Ravaged by time.....

There has been a severe shortage of time since returning from Holiday. A real drought, in fact an absolute dearth of it. Work has been full on with deadlines to meet and no time to readjust to working for a living once more after my holiday in France. My body was crying out for a post lunch cider on Monday and demanding a little snooze but I had to bully it into submission in the name of earning money.

Mel's business plans for her new botox business are in full flight since she passed her course last Sunday and very shortly she will be practising her new found skills, administering youth giving serum to the needy and helping those ravaged by the cruel passage of time.

Mel's parents have been down in Manchester fitting her sisters new kitchen, which has necessitated barbecues and eating out and we also had a wedding to attend on Friday night, when I forgot how old I was and accidentally stayed out until 4am, drinking as if I might never be able to drink again. Naturally, I spent the rest of the weekend recovering and promising myself I would never make that mistake again.

Social commitments are coming thick and fast and my 40th birthday is now visible on the horizon like a gathering storm. I am frustrating Mel by being very non-specific about how I would like to celebrate as I feel that it may arrive quicker if I think about it too much and I'm trying to squeeze the last drops of enjoyment out of being thirty something.

I remember attending my fathers 40th birthday, I was already drinking and smoking by that point and I vividly recall thinking about how ancient forty was and how far away it seemed. It feels like only a couple of years since then as time races forward the older you get like some kind of 'law of diminishing returns'.

It is of course, just a number and age is just a state of mind. It just feels like such a big number and big numbers negatively affect my state of mind. I may have to register as a patient with Mel's new business (Sparkle) and see if she can't somehow slow my inexorable decline into middle age.