As far as epiphanies go, I suspect my latest one - bang in the middle of stooping to grab some soap whilst running a warm shower - stands right there as one of the more unexpected. The epiphany was the realisation, somewhat belatedly from the looks of it, that any pretensions of continuing youth I may have retained no longer hold water. Where once I could hide behind being under 30, and then being just over 30, turning 33 means that I am nearer 35 than 30. There goes what was at best a tenuous grip on wannabe coolness!
The feeling of having aged is perhaps hammered home more forcibly because I had more than a few interesting conversations with the Father & Mother during my Nigeria trip. I am at the age where my father met my mother, and given the absolute lack of options (yet another lead appears to have degraded in quality from solid to a barely there email-once-in-three-weeks affair), there is neither a wife, nor the attendant 2.5 kids nor a white picket fence on the horizon. From where I stand, it does look like I am tottering at the edge of the yawning chasm of a career focused life, with no roots in any one place, the only laughter from children being from when the god children come around.
This is one age related milestone I cannot say I have looked forward to very much given all the above. Depressing much, or an opportunity to develop a leaner, meaner me? To be honest I do not know any more. :(