If there is a Ministry for Significant Events, then I am of the opinion that they must have been subjected to an Ofsted style dissection of late. I think they have looked at the books and highlighted a neglect of short, ginger people.

In recent years my life has been devoid of those sorts of moments, things have chugged along, nothing changing. This year however, a fair few significant moments have occured for me. I don't mean dramatic events such as your partner of x years coming home and telling you they are leaving, I mean the small things that make you alter the way you look at the world. The small things that shift everything slightly to the left, which is just enough for you to be able to see around them. That little helping hand that arrives from an unexpected source and gently nudges you in a different direction.

Some of them have been obvious, my week away with Mother at Christmas brought about many changes for us both and she knows how much I treasure that time. Some are not so obvious. A different smell for example, the apparently unnoticed need for a clothes brush, high heeled shoes, the colour pink, The Dartford Bridge, stepladders. Little things that shifted the focus. All of them in a positive way, at least for me. I have done things I would not have done had I not noticed them and I feel significantly better for it.

Long may it continue!

Also...

Thanks to Kate, Dave and Niamh for a lovely meal, I hope Alex had a good time :)
Well done to Arsenal for a superb first half display at Highbury today - shame about the second though! Good for little Cesc to get one in the end and now he is legal for his Man of the Match Champagne!

...and Wigan in the Premiership! Wigan?!