Yesterday was Granddaughter the Elder’s birthday.

I confess I forgot until late in the day. That yoke I have on my phone to remind me of birthdays is fucking useless as the one thing it doesn’t do is remind me.

My other excuse is that I was somewhat bothered yesterday with Roofers crashing around the place and making me nervous. However they finished and buggered off in the afternoon. I’m not one to go overboard with praise normally but I have to say the job they did on my water tank sarcophagus is nothing short of fucking brilliant. It’s probably the first time where any contractor went way beyond my expectations and even did work that they thought was necessary but I didn’t, and it didn’t cost me an extra cent.

Anyhows I did remember GDtE’s birthday and dropped down to Daughter’s gaff to give her a card. Of course she [GDtE, not Daughter] wasn’t there as she lives almost permanently with her dad. That’s way over the far side of the city in a region where Here Be Dragons, so dropping the card off down the road will have to do until she visits her mum again.

I was somewhat shocked to realise she’s now 18. Fuck! She’s old enough to vote. She’s old enough to get away with shit without parental permission. She’s old enough to go to war [that could be a career opportunity these days?]. She’s old enough to legally buy cigarettes [or baccy for her loving Grandad?]. The mind boggles.

In my day 18 meant just that – eighteen years old and little else [apart from being allowed to drive a motorbike over 150cc]. I had to wait until I reached the magic age of 21 before the fun could start. Mind you the fun had already started and at that stage I had left school, gone through college and was gainfully employed. In fact the only marker that birthday had was that I got hammered down in the village along with The Lads and we all piled up to the Manor in the early hours which pissed off my parents. The fact that one of The Lads polished off the parent’s precious bottle of brandy didn’t help. Happy days.

Anyway…..

Belated Happy Birthday GDtE!