Thursday, August 1, 2013

A Couple of Stray Notes from Uppsala

Uppsala. At breakfast there was a biker whose jacket said he was from the Uppsala chapter of the Ards Vikings. I didn't know they had clubs for them. He looked pleasant and friendly despite the build, the tattoos and the facial hair and it occurred to me that they might be a bit like elk. Having no natural predators they are calm, clumsy and mostly harmless.


At the river we walked along the bank a few hundred yards. It was full of young people, students I suppose, doing what young people do, hanging out, drinking beer, trying to impress the girls. Being young. I miss being young.

4 comments:

Brett Hetherington said...

We may not be physically young anymore but the fact that you notice these (and many more) things including those you blog about, shows that mentally you are still young, ie. curious about the world, observant and inquiring and expressing thoughts about it clearly. If we do this then we are still avoiding one of the pitfalls of being old - being stale.

The Hickory Wind said...

Very true. While I can still travel the countryside on foot or by bike and find things to be interested in I shan't feel that youth has gone. In fact, most of the time I think of myself as much younger than I am. But don't tell me you wouldn't occasionally like to be drinking wine on a riverbank on a summer afternoon talking drivel to a pretty girl. :-) On the other hand, the girl I wanted to impress I impressed definitively (God knows how, but there you are) years ago. If I were 20 I'd have to do it all again and I'd probably make a mess of it.

Anonymous said...

I like what you wrote, Mr. Hickory. In my mind I too am usually still at least 10 years younger than I am, according to my passports. 20 years ago I didn't make a mess of it either though looking back, it looks like I was trying to, through gross insensivity and emotional ignorance. Now, we still drink wine together every day, and occasionally still do it near a riverbank in summer...At least we do when our 12 year-old allows us or he isn't there with us for that fleeting hour or two. He has a bike but we don't...

The Hickory Wind said...

Ah yes, there are things you could never bear to change. Which is probably the best reason for accepting, indeed celebrating openly, where we are now.