Do you need an excuse to have a few scoops and a good time?
Do you hell.
I remember one occasion when me and the missus decided to throw a house party - no particular reason, we just fancied having a party.
Our friends didn't need to be invited twice, but we were amazed at the number of suspicious/conservative work colleagues who said: "But what's it FOR? You don't just have a party for no reason."
How about because you're alive?
Liverpool will soon have 800 reasons to celebrate - and still some misery moos and malcontents are moaning past themselves.
Since I was asked to start writing this blog - and me a Luddite! - I've been accosted by both the apathetic and the angry (although perhaps the "apathetic" aren't quite as apathetic as they would like me to believe - or else they wouldn't have got themselves worked up about it enough to accost me).
Their gripes fall into various categories:
* "Why should I celebrate Liverpool's 800th when I wasn't around for the 700th and won't be around for the 900th?"
* "Why should I celebrate when I wasn't alive for the first 770/760/750 of the 800 years? Why should I care?
* "We didn't celebrate 790 or 795, so what's the big deal?"
* "What's in it for me?"
And so on and so on and so on. Bleat, whinge, whine, moan.
I realise celebrating a city's 800th birthday may not be as important as celebrating, say, your own 40th or your kid's 18th or 21st (or any of your or their birthdays for that matter), but after all the flak this city has taken during its history, shouldn't we celebrate the very fact it's still here?
Come on moaners, throw out your frowns and start getting into the party spirit. After all, life's hard and then you die - so you may as well let your hair down when you can (if you've got any hair).
As the song says: "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think."
