Birthdays

Low key birthdays are the best. Yesterday was a lovely quiet day followed by meeting up with friends for a giggle in the evening. I struggle to understand people who have enormous parties for their birthdays. Perhaps for an 18th or even a 21st but when you get beyond that I think it starts to get a bit silly. Maybe I've just watched too many MTV 'Sweet Sixteens'. The number of American teenagers that I would like to inflict pain on, using their own Manolo Blahnik stilettos as a weapon, increases dramatically following a couple of hours of watching MTV.

I'm not sure as to why MTV is still going by that name. Music Television? Huh? Where's the music? The dross that comes across the Atlantic and infects our screens is incredible. These days it is not at all uncommon to hear people praising US TV to the heavens. Fair enough when talking about Heroes, The West Wing, Prison Break, 24 etc. But for every top notch import we also 'gain' a new series of Pimp My Ride, Date My Mom and Room Raiders.

Hmmm...I seem to have got side tracked. Birthdays. Right. I suppose if you like to be the centre of attention and have compliments and gifts lavished upon you then parties are the way to go. I cannot stand that type of thing. I'm not a humbug. I like parties. Just not my own. I'm perfectly happy for someone else to get the attention. I don't like being important! I'm a bit of a paradox in that respect. When it comes to my opinions I like people to pay attention to them. That's one of the reasons that I write. But there is a difference between my writing and opinions getting attention and my actual self being pushed into the spotlight.