Will you still need me, will you still feed me...

So a certain Beatles tune had a lot of resonance this birthday morning, but Lorraine said she would still love me. I got up and fed the cats and brought us some green teas. Opened my laptop, and clicked a link that mum had sent and saw an orchestra of bears playing Happy Birthday. Lorraine gave me a present of a Keith A Pettit print, and some stem ginger. 

A few cards, one with £20 in it from Pat and Maureen, signed Mum and Dad,  but a humblingly large amount of messages, calls and texts from friends and family. Thanking my lucky stars that I didn't have to waste today working. Even my Godbairns texted me. 

Season 4 of the Planet Poetry podcast began today, with my interview with Ian McMillan. When Robin and I started it, it was almost an experiment. Now it's a thing, as they say.

Now the lounge is painted, Lorraine and I played games of dragging the furniture into different places, as well as fixing curtain rails and rehanging curtains and so on. Amanda now busy painting our bedroom -- and we are sleeping in the spare room.

In the afternoon, Lorraine after Lorraine had presented me with an Eccles cake with a candle in it, we made off by train to Lewes where we had an early dinner at Bills, and then sloped around the corner to The John Harvey Tavern, where, armed with two pints of mother in law, we sloped upstairs. A reading with Richard Skinner, who I interviewed recently, and Janet Sutherland. Had a good chat with Richard, actually a really nice guy and good to have a beer with him. Lorraine and I chatted to Janet later on lots too. Jeremy there, but Robin, Charlotte, SJB and Stephen were all missed. 

Lorraine and I scampered to the station in heavy rain, but the train was going to stop at Newhaven, so we decided to wait in the Landsdowne Arms across the road, for half an hour, before catching the train home. 

A genuinely happy birthday.  

Below a rain-soaked Lorraine and me with a pint of Harveys.