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

... is that you are - on balance - wiser.

You know, more or less, what you can and cannot take, what you can and cannot put up with. You have done it before and you can tell when you are getting close to your boundaries, which is particularly useful because you also have a fairly clear idea of what happens when you are pushed beyond them.

You can predict yourself, and you know when you can and cannot rely on yourself.

I remember being very reluctant when I was 7 years old and in the Brownies to make that lisping promise "to do my best" because even then I was pretty darn sure that my best would be more than I would ever be able to sustain.

If only it wasn't all so damn tiring.

Ben

*hands Ben a glass of

One of the things I've noticed about getting older is that I seem to be on a far more even keel.
Don't think I'm that much wiser - just a tad more phlegmatic. And much less willing to put up with people or things that p*ss me off. I don't get so angry any more - I just walk away and forget it.
Most of the time, anyway.

Now if someone could come up with a way to turn off my brain so I would stop worrying about stuff I can do nothing about and get some sleep?
Oh - and a wee drop of botox for those furrowy things between my eyebrows.

I know what you mean about 'switching off' only too well, Teuchter. As is demonstrated by the fact that I'm posting this shortly after 1am. And yes, Ben, I know what you mean about those limits. I've got a lot better at saying 'no' too.

And I'll be 46 on Saturday. I plan to celebrate surviving another year by going out for a with several of my friends from University. The fact that intelligent people who are young enough to be my children accept me as a friend cheers me up enormously.

"You know, more or less, what you can and cannot take"

The trouble with that is that it makes one far too picky. Or is that just me?

>>Now if someone could come up with a way to turn off my brain so I would stop worrying about stuff I can do nothing about and get some sleep?

Try Zopiclone(tm).



If I knew then what I knew now! A few years ago, there was a news story about a guy in his thirties whose life ambition was to be a doctor. After experimenting with the usual rigamarole of donning a white coat and hanging around an A&E department, *pretending* to be a doctor (no worse, I suppose, than the pretense of many a Junior), he decided to qualify. Only...first time around he hadn't passed his Highers, so he pretended to be an adolescent and enrolled in a Glasgow high school where he became a moderately popular pupil.

I remember discussing this story with a colleague at his retirement party. We were fantasising what it would be like to go back to one's earlier life in this way. His comment revealed that he was thinking along precisely the same lines as I was:
'Apart from anything else, you'd be brilliant at chatting up girls.'

Youth is wasted on the young. And I'm just wasted.

Ben, your boss sounds like an utter nightmare - annoying when you find yourself validating their crappy management style by doing what they want isn't it?

Wonder if I'll ever reach that point - I mean, I'm in my 30s but still feel like a kid most of the time. Any second now someone is going to find out that I'm rubbish and send me to my room with no pocket money. On the other hand, at a meeting last week my (possible) new boss made a sexist comment, not a nasty one but one that implied that women were definitely not as good as men - he's used to working in large teams of men where that kind of joking is de rigeur. I called him on it in a lighthearted but, and this is the important part, firm way. He was a bit taken aback but hasn't done it since So maybe I'm not the weak little girl I feel like like...

<>

I'm 27 next month and I play dress-up once a month...

Well, I had the slightly odd experience yesterday of someone in their late 20s complaining that their life was dull and middle-aged in comparison with mine. (Admittedly, I heard this second-hand, so it might have been an effort to cheer me up).

Ben

I have no sympathy for people who complain that their life is dull... if they can't be arsed to get out and do something interesting then they've only got themselves to blame.

The youth of today *are* dull, though. They have no revolutionary spirit. And just listen to the music they listen to - all that Coldplay/Keane/Snow Patrol stuff. It has tunes, they can play their instruments, and you can hear what they're singing!!! Not like that in my day...

Woteva

>>...so he pretended to be an adolescent and enrolled in a Glasgow high school where he became a moderately popular pupil.<<

Gosh, I remember that - it caused rather a stushie at the time. Didn't he call himself Brandon Lee?

Kelli - I'm very au fait with that feeling of being imminently 'found out'. Do you think it's a female 'thing'? Do men ever have these feelings of self-doubt?

Another thing about getting older is that I know realise I have a lot more clout than I thought I did.



*whispers "And it's true what they say about 'things' being better for women in their 40s"

'Do men ever have these feelings of self-doubt?'

Do you seriously doubt that that we doubt, Teuchter? Believe me, I do it every hour that I'm conscious. I lie awake at night doubting. I keep getting good marks at University but I still suspect that one day they'll finally realise how little I really know. The biggest gender difference as regards self-doubt is that we males are taught that we mustn't let our uncertainty show, because if we do then no-one will respect or fancy us.

At any stage in life the nice thing about being older is that feeling you get that you are still living.

Er Zopicone isn't is a trade mark it's a Generic name. And it ideally shouldn't be used for more than a couple of weeks.

*Feeling too young to contribute to the conversation as well*

I like being older too... but I think it's more that I like being an adult. One of my nurses was telling me that I was too yougn to have a proper job and a morgage and I should be living in a squat and trying to start a socialist revolution like he was at my age!

>>The biggest gender difference as regards self-doubt is that we males are taught that we mustn't let our uncertainty show,

Absolutely! The stereotype is that women will soldier on through flu while men take to bed at the first sniffle. But there's another cultural pattern with self-doubt...and the illness of depression that it can trigger in the long term. Men aren't supposed to ask for help. And we're not allowed to say 'I have depression.' Women, on the other hand, are more or less *expected* to have a fit of the vapours from time to time.

Apologies if all this comes over as sexist...I'm taking a provocative position to make a point. What I'm actually arguing for is a 'feminisation' of society, in which we are allowed to admit our limitations. Estelle Morris should serve as a role model.

>>because if we do then no-one will respect or fancy us.

Actually...I suspect this is a misperception. Admiting your weaknesses to a woman shows that you are 'in touch with your feelings' yadda yadda yadda. It's a powerful form of 'chick crack'.

>>Zopiclone...ideally shouldn't be used for more than a couple of weeks.

Well spoken that Doctor. I only took it under exceptional circumstances: working away from home and pathologically unable to sleep in hotels. Damn, though, it's good stuff! It gives a lovely, sound sleep without the fuzziness that you'd get with a tranquiliser.

As for mortgages...when I got one, a friend gave a sound piece of advice: 'You can't take acid if you have a mortgage. Too much heavy s**t.'


Why is it hard to make arrangements with yourself
When you're old enough to pay back and young enough to rent

>> a friend gave a sound piece of advice: 'You can't take acid if you have a mortgage. Too much heavy s**t.'



True though.

I don't expect people to find me out, but I do assume that that what I do and how I do it isn't actually that difficult or special. Leaving 'difficult' and 'special' aside, it is - apparently - reasonably unusual.

I spent most of my childhood in a towering rage because other people could make decisions about my life; I never really did understand how that worked. I like calling my own shots.

"Pull!" .... "BANG!"

B

One of the nice things about being older ....is the conversations with your grandson.

"I told my teacher that my grandma is 50. You are 50, aren't you grandma?" *looks worried*

Yes, until my birthday, then I'll be 51.

"That's silly grandma, I can add up"

*feels silly*

"My teacher said that's young for a grandma, are you sure?"

"I was your grandma at 41, Liam"



"That's VERY young, grandma. I'll have to tell my teacher that tomorrow.

R4's 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue' featured greetings cards for the modern age, such as:
'Happy 30th Birthday, Grandma'