h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

is that people stop asking you what you want to be when you grow up.

I'm nearly twenty-eight, and no one's asked me in years. (I still don't know the answer.)

TRiG.

There are good things about being grown up?

Oh, yeah

I was most definitely not grown up at 28

Although it's kind of a pity, too. You could think up much better answers now. "When I grow up, I'm going to be the disillusioned face of the Ukrainian nouveax riches", or "a hunter of slithy toves that gimble and gyre..." The scope is endless.

Nearly 28? Considering the title of your last journal, shouldn't you be nearly 27?

Yes.

How did that happen? Brain on freeze.

I am now twenty-seven years and two days old. I was getting ahead of myself there.

TRiG.

So here, did you have that birthday party then? We could have dragged you out with us on Saturday if we'd known!

Anyway, happy birthday!

Haha, forgetting how old you are. It's all downhill from here, fella!

I've had difficulty remembering my age since I was about fourteen. I suppose I just don't find it important.

TRiG.

I can remember mine perfectly well: 29.

29, and I'll bet you still get asked for ID in pubs!

I have never ever been asked to prove my age. Except as a kid going for a child fare on the bus, then I had to prove I was under 16.

As for 29, the day after my (real) 29th birthday I got a call from an insurance company. They wanted to sell me some pension plan or other and I was interested. So the chap said: and how old are you? When I told him I was 29, he laughed and said "oh all ladies say that".

I suddenly felt very old indeed!

The bus and train people here used to have an absolutely foolproof method for finding out if you were under 16. They'd ask you your date of birth. Everybody I knew had a bogus date of birth committed to memory that they could just trot out in a flash when asked.

A friend of mine who worked as a bouncer used to also ask people's star sign to catch out those using fake/borrowed ID...

oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh sneaky!

Some people don't know their star sign, though. Well, they don't admit they know it, anyway.

I take pride in not knowing my star sign. I've been told a couple of times, and immediately make an effort to forget it again.

TRiG.

I agree. It actually annoys me that I know my star-sign - would suck the knowledge out my brain if I could. Pointless superstitious drivel

Why? Your star sign merely tells you which part of the earth's rotation about the sun you were born in. Much like your birthdate.

Attributing any more significance than that to it is indeed superstitious drivel.

fairy nuff

Having said all that, it can't be ruled out that folk born at a time of the year with a similar temperature/day length might end up sharing similar traits I guess. Perhaps development of the embryo could be affected by such things which could manifest in a certain predictable way.

Just as long as nobody suggests it's anything to do with the arrangement via line-of-sight of unrelated balls of fire, impossibly large distances away from us.