In a past life I have been proud of my ability to retain useless information.
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I could recite the first page of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
I could remember the name of my primary school best friend's pet dog.
And I could retain all the pop culture information my little brain holds. I knew useless stuff about celebrities, song lyrics (as if I'll ever be in a life or death situation where I'll need to rap Superbass by Nicky Minaj) and generally had read every "it" book Reese Witherspoon recommended.
But this week, I had a stark realisation, my finger is not on the pop culture pulse anymore.
I came to this when I heard Kylie Jenner had hooked up with Timothee Chamalet and the name meant nothing to me. I wondered who this "normie" (aka normal person) was.
![The mysterious Timothee Chalamet. Picture sourced from Netflix The mysterious Timothee Chalamet. Picture sourced from Netflix](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/39334uWFriQ6mZbDw7tBDLC/d449c1bf-0a80-4531-8bfa-36f4112370d5.jpg/r3_0_1198_672_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
So, I reached for Google. Apparently, this guy is a mega movie star, he's slated to star as Willy Wonka later this year. He is potentially the "it" guy of right now. And I had never seen his face before.
This isn't Timothee's fault.
But it did occur to me my pop culture knowledge has taken a big hit in recent years...does this mean I am heading into the dreaded "middle-age"?
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According to my friend, Google, middle age is generally defined as being between the ages of 35 and 65. I've still got three-and-a-half years before I hit that.
BUT my habits are already looking pretty middle-aged-ish.
This peri-middle-agedness has crept up on me it seems and is most evident when I try to connect with the pop culture cycle..
When I once used to reveal in the amount of content I had to binge, my To Watch list is getting longer and longer. I haven't committed to a season of anything since before Daisy Jones and The Six dropped and I'm only half-way through Deadloch on Amazon Prime and don't even get me started on starting the latest season of Only Murders in the Building (no spoilers please).
ABC iView all of a sudden feels like my safe streaming space, although I dabble in other places, I always come back to Australian Story or Hard Quiz.
I've had to start listening to audio books instead of reading. Which hasn't been a terrible adjustment, I'm much more productive without my nose in a book, therefore, now think of folding clothes and cleaning as multi-tasking. I think I'll level up once I start listening at 1.5 speed. Talk about efficiency.
I walked into Sportsgirl the other day to buy some clothes, tried a few things on. Walked out and went and spent my dosh at Sussans, Sportsgirl's mother.
From a trendier, more heavily filtered and fake tanned time.
Another alarm bell, I had Spotify to myself the other day and I had no idea what to listen to. Not being restricted to the Disney or Wiggles playlists was almost overwhelming. What are people listening to these days? Does Timothee Chamalet sing?
This peri-middle-agedness has crept up on me it seems and is most evident when I try to connect with the pop culture cycle.
But then I walk past Supre at a shopping centre and all the clothes are the same as when I was in my teenage years.
So, perhaps, I just need to wait until my knowledge becomes relevant again? One Direction did say they just going on a break....
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