Monday 5 January 2009

When I'm 64!



Anyone remember that song from The Yellow Submarine? Maybe you're too young!

Well, now I am 64! Hard to believe, but it’s true, good grief 64, that’s ancient! Well that’s what I thought when I heard The Beatles singing this song.

I remember thinking about the Millennium when I was about 20, heck I’d be 55 years old, that’s if I lived that long. I didn’t think I’d see the year 2000 never mind getting to 64.The odds weren’t that good really. For the females in our family longevity isn’t that good. My Mam an only child, died at 48 with leukaemia, her Mam, my Nanna died at 53 with heart failure. My Dad’s elder sister died in her forties with an untreated thyroid problem and his younger sister died before she was 60 with lung cancer. So the odds were that I wouldn’t live to a ripe old age. It just shows that the odds are often wrong. Here I am.

I remember this Beatles song and laughing at the lyrics, good grief, people who were 64 were ancient. Have to say I loved it, it was so quirky. You could always rely on them to come up with something different. You could identify who was singing the song, but the songs were never alike, they always surprised you. You never imagined that one day they would be 64. Well sadly 2 of them didn’t make it, my favourite, the lovely George Harrison and John Lennon. Luckily Paul and Ringo did.

Well when I look in the mirror, yes I do look ancient, nothing like that teenage Beatles fan. No long, thick fair hair and no slender figure. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of myself in a window or a mirror when we're out shopping and for a second I don't recognise me. Yet I don’t really feel any different, so apart from appearance, what’s changed about me?

  • I think I’m more tolerant of people than used to be. I’ve always disliked that expression people use “ I don’t suffer fools gladly”. It always seems to me to be an arrogant thing to say. So hopefully I’m more patient than I used to be.When I was younger things were right or they were wrong. Now I don’t see things in black and white, for me there’s often a big grey area. Things are not always clear cut and there’s two sides to every story.
  • I worry less than I used to. It wasn’t surprising that I was a terrible worrier in my twenties. My Mam had died and my son had a serious heart condition. I wasted so much time worrying about the future and what might happen that I couldn’t enjoy the present. I try to take each day as it comes and enjoy it. “May you live all the days of your life”. Jonathan Swift.
  • I get pleasure out of ordinary everyday things, blue skies, my cats, cups of cappuccino, nice glasses of wine, music, telly, listening to the birds etc.
  • I am much more conscious of what I eat now. When I was younger I just ate what I wanted, enormous amounts of everything and I stayed very slim. Now I don't eat meat, I eat very little fatty food other than cheese, my main downfall. I tend to follow what my Nanna used to say, "A little bit of what you fancy does you good".
  • I take more exercise than I used to but I'm not addicted to it. I tried the gym and it wasn't for me so I tend to stick to swimming now.
  • I procrastinate much more than I ever did. I think it's because I'm much more cautious than I used to be. It's also because as I've got older, I've got more critical of myself and what I do.

So what hasn’t changed?

  • I still love laughing and have a strange sense of humour. I don’t always find the popular comedies funny. I never got Friends, Cheers, Frasier or The Office. Like Peter Kaye and Billy Connolly, I think things and people in everyday life are really funny.
    Here’s an example, last Monday I saw a woman in Aldi doing the weekly shop with her husband. Bear in mind it was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit, no snow but there was a bitterly cold wind. The woman was dressed for winter apart from the fact she was wearing pink plastic flip flops. What was that about? What on this earth possessed her to wear them in this weather? She didn’t look or sound like she had any kind of learning difficulties, there weren’t any bandages or plasters on her feet, but she certainly looked daft and her feet must have been absolutely numb with the cold. I was shopping by myself and I really struggled to keep my laugh in.
  • I still love all the crafts I learned when I was younger like sewing, knitting, crochet, quilting etc. I keep on trying new hobbies though and over the years I've filled the house with "stuff" and books on new hobbies like stained glass making, cake decorating and petal paste flower making to name a few. I've promised myself I'll stop and go back to the earlier ones. The house just isn't big enough for any more equipment and books!
  • I'm still a perfectionist unfortunately and I know that if I'm not happy with anything I'm making, it prevents me from finishing it and I just leave it. A friend once told me that was arrogant, so I've tried to be a lot less critical of what I do. I know the perfectionist streak also lies behind the procrastination!
  • My tastes in music haven’t really changed. My first love is still love pop music and dancing to it, if I get the chance. My old favourites come out regularly, Neil Sedaka, Gene Pitney, The Shadows, The Beatles and later ones like ABBA, Elton John, Take That and Back Street Boys. Also still love lots of classical music and especially classical guitar. I can listen to a wider range of music now but I still can’t hack jazz.
  • I still love swimming although I haven’t improved. Still can’t do the crawl. That’s my ambition for this year.
  • I’m still struggling to learn Spanish. I improve but very slowly. I need to live in Spain for a few weeks or months even. Now that’s unrealistic at the moment, maybe one day. Oh yes, that's something else that hasn't changed, always the dreamer!

