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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: You know you're middle aged when...
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
What brings home that realisation? For me it was:
You know you're middle aged when there's no one left who thinks of you as being young and daft.
Any other moments of truth, from any other stage of life?
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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Organ Builder
Shipmate
# 12478
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Posted
For me, it was when I needed special doctors for individual body parts--my knee doctor, my shoulder doctor...
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How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people.--E.F. Benson
Posts: 3337 | From: ...somewhere in between 40 and death... | Registered: Mar 2007
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basso
Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228
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Posted
I was taking the train to San Francisco for a birthday lunch with my family (my 50th) when a sweet young thing stood up and offered me her seat.
Posts: 4358 | From: Bay Area, Calif | Registered: Mar 2003
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The5thMary
Shipmate
# 12953
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Posted
... you used to leap out of bed, excited about the day and now, if you were to try to leap out of bed the end result would be you'd fall flat on your face and quite possibly have to take a trip to the emergency room! Sadly, my leaping days are loooooong past... ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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God gave me my face but She let me pick my nose.
Posts: 3451 | From: Tacoma, WA USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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Organ Builder
Shipmate
# 12478
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Posted
Not to bring the thread down too much, but another big wake-up call comes when you stand at the grave of your last remaining parent, and realize that YOU are now the generation facing death.
It was sobering.
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How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people.--E.F. Benson
Posts: 3337 | From: ...somewhere in between 40 and death... | Registered: Mar 2007
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tessaB
Shipmate
# 8533
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Posted
Driving to work on a frosty morning and seeing a young girl in a mini-skirt and a bum-freezer jacket exposing a large quantity of bare skin. Instead of envying her courage I thought 'ooh, she will get a chill'. That's when it hit ..... I have become my mother ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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tessaB
eating chocolate to the glory of God
Holiday cottage near Rye
Posts: 1068 | From: U.K. | Registered: Sep 2004
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
You're standing in a church, the organ starts to play, and that is your child getting married.
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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the long ranger
Shipmate
# 17109
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Posted
The idea of a good night is going to bed early.
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"..into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” “But Rabbi, how can this happen for those who have no teeth?”
"..If some have no teeth, then teeth will be provided.”
Posts: 1310 | Registered: May 2012
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
I've had many red flags in the past twenty years or so, but it was brought home to me again a few weeks back when my youngest niece turned forty
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
Getting accused of not listening when it is actually not hearing.
The analogue prostate exam becomes digital. (I'm not going to say anything further about that if you don't know what this means!)
Getting called an "older adult", and getting offered senior discounts.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Organ Builder
Shipmate
# 12478
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet:
The analogue prostate exam becomes digital. (I'm not going to say anything further about that if you don't know what this means!)
I know what it means. ![[Waterworks]](graemlins/bawling.gif)
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How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people.--E.F. Benson
Posts: 3337 | From: ...somewhere in between 40 and death... | Registered: Mar 2007
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Jigsaw
Shipmate
# 11433
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Posted
In the UK, it's when you get a little package through the post - your very own bowel cancer screening kit. You get ready to have a poo, take the little wooden stick provided, smear a little bit of your ..
You can guess the rest, as you can about the digital prostate exam.
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You are not alone in this.
Posts: 743 | From: Snorbens, UK | Registered: May 2006
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
When your doctor, your boss, and your president are all younger than you are.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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bib
Shipmate
# 13074
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Posted
When your children ask you to tell them what you did in the olden days.
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"My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, accept the praise I bring"
Posts: 1307 | From: Australia | Registered: Oct 2007
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Dogwalker
Shipmate
# 14135
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Posted
You get down on the floor to play with a child, and realize you may be there permanently.
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If God had meant for us to fly, he wouldn't have given us the railways. - Unknown
Posts: 155 | From: Milford, MA, USA | Registered: Sep 2008
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
When your ... president [is] younger than you are.
It started with policemen. Then Members of Parliament. Now the Prime Minister* ...
I turned 50 and became a great-auntie this year, which seemed like a bit of a double whammy, then I read the other day that some researchers have decided that you're not actually middle-aged until you hit 55.
Another five years of wild youth for me! ![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
For the record, your president is older than me. Just. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
* of the UK, anyway.
[ 26. September 2012, 00:02: Message edited by: piglet ]
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Augustine the Aleut
Shipmate
# 1472
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Posted
when your bishop is younger than you are, and now there are threee cardinals younger.
Posts: 6236 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: Oct 2001
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
I figured I looked really old when Daughter-Unit asked me if there were such things as mirrors when I was young.
The Middle Age realization struck when my mom told me she was shopping for a gift for a 50 year old. I wondered which of her friends it was. Many days later, I realized it was me.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
Then there was a time when daughter unit said, regarding a song from the late 80s, that it was "oldies." Noooooooooo!
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Mamacita
Lakefront liberal
# 3659
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Posted
When you find your teenager going through your closet looking for something to wear to a costume party.
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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
My thunderbolt came when our store was assigned a new manager and she turned out to be the daughter of a gal with whom I went to middle school.
