Time

[Herbert Anchovy]

A change of subject from the excitement of the general election!

Earlier this week I walked into town along a route that I've done almost every week over the past 40 odd years. Up into Southwark, over Blackfriars Bridge onto Embankment and into the West End. On this occasion though it really hit home that those 40 years have gone in the blink of an eye! Walking along the same streets that I first explored way back in 1982, the only thing that's changed over that time are the fashions. I was 18 back then, working on the demolition sites in the East End, fit as a fiddle with my whole adult life in front of me...and it's absolutely flown by!

Every week I have a walk into the City to meet a few of the lads for a drink and I see young 'uns out and about. It seems like only yesterday that was me and a slight bit of jealousy kicks in! I feel like telling them to really embrace what they have now, because it doesn't last forever! Even though when I was 21 I thought that it would.

Don't get me wrong, I've had and continue to have, a bloody good life and I'm luckier than many others, but for the first time in my life I'm starting to get a bit melancholy about how it's flown by. People who I was really, really close with for periods of my life just suddenly disappear from it, never to be seen again, being fit and healthy and before you know it aches and pains come from nowhere and thinking that the year 2000 was only 5 years ago!!

It's not just me that thinks that time goes far, far too quickly for comfort is it?

[SydneyRover]

Still some good pubs in Southwark HA, it's good around there. Borough markets for breakfast, curry for dinner and as you suggest a good entry point into the city.

[Herbert Anchovy]

Still some good pubs in Southwark HA, it's good around there. Borough markets for breakfast, curry for dinner and as you suggest a good entry point into the city.

Absolutely right Sid, there are some great pubs in London. Always have been.

[BillyStubbsTears]

It's not just you HA.

I'm a similar age and am having similar thoughts.

In the past few months I've lost my oldest and closest friend, had another one diagnosed with a terminal illness, and I myself have been diagnosed with a life-changing condition. I'd never thought of the end of the road coming to my generation. Now life has smacked me in the face and made me grow up sharpish.

I wouldn't wish the knowledge that we're not immortal on the young uns though. Time certainly does rush by way too quickly, but youth is for living in the moment. As I'm writing this, I can hear the students in the house over the road having a barbecue and laughing loudly. Good luck to them! I hope they enjoy every moment. They'll know one day how quickly life's flown by, but that's for another day.

[idler]

My advise is to look at what you have and what you can do rather than what you haven’t got and can’t do. A young lady at the gym this morning with a body to die for said to me, “I hope that I’m still pushing weights when I’m your age.”
At 75 I took that as a compliment. The hard thing is just accepting what you can no longer do as quickly or possibly at all. The other thing is to think young. I still feel as daft as I did when I was 16 in some ways. My wife shakes her head when I offer my seat on buses to ladies or old people younger than myself. It’s just how I was brought up.

[Herbert Anchovy]

It's not just you HA.

I'm a similar age and am having similar thoughts.

In the past few months I've lost my oldest and closest friend, had another one diagnosed with a terminal illness, and I myself have been diagnosed with a life-changing condition. I'd never thought of the end of the road coming to my generation. Now life has smacked me in the face and made me grow up sharpish.

I wouldn't wish the knowledge that we're not immortal on the young uns though. Time certainly does rush by way too quickly, but youth is for living in the moment. As I'm writing this, I can hear the students in the house over the road having a barbecue and laughing loudly. Good luck to them! I hope they enjoy every moment. They'll know one day how quickly life's flown by, but that's for another day.

Sounds like a tough few months Billy. Hope it gets better for you.

[Herbert Anchovy]

My advise is to look at what you have and what you can do rather than what you haven’t got and can’t do. A young lady at the gym this morning with a body to die for said to me, “I hope that I’m still pushing weights when I’m your age.”
At 75 I took that as a compliment. The hard thing is just accepting what you can no longer do as quickly or possibly at all. The other thing is to think young. I still feel as daft as I did when I was 16 in some ways. My wife shakes her head when I offer my seat on buses to ladies or old people younger than myself. It’s just how I was brought up.

