well, some of you may suspect that i am going to fill this particular post with comments about the unusual and comparatively strange ways the people of New Zealand chose to celebrate birthdays. i am not, you may be sad or happy to learn, going to do this.
i am, however, going to take you on the journey of the - to us normal types - unusual way my dear brother-in-law Grant celebrates his birthday, if "celebrate" is correct. the fact that he is celebrating in New Zealand is inconsequential - the routine would be the same no matter where on earth he resided.
Grant, you have to remember, was one of the most feared, respected and significant figures in the revolutionary accounting wars of the mid-90s. it was a time of fear and doubt where the world split into two - those who did accounting with a quill and a ledger, and those who embraced all this "software on computers" business. well, yes, there was a third group - those of us, in a substantial majority, who were deeply disinterested so long as accountants did whatever the hell it is they did, but in Grant's world, the world was in two.
as is his way, then, celebrating a birthday is not as straightforward as the rest of the world. far from just waking up and appreciating the good wishes, Grant embarks on a bizarre series of standard, revolutionary and counter-revolutionary accounting principles to make sure that the event of a change of age balances correctly with the relevant ledgers, is audited (internally and externally, naturally) and then makes absolutely certain all the criteria is met for the change management channels and filter instructions.
once he has done that, invariably the time to celebrate is the day after his actual birthday, sadly. however, safe in the knowledge that the spreadsheets and whatever else it is accountant types work with are all balanced and correct, absolutely nothing further stands in the way of him celebrating his birthday. at breakfast.
i am not sure at all that Katie and Daniel appreciate the rigorous, some may say hard core, accounting gifts that Grant brings to annotating and amending various documents and reports to reflect his birthday change management request, but they certainly appreciate a good slice of cake!
here they are humouring Daddy by joining him in giving the official, unofficial accounting auditing sign for "all clear, everything balances". or something like that.
Daniel, no matter how hard i will bet you Grant has tried, hasn't really grasped the history and importance of doing birthdays in accordance with proper and exact accounting principles as such as yet. instead - some might say rightly - Daniel has taken a shine to celebrating his birthday in a very carefree, jolly way, demanding cake for every day for an unspecified amount of time before and indeed after his birthday.
Mummy is, of course, happy to oblige!
well, there you have it! a belated happy birthday to Grant, and a sort of early happy birthday to Daniel!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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