Finally life begins

A birthday's a birthday no matter where you are. No matter the location you’re always a year old, a year wiser and a year sicker.

23 birthdays behind me and I’m still ill after a couple of birthday drinks. I think it’s safe to say no matter how old and wise you get, you’re never impenetrable to the effects of alcohol. What does change however, are the excuses.

It wasn’t officially my birthday on Sat, but with my first rugby game in 6 years and the success of finally making enough friends to have a party, it felt just right to suggest a celebration. That is until of course you’ve experiences the mixed efforts of an entire rugby team enforcing both an initiation ceremony and a birthday celebration simultaneously upon you. I could debate the meaning of ceremony that is attached to a rugby initiation; its lack of finesse, its deficit of order, its irrational malice, but then the first rule of an initiation is “DON’T QUESTION THE INITIATION”.

There are so many things I could tell you about how wrong that night was, how any drink that you set on fire should not be a means to an ends and a hangover is not an end that justifies any means whatsoever, but there are more important facts that must be presented.

Firstly – Joining a sports club in Hong Kong is the fastest and finest way to make friends. Nothing beats being part of a team; being required, needed and respected. At the same time however, it’s also one of the scariest and loneliest things you can do. In my situation I was on my own going to training, knowing no one, and having to get up close and personal with 14 other men in a sport, that to any outsider would seem barbaric in nature. It’s a good thing I’ve spent that last 4 years hitting people for fun on the American Football pitch. The same game without pads however, is an entirely new thrill.

Secondly – You never feel pain, or at least until both the affects of alcohol and adrenaline have worn off the next day. It is around that time you figure out you experiencing a minor concussion rather then just a bad hangover. At least it means I can be kicked in the eye many more times, jut as long as I am either drunk, or on the pitch in an adrenaline fuelled high. It won’t however stop it hurting for the next week.

Thirdly – You can get a job, you can have loads of money, and you can stay in a house on the Peak (for the time being at least), go where only the famous people go, but when you’re sitting at home, with nothing to do, twiddling your thumbs and stitching your own jeans it finally hits you. Life really is nothing without Friends.

Friends make everything, they made Durham, they mate the SAINTS, and they officially make Hong Kong feel like home for me. I thank all my friends for the best birthday I could ask for and anyone could ask for, starting out in a new country, with a new job, a new club, a new sport and a NEW LIFE, aged 23.