Another milestone reached

Those of you who follow my Project 365 on Flickr will have seen this picture yesterday announcing my 65th birthday today.

I hope that at least some of you are thinking, “he doesn’t look 65” but I have to tell you there are days when I definitely feel it!

Apart from raised blood pressure brought about by a sedentary lifestyle and smoking, I get pain in my left leg which a doctor once told me was  caused by a trapped nerve, my left heel is almost constantly sore, I get a dull ache sometimes in my right hip, the occasional bout of back pain, my right knee suffered when I fell down a step in the Auditorium and I now have a set of dentures to replace my front upper teeth.

All in all, not a lot to complain about really, there are many in a worse state than me. I’m told that if I can get through the next five years without anything major happening to me, then I should be in for a good innings. I have my fingers crossed.

Although I love my retirement and living here in Bigastro, if you were to ask me which were the best years of my life so far I would have to say when I was in my thirties. That was a age when I had just enough responsibility in my job to pay the bills but not so much that it ate into my leisure time. The children were just growing up and were fascinating to be with and life seemed good.

PS My friend Pete asked me what I was going to do with those giant numbers, I told him “I've already passed them on to someone whose 56th birthday is coming up and he's going to pass them on to a neighbour who will be 59. Finally they are going down to the village to a Spaniard whose pushing 95.”