Sunday, February 21, 2016

You know you are getting old when…

Take life with a bit more happiness!

You know you are getting old when your arm cannot stretch any more for you to read the small print on the pills the doctor prescribed as you went to see him for several pains and aches you have. But this is just one of many ways you know you are getting old!

Reading glasses and aches and pains are things you get used to when you get old, but what’s hard to comprehend is when you walk into a store and everyone around you is at least 30 years younger than you! And the assistant looks like he has just taken off his Scool uniform and changed to serve you (which most probably he has!). This weekend I went out to the shops as most weekends and for the first time I became acutely aware of people being tremendously younger than me (not that I am that old by the way…).

And it is incredibly uncomfortable when you go into a shop which you think you can easily wear what they sell there but everyone buy and serving has just left school! I have always been aware of getting old and made claims that I will like to grow old gracefully (I started to shave my head 10 years ago when I first notice I was starting to look like and old Maths Profesor) and when I turned 45 I named it my “half way year” (meaning I would like to get to 90 healthily and happily) and I have never had an issue with my age. So why did I suddenly become so overwhelmed by all this young people around me? I think it’s because I know that soon, I will be hitting my fifties (two years to go) and I’ve now reached an age where I cannot longer pretend to be a teenager!

And don’t get me wrong, I am a believer that you are only as old as you think, I still stand by that, but it is inevitable that eventually you will look older than most people around you and that there are certain places that will be dominated by a generation younger than you. I will of course, not stop attending this places, and by all means I will not start frequenting old pensioners’ clubs, I just need to accept and realised that from now on everyone around me could look a lot younger than me! (I guess this is why some people spend millions on plastic surgery to make them look as if they never left their 20’s)

The secret to also staying young and feeling young (even if you don’t look it) is staying in tune with what is going on around us and keep up with all technological advances so you don’t ever sound like you parents when talking to a younger shop attendant as she says to you “let me get the iPad to check if they have stock on the other store” a what? In my days you would need to call them to know what they had!

There are plenty of advantages to getting old too! This weekend I saw in a retro shop a phone my mother had going for 160 pounds! I would have thrown the old thing to the bin yet now it retails for a ridiculous price. The older we get the more attractive and expensive we become!!

Yes let’s accept that age is a graceful way of getting old and as Helen Mirren said in her recent commercial for an anti- ageing cream campaign “it has take over 60 years to look this good” I will be joining a club called “the 49ners” which a friend of mine and I thought about, when we get to the age of 49 (this year for me) we will no longer celebrate further and stay 49 for the rest of our lives! In the words of Helen Mirren… “It has taken me 49 year to look and feel this bloody good, so I’m staying put”

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