Fucking hell, I’m forty
In Aden, South Yemen, on the 13th November 1966, I entered the world, chubby, smelly and noisy. Forty years later, I remain chubby, smelly and noisy, although fortunately significantly more continent.
To my mum who carried me, to the nurses who vaccinated me, to every pilot and driver who decided not to crash when I was their passenger, to the Russian militia who decided not to shoot me, to the Turkish husband who gave me 24 hours to get out of town rather than immediately stabbing me for shagging his wife, I salute you: you have my deep and abiding gratitude.
Forty years old. Forty. Forty!
Fucking hell.
23 Responses to “ Fucking hell, I’m forty ”
Many Happy Returns
Loving your posts.
Congratulations mate. Oh bugger. That means the rest of the class of ’85 will be hitting the big one in the next twelve months too – although for some of us the signs are more extreme. I welcomed my first grandson to the world yesterday!
congrats!
Happy Birthday Bruce. Very pleased to have you in my life at an early age and still pleased to have you there at the grand age of 40. So in perspective not so bad as I am only 8 years behind
you and at 9 you seemed much older. Isaiah Saul Challens says hello sorry he couldn’t hold out another day. Still a Scorpion to follow in your footsteps. Jemima is banging a guitar in the background as a homage or is it she wants feeding? Anyway see and hear from you soon. Just finished a book on the coptic gospels which I would love you feedback on. Sending it over to Dad, so hopefully he can pass it on.
Anyway like you, respect you, love you
Happy Birthday Punk!
Steve the Raver
Well, well. Happy birthday and may the end of the next forty years find you still continent. Cheers!
Happy birthday, you old fart.
Excellent, time for a mid-life crisis. Have a good one!
Happy birthday! Where’s the pipe and slippers?
Happy birthday!
Get over it, Bruce. I’m nearly three years beyond you. It took me this long to develop half a brain, and some day, when I grow up, I plan to put it to good use. It takes a long while to be completely comfortable with who you are, to really know what’s important, and to have people around you who know the real you and stay anyway. Still, it is kind of a pain to wake up and be just as tired (if not more so) then when you went to bed. Damn, now you’ve got me depressed.
Huzzah! Happy birthday Bruce 🙂
Permit me to remain just a little smug in the knowledge that I have 2 months to go before life apparently begins. Happy birthday matey! We could have a This Is Your Life sort of do – I’d love to see the look on your face if we managed to track down the Turkish husband! God, what old fuckers we are now…
Hope you had a good ‘un, you owld bugger. NB You can probably get a pint of Owld Bugger if you look hard enough 🙂
Happy Birthday Bruce!
Hope I have managed to do half of the things that you have done by the time I am 40!, preferably the less dangerous half though. Nearly getting stabbed by a Turk ain’t high on my list 😉
Happy belated birthday, my friend! 40?!? Who’d have thought?
Hey Bruce. Happy 40th!!
Just think, you’re alomst a half-century old now. Yay 🙂
Well I guess you must be in the midst of your mid-life crisis then, haha sucks to be you…
…oops, gotta go, my 21 yr old mistress has just turned up on the drive with what looks like a dent in my new sports car, gah! I can’t turn up at the night club in that!
I jest of course! (my wife may be reading) Happy Birthday Bruce!
christ, mate, completely missed this announcement. i’ll have a post-facto drink on you then!
Happy birthday mate (only a week late!)
Like James and Patrick, I missed that one. That’ll be down to the fact that I cannot get a single damned RSS reader to behave at my place of work any more and have lost my lifeline to all my feeds. Not good, I can tell you.
Anyway, happy birthday yer old bugger! And long live the Friday joke.
What in the world were you doing in South Yemen…Especially in the Sixties..
Happy birthday, mate!
Your pint of Auld Scumblefungus is at the bar.