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For me 50 is nearer than 40! My daughter turned 20 a month ago and I was thinking what I was doing at that age... booking bands for the University Student's Union and just embarking, quite by accident, on the road to running strip shows etc.

And, yes, life was so much better then than now... or was it? Sometimes it seems that way, and then I remember THAT BLOODY WOMAN and her own personal army (for those too young, I'm talking of Thatcher and the Met Police), the feeling of oppression and depression all around me, the birth of the "me, me, me" society, the wanton destruction and dismantelling of British industry, the birth of the uneducated loud-mouthed "city boy" geting million pound bonuses for gambling with other people's money...

But I was younger, and in the words of the song doing all night what it now takes all night to do!

Unlike some, however, I've still got all my hair. !happy!

Whats that Bob. Admitting to a twenty year old daughter on this forum. With me an old porn star and my reputation, Are you stark raving mad.

Don't know what all you kids are worrying about. I'll be 60 next year - still got most of my hair and, apart from the odd ache and pain, am still fit.

Looking back, when at school we were told to respect our elders and betters - and we would get respect when we got older (right)

We were at the centre of the Swinging Sixties. Well it was certainly a fun time to be a teenager but most of the wild sex and drugs only happened for a very few or was in the imaginings of reporters and those wanting to launch a book.

In the seventies we worked hard to climb the promotion ladder at work expecting to become managers with secure futures.

In the eighties THAT WOMAN took over, scrapped British industry, paid jumped up barrow boys a fortune for yelling at each other all day in the City's trading rooms and, in the process put mortgage rates up to 15% and made anyone over 40 (apart from herself, her husband and her cadre of arse lickers) obsolete.

Having been made redundant, I tried Mr Tebbit's bike and found it to be very rusty with bent wheels in as much as, having started my own business with an overdraft, my family and our home was put in jeopardy when the wankers at Warclays decided, at 48 hours notice, to call in the overdraft (of which less than 50% was used). My choice was to give them the house or take a business loan at an interest rate 9% above the base rate.

In the 1990s I built my business to a level where I was able to retire at 51. I left the UK for a gentler lifestyle but I've had to take part time work and my wife has to work full time because we were conned rotten by our upbringing (always save for the future) and the financial services industries.

Our pensions, in which we had to invest are worth far less than promised and we were sold an endowment policy on the basis of it repaying our mortgage and providing between ?20K and ?30K in savings.

When we were told 3 years ago it would fall ?15K short of the mortgage repayment (fortunately we'd no mortgage left to pay) we complained about mis-selling. We were upheld in our complaint that the mortgage was mis-sold in regards to its eventual repayment but not for the mis-selling of the savings element. We were awarded ?2,150 being the difference between our "position" had we had a straight repayment mortgage and our position with the endowment at the time of the complaint. The UK tax man took ?1200 of that (I still haven't quite grasped the reasoning, but it was deducted by the building society at source). I have recently had that back as I have no UK tax liabilities.

So, facing 60, and looking back I, like many others of my generation, would do a lot differently, given the chance to re-run the last 40 years. I feel I could go back to 1965 tomorrow and not miss too much from today.

On the other hand, travel, methods of communication and availabilty of consumer goods are all far better now. Kids today have far more, far more easily and with less hassle than we did and we can access the same products and services.

Being nearly 60 does have its compensations. I can watch TV ads with Jane Fonda and Twiggy and find them as attractive as they always were and, at the same time, enjoy seeing the girls on BGAFD and some of the TV stars in their 20s and 30s. I'm also fortunate in having a sexy and loving missus and an active sex life.

Whilst all of that is something I really enjoy, I'm now well old enough and well practised enough to have attained Elder status in the Order of Grumpy Old Men so, when I have to deal with banks, government departments and any organisation with a CALL CENTRE I take great delight in returning the inevitable bad service with with a well directed attack of grumpiness towards the CEO, often with an invoice attached for my time, aggravation and costs. It's amazing how often they pay up!!

So, if you're fat and forty, feckless and fifty or, like me, still sexy at nearly sixty !grin! there's still plenty to do without indulging in too many regretful reminiscences or worrying about coffin dodging.....and, of course, there's always the Janet and John stories on Wogan !nerd!

I'm fifty next month and I look back and I do think it was better in the sixties,we could go out without our parents and not worry about getting molested (you cant let your kids out these days) you were forced to eat your greens (you dont have to force them these days) liver,mince and potatoes that smelt like something you pulled out of a sewer but was told it was good for you,rissoles made from the leftovers of sunday's dinner,oh well somethings might not have been that good,but the main thing I remember was real friendship in the east end like when one of you needed help everyone would help,nowadays friends always seem to expect a payment of some sort when they do you a favour,maybe I just miss the old east end of the 60's and 70's,sorry gone off course a bit here,oh I do have my own hair honest guv I paid for it on hp

Im nearer 60 than 50, what a miserable lot you all are, have you not heard of viagra!love!

planeterotica wrote:

> Im nearer 60 than 50, what a miserable lot you all are, have
> you not heard of viagra!love!
>
>
>
>


Yes, but not recommended when you've been diagnosed, as I was recently, with Supraventricular Tachychardia!!!

whats that bob?Bob Singleton wrote:

> planeterotica wrote:
>
> > Im nearer 60 than 50, what a miserable lot you all are, have
> > you not heard of viagra!love!
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> Yes, but not recommended when you've been diagnosed, as I was
> recently, with Supraventricular Tachychardia!!!
>
>

steve56 wrote:

whats that bob?


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Steve, there's this amazing website you obviously havn't heard of. It's called Google. Just cut and paste "supraventricular tachycardia" into the search tool and you'll get over 630,000 articles on the subject!