A quiet and pleasant Sunday afternoon, with family and fellow Church members and friends I hadn't seen for a while, in commiseration for my upcoming 60th birthday. We held the celebration at the Cambridge Holiday Inn hotel in Histon where we live, they provided the nicely laid out Trinity Room, a more than ample buffet, and water and orange juice on the five tables - and we added balloons and a banner. The balloons hung upside so they read "09" rather than "60", but I didn't mind. We didn't have helium or hydrogen to fill them. Virginia did one of her cakes, combining my fondnesses for the Peanuts cartoons and classic Dr Who. I didn't manage to have any of it - I was too full on the day itself and it got thrown away as too dry afterwards.

There was plenty of food left over, we ordered a buffet from the hotel without realising how much of it there was going to be. Had to check which dishes were vegetarian for my friend and old work colleague Simon, something to remember next time around. I did gain cards and a few presents to be opened on the day itself. We also gained some lilies which we'll have to be careful with as lilies are poisonous to cats.

Do I feel any wiser having reached sixty? No. Perhaps that is wisdom in itself. In a world with so much noise, so many distractions, so many voices shouting loud the challenge is to focus. To get along with the people you do get along with and not those you're never going to get along with. To sit where you're comfortable and not sit where you're ill at ease. To ignore the disturbing clamour of those competing for attention. To live where one is.