Later

Quiet night in front of the TV with Husband. A rare occurrence. It’s time for Later with Jools Holland. The perfect therapy for grumpy middle-aged people.

Ordinary people with annoying daily lives – that’s most of us, then – need an outlet for some of that frustration; someone to hate. Some people go to football matches. We do heckling the telly. Husband doesn’t like football, which is one of the reasons he’s my husband.

We are united in our dislike of pointless sport. And our hatred of bad pop. Next big thing? Flavour of the month? Bring them on. We’ll demolish them in a few well-chosen words. One of them being ‘shite’. We don’t necessarily agree about everything. I find derivative art-school incompetence less annoying than dull jazz musicians who ‘can play’… Then Newsnight comes on and we remember who the real enemy is.

I'm not a number IV

I’ve had an invitation from Saga to take out insurance. Just to make the invitation more enticing, they offer a ‘free mini Sudoku game’ when you phone for a quote.

Is this their idea of how the over 50s spend their leisure time?

As far as I’m concerned, this definitely falls into the category of ‘life’s too short’.

Smoke gets in your eyes

Or should that be 'smoke and mirrors'? Which magazine has found out that ‘anti-ageing’ eye creams don’t work. Surprise. At no cost to you, the reader, here are the top three ways not to get wrinkles: 1. don’t smoke 2. don’t sunbathe 3. be a bit overweight. What does ‘look visibly younger’ mean anyway?

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands

I sat down happily last night to watch 100 Years of Girl Guides on BBC4. Then I realised that I actually remember - and celebrated - the Guides' 'diamond jubilee'. That means the 60th anniversary. That means it was 40 years ago. And that means I must be really old. They never taught us to Be Prepared for that.

The times they are a-changin’

In the year or so since I’ve been writing this blog, a few things have happened. I’ve turned 50*. I’ve kept it quiet. And I’ve started to get used to the idea.

Being in your fifties is definitely something that takes getting used to. But when you do, it’s not that bad. There are times when it feels like freedom.

The past decade has been interesting experience. There’s a lot of difference between being 40 and being 45. Being 45 did feel like a turning point. I wouldn’t quite say it’s all downhill from there but you start to realise you look different, and you know you creak more. After 45, you can’t pass as ‘young’ so easily. By the time you get to 50, that doesn’t seem to matter so much.

It’s a different sort of turning point, more mental than physical. And mostly positive. I read somewhere recently that 50 year olds are ‘complacent’. I hope I’m not. I might have the occasional ‘I did it my way’ moment but that’s down to relief as much as anything. I wouldn’t dare to be smug. I know this freedom won’t last; I know that the older you get, the more scope there is for bad stuff to happen. But I’m going to enjoy it while I can.

*I also turned 51.