Wrap

It is already a couple of days since my birthday (in case you are interested, and would like to make a note for next year). It is not the ideal time to have a birthday, being lost to some extent in the frenzied run-up to Christmas. You try to stop and reflect on the significance of the event, but your concentration is sidetracked by remembering that you are short of tin foil, or have forgotten to buy a present for the cat, or you don't know how you will fit the turkey in the fridge when it's already full of jars of cranberry sauce. And then, before you know it, the birthday has come and gone, with little to show for it but a mountain of shredded wrapping paper littering the living room floor, and the mild nausea that comes from eating too much birthday cake in one sitting. And just as you come to terms with the stresses and excesses of the birthday celebration, you remember there is only a week to go before it all kicks off, on an even grander scale, for Christmas.