Wiser?

Hello, dear reader!

And there we have it. Challenge unlocked. Progress updated.

I’ve managed one more trip around the sun.

Yes, this past weekend saw me, as the clock ticked over from 00:00 to 00:01 I became a whole year older.

Time Flies
It’s a lot of time to pass in just a minute, and, according to my mum, completely inaccurate (I was born fashionably late into the afternoon), but that’s the way we’ve chosen to mark the passage of time and the struggle against the reaper’s pull, and who am I to buck tradition?

So it was that, when my alarm went off on Sunday it was quickly followed by the chimes of Alexa singing me a happy birthday at my wúnderwifey, Tina’s request and the festivities began.

Not that said festivities were quite as festive as last year. No, this time round there was no pub crawl, no party waiting for me at the mid point(ish) of mine and Tina’s birthdays. For some reason the fact my age no longer ends in a zero makes it that little bit less worth the big effort of major celebrations. I’m not sure why.

Feel The Burn
As Granny Weatherwax is famed for saying in the works of Terry Pratchett I aintn’t dead. Another year has passed and I’m still knocking about, spouting my nonsense. It’s an achievement in anyone’s book.

And, to be fair, the day did not go unmarked. It started with a trip to my native Pudsey, land of the eye-patched charity bear, and a Spoonies veggie breakfast with some, if not all, my immediate family.

Much fun was had, quite a bit of it at my expense for some reason, but to be fair, the fam don’t get to have their potshots all that often and they’ve probably been practising.

From there it was back to my parents to pick up the luggage set present which will come in extremely handy for the holiday tina and I are going on in a few weeks, drink some tea in thor garden and chew the fat for a bit. Tina even managed to acquire a sunburn in the hour or so we sat outside. A wonderfully cautionary portent for our trip to Turkey.

Me Time

And then it was back home to drink, eat, and be increasingly merry. A fair amount of bourbon got drunk. A fair amount of fried chicken got eaten. Airplane the movie was watched.

It wasn’t as big as last year, and the guest list wasn’t as inclusive, but the day was still a good way of marking off one more year in which I won through. One more trip around the sun. One more arbitrary marker. One more incomplete measure of life. A measure of quantity, but not necessarily quality. Another year in which I got older, but not necessarily wiser.

Because time is one thing, but surely life should be measured not just in hours or years, but in experiences, laughter, and love. Three things I’m lucky enough to find myself particularly rich in. Surely it’s not just time, but how we spend it, and who we spend it with that really matters.

At least that’s how I see it…and don’t call me Shirley


Until next time.

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Hey, there! If you enjoyed reading any of the above, why not take a look at some of my published work? Below you’ll find links to a number of short stories I’m lucky enough to have included in anthologies. I’d love to know what you think.



New Tales Of Old



Death Ship



Pestilence: Drabbles 1



Reaperman: Drabbles 3



The Musketeers Vs Cthulhu



Eldritch Investigations