8 september 2009, 40

Tuesday 8th September 2009

At a few minutes past midnight tomorrow, I’ll be 40 – which may surprise some, given my boyish (good) looks, or would have until I sprouted a beard these last weeks (a holiday hangover). Not sure what to make of it really. Last year I was planning to invite everyone I know to a desert island somewhere near spain, but the obligatory months’ notice I would have needed to get all those excuses slipped away, and so it’s going to be “no biggie” bar any romantic surprises my other half is planning and hoping to see friends in london next weekend. Funny age, 40. Jimi hendrix died at 27, jesus at 33 and martin luther king at 39, which does rather feed my paranoia that you pretty much get your most creative stuff done when you’re young, and – as young as I feel – I wonder how long I can really wear than moniker now. 40 isn’t old, they say – if you’re a tree. I would add here a quote from victor hugo (forty is the old age of youth, fifty is the youth of old age) but can’t bear the reference at the end, and so instead, in the light of my newish website, will note that at the age of 20, we don't care what the world thinks of us, at 30, we worry about what it is thinking of us, and at 40 we discover that it wasn't thinking of us at all. Are you ?