17 Again

Yesterday, sans kiddies, Auntie Ba and I were enjoying a brief moment of respite from the monsters by sipping Starbuck's skinny wet cappuccino's outside on the grass by the harbour. The sun was shining, the grass was green and it felt like a moment from one of those perfect summer days from when you were young - that you only fully appreciate in hindsight when you're not young anymore.

Anyway, Ba was amusing me with the latest escapade about the latest boy who has a crush on her and I was lying back on the grass, shades cutting out the harshest of the midday sun, when all of a sudden we were interrupted by a young man - or rather a boy - who plopped himself down beside us, flashed a warm smile and started up a conversation.

Anyone who knows me knows that i hate being interrupted by members of the general public when i'm deep in conversation (...or have my ipod on...or am in a hurry...or - well pretty much whenever). If you want directions go bother a policeman...if you want a chat then find yourself a nice but lonely old lady...if you want to flirt and be cheesy, go find someone interested - cuz I sure ain't.

Auntie Ba being the kind and gentle soul she is, took it upon herself to answer this young fellow while I busied myself examining my toes in my Havianna's and determined that an immediate pedicure was of absolute importance. However I eventually looked over at the guy and realized he was sweet and harmless. Turns out he is from Indiana and here on a road trip with two of his friends. It also turns out that he would not have looked out of place on the cover of a magazine.

Now don't get me wrong - I am a happily (right Fen?!) married woman with two little boys and I am generally not a flirt nor am I the type of lady to go soft anytime a piece of young hot boy totty wanders past. However this boy looked like he had been engineered to the exact specifications needed to inspire lust in young girls everywhere. You know, the requisite gorgeous smile, great body, fabulous hair, perfect skin, blah, blah, blah...and the killer - he smelled great - like he'd just walked out of an Ambercrombie & Fitch store.

I was taking all this in objectively like a random stranger would, until I realized that perhaps he was less interested in tourist advice and maybe more interested in perhaps picking Auntie Ba and I up. This fact amused me to no end, and being the unfulfilled actress that I am, I switched into comedy mode and decided to try and make Auntie Ba laugh. Switching into teenage mode with ease I adjusted my ra-ra skirt (which truth be told probably did more to lead him to believe that we were his age, than the sunglasses which somewhat obscured my definately-no-longer 18 year old eyes...) and with Ba as the perfect sidekick we began to toy with him and his very ugly friend and had a right laugh.

Eventually we got up and left, with Langdon (that was his name) shyly calling out to us that maybe we'd run into each other again as they were here for a few more days. Once out of view Ba and I collapsed into giggles and marvelled in the fact that we'd been taken for such young girls.

I did think to myself later that it would be hilarious if we run into him again and I'm pushing Egg and Dumps around in the double pushchair and Dumps is screaming out his usual demands, "MaaaMaaaaaa!" and the poor young boy realises that he came onto two thirty-something women by accident!

But I'll tell you what, any embarrassment sufferred by young Langdon would surely be worth it if he knew how much that made our day being mistaken for young things. It beats getting wasted on champagne, a big shopping binge or even a bathtub full of melted Godiva! Ah, youth is truly wasted on the young...