Many happy returns, Petrushka !

[Nick Armstrong]

One of your fans has tipped me the wink that tomorrow is a happy round number day for a stalwart of the Forum

I for one wish the best of health and happiness and concert-going and broadcasting and CDs/downloads for many a long year to someone with whom I have clearly shared a concert auditorium on many occasions without knowing it!

Many happy returns, Pet

[teamsaint]

Happy birthday for tomorow, Pet.
Hope you have a great day, with box sets abounding. Hopefully the racing gods can provide a tasty Oaks/Derby double to complete a memorable weekend.

Enjoy your day and weekend, and keep those evening concert listings coming. Always great to read .

[Petrushka]

Many thanks, Caliban, and also to others who have offered their good wishes.

Yes, I'm afraid it's 60 tomorrow but I face it with my usual stoicism

Being 40 never bothered me; being 50 never bothered me much either but 60 is a bit more thought-provoking. I've become increasingly conscious that time isn't standing still but is instead hurtling along like a runaway horse, a feeling that is perhaps made more acute by the fact that this will be my first birthday where neither of my parents will share it with me.

But every cloud has a silver lining and colleagues at work (I'm off tomorrow and Friday) clubbed together to get me a £50 Amazon voucher and a bottle of wine.

As mentioned on here already, I really wish I could have gone to the Haitink concert tomorrow night in the Barbican but sacrifices have to be made in the name of good family relations and we are going out for a meal at a posh local eating house. It's the turn of friends on Friday so lots to look forward to.

I've already got my Senior Railcard and been notified of free prescriptions so there are some positives to turning 60!

[marthe]

Happy Birthday, Petrushka. Welcome to the six-oh club! I'm sure you'll be having a lovely day. Sending all good wishes across the Atlantic.

[mangerton]

Many Happy Returns, Petrushka! Hope you have a great day. As others have pointed out, it isn't all bad.

Come to sunny Scotland and you'll get a free bus pass to add to the other sexagenarian freebies.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJAEepA0nPk

[Radio64]

Happy Birthday Petrushka ... have a great day, a fab weekend...and what a great present!

[Petrushka]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJAEepA0nPk

Love it! Half a minute of brilliant orchestration. Latest count is that Amazon vouchers now total £80!

[Dave2002]

Happy Birthday Petrushka

It's worth having a bus pass too, though I know that many don't think so, as there aren't many buses! Also the English bus pass doesn't work in Scotland, and perhaps not in Wales either. Not sure if you can follow mangerton's advice and get a Scottish one without actually moving there. I tried using my English pass in Edinburgh and was told that it didn't work there. If nothing else, you can wave a bus pass in front of box office assistants and claim a concession at some venues, such as ENO.

You are in some good company:

Oops - will have to rethink this, since it's not the 6th!
Here goes ...

1894 - Roy Thomson, Lord Thomson of Fleet, English publisher (d. 1976)
1895 - August Baeyens, Flemish composer (Coriolanus)
1898 - Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain, poet/dramatist
1900 - Dennis Gabor, inventor (holography (3D laser photography))
1919 - Akeo Watanabe, Tokyo Japan, conductor (Nippon Phil Orch 1956-68)
1932 - Christy Brown, Dublin, novelist (My Left Foot, Down All the Days)
1939 - Margaret Drabble, British author
1941 - Martha Argerich, Buenos Aires Argentina, pianist
1942 - Charles Dodge, composer
1947 - David Hare, playwright (Strapless, Plenty, Wetherby, Fatale)
1954 - Phil Neale, cricketer
1956 - Kenny G, saxophonist (Duotones)

Enjoy your special day -

[Richard Tarleton]

I've already got my Senior Railcard and been notified of free prescriptions so there are some positives to turning 60!

There are also, erm, offers of free NHS screening for various disagreeable conditions likely to come your way soon, to remind you of advancing decrepitude! I like the sound of your workplace, Pet, cake was about the sum of it in mine

Anyway a very happy birthday from me.

[french frank]

Just spotted the thread! Happy birthday, Peterkin :-) - and many happy returns with lots of time to use the travel passes and ticket concessions!

[amateur51]

Many happy returns Pet - it gets better

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Like you, I was more concerned about passing 60 than 50 or 40.
Live each day to the full.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

...ahem and each night! have a happy time and a card full of winners

[BBMmk2]

Many Happy returns fort omorrow Pet! hope you have many more years of appreciating classical music!!