Earlier today a friend pointed out that he knows a lot of people with birthdays in mid November which proves that Valentines Day is clearly effective.
It's a strange thing to ponder when I'm likely to have been conceived. Not because I'm particularly interested in the notion of my parents fumbling around in no doubt clumsy antics but the rather what set of moods and circumstances prompted things to happen that particular day. I'm not suggesting anything portentous happened. If the results are anything to go by, I suspect it was a rather humdrum sort of day. It was probably raining too.
Alan Bennett worked out that both he and his brother must've been conceived during his parents' annual trip to Blackpool. My family seems to have a similar habit of having birthdays with similar dates but years apart, as if we have some kind of mating season.*
A friend of mine was always reminded by her parents that she was conceived during a power cut. During the 70s maternity wards saw a spike in demand 9 months after every electrical workers' strike. Many of my friends would not exist if industrial relations had been more harmonious back then.
Doing some rough counting back I can estimate that I must've been conceived some time in June. This means I could be the product of an evening celebrating the defeat of Charles I at the Battle Naseby. Or the defeat of Azal the Daemon at Devil's End. I suspect the reality is it was the defeat of Babycham by Double Diamond.
* Have to confess I love this line a friend's child came out with recently: "I used to be a young man trapped in a woman's body. That all changed the day I was born."
