Reasons why my big brother is cool

When the older years and younger years at primary school had play time together and my friends and I were playing with a ball, whenever I got it, I'd run over to my big brother and shout 'chuck it!' and he'd throw it really far. I remember thinking I'd never seen anyone throw a ball that far in my entire life.

When we got sweets at the shop, he made up a cool game where he was the bin. To play, I'd press his nose and his mouth would open. I'd press his nose again and his mouth would close. Then I'd press it and he'd chew the sweet. Then I'd press again and he'd swallow it. Inevitably, my brother cleverly got all the sweets and I got none. But it was SUCH a fun game!

He listened to way cool music. I went through a phase where I decided that I'd like exactly the same music as him, to try and extract some of his coolness. I listened to Fugees and Nas and didn't understand a word but I knew it was cool.

I used to sit and watch him play computer games while I'd write my little stories. I didn't really know what Championship Manager was about but I'd watch him play it for ages nonetheless.

We used to get up early on weekend mornings, put our duvets on the stairs and get a sleeping bag. One person would get into the bottom of the sleeping bag and the other would sit at the top and we'd bump down the stairs. It was WAY more fun than it sounds.

He and his friends would play football on the back field and I'd sit nearby, reading or writing a little story. When the ball would roll too far, I'd run and collect it for them. Like a one-girl fan club! Just lingering around, watching them run about and not having a clue what was going on.

Sometimes we were allowed to put up the two man tent in the back garden and sleep overnight in it. We'd hang out in the tent feeling like we were on a massive adventure. That was fun.

I heard my brother tell a joke once so I told it to everyone I knew. It went like this - What do you get if you go under a cow? A pat on the back. I honestly had no idea what was funny about it! I thought it meant that you were really brave for going under the cow. People laughed when I told it and I didn't know why. But because my big brother had said it, I said it.

My big brother was the coolest guy in his school when on the final year photos he did a cool hand gesture thing. I forget what it was. I just remember thinking he was pretty out-there and fun.

My big brother taught me how to ride a bike. I learned really late and was quite embarrassed about it and one day, he took me to the race track on the back field and taught me how to ride. Thanks for that, by the way!

When my big brother got married last year, he asked me to do a reading in the ceremony. Amazing. My cool big brother wanted ME to do a reading at his wedding. It is still the best wedding I've ever been to. Well, of course it was. It was MY big brother's wedding!

Happy birthday, big brother!