Happy Birthday to me

"Do you know that old wives' tale - how you feel on your birthday is how you'll be for the rest of the year?"

- my nurse, an old wife, about half an hour ago.

26 years and 364 days ago, Connolly's agent's mum started pushing. 26 years, 364 days and 23 hours ago, Connolly's agent's mum gave up. The midwife told her that if she didn't push, her baby would suffocate and die. Connolly's agent's mum said "Then let him die - I can't push anymore."

I don't want to sound ungrateful to my mum, but that's not an encouraging way to start life.

I'm 27 today. Fucking hell. On days like this, you wonder where the time went. I had a brief pang of regret last year when I left the comfort of the 18-25 year old bracket, but this year, I'm really feeling it. I'm not a young man anymore. I'm out of the iPod-wearing, high discretionary income demographic (so beloved by advertisers) and I'm marching reluctantly to woolen cardigans, fluffy slippers and watching asinine dramas on Channel 7.

I was feeling a bit melancholy, so I browsed through the Arsenal player profiles. I'm older than most of the first team. I'm about a month younger than Kolo, and a week older than Hleb. It's depressing. You think of Arsenal as still young, and then you realise that half the team is in their prime or over. As a wise man with maracas once sang:

Time is a traveller
Tenterfield Saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
Think I see Kangaroo up ahead

I like using Arsenal as a metaphor for my own life. Nick Hornby did such a charming job of illustrating it in Fever Pitch that I've pinched the concept. I hope he's not reading this. I live in fear of being sued.

Arsenal are ageing. Arsenal are waiting for their youth to mature, but they're not actively doing anything to help them mature. As a result, their youth are ageing without getting much better. I wrote something similar last week in my post "On Inertia", and I'm not going to repeat myself much more.

I have to leave. I don' t have much time left. I've got to do it soon.

So anyway, with reference to my nurse's quote... I'm really going out of my mind here. I hope this restlessness takes me somewhere good.