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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Your first action in the morning - and last at night - is to Take Your Pills.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
The Queen comes to open a new University library and you were an undergraduate when her mother opened the previous library, now demolished to make way for the new one.
The previous library was cutting-edge thirty years ago.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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dv
Shipmate
# 15714
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Posted
When SAGA starts bombarding your mailbox.
Posts: 70 | From: Lancs UK | Registered: Jun 2010
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Lucrezia Spagliatoni Dayglo
Apprentice
# 16907
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Posted
...when you're standing in a queue and comment to the small 'boy' behind you that you never had dress up days when you were at school, only to find he was a genuine police man...
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Work hard, drink hard, play hard and fall over hard.
Posts: 20 | From: "...an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet ..." | Registered: Jan 2012
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
When buying a backscratcher to reach those places you can't otherwise reach any more becomes a thing of great rejoicing.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
Oh, lordie, lordie! ![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
And welcome back, Lucrezia. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
ETA: cross-posted, but Wodders' point is very well taken, too.
[ 26. September 2012, 08:56: Message edited by: Lyda*Rose ]
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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
All so true, so true. My first realisation was when shop people and the like stopped addressing me as 'Miss' and called me 'madam'...
As the great Giles of blessed memory once said to Buffy, he'd rather be at home with a cup of Bovril and a good book - that's my man!
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
You know you're middle aged when your colleague, the teacher of the class next door was born in 1990.
She's younger than my sons!
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Morlader
Shipmate
# 16040
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Posted
I am not middle-aged, I am old . I know because they've stopped asking to see my bus pass.
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.. to utmost west.
Posts: 858 | From: Not England | Registered: Nov 2010
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
If you've got a bus pass, you're staring the end of middle age in the face. Don't kid yourself.
Adult life - to an approximation, lasts from 20 to 80. The mid-point of this is 50. Any definition of "middle age" that doesn't have 50 around the middle of it is a comfortable fiction.
Hence it runs from around 35 to 65, IMV. Which unfortunately includes me. And my answer to the OP is "when you start saying 'oof' as you settle into an armchair."
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
Mrs Sioni recently had the shock of becoming a great-great-aunt! She wasn't amused at all and she's younger than me.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Alaric the Goth
Shipmate
# 511
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Posted
I'm a paradox. I am 46 , so middle-aged according to most (1970s!) dictionary definitions, but look younger (some reckon a good 10 years younger or more). I don't have a hint of hair loss, unlike many ex-Uni friends (You Know Who You Are...) who need head-polishing kits for Christmas ![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif) . I also am not obviously going grey* (have, allegedly, one or two grey hairs, but I can't see them...). But I was midde aged at 30 in terms of taste. I got for one Christmas present (I was, IIRC, still in my 30s) the perfect combination: a bottle of single malt whisky, slippers, and a book entitled An Illustrated History of Hull & Barnsley Railway Locomotives (Volume 2). Middle aged? At least!
*My friend was recently at a (PCC?) meeting of his CofE church and a name for the Senior Citizens Group was being sought. He suggested Fifty Shades of Grey! This was not minuted...
Posts: 3322 | From: West Thriding | Registered: Jun 2001
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MSHB
Shipmate
# 9228
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Posted
They increase the starting age for "middle-aged" ... and you are still over it.
You stop wondering what you are going to do when you grow up and start planning your retirement (not that I have ever grown up).
Your latest new recruit at work is younger than your oldest child (and you keep thinking "Gosh he looks so young").
You remember where you were when Kennedy was assassinated (or perhaps if you even know who Kennedy was).
John, Paul, George, and Ringo!
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MSHB: Member of the Shire Hobbit Brigade
Posts: 1522 | From: Dharawal Country | Registered: Mar 2005
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alaric the Goth:
I got for one Christmas present (I was, IIRC, still in my 30s) the perfect combination: a bottle of single malt whisky, slippers, and a book entitled An Illustrated History of Hull & Barnsley Railway Locomotives (Volume 2). Middle aged? At least!
What makes this worse is the assumption that you must have already purchased or received "An Illustrated History of Hull & Barnsley Railway Locomotives (Volume 1)" on some earlier occasion.
But then I am a London & North Western man.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
quote:
Originally posted by Alaric the Goth:
I got for one Christmas present (I was, IIRC, still in my 30s) the perfect combination: a bottle of single malt whisky, slippers, and a book entitled An Illustrated History of Hull & Barnsley Railway Locomotives (Volume 2). Middle aged? At least!
What makes this worse is the assumption that you must have already purchased or received "An Illustrated History of Hull & Barnsley Railway Locomotives (Volume 1)" on some earlier occasion.
But then I am a London & North Western man.
Oh saints preserve us, not two of them!
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alaric the Goth:
... I also am not obviously going grey* (have, allegedly, one or two grey hairs, but I can't see them...)...
You know you're middle aged when you're acquiring grey hairs that aren't visible to the general public.
