Birthdays

Birthdays to me is just another day of spending a wad of cash treating myself, it can be enjoyable but recently birthdays just doesn't feel the same. However today is my brother's 19th and not mine so I'll stop feeling sorry for myself. He ditched the traditional plan of coming home with sick on his shoes and settled instead for a civilised meal at home. Today wasn't just a welcoming of a new age, but for the first time my dad suggested that we go down to the pub! Just imagine one of those cheesy moments when the dad grabs onto his son's shoulder with pride in his eyes, handing over a pint...it was like that! Going to the pub with your old man is a symbolism of age, masculinity and acceptance, now suddenly my dad is trying peel me off Apprentice to go for a drink. It then got me thinking after I refused to go that both siblings have reached the age of adulthood; drinks is on the meunu for celebration rather than a cake shaped as a caterpillar, where has all the time gone? What happens next?

I found it unnerving thinking about where the 'innocence' of birthdays have vanished to; what the hell has happened to birthdays over the years? Importance of birthdays seems to be based on how many Facebook birthday messages received rather than a card, and a birthday bevvy is more endearing than an actual present, and then God created the greatest excuse for all students 'I'm skintos'. What I'm trying to say is where has all the friggin' fun gone? Only feels like yesterday when my limited English speaking rents turned up at (Notts people would know) the Maccys opposite Victoria Centre, and requested a little bash full of flying fries, ketchup and those godly nuggets. The limelight was all on my 6 year old brother with the flimsy cardboard octopus hat, and me suited with my mushroom haircut bobbing about like jellyfish to musical chairs. Now McDonalds is looking 'bangtidy' in there metallic and forest green walls with the drizzle of red, or was that ketchup?

Back to birthdays, my main stream of thought is what happens when our generation grows up, how would we celebrate then? Society is moving so rapidly that I can only hope that I celebrate my 80^th in a spaceship to Mars.