Birthday Blitz

I guess that sometimes life isn't always as easy as you think. Sometimes the easiest tasks can cause friction and conflict with others. I never mean to cause offence, or irritate other people but sometimes this happens and I can't then make it instantly better.

Maybe if I can eliminate the frustration in my world, then I will be more tolerant of other views and actions. I am very easily wound up, and I don't really think that I do anything wrong, but I obviously do. I am a peace loving man that spends most of his time at war.

Oh well, anyway. Never mind....

I wrote a blog last week but then I lost it through technical issues, so I will try to recap on the birthday week.

I had to bake a cake for the people at work, and the same recipe was made in the US and Sweden. It was a global celebration of my 31st birthday. The only time that something has happened on this global scale is Live Aid, but I think my birthday even topped that.

The cake was nice and everyone enjoyed it, including the CFO of Astrazeneca who was in our office for the very first time in eight years. Typical.

The rest of my birthday was pretty much uneventful, until at the weekend we went to the Bodyworks exhibition. The German autopsy doctor who is exhibiting his collection of dead people in the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester.

I was expecting it to be quite gory and morbid, but instead it was beautiful. The way he had displayed them in different action poses, showing how the muscles, tendons, nerves and bones all worked together was fantastic. I learnt more in that museum than I ever did in Biology at school.

The strange thing was that the more muscle I looked at, the hungrier I became. It was like a load of meat laid out on a table before a barbecue, and I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into it.

I don't think I could actually become Hannibal Lector, but I may understand cannibalism a bit more. I think that is the test between a psychopath and a normal person, we all have urges but most of us can control them.

We then went to the nearest beach we could find which was Formby just north of Liverpool. It was a lovely beach full of sand dunes, and forests. Also, because it wasn't that sunny, it was nicely empty and you could appreciate the natural beauty more.

I was given a filter coffee machine for my birthday and so since then I have been wired on black coffee. I am sure I have had illegal substances in the past that give a similar feeling to this, but this is legal. Isn't it funny how in our society we have something’s that are legal and something’s that are illegal, and it just depends on a subjective view. Two of our biggest killers in the UK are Cigarettes and Alcohol, not the Oasis song, and both of these are legal. Strange.

The kids have been brilliant this week, with no dramas to speak of except a small incident with Dylan and a hot cup of tea. But this was a storm in a teacup, literally. (Comedy Gold)

I think sometimes happiness is in front of everyone, but for some reason we can't see it all of the time. Like a man in a dark room trying to find the light switch. Sometimes you just are happy, and sometimes you are searching for it. But it's always there, in front of you, you just need to look at it in a different way.

There's a lot mentioned in the media about happiness and what the secret to it is, as if it is the Holy Grail, and must involve a life’s study and exploration. Instead happiness is part of life. You have to be content with what you have, and not strive for the unattainable. You must challenge yourself, but do not punish yourself for failure. And accept that everything changes and things are not always perfect. Also, an argument is like a prison cell, and the longer you are in it so the walls get higher.

Peace.