Fox on the Run

I am lucky that I see foxes fairly frequently in the area where I live. We are in the town but there are allotments and parks close by and there have been foxes around here for as long as I can remember. I had never seen a fox near my work place until yesterday. It was daylight but as I pulled out of the car park and drove towards the road a young fox crossed in front of me. It had come from the the Starbucks drive-throu (without observing the one way signs) and when it had crossed in front of me it cut through some undergrowth. It then skirted behind a couple of my colleagues who were chatting near their cars without them even noticing it! I lost sight of it after that but it really cheered me up to see it. I know that they kill indiscriminately if they get into a hen house or the like, but I can't help thinking that they add something to our lives too.

A Man is Not Old Until Regrets Take the Place of Dreams.

On Friday Robbie got onto the subject of Crackerjack (a children's television show), he asked me if I remembered who used to present it. I told him that I didn't watch it (I have never enjoyed game shows) but something at the back of my mind made me think that Eamonn Andrews presented it at one time. Robbie laughed and said I must be confused, he reeled off a couple of other names that meant nothing to me and he was incredulous that I didn't know who they were. He decided to look it up and he found that I was right, in the very early days Crackerjack was indeed presented by Eamonn Andrews, but not at a time when I could have watched it. I don't know how I knew about him being the presenter it must have been one of those pointless fragments of knowledge that we gather over a lifetime.  Robbie informed me that Michael Aspel had presented it for a while in the early 1970s. It did stir vague memories, but when he mentioned someone called Stu Francis I had no idea who he was talking about. When Robbie announced the dates that he presented the show I was forced to point out that I would have left school by then and would not have been watching children's television. This gave him plenty of scope to tease me about being old - he takes a wicked pleasure in making me feel ancient!


Without really meaning to Robbie left me feeling old and past it (whatever 'it' might be). It set me thinking about what old really means. As a child on the rare occasions that I was brave enough to ask my grandma how old she was, she would tell me that she was as old as her tongue and a little bit older than her teeth. I was never brave enough to point out that she was considerably older than her teeth - she had a new and rather wayward set of dentures! My mum (who was 29 when I was born) always claimed to be 23, in fact she remained 23 until she was well into her 50s!! My younger daughter longed to be 18 so that she could be an adult and do all the things she wanted to do. My older daughter who is 22 was furious the other day when she was asked for ID to buy a DVD with a 12 classification! She hates looking younger than her years. 


So it seems to me that most people are not totally happy with their age, that is just the way life is. It is no wonder that I feel old when I have to cope with Robbie and his many and varied moods. You should have seen him today, he had a massive strop because he sat on some bird poo, but thankfully his bad mood didn't last too long. One way or the other life with Robbie is always eventful! Perhaps I have a few (or more) grey hairs, perhaps I am getting old, who cares. John Barrymore said "A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams" I am not ready to give up on my dreams, so by that measure I am still young!