Nostalgia - A Sign of Getting Old

Growing up, I always promised myself that I would stay cool, I would always be up on the latest fashion, music, whatever was cool, I was going to be doing it, wearing it or listening to it. But, and that is a big but, that was then and this is now.

I am in my mid-thirties, an age that even I sometimes have to think if it's 34, 35, 36, again something I thought I would always know for sure. But now I hear my mother's voice coming out of my mouth more and more, the older I get.

To me, most of the popular music is too loud, ripped off from my era, or just plain repetitive and boring. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy some of the "new bands" like Black Eyed Peas, Linkin Park but it is with a little sadness that stars from my era are starting to age a little less gracefully than they had been in the past. I saw a picture of Madonna today, she looked more like a leg of mutton after it had been carved than the queen of pop. Her face also looks like she is in a constant state of surprise. Sad really, she would have done much better to just let the years age her.

But more than that, I find myself looking back at the good ol' times. The local markets, that have since disappeared, used to be full of bargains and crafts, not just stall after stall of cheap imitation knock-offs. There used to be a guy on the back of a truck who with the gift of the gab used to do deals and bargains, telling the eagerly awaiting crowd to hold on to their money while he doubled or even trippled the deal for the same money.

The local shopping mall, where as a high school student, I unwisely spent a lot of my time, is now a giant haven of $2 junk shops with the building looking as though it should be condemned. Sad, really. And the same can be said for the main street of my home town. As stores move to the larger shopping malls to survive, cheap junk stores are opening with their knock-off toys and clothing. Don't get me started of the number of people who stand outside these stores and smoke as well. As a parent of two asthmatic children, we avoid street shopping, and cafes for this reason.

Speaking of cafes it would be nice as a non-smoker to be able to sit outside in the sunshine at a nice cafe and have coffee or cake, yet these places seem to always be where the smokers congregate. They don't care about fresh air, so why do they monopolise it from everyone else?

Well enough grumbling for tonight...