Wednesday 26th August 2015

Tuesday

50th birthday

Cease fire, we're going in!

I wake at six when the alarm goes off, outside it is still dawn, showing how old the year is getting. Indeed, in four months it will be Christmas Day. Apparently. This I know as today is my birthday.

Jools wishes me happy birthday gives me a kiss, and once downstairs, there is a bag of gifts for me. She makes coffee and watches over me as I open each of the presents and her card. There are cards from other friends and family, which I can now open too. Each gives me joy that they have remembered.

Jools has to leave for work, and indeed I have work to do, updating KPIs and checking mail. However, at ten I set an out of office message and decide I should maybe go for a walk as bad weather was due to be sweeping in by lunchtime.

I just walk over the fields to the butterfly glade, just to see what was about, and was rewarded with a few Speckled Woods, Brown Argus, Red Admirals, Large Whites and Common Blues. I get a few shots but I look to the north west and see huge black clouds approaching. So I turn for home, and am rewarded with a few large raindrops as I make my way back across the fields.

I have to field a call from Mother, which I suppose is to be expected, and as long as certain subjects are avoided, we remain on civil terms, which is what happens.

Post arrives and I have more cards, and again really nice that people have remembered.

At half twelve Jools comes home, and we ponder what to do the rest of the afternoon. Outside it is monsoon-like, throwing it down with rain. There is no point in going anywhere outside, or getting to anywhere that is inside, as this would mean going outside. We have fishcakes in rolls for lunch, then I am given the choice of what to do, so I choose to watch Bull Durham. Which is what we do, and whilst on the sofa, and the rain hammers down outside, we enjoy the film and I sip very expensive whisky, which makes me feel like a millionaire.

At six we climb into our wet weather gear for the dash to the car outside, and then we can drive to town to meet with friends. We find a parking place right outside the restaurant, which is always nice, and good as it is still hammering down outside. We have a table booked in Blakes, which seemed to be a nice place, and none of us had been in either been in or for over 25 years. If at all in my case. The beer is good and the food is OK. Sadly I chose the burger, which I really must get out of the habit of having, but hey.

As we go to leave, a car driven by Belgians stops to ask us directions; the best way is for us to show them to their hotel, so we take them on the big circle that is the one way system, and once outside it, we drive back home, under what are now almost clear skies, and the moon is now three-quarters full. Where did the month go?

City were playing at Rotherham in the League Cup, or whatever it is called this week, and we run out 2-1 winners, but the big story is one of our players walking out. Oh dear, Lewis!

I resist another whisky, and instead I go to bed at normal time, with the wind howling outside, and Jools and I trying to find room on the bed between three sleeping cats.