As a Cockney Bingo-caller Might Say of my Weekend Birthday: "There you go matey!""

I can't find much to make it sound nicer - I could say quatre-vingts, or ottanta, or ochenta, or achtzig. I could even say, echoing another bing-caller "Ghandi's breakfast" [translation: "ate nought" or looking down from above on Mahatma Gandhi sitting cross-legged in front of a plate.] TSK!


However it's termed, nothing will change the fact that I shall arrive at the big
Eight-Oh, birthday-wise, on Sunday 27th. I'll arrive not particularly bloody, other than bloody-minded, and not particularly unbowed except for the joint and muscle pains brought on by a pesky medication which will have to be given the old heave-ho.

So, in honour of all the above considerations, I'm giving myself a long weekend off-blog to mark the...erm...event.

“I see birthdays as a reward for having shown up 365 in a row. It's like getting a badge for attendance.”
― Gina Barreca. "If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?": Questions and Thoughts for Loud, Smart Women in Turbulent Times.


“Don't celebrate how old you are, celebrate the years you survived.”
― Touaxia Vang.

Benchmarking

Considered logically, there's really no good reason to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, anymore than we should celebrate every sunrise and sunset. It's custom and practice, an excuse to give and receive, just a personal benchmark on the waves of time. Birthdays give us an excuse to eat cake, have a celebratory drink, or do something completely different.....so no blogging for me on my birthday tomorrow - that'll be different. I'll be a day older when I return, not a year older - that's my story.

A solar eclipse fell right on the degree of my natal Sun last year, though it happened on the day before my birthday. "What happened?" I hear you cry. Nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary. The least normal event I can recall around that time was that I chipped a (dental) crown and had to have it replaced, at great expense. My husband's younger daughter has a birthday on 26th, so her natal Sun degree was affected by the eclipse too. She had had health problems for the past couple of years, but her health improved gradually throughout the year - so only positive things, if anything at all, from the 2009 January eclipse for her. I'm not at all convinced that eclipses should be a cause for consternation in personal astrology. The only thing I've noticed is the 19-ish year cycle of the Moon's nodes tends to coincide with life changes - for me, anyway. This may not work for everyone though. I have Uranus conjunct South Node of the Moon, which could act as a trigger.

Next post Thursday.