bangs the drums

heya


it's neither unreasonable nor unfair to say that December is a great time of celebration for most, if not all, across this wide and wonderful planet of ours. Christmas would be the biggie, look you see, but there's also stuff like New Year's. and, to be sure, birthdays. and anniversaries too. and, well, other stuff, but birthdays would be the focus here.

my family, whether it be as a collective or on the whole, has many such instances of occasion to participate in such celebrations. the most initial of these has but just most recently come to be, if that makes some sort of sense.

yes, William's birthday has been and, whilst now passed, shall long since forward be remembered. kind of, i guess. well, you probably know what i mean.

we did that which we could to ensure that he celebrated his birthday in a happy, rewarding, memorable and most splendid way, and i suspect that we for the most part succeeded in this. some future legend will tell if this was in fact the case.

in regards of this, any smart presents? quite a few, with all of them from many people pleasing him a great deal indeed. one in particular is of note to highlight here.

yes, a very smart drum machine. look, i know that the rule put in place by Denis Leary in the magnificent Lock n Load motivational recordings was "don't buy the toy that makes a noise", but every now and then it's worth it. and this one very much was.

William seems to have been born with a song forever in his heart, and loves to make music. to us, as in my (considerably) better half and i, it would seem perfectly normal to encourage this.

some specifics on the machine? it's called the DD40 Electronic Drum Pads Pack by someone called Gear4Music. the "pack" part refers to the fact that it comes with, as a mercy, headphones. you can use it to recreate all sorts of drum sounds, and it teaches you, or if you like guides you, in how to play.

what's that video all about? well, for the purposes of demonstrating the machine, i thought i'd treat you all to a little impromptu version of the opening off of I Am The Resurrection off of The Stone Roses. no, i am no Reni and no i am probably no drummer, but i am well pleased with how easily i managed to work out how to do a kind of recognizable tune on the device.

i wouldn't wish to distract too much from the celebratory point of this blog, but if you are one of them people who are doing a google to find out whether or not the DD40 drum machine off of Gear4Music is worth getting, from our perspective the answer would be most decidedly yes. 

anyway, back to a few more celebration pictures for you, dear friends and family around the world. 

the above is indeed James "helping" with a reading of cards and observing gifts given. James is always keen to help, and was particularly pleased with what he saw his brother get as gifts. in respect of the latter, this is because he believes it has decidedly raised the bar for what he can expect, as and when his birthday rolls along with the turning of the calendar.

cards and balloons? of course. here's a selection of some of them.

erm, yes. yes we did indeed get him a Kylo Ren off of Star Wars branded "happy birthday son" card. well, he really, really loves Star Wars and Kylo Ren in particular. but yes, it really, really, really does strike me as a someone bizarre and unusual bit of merchandising, using the Kylo character to celebrate a son-parent relationship, as i am sure it does for all of you what have seen the Episode VII : Mission To Moscow film and know how all that works out.

the Star Wars balloons were boss too. they've got some sort of luminous green light up bulb in them. the packet said the lighting would last 15 hours, but here we are a few days later and they are still going.

cake? but of course we had cake. we are English, you know, and not barbarians. don't argue with me on that point, please. cake is a quintessential aspect of all celebrations.

the other thing what William likes as much as Star Wars is all of that Avengers stuff, in particular that Captain America one. to that end, then, an Avengers themed cake seemed the way to go. which, as it turned out, pleased William some.

how was the cake? absolutely lovely. one of them delicious sponge sort of ones what had jam as a central component of the middle section. splendid.

right, that shall do for this update then. it doesn't really matter what i write here, i suppose, for surely all that family and friends would be interested in would be pictures of a most splendid day.

more posts, and indeed celebrations, to come soon. for now, though,



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!