Things that make you feel old

Lounge
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I’m not sure if it’s fair to post this on a light hearted thread but I will. In the last few weeks I went to the funeral of a school friend. Someone I’d known since we were 13. Inevitably with University, careers and families our connections thinned out after school but in the past several years we properly reconnected to find neither of us had changed that much and we still shared common interests.

I’m not sure yet how that loss makes me feel. A bit dazed perhaps.

Getting together with others at the funeral and recalling those we lost before they were even 25 (one sadly died at 18) did make me feel old, especially when you realise their parents are gone, and in 2 cases there were no brothers or sisters, so only we are left with those memories of the young men who left us too early.

Coming back to the friend we buried, what it has done is make me stop and reflect. I’m heading towards retirement, some of my friends already have, many of us have done good things but few of us wrote our magnum opus so to speak and only one of us did something I consider extraordinary. He doesn’t see it that way though!

Would I have done things differently in hindsight? Only in a small way I think, in part because I lost my father at 15 and mother at 24, but I’m trying to get my kids to think of the bigger picture when selecting a career. There’s lots of things that will pay well, but are mundane jobs for the potential they and their friends have. These guys could change the world.

I will continue to challenge them but in the meantime as I reflect I come back to the philosophy of Eric Idle. When I was in my final year at school HMS Sheffield was hit by an Exocet and the report was that the crew were standing fore and aft, singing ‘Always look on the bright side of life’ while they were being taken off. You can focus on the bad, but….

At the end of the day, ageing is inevitable so I may as well get on with it, and be ready to laugh at myself as I do because others surely will. My daughter, for one, has promised to.

So, back to the levity, and I shall focus on what I’m doing next, not what I’ve done!

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Remembering when you could smoke weed for breakfast, have sex 3x a day and still go clubbing

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People in the 20-40 age range calling me Mr Hendon, even after I have said that I prefer David.

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I’ve been decorating the bedroom over the past couple of weeks. The walls are fine, the ceiling is fine, but getting on my hands and knees to do the skirting, and then getting up again, has been more challenging than I expected.

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It won’t get better …

Cheerful soul aren’t I ?

I have a garden kneeler , for such experiences , even if I don’t use it to for kneeling , just something that helps me stand up

best wishes

Ian

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Very well put

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Yes, I know what you mean. Recently I went into a charity shop to look for s/h LPs, they were all in boxes on the floor. I knew I could get down but getting back up? I just left them.

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Birthdays :birthday:

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At what might be deemed the other end of the spectrum, my younger daughter has just watched the England women’s cricket team playing in the Commonwealth Games and found out, to her abject horror, that two of them are the same age as her (17) and that one of them is only five days older than she is.

She then moaned about it for a solid half hour. Whilst still watching the game.

Mark

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Robert Plant and Bob Seger

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Cheer up growing old is better than not.

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Sorry to hear they’re not great. I’m sure you love them anyway.

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Using the torch on my phone to read the menu because I’ve forgotten my reading glasses

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Thinking Portishead’s Dummy album is relatively recent.

.sjb

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Sure do, having them early means you almost get to grow up with them. I have friends who had kids later in life and they struggle to keep up with them.

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Realizing, I will never own the Statement…

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For me that makes me feel wise rather than old.

.sjb

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I can no longer able to drink a whole bottle of wine for dinner!!!

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Should that have been with dinner or did you really meant as dinner. Interesting meal replacement plan wish I had your doctor. :grin:

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I should have said “with” dinner :wink: (for me) always (good) drink first, and food second. I am sure that my doctor has secretly installed my wife as a mole in the house.

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