I'm older, and its official. Too be honest I can't say I noticed the clock tick past midnight or even felt the weight of another year fall onto my shoulders. I was too busy reading. For the first time in a long time I decided to get out my dusty old omnibus of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".
I must have read Douglas Adams' adventures of Arthur Dent half a dozen times during and after my student years. Whether I've read it or not I've always taken it with me on long haul flights and car journeys partly for entertainment, partly as something to take my mind from whatever tedium I'm forced to endure, but mostly because it reminds me of home; sitting back on the sofa with a warm mug of coffee, trying not to nod off before the next chapter.
It's often tag-lined as being "A Trilogy in Five Parts", not quite as catchy as "A Trilogy in Four Parts" which it used to be known as but at least its accurate. Too be honest I was never enthralled by the fifth and final book "Mostly Harmless". I never got over how easily Adams dissolved Fenchurch -- I understand how a miserable Arthur is probably better from a story-writers perspective but I think most readers wanted her to stay for a little longer. If there was an absolute requirement to bump her off Adams could have at least give her a decent death. Maybe having her eaten by the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal while a helpless Arthur tries not to peep under the towel covering his head. Thankfully I have to read through four more books to get to "Mostly Harmless".
So what has the last twelve months brought me? One on the biggest changes has been the introduction of my neice. Babies are very strange creatures; how can something so small have such an emotional affect on those around them? I've recently been thinking of what my main uncle/godfather duties are. So far I've come up with these three rules:-
- being there when she needs someone to make her smile,
- making a confusing world a little less complex,
- keeping her pockets full of change.
