40 Isn't Old, If Youre a Tree!

It’s with great surprise and a characteristic lack of pride that I can reveal The Dougal has made it to the ripe old age of 40 in one piece. I'm in that inbetween world where I'm not young enough to know everyting nor old enough to not care anymore. I seem to have found that inbetween worlds niche for myself for much of my life, so why be any different now?

I have the acne scars to prove I was young once (Who told me my teenage acne would eventually disappear? Blatant lie!), a lot less hair and the psychological scars to prove I’ve lived, loved and lost; not necessarily in that order.

It’s probably a cliché, but when this picture was taken I really didn't think I would ever make it to 40. I'm a bit of a thinker, with even that simple and (if you think about it) bizarre concept of that most human of activities, car travel, causing years of thought - we do after all hurl ourselves at incredible speed down strips of tarmac in a tin can with a tank of highly flammable liquid strapped to the back... What?!?! So the concept of living with myself (trust me, its not that easy) - still a scary thought - for another 20 years was a daunting and somewhat incredible idea.

But here I am all the same. With all that define me, my acne and psychological scarring, enough eccentricity to infuriate my friends (my rule is I only have eccentric or plain mad friends anyway so they have no room to talk! – normal people are so unpredictable!) and a lot less hair.

The big bash was a success (thus breaking the 40 year tradition of trying to ignore my birthdays by hiding), so thanks for all for coming along and making it one to remember - especially Dino and Gilbert for flying in from Canada. Look out for the pictures I add here in the next few weeks, once I've found the time to root through and put the mosaic of everyone’s drunken portrait together.

Here's hoping I make it to the next big one without losing any more hair and let’s hope I can stand living with myself for that long, because it is hard being me!