Back to the future..

I can remember the 1980's - mercifully I was too young to have to endure huge shoulder pads, a male perm or legwarmers.  In addition to these stylish fashion trends I can also remember a glut of technological advancement.  We were treated to such gadgets as the soda-stream, the rabbit-hutch sized "mobile" telephone and of course, let's not forget the sinclair spectrum 48k.

Today is, much to my horror my birthday again.  I'm sure the government is shortening the year, as each inexorable hop towards 40 inches quicker and quicker and quicker.  

I had 5 presents to open.  With much anticipation I opened the first, from my 4 year old son Luca.  I marveled at his excellent choice - a stainless steel, box-style cheese and vegetable grater.  What a grate idea!  

My 10 month old son Kasper had managed, independently it appears, to have selected a book about an adventurous lady who took her children around all the French-speaking countries - each person only permitted a single rucksack.    


A nice shirt from my girlfriend, though my expanding girth now seems to protest at a large size, so that's going back (and you can forget an extra-large, I simply will not succumb to that humiliation).  A bottle of 2001 gran reserva rioja from my sister (this in addition to 3 out of 6 cards with alcoholic themes) - are people trying to tell me something?


And then I opened my present from my parents.  I unfurled the crisp wrapping paper to discover someone from the 1980's had inadvertently managed to squeeze my present through a worm hole to the present day - it was a sandwich toaster!  Surely nobody even manufactured such an antique in the 2012's?  It appears they do, and I am now in possession of what one might deem as the "Rolls Royce" of sandwich toasting machines - complete with brushed stainless-steel finish, adjustable temperature gauge and "2 extra-large anti-spill sandwich trays".


I feel like I should knock up some fondue and drink some Black Tower.  We are going to enjoy some cheese and ham toasties tonight.  I will sit back, with my glass of wine, eat my toastie and dream of Ah-ha, Betamax video cassettes and the divine complexity of a Rubik cube.