About: age is just a (biggish) number

The me I think I am

This is a blog about aging. Actually, maybe not. It’s a blog inspired by age – my age.

I turned 50 and thought –  in an intellectual sort of way – that I’m getting old. At 50, my mother had three grown-up kids, one grandmother already had seven grandchildren and the other was about to die.

But the thing is; I don’t feel old!

I still feel like the mucky kid who manages to get icecream all over her.

Because age is relative, right. When you’re a kid there is a kind of chasm between you and THE OLDER GENERATION. All your teachers seem old; your mum and dad are old, your grandparents are ancient, and if, like me you had great grandparents … well I think the word I’m looking for is prehistoric.

Then you grow up and meet someone who taught you at high school and they haven’t fossilised yet. The fact that they don’t remember you isn’t dementia – it’s that they taught thousands of sullen teenagers while you only had one Mr. M for fifth form English.

Everyone you know starts having kids and one day you meet a friend from playcentre and she tells you her son (whose fifth birthday party you went to) has started university. Your own child becomes taller than you – and not only understands the “I really shouldn’t laugh at this” syphilis joke – but can make one of his own. Suddenly you are THE OLDER GENERATION.

I was going to a costume party, but when I dashed into the local bottle store to buy wine, the guy there didn’t bat an eyelid. Perhaps I’m just meant to be a punk?

But that’s ok, ‘cos not only do I not feel old, I actually feel better than I ever have – maybe not physically, but emotionally and intellectually. I am stronger, braver, funnier, more compassionate, more resilient and much more confident.

I’m also way more opinionated! And I guess that’s what this blog is about; a journey through my thoughts and impressions and beliefs shaped by the 50 years that have gone, and the days that pass now.

Thanks for reading this; perhaps you want to take the journey with me.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering … ZimmerBitch?

… well she’s the avatar I created in my son’s PS3 skating game; a funky old lady who had swapped her zimmerframe for a skateboard.

I had hopes that I could dress her “nana style” and film this cool skating granny, thereby making me a YouTube star. Sadly – and inexplicably – the game didn’t offer grey as a hair colour – nor tweed skirts, twinsets, baggy tights, orthopaedic shoes and crocodile handbags in the wardrobe options. So ZimmerBitch doesn’t ride the virtual mean streets of YouTube – YET!!!