At some point in the next few days I will be 33. Being a leap year baby means that the whole birthday thing is a little vague for me. It suited my grandparents very well - I'd go to one set on February 28th and another set on March 1st. Latterly I've used it as an excuse to start partying on the 28th and go on through to the 1st.
This year we opted to do the big family thing on the 27th, since its a Sunday. This meant I got to enjoy the childish delight of tearing into wrapping paper a day earlier. The gifts were, as ever, thoughtfully chosen; I'm very lucky to be part of the family I am.
And First-Born? She'd saved her pocket money and picked out something special. A self assembly model of the solar system that one can hang from the ceiling. This is especially thoughtful because she's aware of my obsession with space exploration.
"It even glows in the dark!" she enthused, "You can hang it on the ceiling of your bedroom and look at the planets at night!"
I attempted to match her enthusiasm, but my treacherous inner-voice had other ideas. I generally conceal this obsession, unless a date is starting to go disasterously wrong, in which case droning on about the lifting capability of the Saturn V versus the Shuttle stack represents a painless way of chasing someone away.
But a glow-in-the-dark solar system hanging from my ceiling? Might be tricky to explain when I'm, er, entertaining. And could lead to some dreadfully childish moments:
"Hey, I can see rings around Uranus"
"Whaaaaat?????"
Heck, I am only 8 after all. Right?
