Images by John 'K'

Last week saw the passing of my 50th birthday. In the run-up to the day I had the usual probes about gift ideas from certain family members, but as there really isn’t much I actually wanted to receive, apart from a couple of specific suggestions, my response was “I don’t know, surprise me”.

Well, they certainly lived up to expectations, but not in the best of ways. My 4-year-old granddaughter was the only one who really seemed to get it. She (bless her), knowing I liked Star Wars and was partial to the odd game of Angry Birds Star Wars chose a plush Angry Birds Star Wars toy, wrapped in Star Wars paper. and in the few days since my Birthday we have had fun hurling it at one another.

I won’t pick on my wife – she has her own challenges right now, and at least she had the thought to latch on to the one piece of photography gear that I said I needed and to claim that as her present to me.

My daughters though… well I know that two of them live back in the UK and budgets are tight, but did I even see a card from them? not yet! I know in this world of the Internet and Facebook people think all that is needed is a nice message on your wall and that is “good enough”. Well perhaps for acquaintances that’s OK, but for your parents, for their 50th Birthday? Surely you make a little bit of an effort?

As for the two that live here with me (yes, still WITH ME – that’s a whole other rant that I won’t get on to now), what did I get? A movie (but I had to tell her which one) and a chunk of money that I can put towards “whatever I want”. Not wishing to sound ungrateful, but what I wanted was for those close to me, those who I have managed to think of something meaningful to give to them every year since they were born, to use a few seconds to think of something meaningful and special to give to their dad on his 50th birthday. Heck – if a 4 year old could manage it, they have no excuse.

As you get older it’s the thought more than anything else that matters, but I guess ultimately I got what I asked for. I asked for them to surprise me, and they certainly did, just not in the way I was expecting.