birthdays are always nice, if nothing more than that people are generally nicer to you than on normal days. you get to exercise your 'comeon, it's my birthdayyyyyy!' prerogative, blink your eyes a couple of times and it gets people moving. even the hard-core lazy bones ones.

they ask you what you want to eat, but you still don't end up screaming 'Japaneseeeee' because you know they are not maniac over sobas and unagis like you are, and there is only so much japanese food a normal person can take before they explode, japanese people not included. they ask you what you want to do, and they shuffle alongside you in the shopping centre like zombies, eventhough you don't patronize your favourite shops or see your favourite things incase one of them does turn into an actual living dead. they give you hand-made birthday cards and write the sweetest things, which kind of make you feel like you are reading your own eulogy, except that you are still alive and kicking, which is always a good thing. they fill your facebook page with the same exact two words, 'happy birthday', and you have to think of a thousand of different witty ways to reply to that. thank you for all the heartfelt brain stimulation. they bake your favourite cookies and name the receipe after you but they don't tell you what that name is, leading you to suspect that they say the same thing to every girl out there, and they crush you with bear hugs, all the time maintaining that cool tough rebellious and definitely aloof teenage exterior. they ask you whether you want to eat your red egg on your english birthday and call you 'girl', transporting you in the blink of an eye to your sweet childhood days when everything was easy and simple.

birthdays are always good, and the age is only a number game. 12 o'clock feels like the bewitching hour and very much like cinderella, everything is transformed back to the way it was.