Death

One of the crappy things about getting old is that your friends start dying off. When you hit around 70-80, you start to look like last man standing. This I've seen first hand from my grandparents.

There's a crappy step in between that I forgot about until recently - when your mates' parents start dropping off. C's dad died in 99, R's dad died back in 2001, and now F's mum last week and I just found out about L's dad today.

I'm always in shock when this happens, as a) it's a crappy thing to happen to my mates, b) I knew their folks and it's a loss and c) it drums home that it could happen to me (or you).

The most shocking thing I think is that I've kinda prepared myself to be the Last Man Standing^TM when I'm 84, but this death of a mates' parent thing sorta sideswiped me.

Preparation is all well and true I guess for the expected, you just gotta handle the curve balls when life throws them at you.

Hockey Night In ... England??

When I moved back to the UK in 2000, I wanted to re-embrace my heritage and discard all that was North American. How foolish. Britain in the naughties is more American that probably even Canada now.

Having shed that idea, I decided not to turn my back on several decades of Canadian upbringing and actually relish the things that I held dear to myself over the years. This went from music - like Platinum Blonde, Pursuit of Happiness, Chalk Circle, etc. to Tim Horton's coffee and even hockey. I used to be a mad hockey fan, watching Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday on a small 10" black and white telly in the family room.

It was a colliding of lives when the NHL announced that for the first time ever, two of their teams would play regular season games outside of North America. Where oh where would they go? To a hockey loving, NHL feeding country like Sweden or Germany or even Russia? No. They're playing in England, the country where the word hockey evokes images of girls in skirts and curly sticks. To be more precise, they're playing at what used to be called the Millennium Dome.

The two teams involved are both West Coasters - the LA Kings and the Anaheim Ducks (nee Mighty Ducks). The Ducks just won the Stanley Cup in June, so we get to arguably see the best hockey team in North America.

I'm pretty psyched, a lot more so than I would have been in 2000.

Goes to show time doesn't just heal all wounds, it also makes you grow up.
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Now playing: The Pursuit Of Happiness - I'm An Adult Now
via FoxyTunes

Priority shift

For most of my adult life (and I classify that as the years I've had my own money, whether pocket money or from a job), I've been a collector. As a collector, that inherently means you NEVER part with anything.

Now when I say I'm a collector, it's not that sad type that doesn't part with anything. I've thrown out the usual stuff - burger wrappers, limited edition coke tins, etc. It's just the collectible stuff that's stayed with me - records, comics, CDs, limited edition board games, etc.

Now I've hit my mid-30s ... and well, for a few years now... it's become more imperative to me to have a clutter-free existence, and this has meant parting with a large number of "things" I've collected over the years.

Why?

The basic answer is a lot of the stuff I don't use any more. I haven't hooked up a turntable for over 7 years, so why keep a garage full of vinyl - even if the collection is chock full of rare white label 12"s and promos? Likewise, there's also a dearth of stuff I look at and scratch my head? Who the hell ever thought it was wise to buy the début Right Said Fred album? Who?

As I get older my priorities have changed I guess. I used to pride myself on a 400-strong DVD collection of which I never watched. Now I just rent the DVDs I want to watch from Tesco. Sitting in front of the telly with the rented DVD looking at my wall of DVDs does make me wonder what I was thinking, why my wallet didn't stop me and how I can offload discs that cost me around a tenner each and are now being given away free on Sunday newspapers.

I think the age of being amazed by that great find in the used record shop is now firmly a thing of the past, but it was fun while it lasted and I've got the crates of vinyl, the boxes of DVDs and the plastic-wrapped comics to prove it.

Now I just need to offload.