Monday: spend my birthday in a perfectly happy state. No drinks, no social gatherings in a bar or club. Instead I plump for a day on my own, loafing about the British Library cafe and Reading Rooms (reading a book about happiness, in fact), going to the Post Office to send Fosca CDRs to labels and post the rarer books which I’ve sold on Amazon (which were NOT gifts to me), and a bit of indulgent shopping. Suits me fine. I’m meeting friends later this week as it is.
I had a perfectly lovely surprise meal thrown for me last year, which in happiness terms will keep me going for a long time yet. Sometimes, one’s birthday can feel like New Year’s Eve, ie strained, enforced jollity for its own sake. Worrying that you’re not happy enough. Happiness for me this year meant solitude, and not worrying. I was happy.
I didn’t fancy the idea of a drinks gathering organised at short notice, which people would find hard to attend (particularly with the Tube strike) and having to refuse alcohol while surrounded by people getting drunk.
At the Highgate garden party on Saturday, I was frequently offered drinks (Oh, poor Dickon! Our hearts bleed!). I gave in and supped a little Pimms and fruit punch, but couldn’t really enjoy it, knowing I was meant to be on the wagon and worrying that I’d get drunk. So I’m still struggling a little with that, and thus felt awkward about a birthday drinks do.
One year, though, I’d like to throw a proper bash in a venue, advertised weeks in advance (the only real way to do gatherings in London) with films, DJs and dancing. Maybe an ‘If….’ party, with everyone dressed as schoolboys.
The Tube strike is planned to go on until Friday morning. I have things to go to. So, a good excuse to do lots of walking.
Receive lots of birthday greetings via email and Facebook (much thanks). A few Facebook Gifts this year, which are cute little cartoon images of presents. Certainly very Green-friendly. No wrapping paper, no space taken up in the real world.
Tim Chipping sends me the new Edwyn Collins album in digital form, along with a video e-card. It’s that famous 60s Bob Dylan film where he holds up signs featuring words from the song’s lyrics. On the e-card, Dylan’s words are replaced by ‘Happy Birthday Dickon’. Very clever stuff.
My parents and brother send me generous amounts of much-welcomed money, along with a copy of McSweeney’s Quarterly No. 13. This is the big literary comics anthology edited by Chris Ware. Staying on that tip, I use some of the money at Gosh Comics, to buy a similar anthology: Ivan Brunetti’s Anthology Of Graphic Fiction, published by Yale University. I also pick up a copy of Gaiman’s Stardust, the version illustrated by Charles Vess, so I can compare it with the forthcoming film. Am meant to be attending a press screening on Thursday, though Sebastian Horsley is having his book launch the same evening.
Oh, and they had sold out of Scott Pilgrim Vol 1.
Films seen recently include Disney’s Fantasia. Whenever I come back to this, it’s a different sequence that appeals. As a child, I first favoured the Mickey Mouse ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ segment, then the ballet with the crocodiles, hippos and ostriches. Today it’s the opening Toccata and Fugue that connects with my 36-year-old self, with its backlit live-action orchestra mixing into a dazzling parade of abstract, dreamy animation.
But I still like the hippos.
