As you will realise an email to many, from me, is a very unusual beast.

The occasion, an occasion, which has prompted this occasion is my forthcoming 50th birthday.

Here is the nub the issue; I do not want a party. You know how it goes. First you invite a few people. Then you have to invite their partners. Then old friends you hardly ever see and their partners. Work acquaintances and their partners. Cousins, and the fucking list goes on…

Before you know it you have a 100% complete horror story. Venue hire. Snacks. Grog. Speeches. Songs. And me outside in the carpark bludging a smoke off another sinner.

I recently went to an old school mate’s 50th party (Paul Martin, and he is on the list). It was a fantastic night put together in the lowest-key fashion one could hope for. And yet, even with such a good example I am really not of the mood that wants to be in the middle of a vortex of mixed intentions..

So, not me and not this time. There has to be some benefit in getting too old to care.

This is what I am doing. On the night of June 14th which is my actual birthday I will go out for dinner with my family. Of course they feel entitled to celebrate the occasion having put up with me the longest, or at least the most frequently.

And now this where you guys come into the picture if you care to. As you all do, I have many, many friends and acquaintances – by the time we reach 50 we have forgotten more people than we can remember. But you guys are the ones I enjoy having a drink and a yarn with. And that is my mood on this occasion.

I want to have beers on June 13th – that is a Friday – after work. Starting at the Bar Cleveland on the corner of Bourke and Cleveland St, Surry Hills. No serious plans – just the beer and the yarn. That will do me.

It would please me greatly if some of you could come along, just as you are.

For the interstaters and the foreign diaspora, I absolutely intend this to be a low key event not worth travelling for. So I am including you in this email just in case you hear about it and feel left out (we wouldn’t want that now since you are all such sensitive souls). We will separately do the drinks the next time I catch up with you.

And that is it. No need for an rsvp or such and such. I will just drink with whoever makes it there.

cheers

Ian/Max