That is a compliment from that young lady Idler!! I’m similar to you in that I don’t feel or think old, but the amount of time that I’ve already had on earth has just struck me recently!

[Nudga]

I think my wife would like me to grow up a bit now I'm a couple of years away from 50, but I absolutely refuse to do so. Life is short so I'm going to party, dance, travel and laugh as much as I can.
And I absolutely love knocking about with my two young lads, they keep me young.

[i_ateallthepies]

Totally relate to those thoughts, HA, I had my 69th birthday last month and still loving life.  I've been very fortunate in going through the first 40 years of my adult life having virtually no ailments at all but in the last ten years barely a year goes by without something else adding to the list of medications I need.  Getting old isn't great but better than the alternative.

[scawsby steve]

BB and Wolfie often reminisce about the excitement of their youth, especially with the invention of the steam engine.

[danumdon]

To all in this thread(and others who have not posted)

I see exactly where you are all coming from, i'm thinking of someone who i know who always says "when you look back things will never ever be as good again as they were back then"

I don't know if this is true or not for most people, i think you have to look back on what's been and think of all the good things from then but also look forward to the good days that are ahead, they may not be the same as way back, but life is for living and you only get one crack at it, like Nudga said.

Also for those who have mentioned it on here, about ailments and life changing situations, its probably something that we don't think about too much when arguing or falling out with others views and ideals on here but at the end of the day we all follow Donny don't we, and i'd hope for all to have as much good health, happiness and contentment in their lives as they can muster.

[scawsby steve]

Lee Marvin; "I've never seen a sight that didn't look better looking back".

[wilts rover]

I remember my dad saying about all the things he was going to do and the places that he had never been too that he was going to go visit when he retired. He got the letter to say he had terminal cancer on the actual day of his 65th birthday. And he never did any of them.

Just like the driftwood of a dream
Left on the seashore of sleep
Just like the words that wouldn't rhyme
Lost in the desert of time

Time waits for no one at all
No, not even you
You thought you'd seen it all before
You really thought you knew

Make the most of the time you have. Because one day you wont have it.

[Dagenham Rover]

Enjoy every moment, Tomorrow is not guaranteed

[drfchound]

My mantra is “keep doing what you can, while you can”.

[Colin C No.3]

I haven’t smoked for more than thirty years but there was a time in my early twenties when the thing I reached for first thing in a morning was my packet of fags, now it’s a tube of Voltarol!

People I’ve known throughout my life, celebrities I’ve admired all at an age, give or take, within two or three years of my age are dropping like proverbial flies.

Don’t misunderstand me when I say I’m not ready ‘to go’ just yet but I have come to realise that I am truly in the autumn of my years & never have I been more aware of my own mortality than I am now.

Where does all that cartilage suddenly go to?

[tommy toes]

Two of my closest mates have died recently and my female next door neighbour died last week. All the same age or younger.
I realise my time here is very limited and as a non believer I accept that the end is just that.
A sobering thought.

[Mike_F]

I turn 43 this month. I have moments like those described above but I would guess that some of my senior compadres on here would love to be in their early 40s again!

That said, a friend of mine is getting married later in the year and a few of us were discussing possible stag do arrangements. There was a broad consensus that some of the places mooted were wholly inappropriate because we'd look like a bunch of hopeless, pervy old men in some of the haunts that we used to frequent in our salad days.

Even at my age it's rare for more than 9 or 10 months to go by without losing someone in my wider friendship group. Of course some of those people are a bit older including two Rovers fans we've lost over the last couple of years but both of them went far too early.

A couple of months ago a lad two years my junior died in a bit of a freak accident when walking home from work and it made me reassess my life a bit. I'm at the stage where I'm getting more serious about investing for retirement to get the benefit of compounding interest and dividends but I've also got plenty of long-standing life goals and I'm ticking a few of those off as you never know when your number is up and it's all too common to see someone retire with grand plans then pass away before they can be completed.

