Yes, it’s that time again when another birthday passes. I’m not going to insult anyone by directly saying what my age is or what year I was born, you’ll have to look at previous blogs for that. Suffice to say I’m nearer to seventy than I was.

Luckily the day itself, 10th March, was lovely with exception of England getting beaten by France. So I watched rugby, had a few beers and enjoyed a curry with family; all pretty normal and unremarkable. I don’t feel any different, like you used to be asked when younger: ‘so how does it feel to be 15/30/45 etc?’ No, you get to a certain point, say over 50 when the years till on and merge into one another. The length of the year seems to be shortening all the time. It’s nearly April yet a few minutes ago it was winter.

“I don’t actually mind winter, getting warm clothing on, brisk winter walks, a wood burning stove and hearty meals like casseroles, roasts etc. If course snow is often part of winter and the other week was the worse snow we’ve had for a long time. So, we hibernated for three days and didn’t leave the house, except to fetch wood to keep the fire going. It was quite cathartic actually, and was not boring, or frustrating or anything like that. Luckily we had enough milk, bread egg so didn’t feel the need to strip the supermarkets shelves bare ‘just in case’.