Today is quite a momentous day in my life.

I had a good rummage at the back of an old chest and there it was – an old pair of shears, probably for shearing sheep. It still worked to a fashion so I fired it up.

So here I am in all my Adonis like beauty. The beard is gone and for the first time in over fifty three years I am clean shaven and my handsome visage is available to the world to adore and glorify. Come to think of it, this will be the first time Herself has seen me in this state so I could be in trouble there?

I’m not exactly clean shaven as that would have been tricky with a rusty old pair of shears so instead of a nice clean chin, I have a chin that now covered in stubble, but fuckit, the drastic step has been taken. My beard now lies forlorn on the kitchen floor, separated after over half a century.

As you may have guessed, this is all part of the preparation for surgery. I was given official notice yesterday that the beard must go though I had worked that one out for myself a while back. I was cheerfully told that it was more of a question of hacking back the undergrowth as they have their own barbers who will give me the final coat of gloss before the surgeon does his bit.

Of course removing all that undergrowth has exposed one of my little current problems – swollen glands in my neck. So instead of looking like a Greek God I look more like a giraffe with mumps. At least now I can find where that nasty goo is coming from. A lot of it comes from my nose which is steadily devouring itself in a rather ugly [and painful] manner, but I can at last see where the glands are leaking. Sadly there isn’t a precise source of the leak [where maybe a judicious bit of pressure I at least could empty some of the goo] but rather just seeping out of the surface of the skin.

As yet, no one has seen me in my naked beauty. I have no dog any more to cast an opinion one way or another. Possibly Daughter will turn up later and it will be interesting to see if she notices the difference [“You look different. Have you combed your hair?”].

Later I may well take a trip to the coffee shop in all my nakedness. Will they notice the difference? Will they even recognise me? Possibly the waste-length pony tail and the glasses might be a bit of a giveaway and I suppose there aren’t that many people wandering the streets with a hugely swollen nose that is now more of a disgusting festering open wound than an actual nose?

This could be interesting.