[Ldr]

Two of my closest mates have died recently and my female next door neighbour died last week. All the same age or younger.
I realise my time here is very limited and as a non believer I accept that the end is just that.
A sobering thought.

Sorry to hear that Tommy

[Bentley Bullet]

I remember having a drink with Scawsby Steve and Wollfie in the Belle Vue Bar. Never again! All they talked about was what their favourite dinosaur was when they were kids.

[Reg of the Rovers]

Thank you for this thread, it's reassuring to know other people feel the same, and it's hard to explain or discuss that feeling of melancholia as time passes us by! If you're feeling particularly wistful or want to try and find an explanation for how you're feeling I'd recommend the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a dictionary of unusual / unspoken feelings:
https://ia803206.us.archive.org/26/items/the-dictionary-of-obscure-sorrows/The%20Dictionary%20of%20Obscure%20Sorrows.pdf

Definitions relevant to this discussion:
adomania
 n. the sense that the future is arriving ahead of schedule, that all those years with fantastical names like '2013' are bursting from their hypothetical cages into the arena of the present, furiously bucking the grip of your expectations while you lean and slip in your saddle, one hand reaching for reins, the other waving up high like a schoolkid who finally knows the answer to the question.

anchorage
 n. the desire to hold on to time as it passes, like trying to keep your grip on a rock in the middle of a river, feeling the weight of the current against your chest while your elders float on downstream, calling over the roar of the rapids, “Just let go—it's okay—let go.”

énouement
 n. the bittersweetness of having arrived here in the future, where you can finally get the answers to how things turn out in the real world—who your baby sister would become, what your friends would end up doing, where your choices would lead you, exactly when you’d lose the people you took for granted—which is priceless intel that you instinctively want to share with anybody who hadn't already made the journey, as if there was some part of you who had volunteered to stay behind, who was still stationed at a forgotten outpost somewhere in the past, still eagerly awaiting news from the front.

[BobG]

It's funny is getting old. My Mum, in her 90's, told me that in her head she was still a teenager.  My sister, younger than me, died 13 months ago. She couldn't wait it hurt that much. Me? I resent growing old. I am not doing it at all gracefully.  But I guess reality sets in eventually - so I'm pondering going to Colombia again and getting into Chile this time. Ha ha! Fools grow even more foolish as they get older...

BobG

[Colin C No.3]

Thank you for this thread, it's reassuring to know other people feel the same, and it's hard to explain or discuss that feeling of melancholia as time passes us by! If you're feeling particularly wistful or want to try and find an explanation for how you're feeling I'd recommend the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a dictionary of unusual / unspoken feelings:
https://ia803206.us.archive.org/26/items/the-dictionary-of-obscure-sorrows/The%20Dictionary%20of%20Obscure%20Sorrows.pdf

Definitions relevant to this discussion:
adomania
 n. the sense that the future is arriving ahead of schedule, that all those years with fantastical names like '2013' are bursting from their hypothetical cages into the arena of the present, furiously bucking the grip of your expectations while you lean and slip in your saddle, one hand reaching for reins, the other waving up high like a schoolkid who finally knows the answer to the question.

anchorage
 n. the desire to hold on to time as it passes, like trying to keep your grip on a rock in the middle of a river, feeling the weight of the current against your chest while your elders float on downstream, calling over the roar of the rapids, “Just let go—it's okay—let go.”

énouement
 n. the bittersweetness of having arrived here in the future, where you can finally get the answers to how things turn out in the real world—who your baby sister would become, what your friends would end up doing, where your choices would lead you, exactly when you’d lose the people you took for granted—which is priceless intel that you instinctively want to share with anybody who hadn't already made the journey, as if there was some part of you who had volunteered to stay behind, who was still stationed at a forgotten outpost somewhere in the past, still eagerly awaiting news from the front.

