My sister is 50 today

She’s a lot older than me — my mum had her as a teen and had me in her 30s — but I vividly remember her being 23 and her gaggle of friends and their loser boyfriends with their piece of shit cars, hanging out with them on hungover Sundays. It was a treat and made me feel cool to sit with them and listen their stories about drunken chaos while they smoked cigarettes and how Teneca kissed a guy but they all agree she probably shouldn’t tell her boyfriend, it would be so mean to hurt his feelings like that.

And now the bitch is 50. The weeks are accelerating exponentially. Every Monday comes around faster than the last.

I met up with her in Europe a few months ago, and she bought a small bottle of Ouzo and demanded I drink it with her outside a convenience store on Paros. Was surprised to hear she still hits the slopes occasionally too. But she’s on HRT and looking good. Time comes for us all, but a lot stays the same too, and that’s reassuring.