Age @ Things Of Interest

Age

It was my maternal grandmother's surprise eightieth birthday party on 26th July. Her daughter and son-in-law (my aunt and uncle) Abby and Ken had arranged to bring her to Stratford-upon-Avon for the day - it was only when she arrived that she found me, my mum and dad, and various other members of the extended family-and-friends waiting to join her for a cruise (and cooked lunch) aboard a canalboat.

Driving to Stratford is the easiest thing in the world. I still didn't have a road atlas at this point so I was still working on the principle of "memorise the route from Google Maps and scribble a few notes", but there was basically nothing to memorise. I pity the fool who has to find his way to my ancestral home in Nottingham by that method; it is not remotely trivial for someone who didn't grow up being driven around those roads.

I do have an atlas now, although on general principle I do not intend to purchase a satellite navigator. It's not that I don't trust them; I just think they're expensive, they're a liability and they perform extremely poorly when confronted with the unexpected. Google Maps is as accurate as road maps get, and I find even Google Maps roads frequently differ slightly from reality, and Google Maps directions frequently a little misleading themselves when compared with the roads down which they purportedly direct one. Studying the satellite photographs of the area is much more instructive by comparison. Even the road atlas itself, I can't really rely on for live direction. It has such a small scale that squinting at it while it's open in the passenger seat - even if it's on the right page already - is a recipe for running into the back of the car you're following.

I didn't know most of the people at the gathering. I was disappointed that my siblings hadn't turned up, because it left me as the youngest person - and the only second-generation descendant of the honoured guest - present.

The canal boat was double-width but still cramped. The food - chicken (I don't know how it was cooked, whichever way isn't "roast"), new potatoes, plum crumble - was worthy of a Corpus Christi College regular formal hall, by which I mean it was edible but a long way short of exciting, and worth about eight quid. I dislike rivers and large bodies of water, not because of any kind of phobia, but just because big boats like this barge in particular and every ferry I've ever been on are so slow and unmanoeuvrable. Locks are fun the first time, but half a dozen of them is agonising. Docking after the end of the round trip took literally thirty minutes because of the lock between the canal and the marina, another barge which was docked in "our spot", and possibly an inept pilot. It was agonising. Planes park faster.

The main point of interest of the trip was a book of photographs from the past history of the family, collated and bound by Abby. These were pretty much prehistoric shots, which by my measure means they predate my time in university when I started storing all the photos I took electronically. It's really interesting to see what I and my siblings and parents used to look like. "I remember that shirt!" There's a very famous picture of me at the age of four or five, transfixed by a tiny pocket calculator. There's our cat, who died many years ago. My siblings as babies, in houses which I haven't visited for decades because we don't live there anymore. Age drives me crazy. It's really strange to see what my mum and dad used to look like back when they were my age. Especially since my dad looked pretty much exactly like I do now. (I and he and all his three brothers have or had the same classic Hughes facial hair pattern.)

I'm not afraid to grow up into my dad. He's a great man. I'm afraid to grow up.

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Discussion (6)

2009-08-17 06:42:00 by Cody:

You aren't the only one afraid to grow up. (I think everyone who reads your site can relate, in fact.)

2009-08-19 09:31:55 by Imbenarion:

Satnav is pretty useful if you have no idea where you are going; though taking a look at the satellite view of your destination helps. They are frequently inaccurate (mostly around cities where roads get blocked off by construction every now and then) but they recalculate your route when you "miss" turns so it is usually only a minor inconvenience. It is nice to just be able to set it to a destination and not have to worry about studying a pile of maps, even if it isn't 100% efficient.

2009-08-20 13:22:32 by JustBob:

Is the fear actually of death, rather than old age?

Someone once said "Time is the fire in which we burn". And the same person also said "the only thing certain in life is death" (or words to that effect). We will all die - it's in-escapable (if that's a word). It's stark simplicity is the most sobering and scary realisation we each must face. Most people just ignore it and keep their lives so busy so that they never have to face this.

Time itself is also famously difficult to understand, as I'm sure you know. It can't be stopped and is always ticking away, forever. If space is 4 dimensional, then we are all free-falling through space-time in the time direction. We are uncontrollably falling and the only comfort is that we are not alone - we are all falling together. Somehow that makes it more bearable.

On a lighter note, I don't use sat nav as I believe that it makes us more lazy - it's far better to exercise the brain and be able to find your way somewhere just using your memory and your spatial visualisation abilites.

Keep up the interesting posts.

2009-08-20 19:16:00 by William:

"""it's far better to exercise the brain and be able to find your way somewhere just using your memory and your spatial visualisation abilites."""

That may work for people who have good spatial visualisation abilities, but for people like me with no sense of direction inside a car, GPSes are a godsend. (When I'm even driving at all, which isn't often nowadays.)

2009-08-22 20:33:39 by Jymbob:

Growing old is natural.
Growing up is optional.

Feel free to quote me.

2010-03-19 14:37:59 by Novodantis:

I also avoid Satnavs. I feel it's always better to know yourself where you're going rather than just typing in a postcode and letting it do everything. Partly it's a matter of laziness, partly dependence. If some people use them to augment poor directional skills, fair enough. But you should at least get a rough idea of where you're going. Some people don't even know if they're headed north or south, let alone the road name.

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