So much to look forward to...and the downside of getting older...

     I'm having a ball right at the moment. There's this big international cycling event in my own home town. The streets have taken on a carnival atmosphere, and the presence of kilometre upon kilometre of fencing and barricading reminds us that our very own streets are the course for very EXPENSIVE young people in very EXPENSIVE clothing with EXPENSIVE bikes to race on, entertaining as well as slightly inconveniencing us all.
This is not a rant about the exclusiveness of cycling as a sport. Its obvious it is- but certainly no more so than any motor sport racing, nor any more than say, polo, or even golf.
     No, I am certainly a proponent of cycling, and love to watch the Tour de France every winter, propped up under the doona dreaming of the possibility of seeing it person one day. I actually am really enjoying the novelty of the gated community to the point where I am relishing the contact with my neighbours, and the opportunity to be an observer and a passive one at that. Oh, I yell out "go go go!" and the rider's name, and "Go USA!" "Go Kazakhstan!", "Go Switzerland!" (Go Fabian you big hunk!) and "Go Australia!" etc etc. But we eat our dried fruit and drink our thermos-cup Earl Grey and sit back down on our folding chairs and think this is really sweet. (I say 'we' as Johnny is there too. He unfortunately has injured his back, as he seems wont to do every time he takes holidays these days, and so he is not riding around the course seeing the sights and avoiding time with his wife, sadly for him.) (Oh, Johnny is my husband, in case you don't know.)
    What occurs to me, is that this is a taste of life in a Retirement village. Gated, secure, and we don't have any obvious responsibilities. Lovely, really. I could do this, every day if I had to, quite easily.
     And then, tonight, there was this piece on Current Affair (which I DON"T usually watch, honest!) and it was about couple's retreats for people whose kids have left home. That's us. well the people in it were about our age (late 40's and a bit more). Except we got our acts together and DID those marriage saver weekends as often as we could when our kids were young. So now we do a bit less of that stuff, 'cos we know who WE are. Anyway, the thing was, during that little story, (which we duly canned, 'cos we were so much better than the people in it, and it was Current Affair), we noticed that they were playing "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin, and I had a horrible thought: "what if they don't play Led Zeppelin music in old age care facilities once WE get there???" How awful! How unthinkable!
 Waaahhhh- I don't wanna get old!!!!!