16 January 1944

An auspicious day. A Sunday.

A German U boat was sunk. Eisenhower assumed control of the Allied Expeditionary Force. A Japanese submarine ran aground in New Guinea; a US Navy submarine ran aground on the island of Midway (these were the days before Google Maps).

The painter/designer Chris de Marigny was born. Later he became a writer on modern dance. He died in 1995. This painting of his

apparently shows "two figures reclining in a garden". I actually thought it was a Cornish Pasty.

Churchill was the UK Prime Minister, FDR the US President and Pius XII the Pope.

After being evacuated from London to Reading during World War II, my mother, in a moment of defiance towards the Führer, gave birth to a handsome boy.

Me.

I don't know the exact time of day that this momentous event occurred but I have now been alive for approximately 675,000 hours. I'm exhausted just thinking about that. That's 450,000 football matches (excluding added time for injuries, extra time, penalties, etc etc.)

To honour this poster, I shall spend my birthday in trivial endeavours but also writing authoritative blog posts based on my 40,500,000 minutes experience of life.

Moving on. Don't look back.