So the end of the year is nearly here again.
Take it easy on the celebrations folks, don't drink and drive and keep taking the water which should reduce your hangover! End of year celebrations can be really very good on occasion, but often I feel I am really just going through the motions waiting for the inevitable 12.00am and Auld Land Syne inappropriate mouth kissings and sneak away home to bed.
Due to a bereavement one year we decided to not celebrate and take an early night which was probably one of the more memorable New Years eves I have experienced and New Year's Day was beautifully hangover and guilt free!
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End of year always makes one reflect on the preceding 12 months.
This year I reached my half century, and at this milestone I though about a lot of things. I often do.
Since my last post here we moved house to a lovely suburb away from the beach and my eyes have been opened a little to the general crappiness of some of the people at the last suburb we lived. It was an isolated clique of fools and although the beach was beautiful, the suburb itself had few amenities so if you wanted to shop, visit the pub or take your kids to school it meant a car ride. A few of the locals were low socio economic category and had plenty of time to spend thinking up reasons something shouldn't be done - just to keep everything nice and familiar and back in 1969. Either owner occupiers or as the housing price boom hadn't reached there yet, or renters of very cheap property. A number of the nicer houses were rented out as bed and breakfast establishments, a similar number were rarely used other than at holiday season by wealthy owners wanting their shack by the seaside experience. A further category were just 'dormitory' houses where the occupants keep themselves to themselves and perhaps commute to the city every day, bring up a young family and maybe not want to get involved in local events. Houses were either cheap, shack type dwellings or expensive huge houses on small blocks - in general a suburb overdue for a facelift and not in line for one any time soon assuming something 'nasty' doesn't befall the old guard of residents, or until they die off over the next few decades.
It was a soulless place, anything positive would be quickly squashed by a minority of nutters with too much time on their hands discouraging anyone with new ideas or enthusiasm. I speak from personal experience.
Since leaving there and joining a friendly community where generally everyone nods hello and may stop to pass the time when they have a free moment, my outlook has improved positively and I guess that's why I haven't found reason or need to post one of my famous rants here 😀
Anyway, my thoughts on the eve of my 50th birthday are published below for your consideration. I hadn't even had a drink when I wrote them!
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Today I am in the last day of my forties.
It doesn't feel like water is draining away down the sink. It doesn't feel like the magic key is about to be turned in the great golden door of wisdom.
It feels like any other day.
I feel like I have always felt. I'm still me. I am a little more grumpy these days, I feel I have more empathy, I am moved a little more easily emotion wise, I ache more than I did twenty years ago body wise, and sometimes I struggle to finish a sentence or remember something that I should be able to.
I'm old enough to know what I like. I'm old enough to know what I don't like.
My bullsh*t meter still works really well and I think has been almost tuned to perfection.
I guess I feel that I should in some way mark this milestone by saying something profound or otherwise special, but to be honest my wisdom is my own, and you will have your own, if not now, then soon enough.
Life can be sweet, it can also be sh*tty. It's a lot easier if you have money -a LOT of money. Not so easy if you have none, but life still offers opportunities for many of us to have a good life.
My pearls are:
Be positive - how you view the world will reflect back on you.
Have good humour - that will help during tough times
Be nice to others. Facebook reminded me this morning via "you have memories" that I have previously said
'Regarding commenting on a facebook post:
THINK
T- is it true? H- is it helpful? I- is it inspiring? N- is it necessary? K- is it kind? If it's none of the above, refrain from commenting!'
I think this can apply to life in general.
So back to age. Some of us are blessed with good genes and look younger than our age, some of us, not so much. We judge so much by looks in our society which is not a good thing. I previously blogged about becoming invisible once I turned thirty something. When I was in my twenties I was too young. Now I'm about to turn fifty I'm too old. Sometime there I must have blinked and missed my own perfect goldilocks zone.
None of us were born old. The elderley are going through it for the first (and last) time too like the rest of us. They probably feel like they did at sixteen too apart from the betrayals of the body.
So if you've made it this far without clicking on something else, well done. I don't have a punchline, amusing comment, or secret of life to reveal (sorry) apart from being true to yourself. I guess my point is that we all kind of muddle along and all of a sudden reach some kind of milestone and wonder what the hell happened in the intervening years?
I'm going to sign off for now with the following quote I though worthy of a repost back in 2010
Courtesy of the late Douglas Adams I think it describes how I see myself, and it's the kind of thing I like to use to prove the saying 'many a true word spoken in jest'.
“He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher...or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.”
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