Archive for the ‘Behaviour’ Category

Dustbin day, the arrival of the postman and the gold crest in the yew tree never interested me at all when I was working.  But since I’ve retired I’m in danger of becoming obsessed by all these things because often very little else is filling my day.  Most many people claim they are really busy when they retire, but what are they so busy doing? Well I suspect they are reading through plant catalogues delivered by the postman (who will talk so), writing complaining letters about the non-collection of their household rubbish and researching the habits of the gold crest on the internet.

When you were young you watched TV quite silently: you may have laughed or cried but you never talked at it – that comes when you are older.  Older people can’t let anything pass on the TV without a comment and generally in disagreement.  The temptation to go on and on about what they think is irresistible.  I know what you’re thinking: “Well, I certainly don’t do that” – all I can say is wait until you’re settled in front of the TV (all the better if you are with someone else so you can observe them as well) and then see what happens.  In no time at all you’ll be  criticising someone’s facial hair, disagreeing with the item on speed cameras and protesting during the interview on electoral reform.  In fact your opinions were so loudly expressed that you completely missed the bit about frost in the weather forecast so now you don’t know whether to put a cloche over your verbena seedlings or not.

One characteristic to avoid if you don’t want to behave like an old person is to be more decisive. You must have been in a queue of people waiting for that dear old lady or man to finish deciding whether to have the shortbread with their coffee or the almond croissant and wanting to know in great detail what each of them contains. This happened to me today while my blood sugar levels reached a record low and I was longing to shout: “Just buy the damned thing…” But I didn’t, because I am British and We Don’t Show Emotion – and also I am getting old and have been known to dither too.