Inner child hindered by an aging body

AS A kid I was obsessed with funfairs, the circus, fairies, Christmas and birthday parties.

I thought when people ‘grew up’ all these occasions and experiences lost their magic.

There was so much excitement inside me for these things I wondered where that energy went.

When I’m a ‘big lady’, will my world become beige and unexciting, I wondered.

Well, I am a ‘big lady’ now and have been for about three decades.

If I could go back in time, I’d shake my younger self and tell her not to be so silly.

I’d also buy multiple Lego sets because I now know which ones from the 1970s to the early 2000s are worth a fair bit.

Even writing this gives me a tingle of excitement.

The Lego set, Star Wars Cloud City, was released in 2003 and is worth $16,000 new or $15,000 used.

Let that sink in.

That’s a set that was once sitting on shelves and anyone could have bought as many as they wanted.

Some people wish to go back in time to prevent war, I’d like to go back to buy Lego ... go figure.

I know people in their late 60s who enjoy playing the board game Dungeons and Dragons.

Miniatures are also something collected by older people.

Victorian doll houses with mind blowing accuracy in reproduction are firmly in the realm of ‘not for children’ or as I say, ‘hands behind your back!’.

Then there’s extensive Hot Wheel collections.

A few years ago, I was hunting down the latest Lego mini-figure series and remarked to a salesperson how they were for me and not my child.

She said most enthusiasts were adults and how it was the same with Hot Wheels.

I’ve since learned the little metal cars also hold value, model and year dependent of course.

When I visit charity shops looking for LEGO, sometimes I see bags of little cars marked at a few dollars for the lot.

The kid in me has a few dollars in her bank account ... she’s able to buy it if she wants.

Knowing some cars are worth quite a bit but not knowing enough about which ones, is a problem.

With LEGO, I’ve been collecting that long I have a very good knowledge base.

Little cars...not so much.

But again, the kid in me has a few bucks in the bank and she’s going to take a punt.

Rookie move Lara.

I now have a drawer [as you do] filled with about a hundred little metal cars.

I used Google lens to work out if I’d found any winners.

I hadn’t.

The adult in me pulled child me back in line and we agreed to stick with what we know ... Lego.

Sometimes we buy our children something that’s secretly for us.

My daughter’s Christmas present was a trampoline.

We bought her a massive one and I was as excited as she was when I discovered a 10 minute bounce equalled a half hour run.

I hadn’t been on one since I was a teenager, it was something I enjoyed.

I’d bounce as high as I could, landing on my bottom and then up again.

That this equalled a 30 minute run sold me, it was a next level hack I was going to exploit relentlessly.

As I climbed through the net opening I talked a smack about how in my day we had no netting or spring covers.

Haha, kids today are soft ... in my day we landed in the springs, lost an eye and feeling in our right leg but kept bouncing.

I should have kept my 50-something mouth shut.

Hooley dooley, even standing was a mission.

I’m standing there like I’m about to do the haka [poorly], begging my daughter to keep still.

Who knew muscle memory is not a thing when it comes to trampolines.

I invented a game where I sit in the middle and my daughter jumps around me.

Smart.

I’ve been on it a few more times since and I’m getting better at it.

By better I mean I’m able to at least stand and do teeny tiny bunny hop jumps.

My worry we lose lust for life was way off.

Most of us are just children inside an aging body wondering what the heck happened.