CLICKETY CLICK : 66

Ari-Baba says:

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First of all, a big 'thank you' for the good wishes on my 66th birthday from all my close family members - my wife, my children, my grandson, friends and relatives who have remembered me on this day, and all those who have sent in their wishes by way of greeting cards, emails, Facebook and telephone calls making me feel fortunate and blessed.

All these years, it's been hard to visualize what it would mean to be 66. I like the phrase 'aging gracefully' as some people so well put it, while others live and age so well - if I could only keep up with that. In fact, 'clickety click' to me sounds more like something that is associated with trying to straighten out an aching and aging knee.

Sometimes in the past the thought of getting older has been a scary one for me - making me tend to think as if the guarantee and chances of being up and running are finally running out.

But my biggest gift for this year birthday is my 10-month old grandson, Ari Lukasz, who is presently the darling of our entire family, relatives and friends. Ari has brightened up the new way I look at things and renewed my willingness to live on and on, dismissing the guarantee mentioned above as null and void. Ari's mere presence is enough to calm me down from woes or worries. One look at Ari or even merely at his photograph is enough to ward off the aging blues. And I take pride in acknowledging this fact, having spent an entire day yesterday - (some quality time eh?) with my family.

Ari gave me a wonderful birthday card this year. This card is an important and a significant one among others from the family members - of being a first greeting card from a Grandson to a Grandpa.

There are also many other gifts that I have to be thankful for in my life:

Firstly I thank God for giving me a beautiful and caring family.

I thank my wife Edna for her love and understanding, for her hard work and dedication in bringing up our children well, for her constant support in all my aspirations, and for her constant companionship during the last 37 years - through ups and downs.

I thank my 3 children for their love and respect, care and support. Denise is always there for us, and is able to come up with the most logical solutions and the most elaborate surprises. Thanks Shawn for lending me your Fender 'Stratocaster' with the amplifier - to play with for as long as your are away on your trip to San Francisco.

Denzil has been very loving, and has always been passionate about whatever he does. And he is always there when we need him. He also comes up with convenient solutions that somehow always involve the use of computer technology. Special thanks to Denzil for your gift plus installation of the new super-duper computer with Windows 8 and state-of-the-art scanner and apps installed, and for training and introducing my 1970's style mind-set and personality to new  4G technology. For an aging mind it's not easy - but I think I'm getting there. Well, almost. Thanks also to Kate for her encouragement and support.

Dahlia is ever present to keep our spirits high with her music, humour and energy.  I am blessed and my life is full of love and her friendship, and the meaningful lyrics in her poetry at the drop of a hat. Tristan and Dahlia - thank you both for your gift, kindness and admiration.

My parents are no longer living, but I always remember them and owe them for the happy and good life that I enjoy today. They made sure that I got an education, but more importantly nurtured me with their love, and instilled in me the good values of life. I am sure they are looking down on me today with their blessings, along with the company of my mother-in-law and father-in-law who treated me like their own son in the absence of my own parents.

Lately, and very often, my friends have been saying: “Hey, Tony, you don’t look your age”. But look guys, what I'd like to say at this point in time is that I owe my youthful looks to Edna’s wonderful and healthy cooking.

Nevertheless, since I really can’t believe it myself, like most of you, that it was until just yesterday that I was only a mere 65, and turned 66 today – I must insist on a recount.

They say that after sixty-five one first tends to forget names; then faces; then you may   forget to zip up your fly; and then you forget to remember to unzip your fly. But my dear relative and friends, you will never be forgotten - neither your name nor your face.

Thank you for your friendship during all these years. I must say that being sixty-five was not easy – it took me 240106.5 days to get here, including that extra day in leap years . Having been born in the roaring forties, life has been a great experience - studying through the swinging fifties, donning a Beatles haircut and sailing to Dubai in the sixties, getting married in the fabulous ABBA seventies, and learning to manage kids through Dire Straits with the rocking eighties, and coping up with digital mania of the great nineties, and topping up with the completion of a great and fantastic decade in the 21^st century.

Now, it’s time to look on the brighter side.

From today I shall presume that I am twenty with 46 years experience.

Convert that into Celsius and it should be about 17 without wind-chill.

From now on I shall select only sweet tunes as they say the older the fiddle sweeter the tune. Or it may be the same fiddler, same fiddle, but a different tune. 

Have you ever wondered why sixty-five is considered as a great mile stone?

It’s very simple my friends - because if we were to count age in kilometres I would have been 105 years old today. Besides, who'd want to live that long eh?

Days of inflation are long gone for me. Inflation was supposed to be when I paid fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut when I had hair. I wasn't a show-off, but keeping the barber happy with a 50% tip meant that a good hair-cut was very important in my younger days. But inflation or no inflation – now I don’t have to worry about rising cost of hair-cuts, or even try to get mileage from my hair any more. And besides, a good collection of hats does the rest!

Finally, I’d like to say that today, as I embark on yet another 365-day journey around the sun, with wonderful friends and a loving family, I look forward to a wonderful year ahead. And after having completed 66 of these round trips already, which incidentally means a lot of experience, I am happy to be alive to tell the tale. I thank the Lord for a good life, a good wife, beautiful kids and excellent friends.

AND A HANDSOME GRANDSON - Ari Lukasz.

Happy Birthday to all those who share and celebrate their birthday with me today. To those who are older than I am, I'd say "I'll catch up with you some day" and to those who are still young and in waiting - yet to be 66, I'd say this, if I may:

"You'll catch up to be my age one day, but you'll never win."

Tony Fernandes