I am old. I am so fucking old. Last Friday I turned 57. Fifty-fucking-seven. Nobody wants to be fifty-fucking-seven, except that the alternative doesn't sound like much fun. So there we go. As I was walking up the hill (listening coincidentally to Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush) into work on Friday, I realised it was ten years to the day that I will be of pensionable age in the UK.
How did that happen? In my head I'm still a vaguely youthful 30-something, with a waist, and enough slightly slutty beauty to turn heads.
I should not complain too much. I celebrated my birthday with a young man (no, not like that) who bought me dinner and then took me to a casino.
They say every seven years, the cells in your body are completely replaced. Which means that the person who came to Belgium in 2012 no longer exists. Of course, I still do sort of exist, but the replacement cells are all a bit droopier, with only a homeopathic memory of what my face and figure should look like.
But this bunch of newly-minted saggy cells can still have a good time. I have no idea if I won anything at the casino because I was really quite bloody drunk (thanks to some industrial strength margaritas at the restaurant). But I was happy, and safe, and with someone nice. It was a good birthday.
I'm 63, and to be honest, I don't feel like it. I'm not sure I'll ever get the hang of this getting old thing.
ReplyDeleteI understand that. I have to say, though, that I get irritated when people say age is just a number. No, it's arthritis, looking in the mirror and seeing a dropped cake, it's fighting against encroaching physical crapness...as Dylan Thomas might have said.
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