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Alaric the Goth
Shipmate
# 511
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
quote:
Originally posted by Alaric the Goth:
I got for one Christmas present (I was, IIRC, still in my 30s) the perfect combination: a bottle of single malt whisky, slippers, and a book entitled An Illustrated History of Hull & Barnsley Railway Locomotives (Volume 2). Middle aged? At least!
What makes this worse is the assumption that you must have already purchased or received "An Illustrated History of Hull & Barnsley Railway Locomotives (Volume 1)" on some earlier occasion.
But then I am a London & North Western man.
Oh saints preserve us, not two of them!
Call us (6170 British) Legion for we are many! We had a whole thread, and then another, for railway enthusiasts while you were ashore, and it drove the hosts wild with excitement to read our posts about Stanier, Gresley, SR EMUs (that was ken) etc, etc.
Posts: 3322 | From: West Thriding | Registered: Jun 2001
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Alaric the Goth
Shipmate
# 511
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
quote:
Originally posted by Alaric the Goth:
I got for one Christmas present (I was, IIRC, still in my 30s) the perfect combination: a bottle of single malt whisky, slippers, and a book entitled An Illustrated History of Hull & Barnsley Railway Locomotives (Volume 2). Middle aged? At least!
What makes this worse is the assumption that you must have already purchased or received "An Illustrated History of Hull & Barnsley Railway Locomotives (Volume 1)" on some earlier occasion.
No, actually, I have never seen ' Vol. 1'. 'Volume 2' was reduced in price at WHS and was about the actual classes (Kirtley and Stirling locos) whilst I think Vol. 1 concerned itself with sheds, diagrams, operating etc. (I'm not sure that I'd buy it even if I saw it).
quote:
But then I am a London & North Western man.
I will pray for you. The Midland was much better!
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'Angels and demons dancing in my head,
Lunatics and monsters underneath my bed' ('Totem', Rush)
Posts: 3322 | From: West Thriding | Registered: Jun 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alaric the Goth:
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
quote:
Originally posted by Alaric the Goth:
I got for one Christmas present (I was, IIRC, still in my 30s) the perfect combination: a bottle of single malt whisky, slippers, and a book entitled An Illustrated History of Hull & Barnsley Railway Locomotives (Volume 2). Middle aged? At least!
What makes this worse is the assumption that you must have already purchased or received "An Illustrated History of Hull & Barnsley Railway Locomotives (Volume 1)" on some earlier occasion.
But then I am a London & North Western man.
Oh saints preserve us, not two of them!
Call us (6170 British) Legion for we are many! We had a whole thread, and then another, for railway enthusiasts while you were ashore, and it drove the hosts wild with excitement to read our posts about Stanier, Gresley, SR EMUs (that was ken) etc, etc.
That may not have been excitement.
The best railway threads are surely those that start Kings Cross St Pancras or Mudchute and end (after much argument about rules and rulings) with Mornington Crescent! and a big argument about whether the winning move was valid.
[ 26. September 2012, 15:53: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Starbug
Shipmate
# 15917
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Posted
You refer to past events and younger colleagues stare at you blankly because it was 'before their time'.
You remember the original releases of current cover versions (and prefer them too!)
You have to pluck hairs out of your chin.
Your 'little' sister turns 40!
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“Oh the pointing again. They're screwdrivers! What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them?” ― The Day of the Doctor
Posts: 1189 | From: West of the New Forest | Registered: Sep 2010
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
The young things in your office start reminiscing about "back in the Nineties" (and you realize that in just 4 years, people born this century will be entering employment).
Your new manager wasn't born when you first started work.
The technological revolution that you were keenly enthusiastic about when you were younger is all now Getting A Bit Much and leaving you behind.
Your friends start talking about their grandchildren. Those that are left, anyway.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Tree Bee
Ship's tiller girl
# 4033
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Posted
You are approached with an invitation to join the U3A, the university of the third age.
This happened to me on my 50th birthday.
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"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
— Woody Guthrie
http://saysaysay54.wordpress.com
Posts: 5257 | From: me to you. | Registered: Feb 2003
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Mama Thomas
Shipmate
# 10170
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Posted
You know you're middle aged when everyone you meet reminds of of someone else.
You know you're middle aged with nothing on a Top 40 station makes any sense.
You know you're middle aged if you think a flip phone is cool.
You know you're middle aged if the year 1995 doesn't seem all that long ago.
You know you're in a mainline denomination when a 50-year old clergy person is constantly referred to as "young."
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All hearts are open, all desires known
Posts: 3742 | From: Somewhere far away | Registered: Aug 2005
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Mama Thomas
Shipmate
# 10170
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Posted
I forgot one that hits home: you know you're middle age when seemingly suddenly becoming fat and bald DID happen to you. (Never thought it would but it did).
And you know you're middle aged when you're too old to die young.
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All hearts are open, all desires known
Posts: 3742 | From: Somewhere far away | Registered: Aug 2005
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![[Tear]](graemlins/tear.gif)
) years ago, arguably the capital of Oz-chic. People on every street corner hand out fliers to the night clubs - but not to me. 
