Entry for July 10, 2007

Like Sergeant Pepper, it was forty years ago today.
For it is my fortieth birthday. The most remarkable thing so far is that Yahoo recognised that I am forty, and updated my profile overnight. When I logged in this morning, there it was "AlanB, 40, UK" and there was no denying it any more. It does look sobering there on your home page. They didn't even soften the blow with the wacky message of the ubiquitous birthday cards -
"Too young to be forty" - Stupid. This is clearly the only time when I will be exactly the right age to be forty, neither a day too old, nor a day too young.
"Life Begins at Forty" - Nope. That would have been too frightening and painful for Mum. Although it would have saved a lot on nappies, top trump cards and Dungeon and Dragons materials.
"Forty is the New Thirty" - No. It is not. This will not work as an excuse for a speeding ticket in a built up area. Still less will it shave a decade off your life.
Nope. The little indicator of my age on the Yahoo homepage is more honest than all of the cards. A little blip at midnight, and the pixels changed. The march of time was recorded as a simple fact, without remark or euphemism. I rather liked it. It was like the tailor who measures your waist and tells you that you are definitely a 36 waist, or an honest friend who tells you that low rise jeans and a beer belly do not make good bedfellows.
It is nice to discard the low rise jeans, and leave them to some younger man to bare his midriff and expose his Calvin Kline logo. Meanwhile I can go back to the wardrobe and settle happily into the old pair of Lees that I always felt best in. I think I will like being forty.