blog — birthday

Five years ago, a friend and I made a pact to head to a show during the Dublin Theatre Festival as our birthday present to each other. It's not about who bought the tickets but how we've earmarked an outing every year because our friendship is worth a trip to the theatre. Try something like this with one of your friends.

When I was growing up, our parents would occasionally announce that such and such a day was going to be a “fun day”.  This would involve an outing, not just to the park or the beach or to the carnival after the Sunday roast but an excursion to perhaps a fishing village south of the county and maybe a boat trip to an island, a tour of a neighbouring county, museums and exhibitions, an adventure park something big. We’d be bought treats and maybe even something from a gift shop. The only purpose of the activity was to have fun, an entirely wholesome...