It was my birthday last week, and to celebrate, we took the whole family out to the club.<\/p>\n
Simon and I go there reasonably often, because it\u2019s a short walk from our house, it\u2019s comfortable and not too noisy, and it\u2019s upmarket but not too expensive. I was a little surprised when the bartender greeted Simon by name and asked him if he\u2019d like a negroni. One of the offspring asked how he knew Simon\u2019s favourite drink, and he said we come every Thursday at 7:30. Well! I hadn\u2019t realised we were quite that predictable. If I get promoted to intermediate in my dance class, that will put the kibosh on that habit, but luckily there\u2019s no chance of that happening anytime soon.<\/p>\n
We stood chatting at the bar for predinner drinks. This seemed to make the staff a little uncomfortable, I suspect because for many of the club\u2019s usual clientele, the ability to stand for long periods of time may be a distant memory. You forget that dressing up and sipping posh cocktails is an unusual activity for twenty somethings. One daughter ordered a dirty martini because it\u2019s what she\u2019d seen at the movies. I took photos of her reaction as she tried it. The first taste you get is apparently the olive brine which she seemed to like but it was followed by a blast of almost pure alcohol which she was clearly unprepared for if the wincing is anything to go by.<\/p>\n
Dinner was lovely, the vegan dishes we\u2019d warned the kitchen we\u2019d need on booking were very well received even though they seemed to mostly involve removing certain ingredients rather than doing anything else. At one point I was surprised to hear the end of a conversation from the other end of the table about the joys of a perfect poo. \u201c\u2026and then, afterwards, when you wipe with the toilet paper, and there\u2019s nothing on it, fantastic!\u201d This lack of inhibition in talking about bodily functions will hopefully be a real boon for the younger generation. Do you remember me mentioning my scary Scottish grandmother, who was offended by the term \u201cpassing wind\u201d, and insisted farts were called \u201cblow offs\u201d? She actually died of bowel cancer. Would it have saved her life if she\u2019d been able to discuss her bowel habits openly with her GP? The treatments on offer back in the 80s were far more limited than what is available now, but who knows? It wouldn\u2019t have hurt.
\nToday\u2019s youth may be riddled with ADHD, autism, gender dysphoria, and climate anxiety (thanks, Boomers! I\u2019m taking none of the blame for this, as a Gen X), but in many ways, in their openness and honesty, I\u2019m optimistic for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was my birthday last week, and to celebrate, we took the whole family out to the club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Ukf-3pI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5137,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/16\/work-work-work-work-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":13126,"position":0},"title":"Work work work work work","author":"Interloper11","date":"July 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in acutes all day today. Bizarrely every surgeon I\u2019ve worked with today has been called Simon, again. They\u2019re the same two as I worked with in the weekend, so it\u2019s not as weird as it sounds. My last patient asked \u201cdid I survive?\u201d as he woke up in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11564,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/22\/a-big-day-out-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":13126,"position":1},"title":"A big day out","author":"Interloper11","date":"March 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"AKA \u201cWelp!\u201d In preparation for our walking holiday in Japan next month, and since last weekend\u2019s hike was such a breeze, we decided to do something a little more challenging this weekend. The time estimate given was around seven hours, but since it was less than twice the distance of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_1650-1024x768.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_1650-1024x768.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_1650-1024x768.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6522,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/28\/bon-voyage\/","url_meta":{"origin":13126,"position":2},"title":"Bon voyage","author":"Interloper11","date":"May 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Did I mention we were going to Rarotonga? In fact we\u2019re in the Air NZ lounge right now, sharing with a large contingent of burly young men wearing Highlanders kit. They are off to Australia in search of game time, whereas we are just in search of warmth. Here are\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/528B1515-0468-4755-A6B6-9956DFC5D6E0-542x1024.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/528B1515-0468-4755-A6B6-9956DFC5D6E0-542x1024.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/528B1515-0468-4755-A6B6-9956DFC5D6E0-542x1024.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11516,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/09\/at-the-edge-of-hearing\/","url_meta":{"origin":13126,"position":3},"title":"At the edge of hearing","author":"Interloper11","date":"March 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I woke up a couple of nights ago to the sound of distant music. Well, it was probably my full bladder that woke me, but the music was something I noticed as I regained consciousness. I was quite surprised, as our neighbourhood is a very quiet one, with an average\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_1592-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8325,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/15\/belfast\/","url_meta":{"origin":13126,"position":4},"title":"Belfast","author":"Interloper11","date":"September 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Not really feeling Belfast to be honest. Maybe it was the contrast with hot, sunny, exciting Paris, because it\u2019s certainly been cold and grey here. At least it isn\u2019t raining. We are staying in one of an entire block of charmless red brick terrace houses. In fact there are red\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/005DE19D-D212-457A-9772-1C3685F434AD-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12416,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/17\/d-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":13126,"position":5},"title":"D day","author":"Interloper11","date":"November 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Or S day? For surgery? Or O day (operation)? Or, indeed L day (laparoscopic cholecystectomy), or even G day (gallbladder). In fact, virtually any letter but D. But whatever it\u2019s called, today was The Big Day\u2026Simon has had his gallbladder removed. He was first on the list so I had\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4185-768x1024.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4185-768x1024.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4185-768x1024.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}