{"id":1709,"date":"2009-08-23T21:28:44","date_gmt":"2009-08-23T21:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/?p=1709"},"modified":"2009-08-24T08:07:43","modified_gmt":"2009-08-24T08:07:43","slug":"new-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/2009\/08\/new-seasons\/","title":{"rendered":"New Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am not middle-aged, nor in a mid-life crisis of any kind, and neither am I in any kind of second childhood. Neither am I in denial about any of these things. Nonetheless, the desire to play and explore has never been greater. I have been training to ride 600cc motorbikes<\/a> and I’m hoping to buy one soon. Cue remarks which lead to explanation given line one.<\/p>\n

It would seem that the Australians have come to the sensible decision to do away with old-style European descriptions of the seasons<\/a>, which have a lot less bearing on the actual annual changes experienced in the southern hemisphere, and to come up with some new names ( “sprinter” , “sprummer” ) which more closely describes their specific climatic conditions. So, I should follow their example and announce that I am changing my definition of where I am in the seasonal progression of my life, so as to better describe the actual conditions which I encounter.<\/p>\n

So, I’m no longer a young man, though I’m far less middle-aged than most people two years from fifty. I’m physically fitter than I was five years ago, though my joints ache more when I don’t exercise. I’m more sane than I was at any time in my life, although my more unlikely ambitions I am prepared to put much more time into. I’m materially comfortable, yet preparing for my pattern of earnings to radically change as my lifestyle changes. I have rejected false notions and the chimeras of success in a field of work which invented itself around me as I helped to invent it. <\/p>\n

I quite like my new beard, grown spontaneously one month ago, the same week my father fell ill and died. When I arrived in hospital, and saw him so desperately smitten, the first thing I noticed as I adjusted to the fact of his imminent departure was his beard. My new adventure in facial hair is a shape I had previously not adopted, and remarkably like Brian’s beard.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I quite like the fact that the white in the beard proclaims my age, while it hides my baby-smooth skin.<\/p>\n

I was already most of the way through processing inner changes, and matching the outside circumstances of my life to my improved aims and refreshed perceptions when my father Brian died. I was very glad that I had the chance to share my plans with Brian before his sudden passing. Soon I will move to Sussex, but before then, I have some work to do in my flat.<\/p>\n

I’m really looking forward to Tom Sparks arriving tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am not middle-aged, nor in a mid-life crisis of any kind, and neither am I in any kind of second childhood. Neither am I in denial about any of these things. Nonetheless, the desire to play and explore has never been greater. I have been training to ride 600cc motorbikes and I’m hoping to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[780],"class_list":["post-1709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funky-original","tag-funky-original"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1709"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1712,"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions\/1712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theothersideofeverything.com\/flip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}