The nature of people these days is to look at situations and only see something that can influence themselves in some way. Even if the event has nothing really to do with us. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t stand on the top of my blog’s grassy knoll and look down on everyone else, I just do what geeks to best, observe society and then moan about it on my journal :P.

Let me tell you my observation.

It’s my friend’s birthday this weekend, he is going to be a grand age of One Hundred and Twenty Four. He lives in a two bed flat with his girlfriend, they have no children, he is an accountant and she is a teacher. For said friend’s birthday, myself and Katie have gone halves on an NFL jersey for him, a replica of the NY Giants shirt with Eli Manning blazoned on the back. My friend’s girlfriend had done really well and booked a football pitch so that we could all play football tomorrow with a group of his university friend’s (mutual friends of mine also) whilst the girls stayed home and nattered.

She had also had an idea to get a cake with a picture of her and my friend on it, a great idea you would think, a nice touch. Well the dozy mare decided to (bearing in mind his birthday is tomorrow) take the picture into a cake makers yesterday, yes, two days before the big event. Unsurprisingly the cake maker informed her that such a cake would not be made in such a short timeframe.

She rings up Katie, crying her eyes out down the phone. Katie’s mind wanders as to what might have happened, had he been caught texting filth to another woman? Had they split up? No……..her planning skills had been shown to be non-existent. I thought she was upset that the idea would be a wasted one, she was upset that because the last few weeks had been tenuous between them, she had pinned all his potential happiness on his birthday on the hopes that the cake would show how much she loved him.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great idea and it would have been a lovely touch, but after she had planned for his mates to play football with him, have a meal out, organise a minibus to escort us everywhere and then go bowling, I was quite shocked to hear of her distress that a cake couldn’t be made.

Besides, Tesco do it in ten minutes.

My perception of it was that it was a reflection on her that she couldnt get the cake done, it was a “I did all this and aren’t I a wonderful girlfriend” PR exercise. She replaced the cake with a standard Manchester United cake, I am 100% sure he would have been happy with a Mister Kipling lemon slice.

It struck me, it was the culmination of years of similar behaviour she had exhibited. Myself and Katie are due to go on holiday, she remarks she has never been on a holiday with my friend as they can’t afford it. We decide we are going to start running in the evenings, she can’t run because her feet are high arched. Going to America? She’s been to America and seen every kind of city, animal and event. Know someone famous? She knows a friend of a friend who’s mother taught his sister back in primary school. Death in the family? It’s nothing in comparison to her father’s death.

I’m a bastard aren’t I? It’s just one of those things that when it’s forced in your face so much, you can’t do much else than react to it. Granted some of the things that have happened to her are tragic, I’m at a loss as to many times I need to hear it.

I don’t doubt tomorrow will be a great success, I just wonder if the joy is my friend’s or it’s short-lived before his missus rolls out her own plaudits. If she cut the “Woe is me” attitude and just enjoyed life, I wouldn’t have to blog about it