Closing down for 2007

This last week or so my office has turned into a post room with every flat surface cleared and cleaned to accommodate packing and labelling some 400 calendars for 2008.
The timing was a bit fine this year. My contact at the printers was off sick the week before last -so the final adjustments to the proofs ran late, after which the calendars had to be printed and then bound. Finally they arrived on Thursday afternoon (20th). A friend immediately came over to help me pack them and we got more than half done in the afternoon. Friday morning I was able to post out the few going out of Europe and get the ones for the local University into their internal mail system before everything there closes down for two weeks. Christmas Eve the ones to EU countries were ready to be franked and today (26th) I am packing the ones to go into the Dutch mail system ready for tomorrow. The timing should be perfect, with them all arriving on people's desks and bring a little light on their return to work. That should leave me enough time on my birthday to do a little round about town and drop off those to friends, neighbours and local colleagues.

In the course of this mayhem two suprise gifts arrive. One is from the artist whose work I commissioned. He had come to pick up his share of the calendars - and bought me one of his paintings as a gift. What a wonderful and unexpected surprise. Thank You Huub . I hope in forty or so years time when future generations are sorting through my things they will hold it up and say "Is this a genuine Ragas?" Even if not it was wonderful gift and surprise. The second gift was equally a surprise. The Ex also turned up unannounced at my office with a huge christmas box - with coffee, chocolate, alcohol miniatures, CDS, and more. She said "Christmas wouldn't be the same without seeing you" I was almost speechless - too many conflicting emotions to manage being articulate. This was no Hi-fidelity scenario. There was no drive out to any remote lovers' lane. She's not about to suddenly tell me that she realised she made a big mistake. She looks far too happy in her new situation for that to be likely. But there clearly is a message here - although it is not clear to me what it is and is never explicitly stated. Was it Kipling who said "Tis better to have loved and lost than never loved at all"? It's one to remember on those days when I see my glass as half empty, rather than half full. Thanks A.