Back in the Spring of this year I witnessed a house fire in my street. I had a camera with me and took a few photos of the firemen in action,the billowing smoke etc.
I then emailed the photos to the local Ealing newspaper.

The following day I had a telephone call from a reporter from the paper. He thanked me for the pictures and then asked me a few questions about the incident. In true tabloid style he asked me my age. You know the kind of thing, Madonna aged 50, Kate Moss 32 etc. Anyway, without thinking, (something I'm very good at) I blurted out "I'm 51.."

Oh how I regret this confession.

There are a couple of mums I know who live locally who have taken to shouting
"Al Stuart 51" at me, as they pass me in the street. They think it's highly amusing.

I don't very often think about how old I am, but recently I've had a few reminders.
A couple of weeks ago my oldest and best friend from art college was down in London with his wife visiting their kids. I met them as they came off the Underground.I don't get to see them very often and I always imagine them looking just like they did in the 70's. There they were coming up the stairs from the train, looking like me, a lot older than the fresh faced long haired art students we were. (I hope they don't take this the wrong way!)
Seeing someone I've known that long makes you realise that you're older than you like to think you are!
The other indicator of impending old age has been at a couple of concerts I went to recently. Stephen Stills guitar player with CSN, who played at Woodstock was in town.
Looking round the Shepherds Bush Empire before the lights went down revealed a sea of grey hair and middle aged spreads! I also went to see an old, fairly obscure prog rock band called Nektar. I was a fan back in the early 70's.
The audience at the small but friendly Borderline were the usual old hippies like me.
The band were probably even older. Close your eyes and it could be 1973. Open them and you'll see the keyboard player have to put his reading glasses on to see what was next on the set list! The drummer looked like my dad.
Nick my advertising copywriter and friend (of a similar age) have decided that perhaps the Ad industry thinks we can't cut it anymore. So we've launched our very own food website.
www.foodepedia.co.uk
Nick is editor and I've decided I'm creative director (stop laughing at the back). We've been out and about interviewing chefs, going to cookery demonstrations and enjoying some wonderful free lunches. Who says there's no such thing!
Mind you there's no escape from the 'age thing'. We constantly meet lovely PR girls who are young enough to be our daughters. We attended a cocktail evening at the very posh Langham hotel, the four young PR girls awaiting the arrival of the hotshots from foodepedia, only to turn round to see two blokes in their early 50's shuffling through the door!
Still in true Jeremy Clarkson style, being an old git isn't going to stop me wearing jeans, leather jackets, cowboy boots (yes really) and it won't stop me going to gigs either. Mind you in a few weeks time those mums will have to revise the number they shout at me.....Al Stuart 52 :-(