66 years old soon and a state pension about to be started? Age? So many sayings. Found these few on the internet.

One gets more from years of experience than books.

Your future is only as good as the work you put into it.

Futures don’t make themselves, you have to create them.

Don’t live someone else’s dream, find your own.

Nothing in life is impossible as long as you take that first step.

Don’t assume the answer is no before you ask the question.

When you’ve trodden your own very long road in a pair of these old and cherished wear them on your feet friends? You look and reminisce. Remember first time wearing them brand new, awaiting breaking in, tolerating soreness and the difficulty over weeks, sometimes months, to get slowly broken in and then that point in time where they just actually seem to settle and truly belong. These boots in the photograph? Actually one of a few dozen ‘earned patina beaten ups’ over a lifetime of similar friends. You look at them and then realise……Yup! Life’s long road, actually, was worth it.

The ‘Long Road’ journal has some lovely quotes at the bottom of ‘every other’ page. So a fair few dozen. Allows you to reflect on them and write accordingly. Here’s just a few. ‘Always remember to fall asleep with a dream and wake up with a purpose’. Or. ‘No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path’. Or ‘Each moment is a place you’ve never been’. And ‘Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience’.

Patina in what you wear, you actually realise, is the visual telling of your own stories. Rather like an older person’s wizened, creased and crinkly facial countenance displaying both worry and laughter lines. Displaying the resolute, the whimsical, the reflective nature in simply understanding what life is actually for and what it is about. These facial lines inherent as a result of being ultimately content that one’s life has been borne and developed as one of purposeful intent. Simply seeking out new experiences. Happy in your receiving great Karma. Happy with your Karmic contributions.

And……….talking of life’s journey. The beautiful second hand, vintage Italian ‘travel’ bag above? Unbelievably, it’s price was a ‘tenner’. A £10 note for an iconic olive ‘pebble leather’ vintage Brics! Bought from a recycling centre who certainly know and understand their antique and vintage stock items. Yesterday ended up a decent day for charity shop/thrift store finds.

The Brics olive pebbled leather Italian travel bag, All Saints toiletry bag, the wool cap/ hat, another beanie( just washed), Next trousers, next khaki grandad shirt (just washed), bike kit, Dickens 12 DVD box audio books set, two maps, balti dish with important under housing for my Trangia travel cooker for outside the Dub. That base unit for cooking can have saucepans, frying pans and even a little Turkish coffee pot on it too. All bought from recycling and charity shops. All bought for the grand total of £20.

It’s so nice realising you’re blessed with being the equivalent to Lovejoy’s Antiques Divvy in finding Vintage Clothes and Accessories.