On Becoming Sixty!

Monday 8:20 p.m.
                           I'm sixty tomorrow. I can't say I'm over the moon about reaching sixty, what with the expected intimations of mortality and all, but it's just one of those things you have to put up with.
                           It is odd to be one of the old folk. When I look at my contemporaries, some of them do look old. They really do. I'm one of them. When I see old folk getting on buses and whatnot, it's hard to think that the baldy, grey, wrinkly ones are my peers, but there it is.
                           Not many of them can stand on their heads, Hotboy. This is true, Jack. I have been very hard on my body through the years with the drink and drugs, but I have also put myself through exhausting physical jerk routines of one kind or another three times a week anyway since I was twenty six. At the moment, I'm carrying a stone of fat which I don't need, and I've been intermittently smoking for the past two years, but I'm really in quite good nick for someone of my age.
                            In fact, the only fly in the ointment is that I'm in debt. If I'd made any money, I could probably retire in a couple of years. When I get back from the Samye Ling, I'll contact the personnel folk at work and ask them when I could go. If nothing changes, I'll have to work till I can collect my state pension at sixty five.But something might change.
                            Although there has been talk of me getting something published by Wells Fargo in the summer, I'll believe that when I see it. I suspect I'll end up putting up a webpage like I did before and just give the stuff away to anyone who wants to read it.
                            I know I have been living a wonderful life. I have nothing at all to complain about. I don't think anyone in my family ever got into the bliss before. My grandfather was illiterate when he came to Scotland from Northern Ireland. I've never had to be the breadwinner around here and that is fabulous. When I used to see my old man going out to work on building sites with chronic bronchitis and asthma to support his large family, I knew I didn't want to do that.
                            I think if my daughter had not been born when she was, I would have made something out of the writing business. Her birth was a defining moment. The selfish life ended right there as it does with any parent. People, of course, are better than books!! I wouldn't swop having brought her up for all the tea in China. The first day I was looking after her on my own was the day I visited the Samye Ling for the first time. When she was born, I started going to yoga classes. I guess you've got deal with winning some and losing some. It's just a shame for her that her old man doesn't have any money!!
                           I've been with the same woman since I was nineteen. This has been the love of my life. I think we get on better now than we ever did.
                           Although it is my birthday tomorrow, I still have to go to work!! Bugger that!