With all due respect Reg, you’re not helping with that link.

In fact, if there is a sudden upsurge in police divers activity in the River Don in the coming weeks I’d look for a place to lie low!

Perhaps better to have kept it a tad more upbeat or even a touch of ‘dark humour’?

Something perhaps along the lines of ‘I’ve even stopped buying green bananas’.??

[Reg of the Rovers]

Thank you for this thread, it's reassuring to know other people feel the same, and it's hard to explain or discuss that feeling of melancholia as time passes us by! If you're feeling particularly wistful or want to try and find an explanation for how you're feeling I'd recommend the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a dictionary of unusual / unspoken feelings:
https://ia803206.us.archive.org/26/items/the-dictionary-of-obscure-sorrows/The%20Dictionary%20of%20Obscure%20Sorrows.pdf

Definitions relevant to this discussion:
adomania
 n. the sense that the future is arriving ahead of schedule, that all those years with fantastical names like '2013' are bursting from their hypothetical cages into the arena of the present, furiously bucking the grip of your expectations while you lean and slip in your saddle, one hand reaching for reins, the other waving up high like a schoolkid who finally knows the answer to the question.

anchorage
 n. the desire to hold on to time as it passes, like trying to keep your grip on a rock in the middle of a river, feeling the weight of the current against your chest while your elders float on downstream, calling over the roar of the rapids, “Just let go—it's okay—let go.”

énouement
 n. the bittersweetness of having arrived here in the future, where you can finally get the answers to how things turn out in the real world—who your baby sister would become, what your friends would end up doing, where your choices would lead you, exactly when you’d lose the people you took for granted—which is priceless intel that you instinctively want to share with anybody who hadn't already made the journey, as if there was some part of you who had volunteered to stay behind, who was still stationed at a forgotten outpost somewhere in the past, still eagerly awaiting news from the front.

With all due respect Reg, you’re not helping with that link.

In fact, if there is a sudden upsurge in police divers activity in the River Don in the coming weeks I’d look for a place to lie low!

Perhaps better to have kept it a tad more upbeat or even a touch of ‘dark humour’?

Something perhaps along the lines of ‘I’ve even stopped buying green bananas’.??

Sorry all! There's plenty to look forwards to for all of us, Euros kick off tonight, summer round the corner, and Rovers doing the business early to help us to promotion! Go easy everyone 

[Colin C No.3]

Thank you for this thread, it's reassuring to know other people feel the same, and it's hard to explain or discuss that feeling of melancholia as time passes us by! If you're feeling particularly wistful or want to try and find an explanation for how you're feeling I'd recommend the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a dictionary of unusual / unspoken feelings:
https://ia803206.us.archive.org/26/items/the-dictionary-of-obscure-sorrows/The%20Dictionary%20of%20Obscure%20Sorrows.pdf

Definitions relevant to this discussion:
adomania
 n. the sense that the future is arriving ahead of schedule, that all those years with fantastical names like '2013' are bursting from their hypothetical cages into the arena of the present, furiously bucking the grip of your expectations while you lean and slip in your saddle, one hand reaching for reins, the other waving up high like a schoolkid who finally knows the answer to the question.

anchorage
 n. the desire to hold on to time as it passes, like trying to keep your grip on a rock in the middle of a river, feeling the weight of the current against your chest while your elders float on downstream, calling over the roar of the rapids, “Just let go—it's okay—let go.”

énouement
 n. the bittersweetness of having arrived here in the future, where you can finally get the answers to how things turn out in the real world—who your baby sister would become, what your friends would end up doing, where your choices would lead you, exactly when you’d lose the people you took for granted—which is priceless intel that you instinctively want to share with anybody who hadn't already made the journey, as if there was some part of you who had volunteered to stay behind, who was still stationed at a forgotten outpost somewhere in the past, still eagerly awaiting news from the front.

With all due respect Reg, you’re not helping with that link.

