I have been searching through my themed book of quotations again tonight. I passed yet another milestone in my life last night (they seem to occur more frequently as one gets older) and I need a humorous quote to regail you with before I tell my tale.

The best I came up with was one by F Scott Fitzgerald

"At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; At forty five they are caves in which we hide."

You may have all noticed that I am a glass half empty kind of bloke, A man who sees the downside of most situations. It is true. However I would refer you to research conducted by a faculty of Edinburgh University that discovered that depressives actually had a very good grasp of reality and it was the optimists who were crazy.

The upside was that the optimists gained all the riches life had to offer and the pessimists cowered around the primus stove of life with nothing but their righteousness. With that discovery the whole department was killed with an overdose of anti depressants

I made that bit up.

I do recognise the sentiment in the quote though. Perhaps we like to see ourselves as more idealistic when we were younger. As sort of psychological nostalgia. I don't think I was ever principled if I am honest.

My aim in life was to dodge my way to the top. I prided myself on knowing the shortcut, the way of producing similar results of one kind or another with out all the tedious bits some people felt obligated to carry out.

Well it got me this far but it is not as far as I was planning to get. Still you reap what you sow I believe the expression goes.

Anyhow - my tale

I was at a restaurant of Indian Cuisine in South Shields last night. We were seeing off a colleague. Once upon a time these occasions would have brought out cameras but last night people were waving mobile phones around and before I knew where I was there were half a dozen pictures of me looking befuddled and confused. My mobile is 5 years old and can receive text and I thought that was neat when I got it!

Anyway once all the pics were taken everyone started comparing phones and features and then eventually Facebook came up. One of my colleagues pointed out my Facebook page. I pointed out that it was often the only way I knew what my kids were up to. Another colleague said that was what her husband said - but there was something fundamentally wrong with middle aged men on face book!

MIDDLE AGED MAN!!

I was beside myself. I am not middle aged! Well, I know that technically I am middle aged but I AM NOT MIDDLE AGED! I was horrified. I hope there are others out there too who also believe that they are no different now to when they were 17. It can't be just me?