OK – I know this won’t win any great prizes for photo of the year but it’s a good shot to illustrate our day. We’ve been out to see some friends to help Alan (pictured above) celebrate his 40th birthday. It was a very small affair – just the hosts, their neighbours and us but we managed to consume enough alcohol for the guests of a much bigger party – hence me writing this on the 28th in the late afternoon with the hangover to end all hangovers.

I reckon since we ‘gave up drinking’ at home, my tolerance for wine has dropped hugely and I’m also doubly sore because DM is feeling much better than I am, which seems grossly unfair because he drank as much as I did. He claims it was the gallons of water consumed in the night and i think he should have popped a funnel in my mouth and fed me some too - I hit the pillow and slept!

Anyway, back to the celebration of Alan’s birthday. Alan is my sister’s best friend – they’ve been buddies since Alan, a fresh-faced lad of sixteen, arrived as a YTS boy at her office. The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) was a government initiative in the 1980s to give youngsters a start in a career. Alan joined my sister’s office and the friendship forged then has lasted all this time.

I met him shortly after he started work there and I must say, it never occurred to me that I’d end up helping him to celebrate his 40th! Maybe I wouldn’t have done in other circumstances but they are near neighbours of ours, living and working just a few miles from our new home. They have been incredibly supportive and helpful to us since we started our quest to move here and they are among our closest friends here in Cornwall.

Last year we saw Alan, Dee and Lucy over the bank holiday weekend and at that time their life seemed as though it was in tatters, with a terrible and terrifying decision that they needed to make. After days of agonising they made a choice and I’m so glad to report that the choice they made has worked out for them and they’ve gone from being in the depths of despair to the height of joy in the space of a single year.

Alan was the only grown up to have a go on the trampoline – otherwise it was Lucy (looking on in the shot) who spent her evening bouncing and enjoying herself on it.

Alan appears to have no face but he is truly one of the most focussed people I know and he deserves every bit of his success. Happy Birthday Alan – forty isn’t so bad – let’s face it I managed to dump my ex-husband and find David in that year – it was a great one for me.

I don't know why old Rovers had a scary viking on the front but for some reason they did and that was the subject of last year's pic!