My little girl Rachel is 23 today. As the song goes:-
“23 today,
23 today.
She’s got the key to the door,
Never been 23 before”
I know the song is written about the milestone of reaching the 21 and not 23, but we didn’t trust Rach with the front door key at 21! ……. And I’m not aware of a real celebratory song to mark your 23rd birthday so I, admittedly somewhat lazily, improvised.
The song ’21 Today’ refers to a time when you came of age at 21 in the UK, rather than 18 as it is now. As well as gaining the ability to vote and enter into contracts, it was the fashion to be given your own front door key for the first time on your 21st birthday.
I’m not really sure why I included that last paragraph as Rachel isn’t 21 today, she’s 23!
Blimey how time flies! It only seems like yesterday that a heavy handed Midwife passed her to me like a rugby ball to hold for the first time. As I held her in my arms emotion got the better of me.
As I looked down at my daughter wrapped in a grey blanket, with a lump in throat and tears in my eyes, I couldn’t help but think to myself “I wonder if the hospital canteen is still open, I’m flaming starving!!”
A few hours later I brought her 2 year old brother Jonny to see her. He was very giddy about seeing the new addition to the family. Or he was until he discovered the new addition was a baby sister and not Captain Scarlet! … Yes, I know you shouldn’t lie to your kids, but hey I had to get him to the hospital somehow!
We temporarily pacified him by presenting the wee man with a Captain Scarlet replica gun, shortly after being introduced to his new sister. However, he soon returned back to his bad mood when he realised it wasn’t real and couldn’t eliminate Captain Black or Mysterons.
I’m not sure how you can actually kill Mysterons with guns to be honest. After all the bad guys (or whatever they are) are torch light rings that slowly move across a wall.
Killing a torch reflection isn’t easy! Well, unless you shoot through the torch bulb, or just turn off the torch if you haven’t a firearm, or alternatively you could just remove the batteries.
Actually when you think about it neutralising a torch reflection was a lot easier than Captain Scarlet made it look. The slack get!
Anyway, back to Rachel’s birthday!
My wife, Karen and I are very proud of the way she has turned out in adulthood. Although feisty on occasion, she is a decent person with a good work ethic and is driven……. Yes, I drive her to work, her friends, the pub and Leeds Fest every chuffing year, so is very regularly driven!!
Seriously though, her drive led her in her teens to undertake activities such as the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award, Peer Support and as a Youth Brownie Leader to boost up her UCAS points (to enhance her opportunities when making university choices).
That drive, or perhaps just deceit, was behind her strategy of fooling her mum that her UCAS tally could be also boosted by eating a packet of Cadbury’s Fingers a day.
Rachel refuses point blank to read my blogs and won’t read this, but I’m going to close with this anyway:-
“Happy Birthday Rachel! You’ve enriched our lives in numerous ways and given us many happy memories. Your mum and I are very proud of you and love you very much!
As you sit there with you’re glass of champers, box of Cadbury’s Fingers and latest edition of Readers Digest, your mum had something she wanted to say to you on this your 23rd birthday. Choking back tears she had just asked me to convey the following- ….. “It might be your birthday, but can you shift all those flaming cups out of your room!”
