Build-up

A friend appeared today full of plans and excitement. She has decided that I should have a 60th birthday build-up and has organised an activity-a-day running up to the big one, starting on Monday with a massage.

She handed me each of the cards in the photo with a metaphorical drum roll and a beaming grin. She has had enormous fun setting it all up and I’m looking forward to the week’s adventures.

Under normal circumstances I am circumspect about birthday celebrations, preferring above all else a simple pub lunch with a dozen friends. And that will indeed happen next weekend. But this particular friend has had a shocking year of bad luck and sadness, so it felt churlish to turn down what is so obviously going to give her as much joy as it does me.

I’ll be reporting in blips…