you know, I've all I've always said that I feel like you you are a completely different person in every decade of your life. I'm not the person I was when I was in my 20s. I didn't know what I was doing. Thank goodness. Yes. I mean I'd love to, I'd love to, you know, it's the hindsight, I'd love to go back and be able to do it again with what I know now, but then that's not life. You've got to learn as you go along and find out who you are. I didn't know what I was doing in my 20s. I don't think I knew what I was doing in my 30s, and that's when I had my first children, so or my first daughter. Did I feel ready for that? Nope. Is the person that you you marry uh, you know, I was I was 30, what was I, 31, 32, and we got married? You know, would I have the same outlook on it now as I did then? We are completely different emerging women at every decade.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I don't know about you, but do you do you still feel like a child? Because I completely feel like I'm winging it. I don't, I feel like I'm still looking to people going, what what do I do when this goes up? Yeah, how how do I deal with it?
SPEAKER_00When does my mum and dad come and fix this? Because I don't know how to do this. And if I've got to, you know, it's just it's the world of just I don't know, bills and mortgages and I'm like, is someone really leaving me to to do all this? Where's the person that comes in and goes, Oh no, no, no, you you you shouldn't be doing that?
SPEAKER_01But also, we're the ones responsible for keeping other humans alive, which is staggering, really. I'll never forget that moment when with Nicole, my eldest, who's now nearly she'll be 19 this time.
SPEAKER_00They just give you the baby and they're like, I'm your way. I mean, are you kidding? I've got insane. I've got to look after this.
SPEAKER_01How what you know?
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And when you think that, you know, if you wanted to maybe try and and and re-homer a puppy, they would they would want to do home checks, they would want references, and oh no, you can just take that baby home and and raise it how you see fit. Yep. Isn't it interesting? It is interesting. Yeah, I found but and also the funny thing is is that they, you know, your parents and us, you know, we're all being the age that we're at for the very first time. We don't know how to, I don't know how to be 46. I've never done it before. So well, it is your first day, is it to be fair? It's my first day.
SPEAKER_01I know it's welcome to your 46th year. What is it? 47, actually, isn't it? Yeah, 47th year. Sorry, sorry.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm in my 49th year. So that's you're coming up to the big 50. I mean, are you ready for that one? Just not, not thinking about it.
SPEAKER_01I'm an absolute denial, completely in denial. So that's gonna be next July. My my husband turned 50 in September just gone, and he's like a massive child. Like it just doesn't seem real. Yeah. I'm also looking at my parents again and thinking, you've got 50, and I'm the youngest, you've got a 50-year-old daughter nearly. Like, what?
SPEAKER_00It's wild. I think my mum my mum still lies about the ages of her daughters just because that means that it ages her. So she's she's always lying. She's always lied. So look, let's get on to your brilliant character, that which is how I found you on TikTok. I came across you there with with your menopause character, and I just thought, oh my gosh, this is absolutely brilliant. Tell me how did uh we'll we'll call her Perry. I know she doesn't have an official name, but but how how did Perry come about?
SPEAKER_01To be honest, it was more of an outlet for how I was feeling and suddenly coming through this whole starting to live through perimenopause. And I just yeah, I just needed an outlet for it. And I got to a point where I was thinking, well, fine going through this. Other people might also relate and they might find it funny. And it was more, it was just to kind of put a funny angle on something that isn't that hilarious. Do you know what I mean? With all the symptoms, and I just thought there's it's kind of a material gold mine, really. It started off as that whole kind of drop dead Fred character where it's the sort of menace, imaginary Fred. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, and only she can see and that kind of thing. So it's it's that same sort of thing as that. Yeah, I just like the idea of this menace constantly like poking and causing havoc and causing the hot flushes and causing you to forget words, which we do all the time. Katie, all the time. I have to just if the bit doesn't go out on air that you're cutting out, us two trying to start this podcast where we couldn't get a single word out, like we're starting that again, stop that again, because that's the reality of it, isn't it? You just get it. It's really hard sometimes to just really simple sentence. I'll be like pointing to the window, and I've forgotten the word for the window, and I'm like, it's the see-through, like mirror that's not a mirror. It just shots that come out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's my that's my claim to fame because one of my comments that I put on one of your posts, I remember you messaged me soon after and you said, uh just to let you know, I'm using that one. And it was when I was on live TV, and I couldn't remember the word for elbow, and I called it my arm knee, and that was the best. You did I used omni in one of my next sketches. So when you first put your character out there, what was the response to your first? I know you've done other characters, but your your peramenopause character, was it the biggest response that you've ever had?
