Postcard from Bishkek

I passed a milestone last year … I was 60 - sixty years old, that is.

I didn’t, however, make too much of a fuss about it … I made more of an effort at 30 - the so-called, dangerous age, 40 - the onset of middle-age after which, (at, least, according to the advertisers), you need “fortifying” … and at  50 … well, it was “half a century.

This time, however, I decided to wait until I am 65 – in theory, that’s when I can retire and start drawing my pension.

That’s back in the UK, of course, actually, I am told that here I can start drawing a pension here in Kyrgyzstan when I am 63 … yes, I do pay my social security contributions here … but I am not expecting a bumper payment each month given the level of local pensions … so I think I will probably wait in 2018 when I reach 65 for the “big party“.

Anyway, today I pass another one milestone … a little bit bigger than 60 : 32,000,000.  Yes, that’s right, it’s not a typing error: thirty two million!

Sometime this afternoon I will have lived 32,000,000 minutes.

I am not exactly sure at what time because the time of birth birth isn’t recorded on my Birth Certificate … only the Date … but my mother told me many years ago that I was born at eight o’clock in the morning … so at 1:20 this afternoon … I’ll cut a cake … but I don’t think we’ll worry about candles.

Apparently, I passed the 30,000,000 minute mark back in March 2010, on March 22nd – which also happened to marked the half million hours … and the 20,000,000th minute was almost 20 years before that in 1991 … when the Soviet Union still existed.

Back in 2007, I passed the 20,000 day mark … but I have to wait until 2021 to pass the 25000 mark.  It’ll be 22,000 days in October – on the 14th … so I’ll have something else to celebrate on that day other than the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.  We sometimes talk about “counting the days”, (although that’s normally a countdown to an event, something in the future like the Sochi Olympics – 29 days to go, or next Christmas – 350 days to go), but we also count off the first 100 days of administration as a sort of honeymoon period.  As we live in a “decimal” world, so why don’t we celebrate the 100th day … the 1000th day … 10,000th day … and so on.

Traditional Kyrgyz culture does count off the days – but they tend to work in 40s:

• Traditionally, newborn infants are kept at home and not shown to people, even to members of the family, for forty days …traditionally, forty days from the actual birth the infant is brought from the yurt and was considered to have been born on that day, (although a modern interpretation of the custom is to give the infant time to grow strong and build up a defense against infections), …

• A newly wed bride is kept in isolation for 40 days, and

• Forty days after someone’s death a memorial toi is held when family and friends gather to commemorate the life of the departed …

In July, on the 26th, I’ll pass 3200 weeks …

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But the one that really took me aback was that:

It was in 1984, on 14th November, I passed the 1 billion seconds … Now, that’s a real landmark!

Apparently I have to wait until July 23rd, 2016 to meet the next one – the 2 billion mark … by that time I should have started to receive my Kyrgyz pension – so maybe I’ll save the “big party” for that one …

… but I don’t think we’ll worry about candles for the cake.

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If you want to go and check out your own special dates  … you can do so here.

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Tags: Calendar, Me