UKC

OK. Similar vein to the thread in the climbing forum but flipped somewhat.

What are you doing, what about your life etc. you never thought would happen in your lifetime / to you?

A few to start with:
Hold down a 9 to 5 job long term
Pay into a pension
Use the word etc.
Reminisce
Rely on predictive text to spell for me
Vid phones (no way! and now I never use it)
Have a beard
Stop clubbing
Get a mortgage
Manage to keep up payments
Climb

In reply to Flinticus:

Living in the same place for more than 2 years.
Arranging time off and negotiating flexibility about going to work anyhoo when weather is poop rather than throwing sickies only to be caught out by tannoy announcements when making a croaky call from your "sick bed."
Not having a winter beard because all the hipsters have one now.
Sandals and socks to let mangled feet recover while at the office.
"Children" cranking harder than I can.
Running in hills because I really enjoy it rather than it being a mad dash to get hill fit.

In reply to Flinticus:

Becoming a Pensioner
Back problems
Being a landlord
Just climbing easy stuff for fun
going to bed at 10.30pm
Watching the news
Doing the Garden before its overgrown
Not watching films with Superhero's
Stopped wanking.

In reply to Aztec Bar:


How old are you 102?

In reply to krikoman:

I was told that's how old you will look once you stop.

In reply to mick taylor:


Krikoman is descended from Homo Erectus a lesser known group called Solo Erectus currently estimated at 500,000 years old.

In reply to Flinticus:

Getting into cycling in a way that is marginally more obsessive than my climbing
Actually booking a space in the CIC hut.
Having grown up children who are probably smarter than me and seem to be mostly fairly responsible.
Starting to make plans for retirement
Not wondering where all the money's gone before the month has barely started.

And,

Getting a dog that looks more like a cuddly toy/pyjama case than a dog

In reply to Flinticus:

Having a beard?
OMG don't get me started. I've had a beard for 32 years, I've been accused recently of being fashionable, grrr...

In reply to Flinticus:

Getting a boat (more demanding and time consuming than I ever would have guessed.)
Skied a lot, especially with my kids - never thought Id be able to afford either!
Start a few companies (never made very much money though)
Become something of an expert on VAT and book keeping for opticians (dear God no)
Become a seriously, aggressively militant atheist (there was a time I could cope with this 'he/she is really spiritual' nonsense. Not any more.)
Go grey!
Start to enjoy gardening.
... and becoming a granddad is a bit surreal.

In reply to Flinticus:

I never thought bouldering mats would happen.

I am sure whoever had the idea waited until Don Whillans died, for fear of his views on the subject.

In reply to Fredt:

Accidentally being in fashion once every 7 or 8 years despite not changing my dress-sense since being 14.

In reply to Flinticus:

Retiring
Learning to use a computer/mobile phone
Learning what an app is
Still able to lead a VS at aged over 70
Discovering that older women are attractive
Going up in a hot air balloon
Gradually loosing relatives and now finding that I am now the oldest person in my family still alive. That's actually quite unsettling

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:


Thought it would never happen, or just didn't see it coming....?

In reply to aln:
I suppose you'll also claim that you've been wearing check flannel shirts for 32 years too

and drinking ale from tiny bottles

In reply to ChrisBrooke:
' just didn't see it coming....?' Not in my worst nightmares.

In reply to Flinticus:

I've been drinking IPA and St Mungo for a few years and my beard has grey in it. I'm cool enough

In reply to Flinticus:

Living "down South". That's about the lot, really. I'm too predictable

In reply to Flinticus:

In my twenties I realised that I had stopped noticing schoolgirls, and started to appreciate their mums. These days I have to admit that Grannies pushing grand-kids are starting to look good!

Having a car that will 'do a hundred' and one can still hear the radio.

In reply to Flinticus:
Walking along what is now the catwalk at malham, dreaming about doing the aid routes and wondering if it would ever be climbed free. I could see there were holds but no gear.

What I didn't see was me climbing it.

It feels totally incredible and a privilege.

In reply to Aztec Bar:










Dear god, sounds like my life, but I'm never up beyond 9.30!

In reply to Big Ger:

He probably dozes on the sofa for a couple of hours beforehand, with the TV on.

