Erm.....OK,
Going on holiday to the Algarve, out of season, going to the Antiquities museum at Albufeira instead of lamenting that most the the pubs on sunset strip were closed, on that mile-long street of boozers on the route to the sea.

Getting married at 20 and having a daughter at 25, thus keeping me out of the student/youngster years of pissupedness and mad bonking, by being at home being responsible. On the other hand, now I've been divorced 11 years, all my contemporaries are having to settle down where as we are (relatively) free to pursue what ever we want to (and can afford to) do. While they are now talking about nappies and nursery wallpaper and toy trains, we get off to rock gigs and stay up late getting drunk to loud music :-)

Finding that these days only degree-educated computer scientists and programmers seem to know what hexadecimal is, whereas I got mine from a BBC Micro User Manual at age 11. This is an important part of my work day so it is relevant.

Not wanting to join in with knockabout 'workshop' banter i.e. 'Oi, wanker!' aimed at someone you actually regard as a friend, and not saying 'Fuck you with a rusty fork, cuntstick!' to someone on the internet who can't see your nod and a wink to let them know it's light-hearted ribaldry- I call a spade a shovel, me, and what I say I tend to mean literally. Which is obviously why I failed at the casual ribbing that is /talk. Although to an ousider, /talk looks like the kind of mortal insulting that would get you run through with a duellists' sword in C.18th France.

Being punched by a random drunk teen in an unprovoked attack in my old hometown of Stourbridge, which - because he had a sovereign ring on - cut my cheek enough to leave a crescent-shaped scar and yet- reigning in my natural instinct to retaliate with extreme prejudice (the karate moves I gained when young are still instinctively available under duress) because 'grown man beats up 16 year old' does not make a good headline, especially as the friend I was with at the time was a primary school teacher- 'Teacher of 8-year olds involved in drunken fracas' even less a good headline. So in essence, thinking about consequences.

Putting your back out. By picking up a cat. He is a fat fucker, but still.... full extension sideways, OWW FUCK and 4 weeks wincing when you get up out of a chair.

Not wanting to listen to a SINGLE track in the top 40. There was a dry patch in the 80s that was all Stock Aitken Waterman but then it swung back to Blur, Pulp etc. which was acceptable even though I still am a Metallist at heart. But now? It can quite frankly all fuck off. I even got fed up today being on hold to Orange where I was captively forced to listen to the product of the charts being fed into my ear while on hold. For 40 fucking minutes.

Treating driving as an economy game instead of 'how fast can I take this corner?'. Goddam medium size diesel saloon that's 10 years old and I can still get 58mpg out of it... tiny delicate inputs, calculation of gear changes and apex-clipping arcs, no more than 33% throttle etc.

Watching the Apprentice and instead of thinking 'Aha, thrusting young entrepreneurs who are going to revitalise the economy', thinking 'It's a spot the wanker competition and everyone apart from Nick Hewer is in with a chance of winning'

But probably most of all.... picking up litter that other people have just thrown on the floor right next to a bin.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Fri 8 Jun 2012, 21:56, 1 reply)

I'm sorry Hat but...
NO-ONE thinks The Apprentice is anything other than a 'spot the wanker' competition. Agree about Nick Hewer though...
( Sonic James Doom forgetting the date since... umm..., Sat 9 Jun 2012, 10:18, closed)