Like many of you, when I was a child I'd wonder what life would be like in 2000. I'd think to myself, gosh, I'll be ancient. From my early teens, the idea of being in my mid-thirties seemed so far away. I imagined I'd be old, boring, middle-aged - like my parents at the time, and their friends, I supposed. Whenever my parents had people over (not that they had many friends), I'd yawn myself to sleep with boredom. They'd sit around on the sofa and just talk, talk, talk, through a haze of cigarette smoke.

So here I am, of a certain age, sitting spending the evening with my friend Brett - talking, talking, talking. Yet both of us are in the absolute prime of our lives. I feel young, and virile. I'm stronger and fitter than I've ever felt in my life. I could never have forseen that my life would turn out like it has. After all, here I am living 6,000 miles away from the seaside town on the North East coast of England where I grew up. And on the dawn of the new Millenium, things are looking pretty good.

My birthday has long since ceased to be terribly meaningful to me. In fact, I've been known to forget about it until the day is half over. When I woke up this morning, I did remember however. But it was another work day - nothing special. The weather continued to be spring-like. I took a walk at lunchtime. A small Salvation Army band tried to strike up a wintry feeling. Actually, their playing was lousy, but it was nice to hear the traditional old sounds, so I gave them a couple of bucks. But it didn't make it feel any more like Christmas.

The Salvation Army tries to convince us it's Christmas, despite the warm weather

T-shirt weather at Christmas!

I spent the evening with Brett. He came over around four thirty bearing a pile of gifts, which was a surprise. And I gave him his "Christmas Box", as my Grandmother used to call it.

Exchanging gifts with Brett

Afterwards, we went to see an Imax movie at the Metreon, called "Everest", before going for an early dinner at "John Frank", in the Castro. Brett is so easy to be with - one of the very few people in my life with whom I can totally let my guard down. I can't imagine a better person to spend my birthday with.