Springing into the Autumn of Life
A lot of my mates are winding down while I'm ramping things up. One Year Anniversary! Where's Doll? Fake Noos! Quote of the Week! Happy Snaps!
Spring!
Yesterday I turned 59. One more year of being a young man I guess.
Folks, every morning I gaze into the bathroom mirror and am shocked to see some old bastard staring back at me.
Make that, an old bastard who appears to be getting his hair done exclusively at ‘The Dishevelled Gentleman’.
Funny thing is, inside my scone I still feel, I dunno, about 33, or maybe 37.
Ok, 40. Tops.
Honestly it feels like I’m only just hitting my stride.
Meanwhile, a lot of my ‘old’ mates are kicking off their steel caps or hanging up their laptops and getting ready to work on their caravan-reversing skills around Oz.
‘Good for them!’ I say.
Especially to the ones who put in the long years in factories on shiftwork. Man, that sort of ages you; fast!
Occasionally one of them will call to let me know they have nothing to do for the next few decades.
Then I lovingly tell them to get stuffed.
Yeah, mates, that’s what we do.
As for me, at a time when I should be winding down as the Autumn Years of Life approach, I’ve been handed a bonus Spring!
A new Wife (Happy Anniversary Doll!) and a new Life doing… well, let’s see, something that promises to be fun!
That’s kind of exciting! It’s the sort of thing that keeps you young at heart.
Happy Anniversary
This time last year, Doll and I stood in front of a celebrant and answered her thusly:
“Do you?” ‘Sure.’ “What about you?” ‘Oh yeah, why not?’
Samuel Johnson (Sammy, or Johnno, to his mates) an old pommy writer (1709 - 1784) once wrote:
A second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.
Johnno got married at 25 to Elizabeth (nicknamed ‘Tetty’) who was a tad older, 46.
Apparently, his family and her adult children weren’t thrilled about the union.
But they got to celebrate another 17 anniversaries before she upped stumps at 63.
Sam, still a sprightly 42 y.o, then took up with another lass (this time someone who was only one year older than him) named, Hill Boothby. Don’t ask me why her parents called her ‘Hill’. Honestly, some people!
Sadly, Hill died four years later.
I tell you all this because Johnno had actually planned to marry Hill but never got round to it. Which caused him immense regret.
So, to sum up, what Sammo ‘Experienced’ was a loss of ‘Hope’ when he dithered about remarrying.
See, I finally got to the point!
Now, regret is something neither Doll or I want ‘to do’ in later life. Which is why we got married.
And one year later, in the words of a modern writer (me), we are ‘chugging along pretty good’.
In my experience, that’s the best we can hope for…
Where’s Doll?
Sorting out next years’ tour
This time last year, we stepped out of a smoking car after a near month long tour of S.A, Victoria and lots of other places (Mad Max Museum!) between here and the bottom end of the world (Warrnambool).
Then we got to work sorting out everything we needed to do for a crossbow wedding, while Doll continued tutoring her singing students in readiness for their big show in December.
On top of all that, we had to move house, catch up with work commitments and find time to organise this year’s tour dates.
Busy doesn’t begin to describe what we went through, but it was a huge amount of fun! Obviously when we weren’t reeling about from sheer exhaustion.
Right now, things are much more sedate; by comparison.
Doll is still organising which festivals and shows we’ll be doing in various parts of the country. All I have to do is get us there on time, turn up at the venue, washed, dressed and ready to sing.
Can’t wait!
Fake Noos!
You’d better believe this isn’t true!
This week, Donny ‘Tangerine’ Trump returned to the You. S. after being snickered at by English la-de-dah’s for using the wrong spoon to eat soup.
Back home he was stunned to discover several high-ranking members of his cabinet had been caught red-handed being corrupt, unethical and blatantly racist.
“Honesty, trust, integrity and above-board, fair, even handed, transactions have always been at the heart of my core beliefs and values!” Mr. Trump screeched on Truth Social.
“I dealt swiftly with the offenders,” he added, “by immediately getting my pet Dept. of Justice Supremo to pardon them.”
Mr. Trump then attacked, “…vile, anti-fascist, leftists for bringing these things to his attention and putting me off my golf game!”
We can report some of the exonerated offenders were promoted into positions on the Supreme Court as Judges, as that’s the one place where integrity matters least.
And they were also awarded medals of honour, shaped like little, golden, middle fingers, to remind us all of what ‘public service’ means to the Trump Presidency.
Quote of the Week!
Even though I just supplied one earlier about second marriages, here’s another, supplied by Holly (actor Norman Lovett) from the humorous sci-fi series Red Dwarf:
Happy Snaps
Stolen from Substack:
Hey! Thanks for dropping by, let’s do it all again next week!
Cheers,
Gb
