Obsolete...

Spent the day at the pool with the kids & HIM. 

It was great going down the slides with my daughter on my lap. 

This is a fairly new thing for me as I was always too scared as a kid after getting 'elbow burn' from descending a bumpy slide sideways but I get egged on now, by HIS more outgoing, brave, chavvy side.

I am definitely more of a nerd than HIM, (even though HE nearly always has something stuck to his shoe, be it toilet roll, a drawing pin or chewing gum - he even drove along with a long strand of toilet roll on his tyre once).

We were watching the kids in the garden this morning after HE'd mowed the lawn and I made the observation that our daughter is confident and very much like him, apart from the stubborness and our son is such a little nerd.  It's a contstant struggle trying to quash the nerdiness from taking over him, with trendy clothes and Vans; he is our Gorgeous Geek. 

At the pool, just in the queue, waiting to have a last go on the slide, I overheard a group of young boys in front of me exchanging tips on how to go the fastest.  They were only about ten yrs old and looked fairly civil so I piped up, "If you sit up but lean as far forward as you can, you go really fast"... they just looked at me vacantly............so I continued with nervous enthusiasm, "Yeah coz the first time we went on it, I thought we'd go nice and slow if I sat up but we flew down so fast that she was screaming"!  The ten yr olds smiled at me with raised eyebrows.  I thought to myself, "good, they're impressed...now stop talking".

I then watched, waiting my turn as one by one, completely ignoring my advice, they laid down flat and went quickish, down the slide.

I must be so old that it's impossible for me to have any cool tips. Therefore, the boys smiles had just been the kind of smiles you indulge an OAP with, who's suffering from dementia but insists on telling you the same story for the 5th time that visit. 

At that moment, I felt obsolete.  That was until me and my daughter landed with a splash at the bottom to see HIM & our son smiling and waving at us. Not sympathetically either!

Other things that made me feel a bit hmm, today were;

Katie Price on the cover of stoooopid Heat magazine, going on about how happy she is that her marriage had ended and she's hooked up with another young wannabe.  I like her but my patience is wearing thin, (I'm sure she'd be upset to hear that).  She appears to be losing her warmth.  I know she's had so much botox that her face doesn't have any expression anymore and this will only increase the feeling of the public that she is 'uncaring and cold'.  It's very hard for her to look anything but unmoved, if her face is completely numb.

I don't understand why anyone would get divorced and then want to celebrate by getting photographed, going with loads of people who mean absolutely nothing to them.  It's so transparent.  Have some ME time!

The cottage pie I had made last week had to be thrown away with only half of it eaten - what a waste of food.

I was considering buying my son an Arsenal book, covering from 1886 - 2010 but decided against the purchase because as it ended at 2010, it was already out of date!

Sorting through unwanted old toys and baby clothes that are too small is sad.  Worst of all is chucking once favourite toys into the tip because no one wants them anymore.

I bought a TV/ VHS combi from a colleague at work for a fiver, just so I could watch old comedy sketches that Me and my gorgeous Irish friend Catherine had filmed in 2001.  These are the ones we sent to Channel 4 and as a result, ended up having interviews with Talkback productions. 

I was so much slimmer in the video and looked care free.  This meant I was watching and laughing furiously at bits and reminiscing about friendships past and younger, wrinkle free skin.

It was also strangely poignant using a VHS again.  There was no rewind button so I had to wait til the tape ran to the end and then it noisily rewound automatically.  I felt sorry that I'd discarded all my old tapes now.

On the way to the pool, HE was listening to the talksport radio and I suggested we have some music on.  He recently had to replace his boy racer with a middle aged mans car.  To top things off, his old car had a CD changer where as the 'new' car just has cassettes.

The previous owner had thoughtfully left Elton John and three 'The Corrs' tapes!   HE has since bought Oasis, Bob Marley and a Best of Elton John tape.

At one point, HE must've pressed the play button only half in because Bob suddenly sounded more like one of Cinderella's mice than a 'Buffalo Soldier'.  This reminded us of being little and taping the charts off the radio on a weekend as youngsters.  Having to press play and record at the same time and trying to press stop before the DJ started talking.  I remembered numerous times I'd be taping Adam & The Ants, or Bananarama and my Mum would come in and ask if I wanted an Ovaltine and I'd wave my hands frantically and whisper, "SSSSHH,  I'M RECORDING "!!!

I am however, pleased that I have managed to recycle something that had been forgotton about for a good many years.  Worzel Gummidge. 

I You Tubed whole episodes and got the kids watching them.  I think I finally said 'that's enough' after they'd sat through three episodes in a row.  A mean feat engaging the interest of a 2 & 4 yr old for that long and something that modern programme makers often fail at doing.

When starting this blog, I didn't realise how much I'd enjoy going over stuff from the past, or quite how much things are just taken for granted, chucked away and forgotten.   Everything is too convenient and easily replaced nowadays.  I know I'm moaning but just imagine for a minute, you at aged 9.  

Now imagine how that 9 year old would feel if he or she were taken out of their paisley carpeted bedroom and placed in 2011?

I think this is why I enjoy boot fairs so much.  There's something very cosy and familiar about searching for treasure in other peoples rejected things. 

I hope we don't get forgotten when we are old-er and I hope the world slows down a bit before it's too late, just so we can all stop from time to time and smile.