Coming to the end of my 57th journey around the sun. Feeling a bit more cheerful today.

What a long strange trip it's been.

I mostly live a simple life. After years of ups and downs and turbulence and insecurity and self-employment I settled for a steady job. It's low paid but interesting. It's in a small city where I don't have to use a car. I have accepted the constraints and limitations of this way of life, as a necessary step. Sometimes you need edges. I don't mind my reduced options.

I love Julie, my partner, dearly - and it is she who has made a comfortable life even feasible for such a slouch as me.

Last year I had my birthday in Hawaii (I didn't tell anyone) - the first time I had left the UK for 15 years!
This year it is her turn to be on the other side of the planet on 'the big day' [I am not pumping up my birthday, I don't care much, to be honest]. No, the BIG DAY is St Valentine's Day - a day for lovers. How silly that we keep spending it apart.