20 September 2013
I will be spending my 64th birthday in London this year. I am travelling down for the 2013 conference of people living with HIV. I can’t wait to see all my old positive friends and hopefully make some new ones. It’s been a while since I’ve seen them so we’ll all be that much older and hopefully that much wiser. I never really thought I’d make it to this ripe old age. When I was diagnosed eleven years ago they gave me eight to ten years. But in the world of HIV things have changed, medications have changed, I have changed, mainly through having to live with HIV but old (or at least an older age) has affected me as well – although your sixties are said to be the new forties. Not sure if I believe that! Some of the changes in me are a bit worrying however. For example when exactly did I become the kind of person who prefers the company of my dog Lady Doodle to most humans? The kind of person who tears a tissue in half to save money, walks a mile to get a penny off, has already paid my funeral expenses so my family won’t have to. Never wastes a journey, thinks twice before bending down, fancies a caravan; looks enviously at bungalows even though I’ve always hated them, sings along to, “yesterday when I was young,” by Charles Aznavour. Turned into my mother! I am that very person rolled into one. I never thought I would turn out to be an activist, but then I never thought I would have HIV. Life sure does have its surprises. I hope I’ve done the best with what I’ve been given for whatever reason it was given to me. I will continue being an activist and raising awareness as best I can until my dying breath and writing this blog. I hope to reach a million hits before I pop my clogs. Not too far off, over three quarters of a way there, so please keep visiting the site and keep my stat globe spinning round from all corners of the world – or in the words of the famous Beatle’s song –
Send me a postcard, drop me a line,
Stating point of view.
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, Wasting Away.
Wasting away? Anything but!