SPEAKER_01It really was, and it was a funny one because I remember I'd gone to bed one, woke up the next morning, and my phone was on fire. And what happened is there is this huge account in the States, a lady called Dr. Mary Claire, and she's like a big menopause expert. She's got like two and a half million followers, and she not only reposted my video on Instagram, but she added it to her grid and all that kind of stuff, and then she put me in her stories, and I was just inundated. Like I just thousands and thousands and thousands of messages and new followers overnight, and I didn't, I'm not gonna lie, it was a little bit overwhelming, but it was brilliant and I loved it. And the messages that came in were fantastic. That was that's the the main reason for doing it as well. You realise afterwards that the messages that come back, lots of people having fun with it, but lots of people saying, Do you know what? I realized I I I self-diagnosed and then went to the GP after watching your reels and realized I was in perimenopause, went to the GP and they said, Oh, you actually are. The amount of people and men who have said to me that they've been going through a tough time with their wives and not fully understanding and thinking, oh, she's just been a bit ratty or she's just doing this, and going, actually, no, it's this is a big thing. And if I I think people respond to humour, don't they? Because I don't know about you, I get really bored with when people preaching, I'm that that's unfair, but when people are delivering you any kind of like talk on this or that, it can all get a little bit like uh it's all a bit grown up. Whereas I I respond well, yeah, absolutely, you know, childish kind of takes on things, and that's what this is, really. So it seemed to yeah, seemed to seem to resonate with a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00But you're so right. The the the symptoms that people didn't realize perhaps that were actually menopause symptoms because we were we were all grown up knowing that it's it's just hot flushes and periods go out of whack and all of that. And actually, there's I don't know, another 20 or 30 different symptoms that when you see someone like yourself make a joke about, I don't know, it could be anything, it could be your gums hurting and the hair falling out, and the all the other things that you go, oh, things like that. Yeah, hadn't even connected it and didn't realise that was it. And then and then suddenly, like you say, women are sort of following people like you and going, oh wow, it is actually that's exactly what it is. So something really positive can come out of something so fun.
SPEAKER_01Funnily enough, Katie, the whole period thing, periods being erratic. I didn't even realise that was a perimenopause thing. I didn't know really what perimenopause was. I thought I thought you just went straight into menopause. I didn't know what this whole perimenopause thing was. I thought menopauses, your periods just stop. And it's like you get to a day, one day your periods stop. Yeah. And God, I wish that was the case. Wouldn't that be a dream if suddenly they just didn't exist anymore? But instead, you're gonna have up to 10 years of erratic periods where you can bleed for 16 days non-stop. Sometimes you might not bleed for all then. You might just come on when you're just going to the shops and you're not expecting it. And then it's it's just yeah, it's it's insane how all over the place it is.
SPEAKER_00It is insane.
SPEAKER_01In doing this as well, in doing this character, lots of other people I've discovered lots of other accounts as well, and lots of other people have come to me with their symptoms. I didn't know were symptoms. Obviously, I'm not a specialist, but it's like suddenly there's these all these different things that are coming into me, going, I I had no idea this was a symptom of it. And now it all makes sense. But I think the most worrying one by far is the brain. Like nothing, nothing prepared me for that. Because there were times when I would genuinely burst out into tears because I had convinced myself that I must have early onset dementia. I was absolutely convinced of it because you know we joke about oh my god, forgetting words, forgetting things. But but the actual blank, like I've forgotten entirely what I was gonna say. I've totally forgot I know we all do the whole walking into rooms, why was I here? But you know, with your work, when you forget, you've got to talk for your work, you lose your confidence. It can massively lose your confidence. And if you think you're the only one going through that, it's a really lonely place. Yeah. So it's awesome to be talking to people and sudden getting a conversation started where you go, Oh, you do that too. Okay, and then about it. And it's okay, we're we're all right. We we're gonna get there.
