Being Reminded that you are 40 With my 40th birthday only five weeks away I am trying to decide if I want one of the many presents out there linked to my age. In other words do I want a gift on my desk or hanging on my wall that reminds me every minute of the day that I have reached and passed that milestone that now officially makes me at the very least middle-aged, and as my wife keeps saying, OLD!! You can buy presents for any number of special birthdays. 18ths and your 21 are OK, your age is not so important. I would also say that on the very unlikely occasion of my 100th birthday ever arriving I will happily take as many presents as I can with my age but do I want to be reminded of my 40th! I could have a calendar that starts on my birthday and carries on throughout the whole of my 40th year. Great, a calendar that reminds me I am 40 years and 23 days old for the whole time I am staring at it! Quite obviously there is the 40 Mug that explains that I was born in 1967 just in case I forget. Because that’s likely in this world of giving up your date of birth for everything you do but you never know. Or how about a nice bottle of wine that states you are 40 on the bottle. If this was not enough I can have a 40th CD, 1967 DVD or even a 40th birthday times jigsaw which would take me that long to do I reckon my 41st birthday would be bearing down on me by the time I was finished. On further thought I have to say that with all the different presents and gifts available for a 40th birthday I would prefer something that does not rub my age in my face and lets me celebrate my big day without being reminded of it for the next 365 days. But then, any present would be nice. Tony Carter