My Birthday

A friend asked me the other day, “Why do you get excited about birthdays when you’ve almost had 30 of them?”

At the time I laughed but now I have had a think about it I wonder what it is about getting older that makes us less excited about our Birthdays? Is it that we’re getting older or is it actually the fact that we’ve had a lot of them already!

When I was at school I used to be extremely excited about my birthday because it meant that we’d be going on holiday (My birthday always falls in the Autumn School Holidays in the UK). I used to love going to Lanzarote and I can vividly remember two of those times in particular, my 3rd birthday and my 8th birthday:

The trip for my 3rd birthday was the first time that I had been in an aeroplane and there are countless photos of me and my beloved Rachel (my dolly) in various funny/silly poses including in our seats on the aeroplane; walking with my dad towards the fire mountains, a battered red Golf in the background and me with my parents around the swimming pool. Also the orange that was given to us from a friend’s tree which my mum managed to sit on as we got in the car!

My 8th birthday will forever be remembered as ‘The-year-with-the-ants’: My mum had managed to get a beautiful birthday cake and keep it nice in a Tupperware container all the way up to my birthday, but when we came to take it out on the day there were ants crawling up and out of the candle holes and i had a simple Madera cake instead as a replacement.

I also have fond and extremely clear memories of my 18th Birthday: ‘The-one-with-Nigel’.I was at home with my parents, along with various other members of our large family: Mum’s sister Fiona and my cousin/bestie Emma. I was woken with ruffling and giggling and told not to look out of any of the windows, Emma and Fiona guarding me to make sure I wasn’t spying. I knew something was being planned but I seriously didn’t know what…so it was an epic surprise (to say the least) when I was led out of the front door and presented with a Spearmint Green Vauxhall Nova full of helium balloons…I called him Nigel and covered him with brightly coloured flowers!

It’s true, as you get older your birthdays become different to those which you celebrated when you were younger, but I don’t think that it means you should stop getting excited. I just get excited in a different way and I think maybe it shows my sense of expectation even though I already know what I’m getting (as I usually already have it…this year it’s Fanny the Fujifilm).

This years birthday was different to normal because, for the first time ever, I am working…as I mentioned before i’m normally on holiday…anyways, that was strange. My work friends made it fun though, all wishing me a happy birthday and buying me cake! I only worked a short day today, which was nice.

As a little present to myself i also bought a new pair of brown sandals and a little white crop-top in preparation for the Summer!

Upon arrival home after having my treats I noticed that there was a letter in the mail box and hoped that it was about the parcel from ‘Roxy’ that i’ve been waiting for. It was my brilliant new wetsuit, which comes in a rather fetching combination of Pink, Purple and Yellow, with snazzy knee pads!