SPEAKER_00It's just, you know, just you want to say to everyone, just bear with us, will you? Exactly. And you do realize that you're not alone and that there are other people going through it, and that actually it's completely normal, and that you know, we all can have a laugh and get through it together. And you know, thank goodness for us at our age, that there's so many more resour resources now. I think a lot of us know that the medical profession they were getting given a you know a couple of hours in an afternoon on menopause before. Yeah. And now they actually know how much more um is going on with us. So the the brilliant results or the maybe unintentional result of your your Instagram character is that you know women can now go to their GPs and go, actually, I feel like a lot there's a lot more going on than I than I thought.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, well, I mean, you go back to like our parents when our our mums were going through all this, they had absolutely nothing to go off, did they? They didn't know a single thing about it, no one talked about it. Whereas now, if you hear something and you suddenly go, well, that rings true with me, I would suggest to anybody, if you're gonna go to your GP, just write down. Firstly, if you if you're able to talk to your mum, it's really important. I think it's a really important first step, if you can do that. Find out what her, you know, what what stage she was, what age she was when she started to go through perimenopause or anything like that and what her symptoms were. Because I did exactly that. Turns out my mum was 44, I was 44, it was the hot flushes, it was the erratic periods, all these different things. And I went to the doctor and I said, This is what happened to my mum. So I went to my doctor with all my symptoms and he did my bloods to test my hormones, and my hormones came back completely fine, completely fine. And he said, the thing is with that, he said, if I did you in an hour's time, it might be completely different again. So he said, I'm gonna go off what you have said about your mum and your symptoms. And he said, based on all this, I'm gonna put you on HRT. And I was just really lucky because I had this incredible doctor called Dr. Hirani, and he was a young guy, he was quite new, and I thought he, you know, he might not be open to he was absolutely brilliant. Yeah, and and I think it is the look of the draw with some GPs, some just do not want to know. Um, oh, also, this is interesting, and it also is really infuriating. So I went to my GP not that long ago, it's a new GP, and I said, Look, I am absolutely lethargic, so tired, this and the other. Um, would you consider putting me on testosterone? And she said to me, I will refer you, but you have to say to them when you go and talk to the specialist that it's because you've got low libido. And I was like, sorry, what? And she said, Yeah, you have to say to them, it's because you've got low libido, because that affects your husband.
SPEAKER_00This is not the first time I've heard this. It's absolutely horrifying.
SPEAKER_01I wanted to punch the wall. She was she was as, you know, as frustrated by the whole thing as me, but she said, sadly, this is just how it works. If you go in there and say I'm a bit tired, they're like, Well, you're a woman, you silly girl, you know. Well, who cares if you're a bit tired, but now your poor husband, if he's, you know, losing out on sex, then we need to do something about it.
SPEAKER_00But it's like when people go and ask uh for their husbands to to have a vasectomy, and the response is usually, oh, but you know, basically they're thinking, What if what if there's another marriage further down the line he wants to have a baby with, you know, with with the new woman further down the line? It's so shocking. It's shocking but not surprising. I think that's the that's the thing, isn't it? Um, but I do think that humour that you're using for all of this, for even not just menopause, but to women's health, it does put it out there in, I guess, a palatable way for a lot of people to be able to then have the conversations that we should be having. And if if hum if humour's the gateway, if humour's the entry way to make this happen and to become a bigger conversation where it matters, then great. What what a great way to have to get there by laughing.
SPEAKER_01So one thing that I have found really reassuring, which has been really, really nice, it's the amount of men who've messaged me because they've like suddenly they relate to the symptoms that I'm talking about. And they're going, oh, my wife does that. And realizing that your wife's not just going mad, yeah, and she's not the only one. And this can actually help her with.
SPEAKER_00And she's not mean, and she's, you know, that she's got a legitimate reason for falling asleep at six o'clock in the evening, or and she needs your help. Yeah. She genuinely needs your help.
