The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

I’m 56.

FIFTYFUCKINGSIX.

I’ve never felt my age, but right now, I can’t even comprehend how old I am.

Just 4 years off 60.

Or said another way, 4 years from being the same age as Dad when he died.

For years that number haunted me … and it will probably be very emotional for me, when I turn that age … but right now, I feel closer to 40 than 60.

Part of it is my attitude … or as Peter Mensch say’s, my “immunity from maturity”, hahaha.

But another part – and I appreciate how superficial this is – is how I look.

Don’t worry, I don’t think I’m Brad Pitt or anything – I’m more like ‘Arm Pit’ – but recently I was watching something with Otis when a 50 year old man was interviewed and I caught Otis staring at me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him.

“Nothing. I just can’t work out how he looks so much older than you, when you’re older than him”.

He said it with an air of confusion, consideration and happiness.

Which made me happy.

Not necessarily because I look – at least to him – younger than some 50 year old on the television, but because it means I’m healthier so I’m more likely to be around him him longer than I once may have been.

And while even that may not be as long as I hope or wish … to me, that’s the greatest gift I could ever receive. Albeit this weekend, I’ll be watching the start of the World Cup and eating like ‘old Rob’, hahaha.