Getting older is inevitable I guess, and having birthdays is a good thing… especially compared to the alternative. But some milestone birthdays throw us more than others. I didn’t mind turning 30 the way some women do. I didn’t even mind finding 35 or 40… but 45? Hang on a minute, that is way too close to 50 for comfort!
It feels like it’s all crept up on me while I wasn’t watching. The years have been flying past so quick they’re starting to blend in together. Every time I find myself saying something happened ’last year’, I end up doing a double check and realising it was actually the year before. I remember as a kid, just a summer would drag on interminably… now Christmas seems to follow Christmas with indecent haste and you barely get a breather in-between!
We had the most fabulous night, and I think this was in part due to the fact there were no wasteful and unnecessary gifts that I was required to be all, ‘Oh, that’s lovely. Thank you’, while thinking ‘Why are you giving me this thing? Have you ever met me?’. There was no awful cake ritual, with accompanying dirge of a Happy Birthday song; a practice I have always absolutely abhorred! Actually I’ve never been big on the whole cake thing. I don’t know why we stop a fun social gathering, force someone to be the centre of attention while they proceed to blow germs all over everyone’s food with onlookers singing a dreadfully repetitive song that is anything but celebratory. The whole thing is beyond my understanding.
Anyway, we had a bit of a Bon Voyage/Birthday party last night at a cool little wine and tapas bar in Wynnum, called Tide. Mr K invited about 40 people and we booked out half the restaurant. It was a glorious (if hot) day and Tide is built out over the water on a jetty, which meant lovely sea breezes and a beautiful view over all the yachts in the marina with their clanging ropes and masts. Food was plentiful and the champagne was flowing… I think in spite of the fact that around half of us were driving, and many were drinking beer or cider, we knocked off about five bottles of champagne before heading back to our house to kick on.
It was supposed to be just a quiet afternoon of drinks by the bay, but once home, there was more champagne, a hastily thrown together cheese platter and music and good friends. Before I knew it, several of us were dancing around the kitchen to Sisters of Mercy at 1am, more than a little tipsy, and having a grand old time on a school night! Forty five? Forty Schmive!
“And the devil in black dress watches over
My guardian angel walks away
Life is short and love is always over in the morning
Black wind come carry me far away…”
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that my headache this morning was well earned and well deserved… and I’ve discovered, I’m not 25 anymore; so probably shouldn’t try and act like it!
