Re-capturing our youth

After all of the festivities for my birthday, there has been a a bit of a lull in proceedings. The lull, of course, is dangerous. It leads to self-pity with regards to the ageing process; reminiscence; lounging about in comfy chairs; and an attempt at re-capturing one’s youth.

I mean, it was only yesterday that I was in my sixties and fighting fit. Now that I am in my seventies I have lots of aches and pains and fatigue….. John, too, being in his seventies, bemoans his aches and pains. Mind you, he does have a proper reason for moaning, I suppose.

However, we are harking back to our youth. We are living like students again. We are staying in bed as long as we can; leaving our beds unmade and clothes all over the floor; leaving piles of papers in the study – ‘Don’t touch! I know just what’s in that pile!’; scattering our purchases all over the place – in the hall, in the lounge, in the kitchen; and leaving the washing up in the sink until we’ve run out of plates. Howzat? I think we’ve hit the bullseye of student living, don’t you?

When we thought about trying to recapture our youth, this sort of living wasn’t exactly what we’d envisaged. No, we’d more thought about embracing freedoms, driving along an open road and drinking and eating exotic foods and travelling to lesser-known destinations. But, you know? I think you have to be careful what you wish for……….

Anyway, in the meantime, when we’re not living like students, we are still behaving like grown-ups as well. Examples below.

We had gone to bed without putting the bins out last night. I heard the bin lorry commotion in the street this morning, so hot-footed it downstairs, still struggling into a pair of jeans, to put the bin out.

Ha! Made it! Well, I thought I had. It transpires that it was the green bins they were collecting. You know, the ones that are no longer actually on the list? And ones we didn’t put out? Not sure if they ever collected the general rubbish. When I last looked, our bin was still embracing the rubbish we had so lovingly put into it…….

After the bin-a-thon, I tottered back upstairs to get into yoga kit. Having missed a few sessions recently, I thought I ought to attend class. When I got there, Jaime was surprised. She’d thought I was doing something else this morning. My first thought, given my weary self, was that I could have stayed in bed…..hehehe. It was a good session though and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Home again, and John was up, watching TV. “I’ll just take the dog for a walk,” I told him. He nodded and resumed his TV watching.

The walk was fabulous. The air was clear, the sky was blue, the ground was (mostly) crisp underfoot and the dog was a good boy. Here he is, waiting for a treat.

I can’t quite remember what John was doing while I was out but, once I was home again, we thought we’d sit for a few minutes and watch Bargain Hunt before I popped up to the shops to buy bread. John raised an eyebrow at me. “That’s if you don’t fall asleep,” he grinned. Well, of course, I fell asleep. Dozed all the way through Bargain Hunt. Didn’t see much of it at all……

I did eventually get to the shops and we did eventually have some lunch. It was at that point that we started discussing the preparations for Christmas once again. “Let’s not put the Christmas Tree up just yet,” I suggested, “I’m letting Mac out through the patio door into the garden (to avoid the cat….) and it’ll be in the way.” OK, John agreed, and simply put the thing in the new stand we’d bought for it and shovelled it into a corner for now.

“What about gifts then?” said John, “have we got a list? Can I photocopy it?” Hmmm……. sort of. I squirmed. Normally, I am right up there on the organisation stakes and have my list all sorted. But not this year. It’s still a bit of a muddle. (I blame all those festivities….. silly of me to so enjoy myself, don’t you know?).

John photocopied the scrappy list I’d got. He couldn’t make head nor tail of it. He closed his eyes and had an afternoon nap instead. Feeling guilty, I thought I’d better do something about it and promptly set about ordering gifts on the internet and writing up what I’d bought/ordered/thought about buying…….. nearly there on an organised list – and there’s plenty of time anyway, isn’t there?

In other news…… there is a Father Christmas! Proof right here…….

Take care everyone. God bless.