my birthday

My 40th birthday party approaches, and I’m not at all sure I’m ready for it. Not that I’m not ready to be 40 – that’s the least of my worries - it’s the party that worries me. (I don’t think I’m planning to have a mid-life crisis – but I could give it a go, I suppose)


Like all overarching enterprises, as its denouement approaches, it takes on the aspect of a snowball, and then presently a steam locomotive. (for some reason, the previous sentence seems to have dropped in from the 1800’s)… people are beginning to arrive – my parents yesterday, Lisa’s family today and tomorrow – and our house is slowly filling up.

From now on, our time will not be our own until Tuesday when everyone leaves. My two co-partiers, Sam and Phil have fallen out, and I’ve taken on all the organisation. I’m not able to look forward to it or get excited about it– I’m just trying to avert various kinds of disasters.

I’m sure everything will be fine and I and everyone else will have a great time, but crisis management is what it’s about at the moment, and right now, what I’m really looking forward to is a quiet evening without phonecalls to make and people to entertain… and that’s looking a long way off. Which is odd because out of the three of us, I’m the only one who hasn’t threatened to call the event off yet.

Currently, party=stress and the most appealing thing I can think of doing is going for a long walk on my own.

It’s not going to happen.

This is quite a good stress reliever, though: http://raptorsafari.com/



Lisa’s flat
Lisa has pulled out of the flat she was going to buy – the fact that it was above a shop turns out to mean all kinds of problems with the freehold that she doesn’t want to deal with.

On a lighter note, her uncle is claiming that someone’s put a contract out on him…. Apparently he was defending someone with a VAT dispute. He told the court under their instructions that they’d pay £30,000 off their VAT bill, but then on the day, they didn’t turn up with the cash, so they got sent to prison. They see this as his fault and they’ve hired someone to make that point…

Personaly, I think it’s just an attempt to get attention because he knows Lisa’s parents are supposed to be coming to the party and he wants to make them look after him instead…. If they really have the money to put a contract out on someone, wouldn’t they have been better spending it on paying their tax bill and avoiding prison?

Sorry if I sound harsh, but that's the kind of life Lisa's uncle chooses - and by all accounts he's not very good at keeping the effects of it to himself.