Happy Birthday, Sis! Forty fucking years old!
Can’t believe we’re celebrating this milestone without you still knocking around, but celebrate it we will. Pretty sure it’ll be a tad different than if you’d have been here. It’ll be Mum, Dad, Leanne and I, joined by your old bezzy mate, Corey, and also the would be bezzy mate you so tragically never got to meet, Lyla. Nice meal, few sherbets, maybe even a bit of champers... who are we kidding, Leanne is involved, of course there’ll be some champers!
I’ve been trying to figure out what we’d have done had you still been here to celebrate it with us. Big charity bash like your 30th? Family weekend away or foreign holiday maybe? Quiet night (doubtful)? Whatever it would have been, it would have been bloody great I reckon! You always knew how to celebrate an occasion better than most!
Thinking about how you/we’d have celebrated your birthday, follows a pattern to a lot of thoughts I’ve had over the last six and a half years. I seem to spend loads of time thinking ‘what if’, and what would have been different had you still been here. What I’m absolutely sure you’ll have been pleased to see is us not holding back on doing things we all loved doing pre your early departure. If anything, we’re doing more of it! Kind of like a, Lisa would want us to do X, Y and Z, so we’re bloody well gonna do X, Y and Z.
Leanne and I have done Disney World with the kids over the past couple of years! We had a blast! I know we promised you could come with us, but given your predicament, we decided to go along with it anyway. We knew you wouldn’t begrudge us going without you, and pretty sure you could see us all mucking around with stupid hats on! It was 99% perfect, and only Auntie Lisa and Uncle Peter could have made it 100%.
I’d love to know what you’d have made of the kids now. Bet you’ve loved seeing how Cricket obsessed your nephew has become. He’s moved on from walking around anywhere pretending to be a Train or a Dinosaur, to walking around practising his bowling action! As for your niece, you can generally catch her dancing and singing everywhere! It’s almost as if her Mummy and Grandma are Dance Teachers or something! When them kids get into something, they get massively passionate about it. I wonder which Auntie they get that trait from, hey? Leanne and I often talk about how they might have been different if you’d have been here to play your proper badass Auntie role with them! I can’t help but think that sometimes you’re still finding a way to influence them. They both love a good Dr. Seuss book, just like you did! They’d have loved having a sleepover at yours with a bit of Cat In The Hat or Marvin K Mooney as a bed time story!
As for the radio rentals, they’re both milking this retirement lark for all it is worth, as I’m sure you’ll be as delighted as me to see! It's brilliant to see them making the most of their retirement, but sucks to know you can't get to see it first hand and enjoy it with them. Their new gaff is pretty cool. It felt weird seeing the house we grew up in being sold and emptying out as they moved, but it wasn't sad at all. Too many good times and memories in our old family home. Corey can't go round to their new place without taking his new Cricket pads and helmet, and before he's stepped through the door he's already directing Grandad towards the garden for a match! Just think how cool it would have been if during one of his many backyard matches you could have reprised your old Cricket Scorer role from the good old days when we were kids at Dads local Cricket matches. As for Lyla, she'll be performing all over the place, just like she does everywhere else to be fair! They clearly give Mum & Dad so much joy, it's as if you (and me I guess) have passed that baton onto them. I know I've said this before, but if two people ever deserved to have a happy retirement and enjoy the fruits of a lifetimes hard work, it's our awesome parents. So cool to see them making the most of life though. I know it can't be easy for them, but they're doing a cracking job!
So then, what about you. what would you have been doing? I have this constant thought that knowing what a blagger you were, no doubt you'd have milked the release of The-C-Word for all it's worth. I reckon you'd have somehow used it to blag yourself some sort of celebrity status, and get yourself onto Strictly Come Dancing or something! I also reckon you'd have struggled to hold your lip during 'The Great BAFTA Robbery of 2016'! It'd be so funny if you'd have been there that night and a camera panned to you to see you reacting like Joey from Friends did when he didn't win the Soapie!
Would you have finally got to meet Dave Grohl? Pretty sure Ant would have found a way to fix that up for you! How many other books would you have written? Would you and Pete still be living in London? Would you have got to see the Northern Lights? I could go on.
I find all these thoughts and obscure scenario's quite comforting to be honest. I just wish it could have different so we didn't have to wonder. For me, the worst bit about you not being here is when random things happen that only you and I would appreciate. There were always those things that only we would get, and not even those closest to us would understand why we found them so funny. All those things that happened as a result of us growing up and mucking around together! The tougher stuff is missing the times where you got me, and I got you, better than anybody else in the world could have. The advice that I could only come to you for, and vice versa. There's still times now where I just need your for advice on things. Other people could help, bit it's never gonna be the same.
I hope that I, and we, are doing you proud. I like to think we are, but there's nothing like knowing for sure from the horses mouth! That's not me referring to you as a horse by the way, I can come up with much better insults than that for you. Actually, there's another thing I guess. Who else in the world could I call a shit-eating twat face and get away with it?! It's that same wavelength thing that we had, that neither of us could achieve with anybody else!
So, anyway, as we celebrate for you today, make sure you're partying it up with all your buddies wherever you are up there. Feel free to drop us another sign to let us know you're still watching over us, they're always welcome! Don't worry about us lot down here, as you can see, I reckon we've got it all covered!
Today isn't a day to be sad, it's a day to laugh at all the stupid shit you did, take more pride in all the achievements you had and all the good times you gave us. Big high fives to you, doof!
Love you more and miss you more than ever,
Your favourite ArseFace of a Brother.
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While you're still here, to mark the year of what should be my awesome Sisters 40th Birthday, I've taken on a bit of a personal challenge to virtually cycle across the USA on an exercise bike, all in aid of Breast Cancer Care. I'm no cyclist, and before this year my exercise mainly consisted of Golf, so fitting this in around a full-time job, and raising two kids, is proving to be quite the challenge. If you wanted to find out more, follow my progress and maybe even be so kind enough to donate, please follow the link below to my Just Giving page. Thank you!
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/macbikesusa2019
