Now and then I listen to the BBC podcast, In Our Time, moderated by Melvyn Bragg. I like to lose myself in the long lines of history, philosophy, culture and science that background the topics under discussion, as I walk the streets of Hazelbrook. Today the panel of academics inveighed upon Thucydides, the Greek historian who chronicled the Peloponnesian War. I didn't study Ancient History at school so I have a lot of making up to do!

On another topic less grand, today is my 58th birthday. Google opened today with scenes of cake and a nice greeting, computer-generated I know, but pleasant all the same. Birthday's really are for children, for they are the ones for whom the phenomenon of each passing year is still fresh, and therefore more exciting. Presents are nice to receive, though I prefer giving them. Truly I would rather such events could slide by unnoticed and I suppose for some people, they do. So really, I should count my blessings.

Changing tack again, here is a photo of Ann and I from a wedding a week before ours, one in which I had Best Man and MC duties. The photographer kindly ushered us outside for the shot, his gift for our impending nuptials.