Ayiende's birthday

It's been a funny old week, what with Ayiende's 60th birthday, the relentless pressures of work, and the magnificent victory at Old Trafford which pretty much seals the Premiership this season.
It's hard not to feel a tinge of sympathy for City supporters when, however close they get, they can never quite get there. So it was at the derby game of Saturday. It's not often I get to go, since tickets are in big demand, and not often you get to witness such a brilliant goal. It was a moment of complete brilliance which happened right in front of my eyes, and it took just such a moment to beat a team who weren't at all bad.
In relation to work though, I seem to have found myself in charge of monitoring the activity of the Central Manchester Foundation Trust and designing the quality indicators to which they have to aspire. I don't mind the challenge, but it means fitting in a load of meetings into my diary and without extra payments. How did that happen? We shall see how it works out. It could be fun, and already there are signs that the CMFT are starting to sit up a bit and take things more seriously.
Ayiende's party was both joyful and poigniant. Joyful because we had fun and nearly everyone who has been playing football on a Monday night over the years was there. Ayiende has, for thirty years, been making sure the ground was booked. I've been going for a mere ten years or so. Poigniant, because over that time you build up very strong friendships, even though we might meet up only once a week, and exchange banter on the pitch and in the changing room. It's a guy thing. It's how we do it. And it was really moving to hear Ayiende talk of what it had meant to him, especially when he had his heart attack last year.
Even Kurt was there, City supporting Kurt, and he took the abuse like a man. Respect to Kurt, and mega-respect Aiyende.