The Meaning of Life

So on the train into work this evening I was feeling a bit old – it was packed with young girls in little skirts and tight black tops, and boys trying to look older than they were rehearsing their birth date in case they were asked. All of them had carrier bags full of ‘tinnies’, large bottles of Magners or the timeless bottle of Coca-Cola or Sprite (which as we all know has been half emptied of its original contents and topped up with vodka). Still, I can hardly pass judgement, that was me not so long ago. And just as I did all those years ago, I bet they sat there thinking how cool they looked and I was just a stuffy older person who’d never done any of that stuff.

It was only the other week I was reminded of what great times I had as a teenager. I met up with 3 uni friends in Essex for our annual ‘my birthday/Xmas/annual/we-really-don’t-see-each-other-enough’ night out. These were the 3 guys I spent a couple of amazing New Year’s Eves with in Edinburgh – including Millenium New Year, and I don’t think any of us will ever remember exactly what happened THAT night (apart from the kissing competition obviously, 250 to beat boys!)

At that point, I smiled at the young pups on the train. Whatever they thought they were doing and however cool they thought they were, it had all been done before – and it was old news when I did it…

Millenium Eye

I finally made it to work. Believe it or not New Year’s Eve is by far one of the best nights to work. We have, without doubt, the best view in London. I fought my way through the crowds of thousands on Waterloo bridge into the building and up to the roof. More pictures posted tomorrow, but there’s really no place I’d rather be. It’s the only perk left in my job.

When that had all finished I went back to work and while we all sat there discussing what may happen in the year ahead, I was reminded of this:

“Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving,
Revolving at 900 miles an hour.
That’s orbiting at 19 miles a second so it’s reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day!
In an outer spiral arm at 40,000 miles an hour,
In a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars,
It’s a hundred thousand light years side to side,
It bulges in the middle 16,000 light years thick,
But out by us it’s just 3,000 light years wide.
We’re 30,000 light years from galactic central point,
We go round every 200 million years!
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions in this amazing and expanding universe!

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whizz.
As fast as it can go, the speed of light ya know,
12 million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is.
So remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth?
And prey that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space,
Cos there’s bugger all down here on earth!

Thanks to Frank for that one, and Monty Python obviously. 2008 is going to be a good year, I can feel it…

Happy New Year everybody!

Labels: non-cycling, story