back of a postcard

Two stories are swishing around in my head around, not really related but somewhere in my backward mind it seems to fit that this is something that would make sense. I thought about how lucky we are in this generation, we definitely are.

When I was about 21 my mother told me to look at my hands on one side, then turn it over and look at the other. I didn't notice anything apart from the dirt under my nails which I tried my best to hide. My mother showed me her hands, I mean she was only in her late forties, still looking quite youthful, actually both my parents still don't look their ages. But her hands were quite wrinkled, blotchy and looking of age, the years of working taking their toll. Since that day I started to notice the veins in my hand creeping around the back of my hands like some ivy left to over grow at an abandoned house, the blotches and the loss of elasticity of my skin.

'Enjoy the youth you have my son' she said, albeit in Chinese.

These are old words but I was recently rummaging around the house I find an old battered suitcase, it was torn at the side and wrapped in a wonderful reddish brown leather. Even from ten feet you can smell the mixture of mould and moisture of the years. For some reason I thought that because the suitcase looked liked something my parents had brought with them from the old world, I would be allowed to open it. I took a screwdriver to the lock and it pops open and out falls around a hundred photos. I see all the people in my family staring back at me, smiling knowingly as the camera snaps the pictures in black and white, sepia and faded colour. I see my father the same age as me young smartly dressed, boyish like I am now and handsome from the beginning. I see relatives who I have only ever known as old people looking back as happy as my father was in those days.

But what marks us out from our parents? For the senseless posting of random photos of our youth drinking and having a good time, for all the photos we have which we stare back smiling, there are hundreds if not thousands for each one of us and only in the last 5 or so years. We book mark our lives without realisation, without the thought of the future which could change or creep around the corner in the next few years. I wonder when I'm as old as my father, what my children will think when they open up a computer or a web-page with their parents staring back all beauty and youth.

Turn over your hands my beautiful eggs and enjoy the blemish free skin, it may not last but at least enjoy it long as possible.

You may tire of me as our December sun is setting
'Cause I'm not who I used to be
No longer easy on the eyes
These wrinkles masterfully disguise
The youthful boy below
who turned your way and saw
Something he was not looking for
Both a beginning and an end

musik

• You've Got The Love- Florence and the Machine
• Pow- Lethal Bizzle
• Remote Part/Scottish Fiction- Idlewild
• Holiday- Dizzee Rascal
• Summer Skin- Death Cab For Cutie
• Brothers On A Hotel Bed- Death Cab For Cutie

videospiele

• Metal Gear Solid- Peace Walker
• Every Extended Extra

buch

• The Great American Detox Diet- Alex Jamieson
• VMware vSphere 4- Scott Lowe
• Invincible Iron Man- Worlds Most Wanted

verschiedenes

• bbq sardines,
• putting Italia 90 away for another 4 years,
• my gf understanding it all and revenge her favourite player will get,