SPEAKER_01And it's not that she doesn't find you attractive anymore, it's just her desire for sex has like gone through the floor. Just vanished. Yeah, it there's all this, all these things. But there are remedies and solutions to all of the above. And that's the real thing.
SPEAKER_00Well, HRT changed my life. It really did. And I know it's different for every every person, but and they need to you need to find that out for yourselves, what's going to be right for you. But for me, it was I slapped on that patch and my life changed in a week. So it really can make the the most incredible difference and actually transform your life again and actually get you back to feeling like a normal person again. I mean, it's wild what our hormones do for us.
SPEAKER_01So mine was the gel I went on. So my friend Katherine had said to me, You're getting you're getting down the GP and you're gonna get on HRT. And I would say almost overnight it changed. Yeah. So I went my the first thing that happened with me, and I forgot to mention this, was my sleep. I was not sleeping at all. My sleep was a wreck, and it's like torture, yeah. They use that as forms of torture, don't they? Sometimes to keep someone awake because it messes with your head. So I was really struggling. I was on my knees with that, and the gel, the HRT gel, and the progesterone changed everything. Like suddenly felt human again, and then I stopped drinking. I'm that person who now talks about yeah, I'm that person who now talks about it.
SPEAKER_00Are you sober living? So interesting. So, was this something that were you drinking a lot and you decided you needed to to change that, or was it just the No, not not really, not a big drinker in the slightest.
SPEAKER_01Although, over periods of, I'd say more in my 30s, like I would open a bottle of wine and and drink half of it on my own at night. I never got past that. I was never, and it wasn't like an every night thing. But again, when when coinciding with perimenopause, the sleep was so so bad that after a while I just thought, well, this is one the one thing I know I can control. Because as soon as I drink, I I wake up in the middle of the night every single time without fail. It disrupts my sleep so badly. So just one it was the 28th of December 2024. So it's just over a year now that since I've had drinking.
SPEAKER_00Wow, okay.
SPEAKER_01And I just decided to not, it was actually because my husband doesn't drink, and I was like, well, I'll just do that with you for a bit. So deciding to do it just before New Year's Eve, I it just happened that night. I was like, right, I'm just not gonna drink. And and I didn't say I'll never drink again, it was just I'm just not going to drink.
SPEAKER_00And yeah, the changes it has made, I'm like, why would I I I could not imagine that's amazing that it's been that massive a change in your life because it is something that I've thought about dabbled with.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the the the like in my skin, I've noticed a massive difference. Bloaty skin. Yeah, that and the sleep has just massively changed. So I'm just like, I can't ever imagine going back to it now.
SPEAKER_00I'm seeing so many people, I'm following I'm following so many more people now online who don't drink and uh become real advocates for for sober living, and it looks so tempting. I mean, the trouble is for me, I I do love a glass of wine. I think I'm still stuck in that feeling that that connection is sort of instant relaxation, and then it's instant you're a more fun person when you're out with people, and just will it be will other people not want me to come round for dinner? Will they not want to go out for a drink because they'll think, oh, she's not the fun one anymore?
SPEAKER_01It's weird how as the non-drinker you worry more about what people will think, which again is nuts because you're it's so it shouldn't be that way around. It really shouldn't be that way around. And the thing is, both Ross and I have actually there's a lot of people we don't tell a lot of people, like when we go out, we don't tell anyone that we're not drinking. Like Ross hasn't had a drink for a good few years, but I think there's still a lot of people that don't realise he doesn't drink, like certainly not close friends. Okay, so when we go out, we'll always take with us like we're barbecues and things like that. We always take like the zero percent, so you know, like lucky saint, things like that, or all the alcohol-free wine. So I stood there and said, as far as anyone else is concerned, we're drinking, and that's to make drinkers feel more comfortable. She's like I say, that and a friend of mine recently, she she came round, she'd had a really bad breakup. She didn't know that I wasn't drinking. I knew she wanted to come around and she needed to cry and she needed to get it all out. She needed to drink and she needed someone to drink it. So again, I didn't tell her that I wasn't drinking, and I matched her. I have my alcohol-free red wine, I'm pouring mine, and I'm pouring. Hers and we sat all night, it wasn't till the very end of the night. She's like, How come you're not drunk? And I'm like, I've not I've not been drinking, but I wanted you to, I didn't want you to feel like you couldn't just you know I wanted to join you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. What uh what what alcohol-free wine have you found? Because I I was looking at them the other day in the supermarket and I did some look, I was googling in the in the supermarket to see what the reviews were, and so many of them were just like, Ah, this is topic, tastes like vinegar.
