The Joys of Approaching Middle Age

Ho Everyone

Now I bet that you think that the challenging approach to middle age is not something to look forward to but I can tell you that it does have some modest advantages. Last weekend we spent three days in the Lake District celebrating our friend's Diamond wedding anniversary. As it was a holiday weekend, we decided to go on the train rather than endure the busy motorway journey. As you do in this techy world we live in, I booked the trains on the internet with e-tickets on my phone, reserving the seats where we could and using our senior railcards to obtain the best fares. It all went well until we started our return journey. We were comfortable in our reserved seats until we reached the first stop, when a party of six came aboard with one lady telling us that we were in their seats. With a confident flourish, I showed her our tickets on my phone which confirmed the seat numbers that we were occupying. She then confirmed that we were sitting in the right seats but on the wrong train. At that point, I thought that we were not safe to be out. The tickets that I had booked were for the same train, but an hour later. We were about to give up our seats when she told us to stay where we were and that they would sort out their seating arrangements. As we all arrived at our destination, I made a point of thanking the lady who said “ I would not like to think that if you were my parents, you would be made to leave your seats”.  

This week we commemorated eighty years since peace was achieved in Europe with the end of WW2. As a young boy, I remember that there would be no more blacked out windows, and no more hiding in the cellar while the German bombers went over. Our only view of the war was through short black and white Pathe and Movietone newsreels at the cinema. I remember going to the other local shops and houses selling a guess the time game to raise funds for our prisoners of war. It must have been just after the war that we came from London on the train, a journey that took three hours at that time. We had to stand all the way as the train was packed with servicemen and women on their way back home. The blacked out streets at night did, however, have their advantages, and I remember the Junior Partner crossing the road with a barrow full of coal, no doubt a negotiated deal with one of his customers. On the 8th of May 1945 we had a street party with everybody enjoying the homemade jam and Shippams fish paste sandwiches, followed by jelly and sponge cake and a cup of tea. My friend recently sent me a photo of that day, and as a young child, I am on the front row with the Junior Partner at the back. The Senior Partner is not on the photo as I remember that she was the only person who was not there that day. Sadly, that was a familiar and recurring story. Whilst it was an exciting and memorable day, rationing of some foods, clothes, timber and other items continued for another almost ten years. Eighty years later, we stop to remember that day. Let us hope that it never happens again.

This week we had some good news, at least I think we did. It started when our PM Starmer polished Trump’s ego as they met on Zoom, talking ro each other on first name terms with Starmer cosying up to Trump and Trump telling us what a great country we are. The result was a trade deal that we have apparently been trying to agree for years. Now we are better off than we were last week in terms of tariffs, but worse off than we were before Trump imposed his tariffs. Perfect, everyone is a winner. Trump can say he has done a great deal for his country and Starmer can say that he has won concessions from Trump. As long as Putin, that funny little man in North Korea, and Mr China believe that they are winners, when in fact they are all losers, then all is well in the world..

Just a Thought:

You know you are old when everything hurts, and what doesn’t hurt doesn’t work.

You know that you are old when oxygen masks drop from the ceiling when your birthday candles are lit.

When you win say nothing, when you lose say less.

Brian