So, you find yourself at the garden party organised for a friend’s daughter’s first birthday party. Said friend started out on the family life path a bit later than you  did. Consequently you are there with two of your own children, aged 13 and (nearly) 10.

So far so what you say…

Good point. This is not the relevant bit.

Well, during this most agreeable sunny afternoon family fete, you look around and survey the scene. Pretty damn good  really.

Children having fun, adults sipping a  cold beer or a chilled glass of wine in the sunshine.

And this too, is not the point.

You see, when your brain is wired up like mine, there’s always another side of it.  An inescapable processing churning away on its own. You look around and notice the young children and then your own somewhat more grown up brood. And you wonder when the hell that happened. And that same bunch of guys and gals you misspent some of your youth with down the local pub, suddenly transported forward in time to now. And let’s face it…Sigh… We’re all living in that future looking a wee bit older now. You know only too well that you’re showing it yourself too. The subconscious continues to process this overnight, and serves up its considered opinion the next day, as you drift in and out on the train doing the long commute.

An old school chum who never made it this far. An over-analysis of your own father’s life. Him now being gone to the great unknown. His journey through life,strugggling to get enough sheckels to put food on tbe table, steadily getting older and eventually greyer as you all went about life not really appreciating his struggle, and adding to his woes with your behaviour. Kinda wish I’d done more to help the old chap. Maybe just shown him it was, however meagre, appreciated.

And so the undertone from this processing, as you consider the output seems to be that the record changes from one generation to the next but really it’s the same old tune re hashed.

I don’t have an off switch for this side of my psyche, it seems.

Still, at least the sun was out, and the pleasing afternoon put up a good show at giving some time spent living in the present. Cake always helps.