Bernard O'Shea: When hayfever begins in your forties

"I had spent my youth rolling in fields, daisy chains on my head, sneeze-free... yet here I was, in my prime, sniffing and sneezing, going slowly demented."

Pic: iStock

"Midlife is when you reach the top of the ladder and find it against the wrong wall." 

This quote by Joseph Campbell, although poignant, misses one crucial point. The true midlife crisis isn't realising you've been climbing the wrong ladder - it's discovering hayfever.