55 and counting...

Hiya again
Today is day two of my fifty-fifth year. Still feeling a little under the weather from all the partying.
It's rare for my birthday to be on a Saturday so I grabbed the opportunity and had about forty people in my not very large flat. Those of you who know my home will appreciate that things got a wee bit cramped. Mind you, I've heard that everyone enjoyed the wonderful mix of people.
We had a United Nations of sorts, with friends and family of Italian, Spanish, Colombian, Chilean, English, American, German and Swiss extraction. I am proud and happy to be part of such a fascinating, truly multicultural network of friends and family. If everyone had been able to come that I invited, South Africa, Ghana, the Caribbean, Wales, Australia, Canada, France, Poland, Mexico, Scotland and Indonesia would also have been represented, and I'm sure there would be more. I'm naming all these countries in absolutely no particular order, just in the order in which they pop into my mind.
I had some of my closest family with me on my special day -- my Mum dropped by with berries and cherries, the very, very, very last harvest from the garden of the old house: come July 2nd, it will be in new hands that are unrelated to us. Good! I'm glad to know it'll be taken care of by a different set of people, people with different ideas, a different approach. May they be very happy there! -- both my brothers, my two sisters-in-law here in Switzerland, my one niece and two of my three nephews also came. The second nephew had two musical gigs on Saturday so he couldn't make it. Good for him to have work, though! One of my mother's two sisters also came, which gave me great pleasure.
If you think I'm quite a family "animal", you're right. Even though I don't have kids of my own, I think family matters. But friends matter just as much. They're the people we can choose to enrich our lives, while family is kind of thrown on us, or we on them.
At any rate, I thoroughly enjoyed having everyone at my home for a few hours. I appreciate their generous and wonderful, original and thoughtful gifts. Most of all, I'm proud to say that quite a nice little sum of money came together -- I asked not to bring gifts but to donate cash, which will go 50:50 to two of my favourite human rights NGOs, i.e. PBI-Peace Brigades International (http://www.peacebrigades.ch) and ask!-Arbeitsgruppe Schweiz-Kolumbien (http://www.askonline.ch) . Thank you for your generosity, everyone!
So, this is me 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10, or 5 x 11 years and two days old (thank you, brother Stefan, for that marvellous mathematical formula!). Some days it feels exactly like this, some days I feel like I'm still eighteen, some days more like eighty, but I suppose that's to be expected. Not a spring chicken any more, but still full of plans, full of beans. Until the next time, maybe when I'm 6 x 10 or 5 x 12 ... :)
I received some marvellous gifts, too, some of which were beautiful flowers. Does anyone have an idea what this one's called? It exudes a white milky sap when the stem or leaves are cut. The bud is a perfect pentagonal pouch. I was blown away by these, despite their total lack of fragrance. Otherworldly-looking, Australian, perhaps? Definitely exotic...
This rose lasted until almost two weeks later [which is when I'm adding these photos and comments -- some of the best things are long in the making, ha ha!]. No fragrance, either, but perfect petals.
Cheers! Peace!