growing old disgracefully

i've been thinking about the ways in which aging effects us - how some people fight against it while others accept it and stop worrying about the outward signs of advancing old age and embrace all its advantages such as the enjoyment of being a grouch and pissing people off by pretending to be deaf

walking up and down orchard road i have been amused by posters featuring hollywood and hong kong icons raquel welch and andy lau

it's amazing what a spot of carefully trowelled-on make-up in the right places, a bit of judicious air-brushing and, in raquel's case, some rather ill-advised rhinoplasty (or maybe she's always had a nose like some sort of appendage on a swiss army knife), can achieve - they both look like they've just stepped out of a gerry anderson supermarionation show - the only things that are missing are the usually clearly visible wires

that's what makes it funny to me, i suppose - the knowledge that at their ages, the only thing that can create the illusion that they still look young and beautiful (not sure about the latter with andy, as, to me, facially he's always vaguely resembled a ferret) is a clever computer facelift (my mind races back to that famous scene in 'dynasty' where joan collins agreed to shoot a scene without make-up)

i suppose it's different for these kind of celebrities who rely more on looks and being fashionable than they do on their limited abilities as actors and have built careers around their appearance - and good luck to them, i say - as zero mostel shouted through his dirty window in 'the producers', if you've got it baby, flaunt it, flaunt it!

as for myself, and all of the other ordinary people i know, good-looking or otherwise, i think one of the advantages of growing older is the cultivation of not giving a toss about what other people think of you, your appearance, your day to day dealings with the world around you and your personal opinions, whether they be ill-informed or admirable - this is an attitude which took root in my mind during the last decade and has been slowly growing month after month ever since, although people who have known me since my teenage years would testify to the fashion police that i've never particularly given a toss about my outward appearance either physically or sartorially - this, unfortunately often annoys k., who has spent the last ten years trying, mostly unsuccessfully, both by example and by turns with subtle and unsubtle hints, to instill in me a sense of pride in my appearance and some semblance of fashion sense

but tish and piff - i'll have none of it (although after an extreme period of weight loss i have been known to browse around some of the more fashionable outlets in paragon and ngee ann city)

to me, growing older is something that should be embraced gleefully - after decades of putting up with all the crap of every day life and work, you've earned the right to be unabashedly scruffy and unashamedly pompous, grumpy and cantankerous - these are just some of the pleasures i'll be looking forward to over the next two or three decades (unless of, of course, i unexpectedly come into a large fortune - then, grasping my zimmer frame in both shaking hands, i'll probably be hobbling off to my local plastic surgeon with a wad of thousand dollar bills sticking out of the top of my incontinence pants and dialling round the more exclusive escort agencies...)