Birthday edition

Normally I do a kind of special day post on here but as it's similar to that of the other blog it's just an altered version really as any individual items will have their own one of posts  and I certainly wasn't gonna be talking about the budget today. 

There were cards as much as cards got crowded out last year with the events of just under three weeks before everything was on pause so the small number cards wee just in a bit of a corner rather than a central position.

That one fills the girl of the family slot doesn't surprise most given the craziness of our family, doing stuff and trying to smooth things over.

While I don't know about any other presents and they can always be added as an update I do the know the Super Audio cd of Genesis's Selling England By The Pound by Analogue Productions as part of the Atlantic 75 years anniversary delayed from last November is here.

Given the record version was acclaimed, I'm looking forward to spinning this disc.

There is a copy of the special 45 rpm 75 years anniversary issue of the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album that alongside Abbey Road and Let It Bleed heralded the new and in many ways more modern sound of rock than the more sophisticated pop of just a few years back.

I'm rebuilding a bit of the collection so a few new to me original lps came too ready to clean up and resleeve.

There will be a fuller write up around the 2004-2005 installment of Now Millennium but this gathering of notable tracks from those two years will help bringing back the sounds of that era coupled with a book about the artists and times.

I'm sure there will be some money to put towards a few other purchases looking towards Easter and Summer get together and unlike last year we'll have a small meal together at a local pub, something we always did when Mom was alive and something that didn't happen last time as that's been booked.

Gearing up to a marker and just being me

 Things were different last year for a variety of reasons such as the period the year before where I was seriously ill had rather messed my head up, tending to forget things significantly worse than is usual for me given my short term memory issues.

This was impacted by my and Mom's covid infection at the end of year and her death that dominated to a large extent the whole period going into March which rather left traditional birthday arrangements really messed up as even the cards given nothing else much happened just melted into the many bereavement cards that took up much of the front room so it was in many ways a non event.

The other thing was the stresses and strains really took me backward to my most "littlest" side as your world seemed to no long appeared to be recognizable at the very time you needed that comforting sensation and associated emotions.

Things that had been bought to spend time away "more little" in 2022 spent more time on me in 2023 as I just felt more settled as that little and indeed when last week an Aunt called in, I was dressed very much as that little.

Sometimes it's best to be true to yourself and just let things be.

This year it well be marked closer in spirit to how it always was even if one face may not be at the table because life continues even as the loss is still felt but the drift over time more towards this life is just there, we talked about it in 2016, and if I still sit with my stuffies then so be it.

Birthday edition

This week we are looking a bit a birthday presents in a semi synchro post with the other blog but reworked.

Things are obviously a little different this year with everything around Mom's death and upcoming funeral very much overshadowing all else most visibly in lack of space in window for cards with cards for her.

Disabled birthday cards are hard to find even in an age of inclusion in most other respects.

To an extent then really little has been planned with time taken up with everything around that but I did this, the recent Gorillaz album on compact disc, one of those card cover ones so I may need to put the disc in a inner sleeve to prevent it getting marked.

This does to me sound more like a club centric Damon Albarn solo project than classic albums like Plastic Beach

The project that NOW started way back in 2021,the Now Yearbook series, a series of cds comprising of a main set covering the hits of one specific year in a book and a three cd extra set of often minor but more musically interesting ones continues with this, the volume for 1986.

This was on I got as one of the two main compilation series of the time, the HITS ones only saw the last one issued in 1986 issued on compact disc and then only as a single cd rather than the double which the record and tape versions were.

I have pre-ordered the Extra set to go with it.

I did get some new soft underwear, don't do really fancy colourful designs this year and some money from my brothers, other relatives and The Grump that I can buy some books or music with at some future point.

We didn't go out for a meal as there was little real mood for celebration and that obviously brings back memories from past years.

Birthday entry

 

Okay so I've had a birthday although a few things remain messed up after these last two year like ones family and any kind of going out is likely to be later on in the week as work continues on refitting one place we like to go.

There was a Tumblr card and message from my BFF.

