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Bibi Baskin in a happy place
Bibi Baskin: ‘The patterns that rob us of happiness include, continually rushing, feeling there are never enough hours in the day, regularly eating on the run, stressing out or over-thinking problems, re-running old hurts, struggling to forgive others or ourselves, sometimes losing our cool and having an overactive racing mind.
Colette Sheridan meets the former high-profile broadcaster and hotelier Bibi Baskin is a patient woman. This household name from the 1980s, when she was an RTE presenter and the first woman from the national broadcaster to have her own chat show, is thankfully calm when I tell her that the interview I recorded with her over the phone hasn't worked. A faulty recorder is to blame. Luckily, I have another recorder and Bibi agrees to give me quotes for the second time. Working as a motivational speaker around the country and the author of the recently published The Happy Book, Bibi is based in Crosshaven, Cork's yachting village. But she is not interested in sailing. She lives ‘in the middle of a field’ and says she prefers to be surrounded by fertile land than facing the sea. The Donegal-reared red-head, born in 1952, who spent fifteen years in India where she ran a hotel, says she has no fear of change. Does she actively seek out new adventures? ‘It's even stronger than that. I need change. I mean what else would explain giving up a perfectly good job in RTE that was successful? I wasn't on one of the big salaries that some of them get now. It was much more modest. But why on earth would anyone leave (that job) unless you welcome change?’
Bibi left Ireland and spent five years broadcasting in London. ‘After a while, I realised that all I had done was change the geography. I hadn't changed much else.’ She went to India ‘because I quit my job in London and thought, 'what am I going to do next?' So I went there for a three-week holiday. I visited Kerala, a state in Southern India which is the home of Ayurvedic medicine (one of the world's oldest holistic healing systems.) I thought I'd learn a bit more about Ayurveda. I ended up staying in Kerala (known for its palmlined beaches and backwaters with mountains that support tea, coffee and spices on their slopes)’. Bibi didn't miss anything about Ireland while living in India. ‘That's because I belong to a generation of Irish people who are so fortunate in comparison to, for example, my mother's generation. When they were young, they went to Liverpool, London, Australia and everywhere. But they never came back. They couldn't afford to. I always say to myself that as long as I have a credit card in my arse pocket, how could I miss somewhere? I can jump on a plane and go back.’
24 Senior Times l March - April 2021 l www.seniortimes.ie
Speaking during lockdown, there isn't really the option to jump on a plane. We are all thrown back on our own resources. Bibi has been having ‘a good lockdown’, teaching herself Spanish, expanding her repertoire of Southern Indian cooking - and focusing on the positive. Make yourself happy guide The Happy Book, a pocket-sized guide with tips on how to make yourself happier, has been keeping her busy. ‘The publisher, No 1 Media, came up with the idea of somehow getting a complimentary copy of the book to every resident in the nursing homes of Ireland. They have had a really tough time with Covid and it might cheer them up a bit. We can't afford to give out copies of the book on our own because there are a lot of nursing homes in the country so we're looking for businesses in communities to sponsor the books, businesses like supermarkets and pharmacists who'd have a community connection with the local nursing homes.’ Bibi's mother, who passed away aged 95 five years ago, was in a community hospital for the last stage of her life. ‘It was getting to the point where she would have had to go to a nursing home, but she died.’ Bibi, who has addressed
