Wednesday 6th July, my birthday! I wake sluggishly and wander down stairs to make a muesli breakfast and down my first coffee of the day. My partner is at work in the office and my eldest daughter is off gathering doctoral data so I settle down and prepare for a zoom meeting. I get myself in front of the laptop and dial in. As they wish me happy birthday I manage to spill my coffee over myself and have to frantically clean up whilst fielding banter about age related accidents, slips, trips an falls! Once I had recovered my equilibrium I engaged fully with the meeting. There is a possible opportunity to be involved with some form of support for the the Ukraine so the future could be interesting and challenging.
Meeting over, I make myself a fried egg roll and do a couple of crosswords before waving my partner off to see her mother. Alone I have some chores to do and am expecting the garden guy to turn up today. Before I can get going a friend rings to sing happy birthday to me and to wish me well. We chat for a while until she returns home. No sooner had I finished the call than my son rings me and I get happy birthday wishes from my grandchildren. As my grandchildren are Swedish I am technically a “Farfar. I chat with my son for a long while. Its been a time since we last had such a chat and before we end the call we agree to another call once return from next weeks holiday. Almost as soon as I finish the call another friend rings with birthday wishes. We talk about holidays and her up coming cruise to the fjords. I’m still waiting for the garden guy to arrive and decide to oil the chair that sits in our front garden. It goes well in the sunshine but just as I finish the sun goes in and it clouds over. On to the next job on my to do list. I feed the hedgehog and put out the ladder that the garden guy will need to do our hedges at the weekend. Finally I think I have things straight so I get the garden camera and identify and retrieve the photos with our hedgehog in them. The camera goes back into the garden as my partner returns. I’m craving something nice so I indulge in a Bettys fat rascal. Very tasty and just what I craved. I am keeping an eye on the Boris saga as his MPs leave his sinking ship like rats. With luck I might get his resignation as a birthday treat. My birthday treats are all to be in the evening. The garden guy did not show, but then I discover he is actually due tomorrow. I had delayed training in anticipation of his arrival but by the time I find he is not coming I am too tired to train. I decide to be kind to myself and give myself a days rest. Tomorrow I shall return to my rower.
The Evening arrives, my eldest daughter returns home and my birthday celebrations begin. I am fed my favourite pasta dish, followed by a Bettys chocolate birthday cake, delicious. I open my cards and then my presents. It is a profusion of goodies from writing paper, books, notebooks and Lush bath goodies. And to my surprise not one but two new ice hockey jerseys from my favourite ice hockey team the Arizona Coyotes. I am indeed blessed.
Its a real pleasure and makes my day. The debris of the celebrations signal it well.
Feasting over I settle in front of the TV and watch watch the England women’s football team beat Austria. This all happening against a background of Boris refusing to go and sacking ministers and Rapha Nadal wining a five set match to get to the semi finals of Wimbledon at the age of 36. Football over I draft the blog before sending messages of thanks to all those kind people who have been generous to me. I shall go to bed now looking forward to making it to 75, healthy as I can be, curious and actively being the poetry coyote.
