Thursday 16 October 2008

OF BIRTHDAYS AND THINGS

Have always enjoyed having a birthday from the time that I can remember.

Sharing a birth month with my sibling meant that we'd have a combined birthday party - twice the number of friends, cakes, presents (interesting!) and double the fun as well! Birthdays while growing up meant a party at home with Mum and Dad planning everything weeks in advance, painstakingly working on the menu, the invitee list and sundry other details, just to ensure that we kids had the perfect birthday. Home-made savoury snacks, desserts and the ubiquitous cake, chips and soft drinks, games such as musical chairs and passing-the-parcel, streamers, buntings and balloons adorning the walls, paper plates and towels, plastic spoons and glasses, the last-minute preparations and running around... And there we'd be on the selected evening, blowing out the candles, cutting cake, and smilingly receiving the presents (and wondering just when they could be opened!), eating, playing games and pressing return presents into our friends' hands.

Those were the days, when birthday parties were put together and not manufactured. When it wasn't about the commercialism but the feeling. When life wasn't just about greeting cards and fast food chains and birthday party organisers.

No comments: