I think turning 38 has given me one of those "everyone has a novel in them" moments, where I felt it was time I tried to do something mildly creative. OK, so a blog is hardly War & Peace but we've all got to start somewhere.
My premise is a simple one - the view from the rollercoaster. I think that's a fairly succinct perspective of my life, especially over the last 10 years or so. It is an endless series of peaks and troughs, of moves and changes. This doesn't make me unique of course, arguably everybody's lives are the same too, so why write about it?
I guess I just want to try and make some sense of it, and try to inject a little bit of humour as I go along. If this entertains someone else or makes them think, then all the better.
So as I sit here at my desk, concentrating hard on not doing any work whilst partly hungover from the night before (and partly drunk from the lunchtime just gone), I look out over my little corner of London searching for inspiration.
If only something interesting would happen. Maybe one of those 200 animal rights protestors outside who are chanting slogans and shaking their fists at my window might have some suggestions. Like "How to brush your teeth with twigs" or something. Or perhaps one of the many police escorts surrounding them has a bright idea - "My top 10 truncheon-themed double-entendres", for instance.
(Sigh)It's so hard to find inspiration in this cultural desert!
In such a moment of creative crisis, I have to fall back on the only subject I know well... ME! Yup, it's all about me folks. For those who don't want to know the gory details, look away now.
I'm 38 today. How do I feel? Over-tired. Hung over. Well-fed.
More broadly speaking, I feel like I'm about to rise up from one of those troughs - the rollercoaster is definitely climbing. To paraphrase Ian Dury - here are my "Reasons to be Cheerful":
- I'm on the cusp of securing a 12 month contract renewal, which is gold dust in the current climate.
- Renovations have just been completed on my house, transforming the quality of life for me and my family.
- I'm going home to enjoy a birthday dinner with my wife and some friends, and then a family weekend playing with the kids.
- The sun has even come out today and I've seen blue sky for the first time in weeks.
The animal rights protestors have moved on now, black cabs are streaming past outside and the office is quiet as people start sloping off early for the weekend. That strikes me as a sensible idea, perhaps I should head off too. In fact, it would be rude not to.
