Early Birthday Boo (Blog 526)

For practical reasons, I celebrated my birthday two days earlier than I should have done, yesterday. Yep, as I’m typing on a Sunday, technically speaking I’m still 36. I’m still in my mid 30s. Is 37 mid or late thirties? I honestly have no idea. I know it’s in my thirties, that’s obvious, but yeah, it is at least a partial mystery. Hm. Anyway, to start the festivities I went CD shopping in Kingston! Somewhat of super celebration as now the town has two CD shops. One specialising in more underground bands, the other being HMV. In the former shop and as always both emo and punk music featured in the same section, simply called punk/emo. There was way more punk music than emo, there. Is rebelling against society really that much more common than being emotional? Isn’t that sad? Things were so bad, I would later find out that I bought an album I thought was emo, but that was punk, too!

Right! How did the HMV shopping go? It certainly sounded like an exciting idea. It’s with great shame I say I got lost, but it wasn’t my fault! I asked a member of staff in the shopping centre where HMV was, and she said the first floor. But due to a rather weird building design, the first floor was basically the third as some of the centre is underground. Does that really matter? Why not call the lowest floor the first for the sake of simplicity? I found out the numbering of the levels after reading a sign, but if things were more straightforward, there wouldn’t need to be a sign! Shoppers were confused (at very least me, anyway) and a sign maker was given one of the pointless assignments of his whole career. Lots of confused rambling followed, I basically roamed the entire area. I was worried the staff member misheard me and thought I asked where H&M was, but… no! In the end I found the music store!

Unlike the HMV in Staines, all the CDs weren’t in the one section, this time there was a rock and pop section AND a heavy metal section, etc.! A lesser shop would put heavy metal in the rock and pop place. In fact I’m so used to seeing that happen, I assumed there was no metal section at first! All I had to do to find it was simply turn around which does sound dumb, but in my defence it was unusual. Playing on the radio were the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Nothing too offensive, they’re not exactly brutal death metal. But death metal would have probably been a better choice of music to play when the RHCP song said the MF word. :S Children’s minds were consequently warped. The music was so loud I was worried it could damage my hearing so I left the shop earlier than I would have liked. They basically lost a customer. When it was explained one of the CDs I bought had its price lowered my £1, they lost some money, too. :(

After the music shopping, I got myself a Five Guys chocolate milkshake and cream! After drinking half of it, I suddenly thought it would be a good idea to drink the rest of it in the train station, so I left the foodery and jogged to the depot that had a lower level and an upper level. In the former, there was an electronic sign saying the train home would leave in just one minute! I ran upstairs and jumped on the train just as it was about to leave! Not only did I enjoy the convenience of not having to hang around for half an hour for the next train home, I enjoyed the rest of my shake as well. All things considered I was very lucky catching the transport, I could have made the decision to leave 5G a few seconds later and I could have jogged slower, screwing everything up. It’s something that could really screw with a superstitious person.

Soon after walking back to my house, I drove to the gym. I didn’t get a full exercise session as I didn’t have the time. Later on in the day, I’d be going to an Italian restaurant with my dad, brother, sister in law, two mini nieces and one nephew! I did however, do more than enough working out to get the highly sought after gym buzz. It’s nothing huge to celebrate, but one of the gym taps has been fixed resulting in a faster time to fill my water bottle. Some highs are clearly better than others, but even so I did appreciate the speed. When beefing up my legs, I noticed my foot was getting slightly irritated. Why could that be? My shoes are wearing out! I guess I’ll have to do more shopping in Staines to sort that out, soon. A little bit annoying, but a Five Guys burger does sound good in the town. I probably won’t get another shake from the company in a while though. They’re very nice, but getting about 300% of your recommended daily sugar intake in about 3 minutes (probably)? It doesn’t sound right, does it?

Soon after working out, my dad drove me to the restaurant. On the way I noticed a number plate with the letters ‘EAC’ on it. i.e. A minor 2nd inversion. A sad chord, but certainly not offensive to the ears. Moving on, one of the first things we all did after entering the establishment was look at the menu. What in God’s name is antipasta? Pasta’s arch enemy? All I wanted was a fun and relaxing time. What I didn’t want to see was the various foods fighting each other. And why was a car in the building? Was it for the staff to use after leaving work? It’s just for the thing to leave the building, it would have to drive through the windows. Also, on the radio, there were various Italian songs playing, but Bach as well. Was the business trying to claim Bach as their own? A bit sneaky. I thought stealing a poor guy’s car and using it as a display item was bad enough. Well, that’s the theory, anyway. I actually have lots of theories as to why the car was there. Anyway, for a starter I bought some hot buffalo wings. I pointed out how they tasted very similar to the ones you get from Papa John’s. That seemed to annoy the overhearing staff member, but there was no need to be annoyed. Both are very good!

Some of the various family conversations we had whilst we ate were lighthearted, others were dark. I humorously pointed out how my CD player would be turning 26 years old in exactly 2 day’s time (happy birthday CD player), and people were amused when I thought the prices on the menu were order numbers (which my family did sympathise with). However, I was also told how Guildford’s chilli and cheese festival visit had been cancelled by my brother’s family. Why bring that up?? I was looking forward to that! I also noticed how the children were playing on iPads. They couldn’t read already could they? That’s crazy! Then it was explained they weren’t so much reading from the screens, but pressing buttons. Ah. That makes sense. We also talked about going to the gym and my brother asked me about the various machines I exercise on. My brother described the machine where you pedal with your feet and push your arms forwards and backwards at the same time. I called it the ‘hiking machine’ but apparently there is no such thing as one of those. My brother corrected me but I soon forgot the real name of the equipment which is probably what caused the confusion in the first place.

For my main course, I had some kind of spaghetti and for dessert I had some kind of banoffi pie. And of course, a lot of what my dad was eating. It was his own fault really as he kept offering me some. I really could have eaten everything he gave me and I wouldn’t feel bad as it was my birthday. (Soon). My sister in law clearly doesn’t feel so strongly about birthdays as I do however, as she said she doesn’t really celebrate them very much. But what does she look forward too? Maybe buying burgers, shoes and CDs in Staines. After about two hours or so, we all left the place. Easier said than done after a good two glasses of wine, (how DO you walk properly after wine drinking??) but luckily I wouldn’t be driving, or I’d crash and get sent to jail. Bad birthday!! When I got home, all I really did was watch TV and rearrange my CD collection. I also listened to bits of some of my new albums. One of them I did like but it was bit too girly (one of the main flaws of emo music) but when the singer started to shout a little? That made things right. And that was the day out, bye!