It was a sad farewell this week to two old friends that have given good service over the years.
First was the car, still going strong after 11 years on the road, but just beginning to give a hint or two of her age.
She was a real testimony to the robustness of the car maker - Toyota. Let’s name them, why not? - having not given us a moment’s trouble in all the years of trundling around the highways and byeways.
Needless to say, we’ve replaced her with a similar motor with a few more bells and whistles worthy of the modern age, but with a few miles already on the clock.
The other friend to go the way of all flesh was a cupboard that had been in the family since the late 1960s, latterly seeing ster-ling service in my garden shed storing God knows what.
I was taken with the urge to clear the shed out while wait-ing to do the car swap, and that meant shifting the cupboard away from the wall to get to the accumulated dust and muck.
Alas, the old faithful all but fell apart in my hands, a leg drop-ping off here, the back falling off there and joints coming asunder.
Tearfully, and with memories stretching back four decades popping into my mind, she was hauled up to take her place on the growing bonfire in readi-ness for November.
Ho hum. Life moves on.