So I was 7 yesterday. A day despite the odds was fun.

Took the day off from decorating and anything else productive. The morning was spent blissfully playing computer games and updating my Lunar HeroQuest play by email. I had a lovely cooked breakfast of eggs, sausages and fried potatoes topped off with gallons of real coffee from our coffee machine (which I’m usually too lazy to use).

The afternoon was spent in town, buying myself presents. Got Quake 4, the latest Steven Saylor paper back “The Judgement of Caesar”, and two Cohen Brothers films, “The Big Lebowski” and “O’brother where art thou?”. It was pouring down with warm rain, and I felt great. Partially because I’ld been couped up in the house for 3 days solid, but also because by law I always feel great on my birthday.

Then I went to the Duck and Drake for a pint. Now my birthday is always special to me, because I always make time to reflect upon what has happened in the previous year and where I’m at with my life story. This is worth more to me than all the cards, presents and pints of beer down the pub with my mates (which is one of the reasons why I’m publically celebrating this weekend) This year’s magic moment was truly mind blowing. Me and the DnD have a history going back to my first days in Leeds, 15 years ago. As I sat there supping a pint of Old Mill, it hit me like a flash. Suddenly the room seemed brighter and the other customers on the edge, who up to this point had be loud noisy and drunk, faded into the background. Then all the people who’ve I’ve known in my time in Leeds started materialising at the bar. Starting with the 1st wave, people who I went to Uni with , going though the 2nd Wave , people who I met in my post student days and finally the third wave of people who I’ve met in the last five years. Some of them were people who I have decidedly mixed feelings about, especially in wave 1 & 2, which made me realise that if I knew what I know now and was a tad more patient it would have worked out better. Not perfectly, since these were people at a crisis point in their life and determined to take it out on the world around them, but with less drama an angst on my part. This was cool in itself, but it didn’t end there. This minor revelation lead to a much greater illumination, one which I can’t put into words or adequately explain. Perhaps the nearest I can get is that I suddenly felt very connected with everything in my life, and then very quickly in a snowballing effect everythinh beyond. It has brought me back to a warm place in my self, that has gradually becoming colder over the last year as I physical traveled to Manchester everyday, and solidly rooted me there.

Got home and crowbarred Rach off the computer to play Quake. Had a few quality beers, but otherwise a very nice quiet night in with the missus. Looking forward very muchly to the weekend 🙂