Happy Birthday! (Blog 382)

Yesterday - the time of my birthday party - the weather forecast said it was going to rain, so I didn’t go to a local fair with my brother’s family. Turns out it DIDN’T rain, but to be fair it was a bit humid. However, the thing is I don’t mind weather that is a bit humid. Scratch that, in the end it did rain a bit, so in a weird way I got what I wanted. Who likes fairs in bad weather, right? I’ll say it twice to make me feel better: I missed out on nothing! I missed out on nothing. :) (In reality I told myself that many more times, just inside my own head. I also said that many more times in a blog draft, but in the end I thought enough was enough and deleted that). Having said it rained, it didn’t do so much and the thing is I don’t even mind a bit of rain. But maybe my brother’s family does, so… Anyway not to worry, I could go shopping instead. The first thing I did in Kingston was get me a good 4 CDs, 3 of which were emo. Emo right? How embarrassing. How girly. You COULD say that, BUT I hadn’t heard of any of the bands I bought, so I had no real clue what I was getting. So if anyone accused me of being a bit girly, they wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. It could have been hardcore brutal emo, you can’t criticise me for listening to that. I was surprised how cheap the CDs were, then it was explained to me the guy forgot to charge me for all of them. Still though, a nice thought whilst it lasted. Not as nice as missing out on nothing, though.

The next thing I did was look for a guitar magazine, but the newsagent seems to have shrunk in terms of stockpile quite considerably since I last went there, so there were no such readables. On the plus side, I usually only skim through them, so another very small win for me maybe? It depends on your way of looking at the world. I saved £5! Not only had the nearby chocolate shop downsized, it completely vanished which was a shame. However, why not get an ice cream from the ice cream van? Maybe there’s something a bit weird about a lone 35 year old ordering ice cream (that’s how people were looking at me anyway), but if tastes good what’s the problem?? I’ve been wondering what happened to so called ’99 flakes’ (that cost 99p) during the period of inflation. Put simply, they’re now gone too. I asked the ice cream man if he accepted credit cards, and he said he did. Then when I showed him my card, he said he didn’t accept them. I guess he didn’t understand me as sometimes I speak quickly. It was my birthday after all. Exciting stuff. Also, I could just get some chocolate from my hometown’s petrol station instead!

Because some of the trains were limited due to strike action, I hate to wait a while for the journey home. Annoyingly Saturday would be the last day of striking! Just out of time. Not to worry, I could go back in Kingston and do more shopping. Nope, because when you put the train ticket in the gate on first arrival to the town, you don’t get it back. >:( Therefore I couldn’t leave the station. I wasn’t prepared to jump over the gate as I’d get arrested. Birthday ruined, obviously. Frustratingly as I wondered up and down, it appeared like I didn’t know what I was doing, which wasn’t completely true. But of course, it was a bit true. When I got off the train home, I did indeed get some chocolate AND some apple juice. I’ve never heard of caffeinated apple juice, but if you’ve gone through the experiences I have, you do check the ingredients multiple times. In this case, it was basically just all apple. Makes sense, I guess. Even though I only had 7 CDs altogether to add to my CD collection, (I ordered another 3 off the internet, one case being cracked as you know, and you should know) it took a good 45 minutes to rearrange my music, but my word is it good to look at. It just keeps getting better and better, it’s unbelievable.

Not too long after all the shuffling business, my dad would be driving me to my brother’s house, and from there we would all be driving to and eating at the Smith & Western American style burger restaurant. My dad told everyone (we were a robust group of eight hell bent on draining the establishment’s resources) that his friend had visited the place a week ago and warned him that the portions are very big. Yes, that sounds about right to me. Lots of people, lots of food. Expensive stuff. Didn’t matter though as it was my birthday, my special me day, and my dad would therefore be paying. That was the genius of the time of eating. The TNT chicken wings were certainly numerous. They WERE spicy, but the name TNT suggests something unbearable or even lethal. Really they were just fairly hot. I’m not complaining though, as I didn't want to be in excruciating pain OR die. The burger was fairly big too, but the SUNDEA? Oh my word. That was massive. I still ate it though, in fact I went a little overkill and ate all the leftovers. Nice sundae.

As everyone was eating, some of the staff members made an excessive amount of noise by bashing triangles or whatever they were, as it was someone’s birthday. If that happened to me, to be honest, I’d want them to leave. I’d appreciate the fuss, but at the end of the day it was little more than a racket. Thankfully however, it wasn’t MY birthday. It was the day after. What was talked about by my family doing the eating? Again, mainly how large the portions were. Mobile phones spying on you were also discussed which would be bad enough, but my brother said you should be paranoid. Making things worse still, he works for a mobile phone company. To make a comparison, it’s distressing enough if a random guy says you have no hope, but if a psychiatrist said that to you, that WOULD be upsetting. Luckily however, I knew about mobile phones already so it didn’t have much of an effect on me. And of course, I never even use the thing.

On a lighter note, my brother asked everyone where they’d like to go on holiday the most. He said Fiji. I’m guessing that’s because he’s been heavily influenced by Red Dwarf character Lister. I have to admit when I was younger I wondered what the fascination with the place was all about as well. Sadly the internet wasn’t around at that time, only adding to the mystery. It sounding like a joke name to me back then, I wasn’t sure if it even existed. I on the other hand didn’t know where I’d like to go the most. Anywhere nice and green basically. Luckily for me, England is largely very green. I didn’t say that though, I just said something along the lines of ‘Hm. I don't know…’ When leaving the place, I found that whilst the alcoholic drinks didn’t seem TOO large, they did make it hard for me to walk straight which is always embarrassing. When my dad drove me and my brother home, my sibling got me his present: A massive amount of chocolate! Do you want me talk about that? If not, you’re in luck! Bye!