Excellent Birthday presents for a 47 year old!

Well I thought I'd briefly share with the blogging community 3 of the fabulous presents I received yesterday. It amazes me that at 47 I can still be like an excitable child.

First up this fantastic mug from a good friend of mine. He knows how much the music of Jethro Tull means to me, and had this mug ordered from a firm called rockpots. Absolutely fabulous. Heavy Horses from 1978 was such an iconic album from 'THE MIGHTY TULL' as Steve Cogans's weirdly watchable character Saxondale called them. I remember the first time I heard this as a teenager and it just blew me away with its mix of rock, folk-roots and a flute thrown in for good measure. But for me apart from amazingly complex music, Ian Anderson's lyrics are more poetry than score. One track on this album is called 'Acres Wild' and I love the first chorus;

Come with me to the Winged Isle...

northern father's western child

Where the dance of ages is playing still

through far marches of acres wild

Next up was a DVD of the fantastic Jaques Tati masterpiece 'Mr Hulot's Holiday'. I'd mentioned this to Julie a month or so back and she'd not heard of it. So a wonderful surprise to see she'd bought it for me. I've seen it many times before, but can not wait to see it tonight with Julie. Tennis has never been played with such panache.

And finally, the very best present any 47 year old sophisticated male could want.....

... a tractor and trailer. Luckily in the Jethro Tull mug above, some smarties had been included. I therefore had a load to play with after supper. Julie's face was a picture as I loaded up the smarties, and practiced long forgotten reversing techniques. Best of all the trailer tipped too, so out poured the smarties..... I spend a wonderful half hour doing this.

Thanks Julie, this is the best Birthday present I've had in decades....!