Digging the Grave

Sunday 9th September

Digging the grave is Cockney Rhyming Slang for having a shave, although whether it is true original Cockney or the modern version of ‘Mockney’ I am not sure.  But quite apt it is.  This daily ritual is for most men very methodical, often performed first thing in the morning while still half asleep, in fact most of us could actually do it in our sleep.  Apart from a couple of years in the seventies when first a moustache and then a full beard made their appearance I have been digging the grave for over forty years now.  At first in one’s teens you cannot wait to shave, but can easily go two or three days without needing to.  ‘Put some milk on it and the cat will lick it off.’  Was the oft-heard jibe.  But then it got to once a day, and if you were really stupid, a second one in the early evening only encouraged the bloody thing to grow even faster.

And every morning as the blade makes it vertical swipes through the shave gel you look at yourself, but you never really notice how much older you are getting as each day you inexorably you approach your death.   But that is what is happening as you are methodically and repeatedly digging the grave.