h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yep, just because something isn't easy to replace doesn't mean it has any real value.

X, nice to see you around. It's been a bit.

Saw this topic and just had to jump in. I usually don't feel old (in fact, I often wonder who put those 30+ year old wrinkles on my brain's 16 year old face!). However, I felt very old when my 6 year old small person said to me "Mommy, how old are you? And when I said "34" she looked at me with big eyes and said "wow, you're really old, aren't you?"

OK. I admit it. Sometimes, after a day of vigorous yardwork (raking, weeding, pruning, etc), I have aches in muscles I'd forgotten I had. That makes me feel old, too.

- Whew! relief at not having stopped the conversation.

Like the bit about "wrinkles on the face of my 16-year-old brain" -

As I have said before somewhere, I think my kids (now 18 and 20) have overtaken me. I'm still stuck at 17. But I try to be dignified about it. That way they accept me and we have a really good relationship.

The point about values and material things having too much worth (made by Blues Shark) is something that went through my head since I posted that. But some things are part of their owners. For example, when I go to my parents, the fact that we still eat from the same crockery and with the same cutlery as we did when I was a child is part of their whole way of life. It gives just as much a feeling of security as does the fact that they are there, and still doing the same things and being the same people as they always have been.

If they changed their tableware every few years, they wouldn't be the same people I have always known, with their own clear-cut and simple set of values.

On the other hand, we, by necessity, seem to have a new set of crockery every couple of years. But my children are still quite together and well-balanced, so perhaps this letting go of attachment to inanimate objects does lead to a shift of emphasis to human relationships.

I am still not quite sure about this. There is also the aspect that someone who takes care of their possessions will take care of their children too.

And if we are going to unfeelingly throw out our worldly goods, I would like to be able to choose what I keep and what I throw out..... I am thinking of those poor people not far from me now whose complete households have been ruined by the present floods. The Danube is just beginning to drop, but a few towns in the East of Germany, on the Elbe, are still due to reach their highest water mark - well over any dykes or dams.

Feeling particularly aged today after helping my 19 year old daughter to lay out and pin a paper dress pattern on her chosen fabric.I realised it was the first time she had ever done it and that the last time I had done this was before she was born.Where the hell did the time go?

a very weary Incog.

When I went to work on the tube (which, thank god, I dont have to do anymore) I used to look at the faces of young woman to see If I recognized someone I loved and lost over twenty years ago. Then it occured to me that they would be over forty now and not still in their twenties so i`m looking at completely the wrong group of people. That made me feel old.

I went out for a drink with a young guy in his early 20s, (I was in my late 30s at the time). There was a Madness Retrospective on the TV in the pub, and I got all reminiscent and sentimental.

He asked me why I liked the music.

I said 'It was good to dance to'

'You used to DANCE to THIS??????' he said.

.....
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.....................

'Well, this was before E,' I said in the end.

But that made me feel older than the South Downs.

an old bat called Ben

getting a girlfriend makes me feel old.

peace.

We can too easily be caught up with anxieties about aging. When is our glass half full, when is knowledge of our mortality unfamiliar to us? Ever done something and then thought, Oh, too old for that now! But then, ever been elated at something and forgotten all but the "moment" when none of it matters. Was it that long ago, and how unlikely is it to occur again in the near future.

Life is a miracle turning.

Being aware of aging does not necessarily mean being anxious about it or daunted by it. Like it or not the years do pass and your body with them. Acknowledging change & adapting to it can be better than ignoring it. That doesn't mean we can't enjoy looking back, living in the present and looking forward to the future.
Everyone has their own character, be it pessimist, optimist, realist whatever. I'm not sure that you can change your nature.

Well said!

k who, despite noticing the arrival of wrinkles, wouldn't be 15 again if you paid me.

Agreed! I may be going grey and I may be too old to be in a teeny-bop girl band but I would hate to be 17 again and still feel the world is my oyster.....

Well, I wouldn't be 37 again...

And I was having this same conversation with a woman whose comment was: 'My dear, I wouldn't be 60 again'

Making young people pretty is God's way of compensating them for being so inexperienced.

B

Well speaking as someone who is 17 inside I would love to have the body of a 17 year old but with all the knowledge that I've acquired thus far.I'd love to be able to burn the candle at both ends all over again.I'd love not to worry about bending over to pick something up in case my back gives out.I'd love to be able to put my feet behind my neck again.Yes I want a 17 year old body please.Where can I order one?

Incog.

I've said it before, and I will say it again. If I could go back to myself at age 16, I'd knock myself upside the head and ask who the hell I thought I was. Man, I don't even like thinking about myself as a teenager (although Ben is right....the music was better)!

I'm feeling old, and I'm only 19. I've just come back from seeing the family in Malaysia (check out the name ), and all the cousins and small children kept calling me 'Ee-Ee' (greeting to people of the generation above you) instead of 'Chee-Chee' (someone older than you, but in your own generation. Confusing? Yes). 'Ee-Ee' means 'auntie'. Arrrggh! I want to have the body of a nineteen year old...

Hi Emily, Are there a lot of dual vowel words in Tugalug? We've heard a few and we're left with that impression.

Waking up to find that a limb does'nt have the same range of movement it once had makes us feel the wearing out process so much more, dont mind being at the half c, just wish the parts would last longer than they would appear to.

Taking your niece and nephew swimming and waking up the next day feeling like someone has replaced all your limbs with playdoh

finding myself on a Friday night, kids away so no need for babysitters, checking whats on at the cinema, contemplating going to the pub, and in the end going to bed at 10.30 with a book.

THAT made me feel old!

But intend to make up for it by going kayaking next weekend.

A ex student, returning as a tutor

here's one, my friend and I were discussing good old school dinners. Although there's nearly 20 years between us we could share experiences about semolina, 'meat' pie, custard, cornflake dessert and copious amounts of gravy. I felt old when I realised they fazed these fine and wholesome meals out when I was 10 and now no longer have any sort of meal supplied by the council (in West Sussex, anyway).