Mature, mellow and vintage

Mature, mellow and vintage – that’s me!

“quality, choice, superior, better, good, select, best, classic, aged, seasoned, mature(d), mellow(ed)"

Or to hand-pick phrases from some of the definitions:

 ripe, or fully aged; fully developed in body or mind; well-matured; made gentle and compassionate by age or maturity; softened; an exceptionally fine wine from the crop of a good year.....

As opposed to old, elderly and in declining years....!

But I’m not!! 

Certainly I am definitely over 65... several generations ago this would have been regarded as definitely ‘past it’....but that’s not how I feel inside!    “Young at heart” isn’t quite right either...I have to say that I’ve lost a lot of that ‘don’t care about the consequences’ that I associate with being young.  Certainly some of the things I did in my youth I wouldn’t even want to do now – not even think of doing, let alone being able to!!

But I don’t feel old either...  I still want to try new things, at my own pace admittedly, and on my own terms.....    and I want to be able to understand most of what my children and grandchildren are talking about.  I want to nod wisely in the right places, and be able to ask reasonably intelligent questions and understand at least most of their answers!

I still get a surprise when I look in the mirror and see all that grey and greying hair, and the wrinkles, and the start of a double chin... but let’s not dwell on all this!  Some parts of my body do ache and creak, and there’s too much body in some places!  Consequently it flops and wobbles.....  And I really don’t like those air-dryers for your hands in toilet washrooms (although I must admit the new Dyson ones are very effective)... you see, they do terrible things to the loose skin on the back of your hand when you’re older....it builds up in waves with the pressure of the air – and takes quite a while to get back into place......

But I LOVE new things – learning new skills, dabbling in new technologies – and conquering them – or at least using them, even if I couldn’t say I’ve completely mastered them! 

Maybe not when they first appear – it takes me a while to adjust to new fashions (and when it’s clothes or shoes they’re usually going out of fashion by the time I’m willing to accept them as ‘normal ‘) – and for some of the new technologies I wouldn’t want to pay out good money for them when they first appear.... 

But, I don’t want to wish myself into a backwater either, or reject something out of hand without giving it a go (unless it’s something akin to bungee-jumping!).  And I love solving problems...finding missing socks, working out how a new gadget works, adjusting to a new camera that doesn’t have a viewfinder – just a screen at the back, working out how to navigate round a new piece of software......

So – that is why I’m having a go at a BLOG!