You know you are getting old when you look forward to a quiet night in.
My friend said this to me recently and I thought it was worth repeating.
I know that at this stage, if there are any young readers, they are checking their phones for gaming tips or to find out what meal their mates ate in the last hour. It’s game over for these non-readers. I get it.
There was a time where every Friday night my friends and I would gather at the Embassy Hotel in the city, there to find out the parties on offer before heading to one or more of them.
You could say the Embassy was our Facebook, but involving public transport.
We went to parties to connect with our friends in what is now an old-fashioned concept of face-to-face interaction. Our giant black bakelite dial phones sat at home on the phone table and if an interstate call was expected (once a year, tops), we timed it to last no longer than three minutes. This was allegedly about all mum’s annual phone budget could afford and a phone call of this nature was a significant and often talked about event.
No phones governed our world. We had the reliability of the Embassy Hotel and the friendship group that met there every week.
But I digress.
I have just celebrated a birthday and so there was some expectation that I would want to do something. But my idea of ‘something’ these days is to do ‘nothing’ – my dream go-to place.
It is rare that this happens, because there is usually something going on.
And no, I’m not talking about those crazy, disco-ball, flared pant, rainbow coloured hair parties (although I did like those rainbows). I’m talking about playing trivia, attending shows, singing in choirs, having friends over for dinner. Those sort of events – grown up stuff that fills my weeks.
Life is good. I have great friends, do fun things, talk to family, babysit grandchildren and I get to write every day which I love. Take this away just for one night and suddenly the beauty of stillness and silence can be appreciated.
My husband took me out to dinner. We were home by 7.30pm.
Following was the bliss of the mindless movie, the home-made mango smoothie and the mobile on mute. Birthdays just don’t get better than this.
