Yesterday I got to enjoy my 57th birthday and was quite overwhelmed that I got so many well wishes. At one point I remembered back to my 27th birthday which I celebrated in New York. I was living in an attic room and a friend Of mine just a few days earlier, had come to me and said that he had just heard John Lennon had been shot. We spent the next few days following the television reports and here we are 30 years later. I am in a different country and there is a very strong visual reminder that Christmas is just around the corner.