In fact, if there is a sudden upsurge in police divers activity in the River Don in the coming weeks I’d look for a place to lie low!

Perhaps better to have kept it a tad more upbeat or even a touch of ‘dark humour’?

Something perhaps along the lines of ‘I’ve even stopped buying green bananas’.??

Sorry all! There's plenty to look forwards to for all of us, Euros kick off tonight, summer round the corner, and Rovers doing the business early to help us to promotion! Go easy everyone 

I’ll second that Reg.

In the meantime everyone, keep away from cliff edges!

[Filo]

Thank you for this thread, it's reassuring to know other people feel the same, and it's hard to explain or discuss that feeling of melancholia as time passes us by! If you're feeling particularly wistful or want to try and find an explanation for how you're feeling I'd recommend the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a dictionary of unusual / unspoken feelings:
https://ia803206.us.archive.org/26/items/the-dictionary-of-obscure-sorrows/The%20Dictionary%20of%20Obscure%20Sorrows.pdf

Definitions relevant to this discussion:
adomania
 n. the sense that the future is arriving ahead of schedule, that all those years with fantastical names like '2013' are bursting from their hypothetical cages into the arena of the present, furiously bucking the grip of your expectations while you lean and slip in your saddle, one hand reaching for reins, the other waving up high like a schoolkid who finally knows the answer to the question.

anchorage
 n. the desire to hold on to time as it passes, like trying to keep your grip on a rock in the middle of a river, feeling the weight of the current against your chest while your elders float on downstream, calling over the roar of the rapids, “Just let go—it's okay—let go.”

énouement
 n. the bittersweetness of having arrived here in the future, where you can finally get the answers to how things turn out in the real world—who your baby sister would become, what your friends would end up doing, where your choices would lead you, exactly when you’d lose the people you took for granted—which is priceless intel that you instinctively want to share with anybody who hadn't already made the journey, as if there was some part of you who had volunteered to stay behind, who was still stationed at a forgotten outpost somewhere in the past, still eagerly awaiting news from the front.

With all due respect Reg, you’re not helping with that link.

In fact, if there is a sudden upsurge in police divers activity in the River Don in the coming weeks I’d look for a place to lie low!

Perhaps better to have kept it a tad more upbeat or even a touch of ‘dark humour’?

Something perhaps along the lines of ‘I’ve even stopped buying green bananas’.??

Sorry all! There's plenty to look forwards to for all of us, Euros kick off tonight, summer round the corner, and Rovers doing the business early to help us to promotion! Go easy everyone 

I’ll second that Reg.

In the meantime everyone, keep away from cliff edges!

I actually knew someone years ago called Cliff Edge

[BillyStubbsTears]

Thank you for this thread, it's reassuring to know other people feel the same, and it's hard to explain or discuss that feeling of melancholia as time passes us by! If you're feeling particularly wistful or want to try and find an explanation for how you're feeling I'd recommend the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a dictionary of unusual / unspoken feelings:
https://ia803206.us.archive.org/26/items/the-dictionary-of-obscure-sorrows/The%20Dictionary%20of%20Obscure%20Sorrows.pdf

Definitions relevant to this discussion:
adomania
 n. the sense that the future is arriving ahead of schedule, that all those years with fantastical names like '2013' are bursting from their hypothetical cages into the arena of the present, furiously bucking the grip of your expectations while you lean and slip in your saddle, one hand reaching for reins, the other waving up high like a schoolkid who finally knows the answer to the question.

anchorage
 n. the desire to hold on to time as it passes, like trying to keep your grip on a rock in the middle of a river, feeling the weight of the current against your chest while your elders float on downstream, calling over the roar of the rapids, “Just let go—it's okay—let go.”

énouement
 n. the bittersweetness of having arrived here in the future, where you can finally get the answers to how things turn out in the real world—who your baby sister would become, what your friends would end up doing, where your choices would lead you, exactly when you’d lose the people you took for granted—which is priceless intel that you instinctively want to share with anybody who hadn't already made the journey, as if there was some part of you who had volunteered to stay behind, who was still stationed at a forgotten outpost somewhere in the past, still eagerly awaiting news from the front.

