Friday, 7 December 2018
My Life in Three Leaps
My 69th birthday today offer the opportunity to divide the years behind me neatly into three 'ages'. Leaping back across the first 23 years, I find myself a middle-aged father of teenagers, expending what now seems impossible quantities of energy all over the place, and not long launched on what would become a 22-year stint in the job from which I recently and joyously retired. The next 23-year leap finds me almost unrecognisable in the form of the human wreck recently emerged from Cambridge with no idea what to do next, nor any particular desire to do anything – I might have been in Edinburgh at this time, or somewhere in London, certainly with no sign of useful energy or purpose. Leap back another 23 years and there I am, new born and blinking uncomprehendingly at this strange but wonderful world. Much of the time, I guess I'm still doing that.
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Congrats
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, and thank you for all your past & future posts!
ReplyDeleteMarvellous post.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
ReplyDeleteTwenty-three seems a suitable number for a leap. It is prime, for one thing, the only prime between 19 and 29.
Dear Sir Nigenns, I am astonished to discover that we are the same age, although I got here slightly before you. My life experience has been somewhat different from yours, however - involving substantial lashings of drink, armfuls of women in my early years, ejection from college into a harsh and unforgiving world (mainly due to the amount of drink and women I needed, as aforementioned); then mid years absorbed with - I admit it - some only just legitimate trading in and around the edges of marginal stocks and finance in NY City; then my final years spending it all on more alcohol and women. Coming over here with what tiny portion was left over allows me to eke out a modest living in a small mansion where I occasionally drink and entertain women, but (believe me) nothing like on the scale of my early years. I just can't quite go the distance, sadly, although no actual complaints so far. And the stuff still basically works, which is not the case for everyone appraoching 70. Luckily, no children to try to steal my money off me. Guess we couldn't be more different, but that's the beauty of life - no two people are the same. Happy birthday, pal!
ReplyDeleteBlimey, Newman, I had no idea!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the messages anyway.
happy birthday Nige!!
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