Anyway given how this thing is with me it was entirely fitting that one neighbour bought me a bar of chocolate cos I really don't have any inclination toward anything specifically adult or interests even.

One thing I did get which goes back a few years for inspiration was a very special four cd and dvd set of the classic Elton John album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road that came out in 2014 which probably contains the highest amount per album of his best ever work including beyond the title track to take in Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Bennie and the Jets and Candle In The Wind.

I was a bit strapped for cash in that period so I bought a two cd "deluxe edition" that had the whole album plus on a second disc some remakes of the songs by today's artists such as The Band Perry and a selection from a live recording made at the Hammersmith Odeon in December of 1973 that was broadcast on the radio.

Really it was this set I wanted which give you alternative mixes and non album tracks used on the singles, the whole concert in its two halves and a dvd with surround sound mixes coupled with a 100 page book.

I was very fortunate to have it bought for me from a store that still had a copy in completely sealed.

 Similarly my original Blu Ray of this anime tended to make some funny noises while it played due to some fault in how the film was authored onto the disc so the blu ray player can play it so I got a much recent copy that also includes the dvd which didn't have this issue included.

While somethings do alter a paper based mini encyclopedia can help not just when it comes to avoiding going down rabbit holes searching for the very thing you do want, help with spending less time looking at the screen but help in recalling "facts" that given how when I'm ill I lose track of with the impact on my memory without the issues that screens have.

It has things like World Maps based on the old Mercator's Projection, an extensive outline of World History, facts about science, natural sciences and medicine coupled with famous names, places and essays on various religious, philosophical, scientific and political ideas and theories.

It also covers major world sports with competitions and winners that makes for an excellent single volume compendium of knowledge.

While something things change many do not and this will help.

There was some stocking filler things such as underwear and new socks and a new navy blue skirt too plus some money to cover things from Amazon and of CatBay tm.

I did go out for lunch locally with my folks.

Being younger than your years and Birthdays

As one goes through an annual event in something that I'll cover more as a report on the other blog it is as well to look at why from an outsiders point of view my life has a very different aspect to it and how sometimes I spark off conversations at other places and sites that were not my intent.
We build our lives around certain expectations for one another sometimes on the basis of what it is we are capable of achieving  and to which is seen as virtuous while in others it is more what we are used to and perhaps feel if you had it then you'd stay there.
This is fine and dandy because in a busy society the ability to engage with and require minimal support from other adults has clear advantages.
Advantages that in the normal course of events while you may feel a need for a break from what might be excess responsibility or being less able for a short period you'd never wish to trade down from.
For some of us it's very different because the first and most painful aspect of all this is you haven't and won't achieve anything like that full status because you don't have the capacity and mental capability to.
To the extent people attempt to treat you like them, actually you find the level of responsibility you are expected to carry goes beyond what you can do, you may stand there and frankly see the whole situation as less of adult to adult but very much one more like that of a child.
Indeed you actually have the need to be in that role and to be treated more as that because you cannot handle any further responsibility than one (and I might add with me even in my late teens the gulf between me and my peers was wide-they had to look after me as a younger child) so life is more frustrating than it need be because of those expectations so many of you have.
Thus to me, an event such as a birthday or christmas simply is what I'd of had when I was younger because regardless with all things that would of been in it and while obviously popular culture changes, the nature of what appeals doesn't because I remain in many respects that same child.
So if I play with a toy or as like today read my Paddington Bear story book that is perfectly in order for who I am and more sensible folk will understand that I am different and respect that including my need to treated differently.

Thank you!

Not entirely unconnected with the last post, it did happen to be my birthday a few days ago and I would like to thank every at CK Forums and the 'Angelic place' for their birthday wishes.
I had paper money, a Amazon voucher and a dvd which I hope to review soon.

Birthday edition

It was recently my birthday so apart from having a number of cards I had some money to put toward the upcoming 1965 Beatles Capitol Albums box set as ever since I was a teen, they've been my favourite group and this set has the albums I had back then and for some more blank minidiscs for my recorder.