I still hadn’t cottoned on, right up to the point where Ahmed led us through to a room filled with family, and filled with all manner of sweet birthday treats, with much laughter and good cheer. These times were very sociable as many members of our host family would come and go during the evening, though tonight there seemed to be even more activity than normal. Together Ray and Jim discover that being 64 means a new beginning: it's time to try the things they never dared in their youth. Unbeknown to me, Michaela had told Ahmed and his family that April 8th was significant, so when we returned from our day’s trekking with Ahmed, I had no inkling that something was lined up.Īs was our daily custom, we joined the family for herbal tea in their garden in the late afternoon prior to taking dinner in the house – on this occasion the traditional Bedouin meal of mansaf. When widowed cabbie Ray and retired teacher Jim meet by chance, they discover they long for the same things from life: adventure, challenge and love. There have been some rather more exotic locations for our previous birthdays, most notably the year before COVID, on the occasion of my 62nd, when we were staying with a Bedouin family in their home close to Petra in Jordan. I don’t think we really thought, on my 63rd, that we would be back in the same situation a year later.

Well, I’m about to find out whether Michaela will still need and feed, birthday greetings, bottle of wine, and all of those things, because I am actually 64 today, and “celebrating” (if that’s the right word) a second successive lockdown birthday. Will you still need me, will you still feed me…so went the Beatles lyric.

When im 64