Birthday Blues
Birthday Blues
Oh dear, I just got a year older. One of my best friends thought I’d reached a zero benchmark, but I’ve just fallen short.
Bless the Guardian for registering this fact, listing me alongside other genuine early Leo notables such as the brilliant jazz rock musician Barbara Thompson — an early Andrew Lloyd Webber associate — the violinist Ruggiero Ricci (he’s 89, now, for God’s sake!) and my special friend Ruth Mackenzie, 50 today, and hosannah-ed generally as the first general director of the Manchester International Festival.
Ruth and I always say we’ll have a birthday lunch but we never do. That’s how life is. And then you’re gone, and then you’ll miss it. And you’ll not have had your special lunch, either.
But on days like these you reflect on the fires you’ve been through together, the great moments of theatre from here to eternity, the blaze of new talent, the shock of the new. Ruth’s a beagle, true bred, and I’m proud to share a birth day with her. Even if we never get round to having that lunch.
And who are my other birthday associates? Zaheer Abbas, the great (former) cricketer is a constant. Jennifer Lopez is in the frame, too… but I’m not sure whether she’s really in or out these days.
And someone called Sir Trevor Chinn is always on the list, but who the hell is he? His job changes from year to year. Today he’s chairman of the AA — the automobile association, not alcoholics anonymous.
We are born astride the grave,as Beckett said. Let’s hope it stays that way for a few more years. I’ve no intention yet of toppling into the dungheap to give my enemies any sort of unjust satisfaction.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going out to dinner with my beloved wife and son.