In reply to Flinticus:

Retire. Though as it happened, the effect of MS on my work performance accelerated rather more quickly than the government's plans to make me work till I dropped.

There's always a bright side...

T.

In reply to Flinticus:

Being a pensioner
Living longer than my younger bother
Keeping my hair
Dodgy knees & a bad back
A wife followed by 3 kids
Being able to buy new cars
Paying £2k+ on a push bike
Waterproofs that keep me dry

In reply to Flinticus:

Live in a house with a view of Froggatt, Eyam and Stoney
Climb John Allen routes as Boulder problems
Still be climbing at least 4 times a week and still loving it
Getting beta from my son and his mates
Driving to Cham in a car that's roadworthy
Not 'appropriating' stuff from the Super U in Chamonix
Going to Font for the first time in 30 years and not finding it trashed or filthy
Having a wife who's even keener to get out cragging than me
That a kid with an apprenticeship could become a senior academic
Stoney Cafe would become an Indian restaurant
Not getting kicked out of the Three Stags Head when my phone went off
The Bar National would become a 'normal' bar restaurant
Renting a chalet in Argentiere that wasn't being shared with 15 other unwashed souls
That despite trying hard to find it, apart from Font, nothing comes close to grit

In reply to paul_in_cumbria:

Great post Paul. Enjoy it all.

Mick

In reply to Pursued by a bear:




I hope you still get to gather lots of rich experiences and memories.

I'm only 36 so quite some way from being an 'old timer', but it's dawned on me recently where my parents and their friends were coming from in musing ''Wouldn't it be nice to be able to 'make' time''. I'm glad it's dawned on me while I've still got half my life time left (touch wood/fingers crossed) and can hopefully make the most of it.

In reply to Flinticus:

Cycling to work. Mental.

In reply to Flinticus:

Getting cancer.
Burying my friends.

In reply to Timmd:

Thank you.

I'm currently sat in a hotel near Seattle, getting over jet lag. Tomorrow a road trip begins round the hills of Washington and Oregon. I'll do no climbing and a good deal less walking than I'd like, but that leaves me more time to take photos and look around me and just be in the moment in some glorious country (which I believe is now called mindfulness. I don't think it needs a name though).

So, hills, volcanoes, scenery like Scotland on steroids, sunshine and some tasty microbreweries are mine for the next fortnight. It'd be rude to grumble.

T.

In reply to Flinticus:



Going to Leicester tomorrow. Bl*ddy he'll never saw that coming.

In reply to Flinticus:
A computer small enough to fit on a desk (when I saw one in 1979 I could hardly believe it.

A computer cheap enough to have one myself (1981, had to solder it together)


A Polish Pope, The end of the Cold War. War in the South Atlantic.

People living in space for months at a time. Flat screen TVs. Private Prisons. Britain being stupid enough to vote to leave the EU

A British made probe landing on the moon of a distant planet.

Being old enough to be one of the obvious choices to be made redundant

In reply to JJL:



Losing my Mum at the age of 33, it will be 3 years this Sunday. I never saw that coming.

In reply to Flinticus:

Developing the ability to whistle tunes when I got into my 50s (something to do with teeth perhaps?) never having been able to whistle properly.. Of course this could be false as I may only be imagining I'm whistling a tune

In reply to Flinticus:

* Smoking ban in Scotland - I remember filling in the consultation document but never for one minute actually thought it would happen

* Losing touch with modern music - I used to have a decent idea of what was in the charts, new releases etc, now I haven't a clue tend to end up listening to stuff from years ago!

In reply to Flinticus:

Tie my shoelaces properly.

In reply to Flinticus:
Probably sounds stupid (actually, it is stupid), but nevertheless:

Watching my friends physically get older. My friends have always tended to have a very "young" outlook. Most are healthy, very active, are covered in tattoos, piercings, luminous hair, go to clubs and festivals, and live mostly the life that we've all been doing for the last 25-30 years. OK, kids might be around and we have foriegn holidays and stay in hotels rather than tents, but the people are the same.

However I always look at my friends through a sort of special vision which means I think of them looking the same as when I first met them.

I'm at the age now where grey hair and lines are starting to creep in with many, and I don't think I was mentally prepared for it. Oddly, I'm much easier with the same grey hair and lines appearing on myself.