I wish to make it clear, right from the start, that this is just observation, I am not actually complaining here.
If you’ve got a big family or a wide circle of friends then maybe birthdays are something worth making a fuss about. I have neither and never have had. And no, I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I was born into, for all intents and purposes, a small family (lots of cousins we never had any meaningful contact with, very little extended family we saw with any regularity, some of whom I would never want to see again anyway), and I have never been a gregarious soul. I don’t make a fuss because I’m not that sort of person, I never have been one to make myself the centre of attention, if other people want to mark an occasion then I’m not going to stop them but that is their decision. But really, this year is just taking the piss.- An email from someone I haven’t seen in… must be over ten years.
- A very pretty card and nice, useful present from my mum, just what I wanted and just what we discussed on the phone the other week. We’re nothing if not practical, neither of us can afford to be otherwise.
- Quite unsurprisingly, an email from my brother last night apologising for having been distracted the last couple of weeks and not having sent a card. He has however learnt the value of Amazon wishlists and something will be turning up at some point. I will admit to having been rather touched that it was my 11 year old nephew who actually reminded him about my birthday by asking if he could send me a card.
- Pressies from the ever-lovely Codepope. A shiny purple! 2GB shuffle so I don’t have to mess around swapping playlists when I want to exercise and when I want to just go for a walk. Did I mention it’s PURPLE? And enough books to keep me in reading material for a while.
And that’s it.
On balance this is actually better than last year, this year I shall actually get a present from my brother, last year I got a “we’ll go shopping when I come down and visit” which didn’t really work out that way. Though last year I did get a couple more cards. If I were to be mildly annoyed about anything, it would be the lack of a card from the “in-laws”. I used to get cards from them, but that stopped a while back… oh well… But there we go, it’s another birthday and the only real difference it makes is that I have to change my age on the scales and the exercise bike. Actually just the scales because Codepope changed the bike for me yesterday 🙂
Mischief & Me 