My birthday today. I'm not saying how old I am which I know is a cop out but there you go. The world is the way it is. Ageism lives. One of the many advantages of being in a quiet French village is that you turn out to be younger than most of the other inhabitants. Which is nice. Mostly I try to forget about age. After all, I breathe, I think, I eat - I do all the things that human adults do - what's age got to do with it? As somebody that I've forgotten the name of said, once you're twenty five you should be an adult and you stay an adult till you die. [I paraphrase - having also forgotten the exact quote.] On the other hand the older I get - you may have noticed this too - I keep bloody forgetting things.On birthdays, as at other times, presents are great but the really important thing is affection and connection with people I love and care about,family, friends, even those who don't know about my birthday. I've had a lot of kind words and warmth today and I'm grateful. The older you get and the farther away you are, the more they matter.
Another thing about being my age is that nobody else who's into this blogging lark seems to be within 25 years of me. I looked up other Manchester blogs. Lots of great stuff – particularly Manchizzle, Mancubist and Travels with Baby. But they all made me feel as if I’d dropped off the planet. Full of talk about clubbing and sh***ing. Except for the one about the baby. But am I really the only person over thirty - forty- even blogging or is everybody else pretending?
There’s this thing a lot of writers do – they put photos of themselves on book jackets taken years ago – so they’ll look younger. But don't knock it - if it works and people buy their books. . .
So here's what I really look like.
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7 comments:
I'm pretty sure I've never written about sheeping. Or have I misunderstood?
Mancubist, I was talking about shopping!Something got lost in translation there. They do a lot of sheeping round here - and h***ing and c***ing. They just don't talk about it much.
MancinFrance
Ah, how I laughed when I read this... I'm 35, and I think I last went clubbing about five years ago. At the moment I have little social life beyond mum and baby groups.
I know what you mean, though. People do tend to sound young and happening on blogs, possibly because they are presenting themselves that way. Still, I know many bloggers who are in their fifties and sixties.
I like your blog.
Yes - I had guessed there was an older cohort out there - but they seem to be keeping a low profile - probably in case somebody calls them silver-bloggers or senior-surfers or something equally humiliating.
Thanks for kind words, yankunian. Like yours too
and what are going to be the stories that your grand children, great great grand children tell about you.
Here is Guy Brownings offer on how to be a grandparenthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/dec/27/how-to-be-a-grandparent just in case you are wanting to change your profile.....and get a wing-back chair and eat shortbread!
Hi Glynis
My great-great-grandchildren will probably still be hearing the story of how one of their female ancestors actually knew the woman who won a 2009 World Masters Cycling Gold and also the Guinness Book of Records Award for the most grandchildren born in the shortest period of time!
actually I am delaying going for gold until 2010, I am working on my visualisation technique whilst sat in my wing-backed chair, with a Guiness.........and realising grandchildren are for life not just for Christmas! S**t.
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