SPEAKER_01Have you actually found one that's really good ones? However, because it's been such a long time now since I've well, such a long time, over a year since I've actually had alcohol, alcohol. I don't crave that taste of wine anymore. So the one thing that I'll drink, and I would suggest this to anyone, because I used to always love a gin and tonic, and you realize that gin and tonic really just tastes of the tonics. So we're just we always just get older, fever trees. So fever trees in a nice big glass with ice, and I can absolutely convince myself that I'm drinking gin. And I have that that sort of personality that if I'm with people who are drinking, I genuinely feel like I'm drunk. I'm I'm lucky, and Ross is the same. Neither of us.
SPEAKER_00You start buzzing off then, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Neither neither of us need a drink to enjoy ourselves. You know, I get that some people might need a drink to feel comfortable at a party or wherever. We don't at all. I always said to Ross, like you become more of a knobhead when you drink. You're really funny when you don't drink, but then you become, you know, so it's with I genuinely do feel like we are the best versions of ourselves now when we're out. It's just that that reversed kind of yeah, I don't know, it's it's it's weird, but you're selling it to me, Jay.
SPEAKER_00You are, you're selling it to me. So the 40 plus life that has the tagline, taking on midlife with style. What does style mean to you in your plus 40 life? It doesn't have to be about just what you wear, it's about how you feel about your you know your home, your space around you. What do what does it mean to you? So, firstly, style equals comfort.
SPEAKER_01I am all about comfort now. And this is the thing. So, certainly in my 30s and probably early 40s, I I would spend an absolute fortune on clothes. And at the moment, firstly, I I don't really go out that often at the moment. I love more than anything being in bed at 8:30, 9 o'clock. I'm like, that's heaven to me, absolute heaven. So I am all about now looking for like really lovely loungewear. So that is me. If I could wear loungewear out and about, well, especially if you can really, that's that's me in my happy place. You can, yeah. And funnily enough, funnily enough, at the moment, we are so we we've we bought this house like two and a half, three years ago. We've not really done much to it. It's a big old house that needed some love, and now we're about to show it some love. We've done bits of decorating, bits of painting and stuff like that, but now it's this it's genuinely making me so happy that we are going to put some love into the house that it really, really needs. So getting the outside done, I mean, that's a grown-up thing, isn't it? I mean, I'm a little bit a part of me is a little bit reluctant for it. That is that's a lot of money, and you don't even see that when you're inside your house, but it will look really nice and it needs it, it needs it to get your rendering done the bricks, absolutely, and then we're getting our kitchen done because the last house that we had, we didn't have it for very long, and we bought it with the intention of it being our forever home, and so yeah, we bought the worst house on the best street, completely gutted it, and then we we we designed it and decorated it exactly to our wants and needs, but then we realized because we'd moved a couple of times within the same area, and we were like, we were never fulfilled. And and we realized it was the area, it was it was a nice enough area, but my god, it was just so boring. We kept coming down to the coast all the time, and every time we come down, we're like, why are we not living here? It's creative, it's full of interesting people, there's so much diversity, it's just great. So we moved down here and we've got this lovely house, but it need it's a very old house and it needs a lot of work. Um so, like I said, we've done some decorative stuff inside, but it needs proper, proper work.
SPEAKER_00It's a dwardian house.
SPEAKER_01Would Victorian Georgian? Does that do those two periods go back to back? I'm a bit rubbish on my history. It's a bit older than Victorian, put it that way. I'm useless on that. The little bit older than Victorian period. The well-known era. Bygone times. That's that's that's all it's known as. Bygone times. The days of yours and friends.
