21st Century Birthdays

Aren't birthdays in the 21st Century so much fun! I had such a lovely day yesterday, with well-wishers sending birthday cards, ringing up and dropping off presents on my doorstep. I received a lot of text messages, emails, some comments on my blog and messages on my Facebook account (so thanks to everyone for making my birthday very special). The Facebook phenomenon is in particular very new to me and despite being familiar with email and blogging, I am still trying to get used to the social effects of this relatively new technology.

There are just so many methods of communication and gifting in the 21st Century, it is amazing. Even the other week, my 3 year old received an Amazon e-voucher (by email) from one of his aunts.

Yesterday, the icing on the virtual cake (please excuse the pun) was when my sister and her husband, who live "en Suisse", phoned in the evening to sing "happy birthday". Using Skype and our webcam connection meant that they were virtually in our living room. It was great, I was able to bore them silly by showing off some of the lovely presents that I had received.

However one "traditional" item that was noticeably missing from yesterday's range of presents was music, a gift that would be typically packaged in the format of a CD. However, my regular Napster subscription now makes such an item redundant in my little 21st C world.

On the subject of presents, I was spoilt by 21st C Dad with lots of lovely gifts, (nothing virtual here). The best present of all was the fact that he'd framed a watercolour that I'd painted in a beginners art class (which I'd attended a few years ago). I had left it hidden under a pile of junk ever since. But three years later here it is, all beautifully framed up (thanks 21st C D).


As for the 21st C kids, they treated me to a fantastic rendition of "happy birthday" in a very excitable manner, then squabbled over the birthday cake. Come on boys, fighting over the biggest piece of cake is "so last century", even if you are under 6!

Perhaps they did me a big favour though, because if I had been offered the biggest slice, that would mean extra visits to the health club that I joined yesterday...and I mean real physical visits...for once my virtual online world is of no use here!