Why you should celebrate your Half Birthday
I like to think/ convince myself/others that, on the occasions when I exhibit too many childish traits for a fully-grown adult, my behaviour can be justified by virtue of my needs as an artist. After all, it was in the realm of childhood that the majority of us escaped into a world of make-believe, when our heads were filled with original, uncorrupted ideas, and when we would fully accept a fantastical story which, when imported into the adult world, would be derided as fanciful or shelved as being surreal and not-in-the-real-world. Having said all of this, I am not so childlike in my demands that, like the Mad Hatter in Alice’s Wonderland, I require an indulgent daily celebration of an “unbirthday”. What I do, however, celebrate every year is… my Half Birthday!
It’s a peculiarity to which those who know me have become accustomed, patiently tolerating the slightly eccentric annual demand I make of them in insisting that my half birthday is marked. I think it stems from my childhood when my parents, ever the diplomats, would give my sister and me a small present when the other was celebrating their birthday. In this way it meant that the one of us who was not celebrating did not feel left out. By coincidence, my sister’s birthday falls almost 6 months from mine, and consequently, long after my parents gave up on catering for our whims, I took it upon myself to celebrate my half birthday on an annual basis.
Norm's Half Birthday - Norm looks for the other half of his card (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)
In practice no one actually gives me anything for my half birthday, and most people (including me) forget all about it. But on the occasion I do remember, I still use the date, unashamedly, as an excuse for out-of-the-blue celebrations, emotional blackmail and the like. I always remember my first year at university when my new friends, obliging my strange request, made me birthday cards which they then cut in half (I never did get the second half). This was followed by a massive half birthday party in my masters year, never, sadly to be repeated (spilt wine ruined my carpets so I quickly concluded celebrating my half birthday should be an altogether more sedate affair).
With the uni years well behind me, I really am now too old for all of this. Nevertheless, trying never hurt anyone, and since yesterday was my half birthday, I successfully persuaded my parents to join me in embarking on an impromptu celebration which included an extravagant afternoon tea out at Marbella’s very established Goyo tearooms, and dinner out at Zozoi – the darling of the Spanish expats – a fantastic French-Belgian brasserie in the heart of Marbella’s old town. And while I thought it may be a little demanding of me to insist on a cake (or half a cake) as well, judging by this amazing handbag cake I spotted in a shop window earlier, Marbella is clearly the place to pick up something special. I may try that one tomorrow…
Amazing Louis Vuitton inspired handbag cake in a shop window in Marbella
So why should you celebrate your half birthday? Well one birthday a year is pretty lousy when you consider there are 364 other days to get through. And after all, the Queen gets two birthdays doesn’t she. To me, it seems pretty reasonable to have a little celebration every six months – after all, being half a year older is just as much of a feat in my opinion. There is of course the slight issue that it will be yet a further reminder that you are getting older (I spotted a rather substantial grey hair the other day – nightmare) but all the more reasons to get yourself merry and insist your friends and family do the same. And if they complain, remind them that you could always start celebrating your quarter birthdays too. Or monthly. Now there’s a thought…
The Daily Norm 
Feb 2
Happy Half Birthday to Me!
Call me indulgent if you will, but being a summer baby, a pursuer of all things Summertime, by the time I get to the beginning of February, I am usually pretty fed up. Months of gloom, of dark evenings, and even darker mornings, freezing temperatures and ages still to go until those much yearned for summer holidays. And it’s the same every year, which is precisely why, as a young boy, I decided to brighten up this time of gloom by inserting a celebration bang in the middle of the winter gloom – my half birthday! And today is that glorious day, the day when, despite it’s being still 6 months until the always much anticipated date of my birth, I have a little mid-winter celebration, and find another excuse to indulge.
My half birthday cake!
It’s true that my friends and family have always considered my propensity to celebrate a half-birthday to be a little eccentric to say the least, but I was particularly interested to learn, from a quick search for images on google, that I am not the only one who likes to use this 6 months marker as an excuse to celebrate when our full birthdays seem so far away. And why not? Of 365 days of the year, is it not right that we can feel at least half as special on one extra day as we do on the one day which we can call our birthday?
So in recognition of the auspicious day, I merrily headed out to Marks and Spencer to buy myself a cake which I then proceeded to cut in half (I’m not overly sure what I will do with the other half yet… something tells me it won’t keep until next year). In the meantime, I’m not the only one celebrating. Here is Norm celebrating his half birthday, with a half cake, half balloons and a half birthday card to boot. Just a shame that without the other half of that card, he has no idea who it was from!
Norm’s Half Birthday – Norm looks for the other half of his card (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)
Wishing you all a fantastic weekend.