SPEAKER_00Always say that the days of your right, finally, uh Jane. I'm just gonna do some this or that questions. A few, a few um fast-paced. We're keeping it snappy. So early night or big night?
SPEAKER_01Early night, every time, without a shadow of a doubt. It freaks me out now. I'm sorry, but when people ask me to go somewhere, like, what time does it start? And if they say 8:30, I'm like, this it's like what? I mean, I want to be I want to be in bed by now. I'm loungewear already, for goodness sake.
SPEAKER_00I've already got my electric blanket on. So exactly. I need then it needs to be a really short turnaround from whether it's coming in from work to go out, if you if I'm at home for too many hours, I'm afraid the the bras off, the socks are on, and Netflix is ready to go. Game over. I'm glad I'm glad we're doing really well with this quick file. Sorry. No, one question is um okay, Botox or embracing love.
SPEAKER_01Botox. Every time. Do you want me to embellish? Because I am like all over that Botox. I don't think you can. In fact, I things are starting to move again now, so I I I need to book an appointment.
SPEAKER_00Brilliant. Group chat or silent mode forever.
SPEAKER_01Oh, silent mode forever. I know this is meant to be quick, quick fire. I know it's not quite the same thing as a group chat, but I considering I'm doing a lot of stuff on Instagram at the minute, I came off it for three days. So today's Monday. I came off it on Friday. Haven't been on it since Friday morning. Amazing. I had to because and I think I might do it quite often because it was really starting to get to me. I just too much comparison, too much this, too much that, too much in front of me. That it was honestly, I was starting to get anxiety. Oh, I I I I yeah, I I wasn't doing well at the end of last week. And I just said to Ross, I'm like, I'm gonna have to come off my app, just not and the funny thing is though, I keep accidentally got like just out of habit, I must have accidentally logged on like 15, 16 times over the weekend. Without it, nope, nope nope, nope, nope, I don't want to see anything, I don't want to look. Well so silent mode right now, I am embracing. I've got some work commitments I have to deal with on there, but I'm like, and I've I'm gonna post later on today, but still I'm just yeah, it's been a it's a funny one. It's just it's made me a little bit edgy, and I I'm like, does anyone else get like that?
SPEAKER_00Because totally, totally, and well done for doing it. I've I've not managed yet to actually stay offline when I've tried to do it. I I just like you say, immediately go straight back on. But yeah, I am a silent mode forever. I was playing um paddle the other day and my friend's phone went off. Actual, actual ringtone. Wow, actual ringtone. I went, what sort of psycho has their ringtone on? She was just, well, you know, I you know, it's for work and whatever. And I was just like, oh, I mean, it drives my husband nuts because I I never answer my phone because I never have the ring at home.
SPEAKER_01I'm the same always ever on silent, always ever in silent. But do you? I found myself as well doom scrolling. And yeah, to the point where it's debilitating, I'd be sat there on my bed and I know I've got to go somewhere, and I'm just like scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. I don't know what I'm scrolling for or what I'm looking at.
SPEAKER_00We are scrolling because our body has it's it's created an addiction, and our body is looking for the cortisol that we're we're chasing the the high that that next funny video is gonna be the next one. It's gonna be the next Jane one, probably. You know the next funny video from Jane that's coming up that's gonna make me laugh and I'm gonna get the fix that I need from it.
SPEAKER_01So from my point of view, yeah, it's a tough addiction. And you get the high of people going, Oh, we love this, we love this, we love this, and then my head goes, Yeah, well, your next one better be as good. Um, and then if it's not, you feel like, why is it, why does everyone hate me? It's all it's so stupid. Yeah, I've gone from that whole, like I said earlier on, it's sort of contradicting, isn't it? I'm saying you get to a point where you don't care anymore. But stuff like that, it's very hard to switch off from, so you have to physically switch off from it. Anyway, okay. Back to your quick fire.
SPEAKER_00I can get through so sorry. Uh grey blending or colour refresh.