Well enough about me and my aged witterings, what do you think has changed about you? Maybe you'd like to tell us!

16 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday to you! Glad your still kicking. It does appear that you enjoy life and that's a good thing!

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  2. When was your birthday? Doesn't matter...a very big "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" to you Winifred!!!! You have echoed my feelings about myself almost to the T. I also find so much humor in everyday events. Like your trip to the store, and seeing the lady with flip flops on in the winter time.
    My husband has all of the Beatles albums. I have thought about that song ever since it first came out, and wondered also if I would ever see 64. I used to think I would not make it to 40..that used to seem so old.
    Enjoyed your post very much, and I hope you always feel as young as you do now.
    Birthday Hugs to you!

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  3. Happy Birthday Winifred! I hope it's a wonderful one and you strike me as a lady who life pretty sussed, so I'm sure it will be.

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  4. I hate to admit it but I will be 70 in August and life is much better now.I like to think I have worked out all that life can throw at me and not worry. Just live for today and not regret the past and let the future come as it may.

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  5. Happy Birthday! Loved this post. Have a good day!
    Kris

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  6. Sometimes I run across people my age who are depressed and sad and worried every day about death. It makes me feel a bit guilty that I cannot transfer to them my joy at this age, the things I have learned, the confidence I have developed and the beauty of still looking forward to each new day without fear.

    Winifred this is a tremendous post! Happy Birthday To You.

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  7. Happy Birthday Winifred. May you have many more! I never got into all those TV shows either, preferring like you, to find what humors me out in the wild. Like ladies wearing flip flops in the dead of winter. I wonder if she'd just had a pedicure and didn't want to ruin her polish.

    Anyways, enjoy yourself and celebrate with a glass of that good wine.

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  8. I'm 51 and what's changed is that I like myself more and more. I am fit, as I love the gym, started 26 years ago. I love writing, and blogging, and meeting all these lovely new people and hearing their stories.

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  9. Great post Winifred - and Happy Happy Birthday to you.

    Shall have to think about the ways I've changed and may follow your lead a do a post about it!

    A x

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  10. Thanks everyone for the lovely birthday wishes. I'm up earlier than usual for some reason. Now I've had my cappuccino fix and I'm waiting for my grandaughter to come. She loves opening cards and presents so I promised she could open mine today.

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  11. Happy Birthday. It is a quiet time of year to have a birthday. Mine was the 30th December - usually everyone forgets.

    I turned 45, which I don't mind when I think about it. But I am so aware that I have run out of the spare change of youth when it comes to the body. It is all maintenance and I don't mean wanting to look younger. I just want to look fit, healthy and nice. Trying to look younger is like trying to hold back the tide with your hand.

    It is good to read what you think of being 64. It seems it is not as bad as you may have thought.

    I would not want to be twenty again unless I could keep the brain I have now. It holds so much more within.

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  12. Dear Winifred ~~ Great post and a very Happy Birthday. I am glad you are happy with your life and I agree with all the things you said
    I worry less, enjoy little things more, am more tolerant and easy to get along with these days. AND I am 74. Loved the music you liked also.Blogging has improved my life so much, meeting friends from everywhere and sharing our thoughts and lives with each other. Take care my friend and contiue to enjoy life. Love, Merle.

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  13. Oh, Winifred, I just loved this post. Maybe because I will by 64 on February 6. For the most part, I could have written this post, except I am NOT a perfectionist. I could use a little more perfection in my life. LOL.

    I like the same music as you, was a worrier, and have mellowed, mellowed, mellowed in my old age.

    I wish like anything we could meet. We would either love each other immediatley or take an istant dislike. What do you think.

    Hey friend, Happy Birthday.

    ~hippo hugs~

    PS - No longevity in my family either. I'm hoping to be the exception - life is good.

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  14. Happy birthday! Great post. I once thought 64 was old. I no longer think that way. I am caregiver to a second aunt to reach 95 years and my mom and her sister reached 87. Now 90 seems old to me. *LOL*

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  15. Sorry I'm late, Winifred. It's a long story!

    I am 72, and not much has changed--on the inside. We won't talk about the outside! LOL.

    Happy Birthday, Winifred. I hope all your birthday wishes have or will come true!

    Birthday Hugs,

    Renie

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  16. I am hoping that 64th birthday will be a great one, and that everyone will still love after wards! That big day dawns next month! I hope for you the same wish! Happy birthday.

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