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This week a number of things have happened that have brought it home to me just how old I am now. Properly middle aged. I am pretty sure I won’t see 90 so 45 really is the hump in the middle of my life. And not in a maudlin way but this week I have been thinking about the signs I am getting old.
The first sign being that as I sat and thought at these signs this week I had to write them down because an hour later I had forgotten them and when I looked in my little notebook (look there’s another sign, carrying a notebook around with me. Though I like to think I am actually Kalinda from the Good Wife) I found myself saying “oh yes, that’s right, I remember now”.
So what are the other signs?
Hearing the wind blowing a hoolie all this week and thinking that this means it is an ideal time to get all the beds stripped and washed and out on the line to dry. That my first thoughts are about what an ideal drying day it is.
Films like Pretty Woman are 25 years old. TWENTY FIVE YEARS OLD. I remember when that came out. Ditto Breakfast Club which is now thirty years old.
That thirty year ago seems like such a long time ago, and yet thirty years ago I was 15, almost 16 and about to leave school. That is it is thirty years since you were at school.
Friends announcing on Facebook that they were born in 1981 and you think “holy crap I had been at secondary school for a whole year then, how can you and I possibly be friends?”. Born in 1981. That just doesn’t make sense to me.
When the greatest joy I have had all week is from de-scaling the tea maker. It is no longer murky brown but oh so shiny stainless steel again. And I looked at it alot. And dont’ want to use it for fear of it becoming murky brown again.
At a gig recently I asked for a cup of tea at the interval (yes the gig has an interval) rather than alcohol. A cup of tea. Seriously?
Staying in has become the new going out. I just can’t be bothered alot of the time. The faff of not only having to get ready but the travel, the parking, the crowds, it all just seems a bit too much. Staying at home with a cuppa makes more sense.
Rather than lying in bed when I wake up, I get up because “I don’t want to waste the day”. In fairness I usually have a million things to get done that day and my mind is already trying to work out how on earth I am going to get them all done before my feet have even set foot on solid ground. But why can’t I just lie in bed a bit longer like any sane person?
Preparation for a foreign holiday includes getting car washed. The idea that we are going away for a long weekend with a dirty car is no longer acceptable. Does that make me old or just odd? Oh and that paying £20 for somebody else to do it rather than doing it myself seems to make perfect sense.
When you read back over a list of reasons why you are getting old and three things revolve around tea. Not wild drunken frivolity, but tea.
Can I stop this ageing process? I know I can by anti-wrinkle cream or dye hair to get rid of the greys but funnily those signs of ageing don’t bother me. And actually the more I think about it the more the signs above don’t either. So that is probably another one, isn’t it? A quiet resignation of the inevitable rather than a determination to halt the slide.
Anyone for a cuppa?
Welcome to the Club! I would say your thoughts are very sage, just like the kettle. Ha Ha.
Heh heh I am the same about A Fish Called Wanda!
Although I draw the line at tea over alcohol….
I’m 35 and I feel old….My first thought when I heard the wind made me think of doing the washing too….I think it’s very sensible of us. lol x
Your post made me laugh. Apart from the tea (as I don’t like it) I agreed with everything. My son is away at his grandparents tonight. To celebrate we are splashing out on a ready made meal and we might watch a film. The thought of wasting all the energy on a night out and not being able to get up in the morning and do things.
I’m not a tea drinker, but when a group of our friends (farmers and wives) go out for a meal or go to a party, there’s always some of them who ask for a cup of tea at the end of the evening. We always have a laugh about it, and some of them are under 40, so you’ve held it off well.
I think I’m quite lucky because I always feel young in our family…my husband’s 9 years older – he left school some years before I started (at the same secondary), and both sets of sister/brother in laws are older. But I think overall I’ve always been a bit old before my time. 10 o’clock on a night out and I’m flagging.
I’m the same age as you and the physical signs of ageing are certainly getting more obvious. I’ve given up trying to pull grey hairs out now as I’d have hardly any left!
I’ve never been much of a drinker so have often chosen coffee over wine. And it’s scary when I work out that I’ve been driving for longer than some of my colleagues have been alive.
Haha ahh T I so agree, it’s worrying I would much rather stay in its too much hassle going out, and means I can sit down with a cup of tea! The days of me waking up with a hang ova and staying in bed are long gone – in fact those mornings often used to involve bacon sandwiches round yours! Ooh but there was also tea involved! Nikki xx
I was born in 1984 but have always been middle aged at heart! When I first started using online forums at uni (at the tender age of 19) I spent more time chatting with people who were old enough to be my parents and thought I was in my mid 30s rather than a teenager. In the holidays I also spent a lot of time with my aunt and her friends, drinking coffee in an orchard, taking strolls along the beach etc I think I went to maybe 3 parties whilst at uni and was ribbed ceaselessly for not wanting alcohol when we were in Russia (especially when I turned down multiple offers to buy me a drink on my 21st). I just never was a young person, I always wanted to be home, reading a book or doing something creative.
so when I turned 30 last year I was surprised to find myself unsure about leaving my 20s behind. I started thinking about how those 30 years must have flown by for my parents and one day my 3 year old son would turn 30 too!!! My 20s felt like a really long decade and yet I feel time zooming by now. And I’m nowhere near as settled as I expected to be by this age. So despite being older at heart, I still find it hard to realise how quickly time is speeding by… Makes me determined to enjoy every moment I can, doing what I want to do rather than what I think I ought to be doing!
And that’s the same vibe I get frofrom this post. You are noticing these changes but also embracing them as a natural progression 🙂 go you!!