Middle Aged?

Hey man...

They been calling me middle-aged since I was in my thirties so this piece in the local London Press about the reading in Leytonstone Library is innerestin' but truth is Taking the Stairs was mostly written when I was just into my thirties, a young man.

However...

I was in a Park in Islington trying to get away from a lady at the college who is going through a divorce and asking me what I did during my lunch hours? I've had a few close escapes in my time but I have a top three list of responses to questions you'd rather not answer:

1. "Never a dull moment," is a good one to come back with or

2. "It's all happening."

3. Also "Back in two minutes."

On the subject of middle age, when I was in Toronto in 1998 I met an older lady at the Imperial Library Pub at an event and she said she just had a tiff with her boyfriend. "What did you fight about?" I asked. "Oh the teenage stuff," she said, "How do I look, do I look fat in this, do you still love me?"

So middle age is really closer to teenage in my estimation....

I ask you this... then.

Does a middle-aged man appear just as startled as a teenager when the same woman announces: "Tomorrow, I'm working a full shift – you'll have me all to yourself?"