BLOGGER BLAMES BLOG BLANK ON BIRTHDAY

I'm reduced to sheepishness on finding it's 12 days since my last blog. All I can say is that life has been hectic with chores and general labour, even on the 25th, my birthday. Last year I spent my 60th on holiday in a villa in Dalyan, Turkey, and went up in a microlight, circling above the beautiful delta and seeing a big turtle moving purposefully along in the sea below. (Dalyan's delta is the site of the river winding through reed beds that was used in the Bogart-Hepburn film African Queen) This year I stepped out onto Highway 61 by staying at home and painting the kitchen. No contest...

Others who share(d) August 25th as a birthday include Wayne Shorter, Joanne Whalley, Governor George Wallace of Alabama, Claudia Schiffer, Elvis Costello, Martin Amis, horse painter George Stubbs, vegetarian rapper Shock G, Ludwig I of Bavaria, Charlie Burse of the Memphis Jug Band, first black tennis champion Althea Gibson, and the 19th Century American humourist Bill Nye, whose surviving quotes include this great one: "I'm told that Wagner's music is better than it sounds."