Today is the day my life starts.
40 years ago today I entered the world.
a very different world
to the one I know today

Some of those changes have been for the better, and some have not been. Sadly, some things like world poverty are still there, but I hope that well within my next 40 years that we will see that disappear totally.

In my reflections I have remembered some stuff, which produces questions, and I wonder whether some of you remember these things to:

Only having 3 channels on the TV – which was black an white
our first video recorder which was the size of a pool table!
The man on Pot Black saying ‘He’s going for the pink, which for those of you watching in black and white is the ball between the black and the blue’
Beta max video – it was better than VHS but VHS one – how come?
Spectrum zx!
BBC computer with tape cassette programs which took 20 mins to load … and then crash!
space invaders in the arcade!
Mods and rockers second time around!
Why has the 6 million dollar man never been repeated, yet Only Fools and Horses is on it’s 600th re-run?
Telephones with a revolving dial.
Mobiles the size of a brick with a 3 foot aerial!
Platform shoes.
Wasn’t it great when 7 inch vinyl singles only cost 30p!
Evil Knieval … my hero!
Action man with real hair … why did it become moulded plastic?
Live Aid … is it really 20 years!
Raleigh choppers!

Then there were things that were not so good but stick in my mind:
Poll tax riots
Thatcher
miners being beaten by police on picket lines
Thatcher
The Falklands where friends were killed
Thatcher
3 million unemployed
Thatcher
The English football team

But that era was not all bad …
The Jam
The Boomtown Rats
The Specials
Billy Brag
whatever happened to all the gutsy songwriters?

There are so many more memories which are being sparked by these but It would take an age to write and, quite frankly, I can’t be bothered! The memories are enough for me.

The next 40 years loom and I marvel and what we might be able to expect. It is obvious that technology will continue to speed along, my fear is that will result in less and less personal face to face interaction. Will we all become cocooned and just meet virtually all the time? A scary thought!

I will be celebrating my birthday in style sometime in the summer with a joint party with Sarah. We (Sarah and myself) are very lucky as from very lovely friends and from wonderful parents (Sarah’s) we are being sent away for the weekend for our 40th birthdays. So we will have 2 weekends away to chill together. We are really looking forward to that and have been struck, and feel guilty, by the generosity of our friends and family.

Tonight, in all honesty, there are more important things to be concerned with than my 40th. Tonight is the night when thousands will be in Westminster. Tonight we will be showing politicians around the world that something must be done about world poverty. Tonight I pray that world leaders will understand that they are the only people that can change unjust policies and their individual actions can stop world poverty. They do not even need to make lots of new policies – honouring promises made as far back as 1976 would help majorly.

If you can’t be there tonight please pray for good press coverage and that this impacts governments in such a way that they are forced to act. We can eliminate world poverty and it could be started tonight.

That is an exciting thought and one that I am well happy to go into my next 40 years with!