SPEAKER_01Oh, you see, I've so far at 48, I haven't got a grey hair. And my so I'm I'm very much a strawberry blonde. I haven't had my hair coloured now for months, months and months. And wow. I know I'm quite lucky in the sense the fact that my grandma, she was she was late 80s, I think, when she died. And she didn't have a grey hair on her head. Oh she was a strawberry blonde. Oh, I love it. And she never she never went grey.
SPEAKER_00So I'm like, maybe. I'm hoping that's gonna be you, you lucky thing. See, my hair's so dark, all that they're all really coming through now. But I okay, right, quick fire, come on. Good luck. Both of us. Good luck with that. Heels or trainers. Group holiday or solo hotel room with room service.
SPEAKER_01By group, you talk about my family. Because let's go, friends. That's still tricky. Can I split my holiday where I go half meet up with people and then half do a bit on my own?
SPEAKER_00Okay, I will let you think here. You're my first, you're my first guest on the pod. Um, okay, out of out of these symptoms, hot flush or mood swing. Well, which would I prefer to have, or which do I have?
SPEAKER_01Which one would you prefer to have out of those two? Oh my god. That's like saying how would you like to die? What's like I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say a hot flush because the mood swings affects so many other people around me, whereas the hot flush, at least I can contain that to just me. Uh yoga or blaze class. Oh god, this is showing my what's a blaze class?
SPEAKER_00What is that? I'm not really sure, but it's one of the it's something really active. Oh, but then yoga. I think it's a okay. Or laying down. Is there a sleep option? Or vinyasa, the end of yoga. That's the best bit, isn't it? Midlife crisis or midlife awakening. How do you see it? Oh, definitely midlife awakening.
SPEAKER_01Like I said, it's like coming out of that chrysalis, like a beautiful butterfly. There's some bumps in the way, but definitely an awakening. I I genuinely have, with all the stuff I know that I'm joking about, I've never felt actually better in myself and more confident and happy in myself than I do right now.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's nice. Um and finally, have you got any recommendations that you want to leave our listener with? Is it a great TV show that you've got stuck into, a brilliant book? I don't know, anything, a hobby. Yeah. Just something that you'd love to love to say, oh, you've got to try this.
SPEAKER_01So I've only recently discovered audiobooks. So I love reading and just do not have time for it at all because I don't know about you, but as soon as I pick a book up, I've I wake myself up by its full, you know, I've clonked it on my face. Yeah. I fall asleep within a page. Whereas audiobooks, if I'm out and about, I'm in the car, or I'm decorating, or I'm working, I'm on my laptop. It's my new favourite thing. And I'm like absolutely whizzing through books. So I'm constantly saying to Ross, I'm like, this new book that I've read. And he's like, listen to. You've not you've not done any reading. I have audibly read many books. I love it. It's what's been one of the best ones you've listened to recently? Um, The Silent Patient, I absolutely love. I love a twist. I I love a thriller. That's all this, that's all I go for. Thrillers, nothing too gory. Okay, but a really good psychological thriller. There's a lot of Frieda McFadden. I like her. There's just like easy kind of chewing gum ones. But um, The Silent Patient was yeah, fantastic, and I did not see it coming. I won't say anymore.
SPEAKER_00I will add that onto my list. I've probably got about 10 credits sitting waiting on my Audible right now, so I I've got plenty to download. It's uh yeah, it's a real, it's a real treat actually listening to audiobooks. So that's a lovely recommendation for our listener. Jane, it's been an absolute pleasure and thank you for so much for making us all laugh on Instagram and and Twitter not Twitter, gosh, it's like 20 years ago now, isn't it? Instagram and TikTok. And if you don't know Jane, go find her. She's are you at Jane Sharp on the side?
SPEAKER_01Jane Sharp, Jane with a Y, Sharp without an E. Two very boring names, which everyone spells wrong.
SPEAKER_00They're not boring. And you are not even remotely a boring person either. You've been an absolute dream and a treat. So thank you so much. Thank you, Katie. And uh yes, there'll be more episodes from the 40 Plus Life coming up soon. Thank you, Jake. Well, if you enjoyed that, please do like, subscribe, and leave me a review because it will really help me get the podcast out there. And tell your friends, I'll see you next week.