Birthdays

Guess what, I turned 29 today. That is me getting old I will tell you. And for the first time in 13 years (1996) I am not drinking any alcohol to “celebrate”. It is a refreshing and needed change. I watched Peter Pan pantomime at the very start of the year, and he is the boy who wouldn’t grow up, its quite fitting that I look young and want to stay young, though I will try and act mature and sensible. Today I have been in Northern Ireland on my birthday for the first time in 6 years (2003) and spent time with family. Tonight I will sit in alone with a cup of tea. At the end of the day that is what life is all about sometimes. I don’t want to get old, yet I’ll be 30 next year. Let’s see what being 29 brings me…Happy Birthday to everyone who shares this day with me.

The two photos of me there, with Mum when I was 2 and this week with Mum and cousin Alison on the last day i was 28.

My birthday – Sunday 30th March 1980

My birthplace – Newtownards (Ards Hospital), County Down, Northern Ireland.

My birth sign – Aries

Quotes about age:

“Age will not wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety” [Cleopatra] – William Shakespeare
“I’m not cracking up, I’m just getting older” – Noel Gallagher
“Stay young and invincible cos we know just what we are” – Noel Gallagher
“Tonight I’m gonna live for today so come along for the ride” – Robbie Williams
“Help the aged cos one day you’ll be older too” – Jarvis Cocker
“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years” – Abraham Lincoln
“Age does not protect you from love, but love to some extent protects you from age” – Jeanne Moreau
“Live your life and forget your age” – Norman Vincent Peale
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes” – Oscar Wilde
“A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday but never remembers her age” – Robert Frost
“Age is just a number” – Lexi Starling
(THERE ARE LOTS MORE…LOOK THEM UP)

Songs About Staying Young:

The Pretenders – Forever Young
Oasis – Stay Young
Lightning Seeds – Change
The Corrs – So Young
Rod Stewart – Ooh La La
Mott The Hoople – All The Young Dudes
The Eurythmics – 17 Again
I Won’t Grow Up – Peter Pan fillim
Teenage Angst – Nirvana

Songs About Getting Old:

Oasis – Getting Older
Robbie Williams – Old Before I Die
Pulp – Help The Aged
Manic Street Preachers – Methadone Pretty

What Happenned The Day I Was Born?:

– The Pope met The Queen for the first time
– A floating hotel in Norway collapsed killing people
– Mount St. Helen’s erupted

What Happenned On This Day? 30TH MARCH:

240 BC – 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet.
1282 – The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.
1296 – Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England.
1814 – Napoleonic Wars: Sixth Coalition forces march into Paris.
1814 – Murat issues the Rimini Declaration which would later inspire Italian Unification.
1822 – Florida Territory created in the United States.
1842 – Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long.
1844 – One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.
1855 – Origins of the American Civil War: Bleeding Kansas – “Border Ruffians” from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.
1856 – The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.
1858 – Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.
1863 – Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece.
1867 – Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The media call this Seward’s Folly.
1870 – Texas is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.
1870 – Florida territorial government is established.
1885 – The Battle for Kushka triggers the Pandjeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.
1909 – The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan and Queens.
1910 – The Mississippi Legislature founds The University of Southern Mississippi.
1912 – Sultan Abdelhafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.
1939 – The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph.
1939 – First flight of the Australian C.A.C. CA-16 Wirraway.
1940 – Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking to be the capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei.
1945 – World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna; Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk.
1945 – World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to the Americans.
1949 – A riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joins NATO.
1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
1954 – Yonge Street subway line opens in Toronto. It is the first subway in Canada.
1961 – The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.
1965 – Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
1972 – Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.
1979 – Airey Neave, a British politician, is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.
1981 – President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.
1982 – Space Shuttle program: STS-3 Mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
2006 – The United Kingdom Terrorism Act 2006 becomes law.

Famous (ish) people born on the same day as me:

