Happy Birthday to me

"If they were me and i was you,
would you have liked a present too?" (Altered Images, 1981)

For a while, I've stopped seeing birthdays as something to glorify, but nonetheless I'd like to extend a warm 'Happy Birthday' to me today.

I think that once you can date women 'half your age', without breaking any applicable laws, it's time to stop celebrating. The wife probably wouldn't be too pleased either, but that's a different story.

Born within the sound of Bow Bells, I'm officially a cockney which always confuses the immigration officers here in the US when I'm asked my nationality.

As I do every year, I'd like to send heartfelt birthday greetings to Steve Ovett, Sharon Osbourne and of course the late, John Lennon and John Entwistle. Most interestingly, I was born the very same day in 1973 as Steve Burns, long-time presenter of Blue's Clues.

In many ways, I see myself as a modern version of John Lennon, a veritable icon who chose to leave behind his adoring fans in England, to settle in New York City with controversial wife Yoko Ono (whose name incidentally is Japanese for 'one egg'). I've even suggested an all-day 'love-in' to the wife, but she replied she'd rather just have a 'lie-in.'

I'm struggling to find any direct Charlton relevance for October 9th, although I note that it's 40 years today since Che Guevara was killed, and his image is of course portrayed on a giant flag these days at Charlton home games to celebrate the Cuban revolution (isn't it Derek Hales? - Ed.)

I did recall noting in last year's handbook however that during the same week that my Mum was preparing to take home her bouncing baby boy, several hundred miles away in Norway, Mrs Myhre had just given birth to her son Thomas, with the midwife commenting on what big hands he had.