Advent Calendar IX

 

After last night's concert I was musing about the passage of time, and how it only feels like a few weeks ago that it was 2023 and now we are almost at the end of 2024, some sympathetic souls pointed out that I have had a busy and eventful year so it should be no surprise that time has passed quickly, other less sympathetic but more realist pointed out that it is a factor of age! We all experience aging differently, many of my contemporaries have varying health problems, many are grand parents, some are embracing retirement while others again are resisting any pressure to retire. Some will have a comfortable old age as their accumulated wealth (for many based on the outrageous increases in property value) while others will struggle to keep the wolf from the door. I'm not sure that I fall into any of these categories but I do know that I plan to grow old disgracefully! 

Punishing the tyres at the Lotus test track
in August this year 

A couple of years ago I bought myself a new tuba, my rational was that I have probably got up to another twenty playing years left, I wanted a decent instrument to spend that on, not an old one that I had to work around ~ and I had lusted after this particular instrument since it was first introduced. There comes an element of "If not Now, the When?". I am finally solvent and am in a position to buy myself these sorts of thing every now and then, what else am I going to use the money for? I have to accept that there are activities that I can do now that I won't be able to for much longer. This is very much the same rational that got me started in motor sport. Next Month after only my second season of sprint racing I will be collecting my second first in class trophy! This isn't as impressive as it sounds as there are only three of us in the class, and the chap who actually won the class, came third overall in the championship and is only allowed one trophy! 

I am looking forward to another season next year, we still have to decide if we will carry on with the same car in the same class, or buy a new (bigger engined, more powerful, faster) car and step up to a more populous class. We don't need to decide for a while yet. However I am thinking of replacing my current road car, I have an inoffensive SUV, it does everything I need a car to do, it is comfortable, has acceptable performance, and an enormous boot (trunk for my transatlantic readers), yet it has failed to endear itself to me, and it drinks petrol at an alarming rate, often slipping down to around 20 mpg. Now I no longer need something like this for work I think it is time for a change, yet I am struggling to make a decision ~ I have always wanted a sports car and have never had one, maybe this is another case of "If not Now, then When"

What I do know is that I still have plenty to look forward to, regardless of age we all have plenty to look forward to, and for me that is a large part of Advent as we look forward to Christmas, whether you are just looking forward to some time off, seeing family, sharing gifts and celebratory meals, or whether you are also looking forward to celebrating the birth of Christ and the message of hope that goes with it whatever our age we all have something to look forward to.