Sunday 16 June 2013

Middle-aged things I have done this month

1) Bought a membership to the National Trust. Free binoculars - woohoo!

2) Bought a membership to Dobbies Gardening Club - two free teas/coffees every month - woohoo again!

3) Watched SpringWatch on BBC 2 and rooted for the jackdaw babies that were constantly being threatened in their nest box.

4) Planted a lot of salad leaves because...

5) ...spotted my increasing matronly bosom in the mirror and have decided something needs to be done about it. So started a new blog as a record - get-a-grip-now.blogspot.co.uk/

6) Made puffing noises when I stood up (ditto number 5 above).

7) Decided to buy a classic car.

8) Paid three bills in the Post Office rather than over the Internet.

9) Switched off Radio 4 Breakfast because John Humphries was being too shouty.

10) Thought how nice it would be to go back to primary school.

And regarding Number 8, I have to relate a further middle-aged rant that occurred on the same day. As I was going to the Post Office, I thought I'd take some bits 'n' pieces I had gathered together to the charity shop. Four not insubstantial bags' worth to be precise. So I parked up and carried these four bags half a mileish to the British Heart Foundation because it was nearest to the Post Office. And by the time I got to the shop the bag handles were cutting into my hands and I was puffing a bit and thinking I would be jolly pleased to get rid of these bags, thank you very much.

However, I discovered that the shop didn't open until 9.30 and I had arrived at 9.25. I mean, what sort of shop opens at 9.30? Not like the olden days when shops opened at 9, when people wanted them to be open, especially people on their way to Post Offices.

 So I stood on the pavement, and peered through the shop door and therewithin stood two ladies. Just standing there. Doing nothing. And they saw me, standing there on the pavement, toting four heavy bags of charitable donations, on the point of developing bleeding palms where the handles were chopping into my flesh.

And did they dash to the door and open it and offer to take the bags? Even though I was there five minutes before opening time? Because that would be what I would do. Like in the older days when shop assistants were helpful. Did they heck! They just stood and watched me, because I was five minutes early and there was NO WAY they were opening that door a minute before 9.30.

Well, I stood there for a couple of minutes, and just as they looked like they were heading for the door, I turned on my heels and marched my four bags of donations all the way down the other end of the High Street to the PDSA shop, where they were accepted with a smile and a cheery demeanour by a young man in a bobble hat. 

Sheer cussedness on my part, I know, but I don't care. It was another middle-aged thing I did this week.

11 comments:

  1. I would have done the same thing :-) And I'd like to know which classic car you are buying please?

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  2. I am going to get a Figaro! Little sports car manufactured only in 1991, which I know doesn't make it strictly classic but as far as I am concerned it is! It is certainly a design classic.

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  3. Oh dear. I've done half of these things. I must be middle aged too :(

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  4. Jessica, middle age is the new teenage tantrum! Only no one can tell us off...not even teachers!!

    Anonymous, whoever you are...you are quite correct. I can't even put the right address in and it is my blog! How pants is that?

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  5. Woohoo, go Denise:)
    And can I have a ride in your new classic car, please?

    Diana

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  6. Thank you for your woohoo of encouragement, Diana! I look on this time of life not as a mid-life crisis, but more as a mid-life revelation.

    You may indeed come for a ride in the car when I get it. Although it does have four seats, the back two are really only suitable for teeny passengers like grandchildren, cats and hens so you shall be riding shot gun up front with me!

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  7. Your blog posts really do make me chuckle! That would also irritate me! When you are quite clearly trying to do something to help, the least those people could have done was open up a few minutes earlier!

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  8. Always happy to make people smile, Lou Mary! Keep on chuckling!!

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