A good day.

Yesterday was St. George's Day and Shakespeare's (official) birthday, and today marks the anniversary of the composition of the Marseillaise in 1792. Shirley MacLaine, Barbara Streisand and Paula Yates were all born on this day, while Daniel Defoe (author of Robinson Cursoe) died on it. Obviously a good time of year to bring a child into the world if you want them to be "artistic".
Today was also my father's birthday - he died back in 2000, so it's a good day to remember him. He was a real Englishman, a career soldier with a lifelong passion for horses who became a farmer when he retired from the army aged 49 after 30 years' service.
He joined up in 1939, half-way through his studies at Oxford, trained as a cavalry officer - on horseback, in wartime, in 1939! - then had to learn to command a tank. He was captured fighting in the desert, escaped and walked south through Italy to join the British forces and then fought his way back up again. And then he went back to Oxford to complete his degree. Some "gap year", as an old friend of his said at his memorial service. He spent most of his service away from his Regiment (10th Royal Hussars), so we lived in Italy, Australia and Norway, with occasional postings in Blighty. What an amazing childhood for us...
Then aged 49 he went off to study farm management with a lot of boys half his age, and spent the next 20 years looking after cows and "baby beef". It's sad to reflect that he made more money selling the farm than he ever did running it.
What does this have to do with anything? Not much, except to celebrated the life of an extraordinary "very ordinary" man.
And of course, happy birthday to you too if you were born on April 24th! Have a great day.