Birthday card

Well now. It seems pretty safe to say at this juncture that I am now only doing this for myself (and there was always a strong element of that to begin with, as others have noted over the years) - but let's pretend that Maestro B. is reading this, and that others may be too...

Happy Birthday sir! The sentiments are heartfelt, even though it has been a long while now since we spoke. Life moves on, and I trust it finds you well, and that your (academic) retirement gave you the time and space you craved.

For myself... I am in much better shape than I was. Having long struggled with a negative mindset and a complex set of emotional challenges, I almost let these consume me entire; but that was a couple of years ago now, and I feel a very different person these days. I am much more positive and much better equipped to cope with what life throws at me (which is just as well...). Freed from a very narcissistic mindset, I am finally, generally content - even happy, at least in my family life. [The diagnosis in 2013 placing me on the autistic spectrum turned out to be the saving of me, although it took a while for that to filter through... little did I know that I was such a walking cliche..!]

That's about it for now - I still listen, always, to music; I still listen to your music. Nor have I given up altogether on the idea of writing about it; though it seems very obvious now that anything I do along those lines in the future will have to take a very different form from what went before. Still - (...)

Many happy returns of the day!

C. x