With all due respect Reg, you’re not helping with that link.

In fact, if there is a sudden upsurge in police divers activity in the River Don in the coming weeks I’d look for a place to lie low!

Perhaps better to have kept it a tad more upbeat or even a touch of ‘dark humour’?

Something perhaps along the lines of ‘I’ve even stopped buying green bananas’.??

Sorry all! There's plenty to look forwards to for all of us, Euros kick off tonight, summer round the corner, and Rovers doing the business early to help us to promotion! Go easy everyone 

I’ll second that Reg.

In the meantime everyone, keep away from cliff edges!

I actually knew someone years ago called Cliff Edge

Was he a fall guy?

[idler]

Thank you for this thread, it's reassuring to know other people feel the same, and it's hard to explain or discuss that feeling of melancholia as time passes us by! If you're feeling particularly wistful or want to try and find an explanation for how you're feeling I'd recommend the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a dictionary of unusual / unspoken feelings:
https://ia803206.us.archive.org/26/items/the-dictionary-of-obscure-sorrows/The%20Dictionary%20of%20Obscure%20Sorrows.pdf

Definitions relevant to this discussion:
adomania
 n. the sense that the future is arriving ahead of schedule, that all those years with fantastical names like '2013' are bursting from their hypothetical cages into the arena of the present, furiously bucking the grip of your expectations while you lean and slip in your saddle, one hand reaching for reins, the other waving up high like a schoolkid who finally knows the answer to the question.

anchorage
 n. the desire to hold on to time as it passes, like trying to keep your grip on a rock in the middle of a river, feeling the weight of the current against your chest while your elders float on downstream, calling over the roar of the rapids, “Just let go—it's okay—let go.”

énouement
 n. the bittersweetness of having arrived here in the future, where you can finally get the answers to how things turn out in the real world—who your baby sister would become, what your friends would end up doing, where your choices would lead you, exactly when you’d lose the people you took for granted—which is priceless intel that you instinctively want to share with anybody who hadn't already made the journey, as if there was some part of you who had volunteered to stay behind, who was still stationed at a forgotten outpost somewhere in the past, still eagerly awaiting news from the front.

With all due respect Reg, you’re not helping with that link.

In fact, if there is a sudden upsurge in police divers activity in the River Don in the coming weeks I’d look for a place to lie low!

Perhaps better to have kept it a tad more upbeat or even a touch of ‘dark humour’?

Something perhaps along the lines of ‘I’ve even stopped buying green bananas’.??

Sorry all! There's plenty to look forwards to for all of us, Euros kick off tonight, summer round the corner, and Rovers doing the business early to help us to promotion! Go easy everyone 

I’ll second that Reg.

In the meantime everyone, keep away from cliff edges!

I actually knew someone years ago called Cliff Edge

I hope that  he didn’t marry Eileen Dover.

[BahrainRover]

I got a shock watching a video back at how far I let myself go,it shocked me in to action about 18 months ago.
I am now down from 130kg to 80 (8st ish lost), 39% body fat to sub 20%. I am coming to 55 in August and back serious cycling again. I am currently training for a 120km gravel race next March in Pampanga north of Manila in the masters class. Never felt better physically or mentally since my teens/ early twenties when I was last riding seriously. Its never too late to change.

[drfchound]

I got a shock watching a video back at how far I let myself go,it shocked me in to action about 18 months ago.
I am now down from 130kg to 80 (8st ish), 39% body fat to sub 20%. I am coming to 55 in August and back serious cycling again. I am currently training for a 120km gravel race next March in Pampanga north of Manila in the masters class. Never felt better physically or mentally since my teens/ early twenties when I was last riding seriously. Its never too late to change.

80kg is 12 and a half stones matey, not 8 stone ish but well done anyway, a great effort.