DIARY - Happy Birthday vs Grumpy Old Git
Date: 2006-04-14 18:43:18
Author: Pat Kent
Well, I hit the big 5-0 two weeks ago, and almost immediately afterwards went down with a blindingly painful tooth abscess which laid me up for over a week and a bit and ended up requiring surgery. If this is what happens when you are 50, take me back a fortnight to being 49!
We had a great party, about 120 people turned up, and I indulged myself big-time by having a live band play. "The Hi-Fi Combo" were great, and with ten minutes left to go before the end of my birthday, I plucked up the front to consign one of my ambitions to the history book which might record my first 50 years. I actually got up and sang with the band on their version of The Who's Pinball Wizard, absolutely loved, it, and I wasn't as drunk as most people thought.
"Ever since I was a young boy...Me with Paul Cox and Mike Summerlin of the Hi-Fi Combo"
My brother, Matt, pointed out that the singer, Paul Cox, a splendid chap, seemed to be a long lost brother of ours who somehow hadn't registered on the family tree. However, Paul has categorically denied knowing me, and who could blame him, he even went as far as saying he came from Wolverhampton.
Work has been manic over the last few weeks as well, so I look forward to getting back on track with it and trying to get back into a rhythm whereby I can get back into doing some artwork and writing once again. What's the point in being semi-retired if you keep on working.
There's been some lunatic stories in the press over the last few weeks, crack-pot judges declaring fraudulent marriage laws discriminatory against the crooks marrying to swindle the country out of benefits and securing illegal entry, different NHS trusts having post code lotteries on dispensing anti-cancer treatment drugs - making a mockery of the term NATIONAL Health Service, Bird Flu precautions and a whole host of yob related stories, but I won't dwell on them now. Plenty of time to catch up on them in my next instalment, and I'm sure there'll be stacks more.
April is a big birthday month for my family and friends, At school we had one a week all the way through April resulting in the latter years of my teens seemingly having only eleven months in them��either that or I can't recall April due to alcoholic intake.
My brother's birthday is in April along with various Aunt's, Cousins and new friends. I really must study their dates of birth and see what was occurring in the July prior to their birth years.
It's Easter week-end, and we're trying to get a move on with a few things in the house and office, The kids next door are under the influence of 'Carl' a prattish yob of a teen-ager from down the road and that's spurring us on into thinking about moving out of London. We bought some land in Florida last year with a view to building a holiday home out there, and now we've pretty much decided to leave urban living behind us in the UK. The song used by the Labour Party in the run-up to their 11997 victory said, "Things can only get better", I used to think that was truly possible, I suppose turning 50 has highlighted the fact that if it does I probably won't be around to see it, and like many others I'm now only in the mood for turning my back on it, and not even bother to turn around and watch it decay further.
My parents and their parents were working class stock, and that's what they did, they worked non-stop for their living. They worked themselves stupid to give their kids a good home and values to live their lives by, including respect for people and understanding the value of things. Nowadays, values and respect doesn't exist anymore. I'm not a grumpy old man either, I'm a realist who can see that the decline will continue until the modern day equivalent of the black-shirts are on the streets and people wake up with a jolt when they realise that everything they took for granted, which a civilisation can give them, is suddenly removed and that having too many "civil liberties", can also be the road to ending up with too few.
Anyway, more laughs in the next one.promise!
Pat Kent © Pat Kent 2006 - All rights reserved. Pat Kent exercises his right to be identified as the author.