My Birthday (almost)

it is 11:20, third of january 2006, by central daylight savings time it is my birthday. 12:50am on the fourth in Adelaide. It is for many reasons also my birthday here.

The first reason is that all of parky’s family have rung me today to wish me a happy birthday. I figured that parky had told them the wrong day and therefore they all got it wrong together.

Then my mum gives me a ring, with my father and elder brother in tow, and wishes me a happy birthday.

They say that if everyone tells you exactly the same thing, regardless of how sure you are about it (even your own bloody birthday for example) you start to doubt yourself. And proof of the validity of that claim is that parky and I went out for a combined birthday dinner thinking “why the hell not?” After 5 phone calls and two text messages congratulating me on my birthday and about an hour at the pub discussing how weird it is and following birthday related topics, it just begun to feel like my birthday. We figured that it isn’t going to get more birthdayish that this, and nobody is going to ring me tomorrow as they’ve all done it today, so bugger it, let’s go crazy and have a birthday bash tonight. And we did.

We have a combined birthday because we chose to celebrate our birthdays on the same day every year. This is because her birthday changes every year with the Buddhist calendar, but for the year that we were married, the 4th of January (by the Christian calendar) and the 13th of December (by the Buddhist calendar) both fell on the 4th of January. This year, for the uninitiated, 13th of December by the buddhist calendar falls on the 12th of January by ours. That gives you a few days to get an international dialing card and give parky a quick ring for her birthday.

As it turned out mum and dad had rung during class and we spoke for less than a minute but during the course of the next phone call an hour and a half later i explained to mum and dad that I really had always though that my birthday was that 4th of jan. My mum says “really, isn’t it your birthday?” I said “no, I don’t think so”. This was followed by my dad and brother (from either of whom I haven’t received a solo birthday card or call since my teens) giving her a two minute “Oh Yeah That’s What We Said”. Full of “I knew it wasn’t today” or “I knew all along”. What I didn’t hear however was “I knew it was tomorrow”, or “it’s the 4th, you dolt”. No such thing, no putting oneself out on a limb. No siree bob. So minus a couple of hundred for bravery and memory for you boys anyway.

All in all it was a pretty weird birthday and the weirdest of it all is that it isn’t.
Caio
benjamin