Today, I experienced one of the most potent anti-climaxes of my life to date. Today was, in fact my birthday. I guess that 47 is a bit of a random number and it doesn’t really mean very much, but I still wanted it to be a special day. I still woke up feeling like, unlike every other day of the year, today was going to be, just a little bit, about me. That my kids would have to acknowledge my existence as a human being, rather than a chauffeur/laundromat/chef.
To their credit, everyone at least remembered this year (that’s right, they’ve forgotten in the past) and there was even a card involved. It was really when they told me my birthday present was outside that things started to go south. Nervously, I walked outside in my slippers, to find that our garage was gone and in it’s place where two carports from Tamworth. Any illusions I’d might have clung to about this being a giant (and very un-hilarious joke) were shattered when everyone started hugging me and saying ‘happy birthday mum’. I’m actually pretty sure the phrases ‘don’t you just love it’ and ‘you always hated that garage’ where used.
I’m not really sure if the ‘from Tamworth’ part was supposed to make everything alright. I mean, Tamworth is a bit of a way from here. While it was also true that I had mixed feeling for our garage. Tamworth as it happens was a magnet for all the junk I wanted to throw out, I’m not sure how on earth they thought this was going to down. Do my family really know me so little that they didn’t realise this was possibly the worst gift they could have gotten me? All I wanted was something nice! I don’t have many nice, girly, pretty clothes. A birthday is one of the only times of years when those kind of things are acceptable, but instead they choose to renovate.
Well, at least it is practical.
I give this day a 3/10.