902 – Ted Heath, British musician and band leader (d. 1969)
1903 – Countee Cullen, American poet (d. 1946)
1903 – Joy Ridderhof, American missionary (d. 1984)
1904 – Ripper Collins, American baseball player (d. 1970)
1905 – Albert Pierrepoint, English executioner (d. 1992)
1907 – Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte, German Luftwaffe Officer (d. 1994)
1910 – Józef Marcinkiewicz, Polish mathematician (d. 1940)
1913 – Marc Davis, American animator (d. 2000)
1913 – Richard Helms, American CIA director (d. 2002)
1913 – Frankie Laine, American singer (d. 2007)
1913 – Censu Tabone, President of Malta
1914 – Sonny Boy Williamson I, American musician (d. 1948)
1919 – McGeorge Bundy, American National Security Advisor (d. 1996)
1922 – Turhan Bey, Turkish actor
1923 – Milton Acorn, Canadian poet (d. 1986)
1926 – Ingvar Kamprad, Swedish entrepreneur
1926 – Werner Torkanowsky, German conductor (d. 1992)
1927 – Peter Marshall, American game show host
1928 – Robert Badinter, French politician
1928 – Tom Sharpe, English satirical author
1929 – Richard Dysart, American actor
1930 – John Astin, American actor
1930 – Rolf Harris, Australian artist and entertainer
1932 – Ted Morgan, Swiss-born writer
1933 – Jean-Claude Brialy, French actor and director (d. 2007)
1935 – Karl Berger, German musicologist and musician
1935 – Willie Galimore, American football player (d. 1964)
1937 – Warren Beatty, American actor and director
1940 – Jerry Lucas, American basketball player
1940 – Hans Ragnemalm, Swedish professor of public law, and judge
1941 – Graeme Edge, British musician (Moody Blues)
1941 – Wasim Sajjad, President of Pakistan
1941 – Bob Smith, former American politician
1942 – Ruben Kun, Nauruan politician and former President of Nauru
1943 – Ken Forssi, American musician (Love) (d. 1998)
1945 – Eric Clapton, British guitarist
1945 – Johnnie Walker, British DJ
1947 – Ryszard Kotla, Polish travel writer and activist
1948 – Mervyn King, British economist
1948 – Eddie Jordan Former owner of Jordan Grand Prix
1949 – Naomi Sims, American fashion model and businesswoman
1949 – Liza Frulla, Quebec politician
1950 – Robbie Coltrane, Scottish actor and comedian
1951 – Yves Séguin, Quebec politician
1952 – Peter Knights, Australian footballer and coach
1953 – Cydney Bernard, American film producer
1955 – Randy VanWarmer, American singer and songwriter (d. 2004)
1956 – Bill Butler, Scottish politician
1956 – Juanito Oiarzabal, Basque mountaineer
1957 – Paul Reiser, American actor
1958 – Maurice LaMarche, Canadian voice actor
1959 – Peter Hugh McGregor Ellis, New Zealander convicted child abuser
1959 – Sabine Meyer, German clarinetist
1961 – Doug Wickenheiser, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1999)
1962 – MC Hammer, American rap musician
1962 – Bil Dwyer, American actor
1963 – Eli-Eri Moura, Brazilian composer and conductor
1964 – Tracy Chapman, American singer
1964 – Vlado Bozinovski, Australian former footballer
1964 – Dave Ellett, Canadian hockey player
1964 – Ian Ziering, American actor
1965 – Piers Morgan, British journalist
1966 – Joey Castillo, American drummer (Queens of the Stone Age)
1966 – Efstratios Grivas, Greek chess grandmaster and author
1967 – Christopher Bowman, American figure skater (d. 2008)
1967 – Hayashibara Megumi, Japanese voice actress and singer
1968 – Donna D’Errico, American actress and model
1968 – Celine Dion, Canadian singer
1970 – Secretariat, American racehorse (d. 1989)
1971 – Mark Consuelos, American actor
1971 – Mari Holden, American cycle racer
1972 – Mili Avital, Israeli-American actress
1973 – Jan Koller, Czech footballer
1973 – Matthew Pritchard, Welsh Stuntman
1975 – Bahar Soomekh, American actress
1976 – Mark McClelland, Northern Irish musician (Degrassi)
1976 – Ty Conklin, American ice hockey player
1976 – Obadele Thompson, Barbadian athlete
1978 – Chris Paterson, Scottish rugby player
1979 – Norah Jones, American singer and pianist
1979 – Simon Webbe, English singer
1980 – Ricardo Osorio, Mexican footballer
1980 – Yalin, Turkish singer and songwriter
1982 – Jason Dohring, American actor
1983 – Jérémie Aliadière, French footballer
1983 – Zach Gowen, American professional wrestler
1983 – Scott Moffatt, Canadian singer and songwriter
1983 – Davis Romero, Panamanian baseball player
1983 – Hebe Tian, Taiwanese singer (S.H.E)
1984 – Mario Ančić, Croatian tennis player
1984 – Anna Nalick, American singer and songwriter.
1984 – Samantha Stosur, Australian tennis player
1986 – Beni Arashiro, Japanese singer
1986 – Sergio Ramos, Spanish footballer