Whilst driving to work today I had a bizarre feeling that prompted an odd train of thought that in turn resulted in today’s post.
The wonderful Mrs Baldwin had today booked off work as holiday and suggested that I take her car to work instead of my own. Bearing in mind that hers is an Audi A5 and mine is a Skoda Fabia, you may well appreciate that there was some appeal in the suggestion. Let’s be honest, her car is better in every meaningful sense than mine.
To set the scene, I spent many years of my career in the automotive industry and have driven God knows how many different types of car, so much so that I fail to get particularly excited about modern cars (a car is a car is a car and after you’ve driven anything for a while it stops being interesting). To add further insight, I am also 42 and going grey, a father of two excellent, if demanding, children, and the joint owner of a reasonable house and all the responsibilities and financial burdens that come with this life stage.
So this morning as I drove to work in my wife’s motor, cossetted in dark grey leather and listening to The Sword album “Age of Winters” (which is great by the way), this bizarre feeling of being a proper grown-up popped into my head.
How mad is that? I am already grown up to the point of looking old!
To be clear, this wasn’t an ‘I love this car’ feeling or ‘I am excited by this car’, more a recognition that this car is not a youngster’s play thing. The car is an Audi so it conveys status to a point but for me it was not about the car suggesting a level of success or anything snobbish (which is good because it’s not mine anyway); it was about somehow feeling more mature at the wheel.
The odd train of thought that followed was:
Do I not feel like a grown up all the time? Will I feel less grown up when I get back in my Skoda? And, wouldn’t I rather feel less like a grown-up anyway?
Maybe I’ll write another post when I have worked through that psychological minefield. In the meantime my observations are these; Audi and oldie sound, and in my case feel, too similar; maybe I’d better stick to driving my own car in future and shouldn’t I be worrying about stuff that is actually important?
Anyway, it's lunchtime and I am off out to buy a copy of Max Power.
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The wonderful Mrs Baldwin had today booked off work as holiday and suggested that I take her car to work instead of my own. Bearing in mind that hers is an Audi A5 and mine is a Skoda Fabia, you may well appreciate that there was some appeal in the suggestion. Let’s be honest, her car is better in every meaningful sense than mine.
To set the scene, I spent many years of my career in the automotive industry and have driven God knows how many different types of car, so much so that I fail to get particularly excited about modern cars (a car is a car is a car and after you’ve driven anything for a while it stops being interesting). To add further insight, I am also 42 and going grey, a father of two excellent, if demanding, children, and the joint owner of a reasonable house and all the responsibilities and financial burdens that come with this life stage.
So this morning as I drove to work in my wife’s motor, cossetted in dark grey leather and listening to The Sword album “Age of Winters” (which is great by the way), this bizarre feeling of being a proper grown-up popped into my head.
How mad is that? I am already grown up to the point of looking old!
To be clear, this wasn’t an ‘I love this car’ feeling or ‘I am excited by this car’, more a recognition that this car is not a youngster’s play thing. The car is an Audi so it conveys status to a point but for me it was not about the car suggesting a level of success or anything snobbish (which is good because it’s not mine anyway); it was about somehow feeling more mature at the wheel.
The odd train of thought that followed was:
Do I not feel like a grown up all the time? Will I feel less grown up when I get back in my Skoda? And, wouldn’t I rather feel less like a grown-up anyway?
Maybe I’ll write another post when I have worked through that psychological minefield. In the meantime my observations are these; Audi and oldie sound, and in my case feel, too similar; maybe I’d better stick to driving my own car in future and shouldn’t I be worrying about stuff that is actually important?
Anyway, it's lunchtime and I am off out to buy a copy of Max Power.
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