Today is my 41st birthday!
This time last year I had a 6 week old baby and although it was my 40th it all whizzed by in a blur of nappies, random feeds and disorientation.
I must admit it wasn't the 40th I'd always thought I would have.
As the date fell on a Saturday I'd considered a big party, or maybe a trip to New York or another major city with hubby. Or renting a house by the coast for all my friends with lots of wine, food and games. But in the end, with the boy on the way, all my ideas were impractical, paled into insignificance and were long forgotten. I was too tired to really care too much about myself and now in hindsight I feel a bit like my 40th passed me by. Friends and family made a fuss, I got great presents, cards and food but my head wasn't on this planet still and my nether regions had still to regain consciousness so top and tail were out of it!
In the end the boy was my best present and nothing could prepare me for the love I'd feel for my son and how my own birthday wouldn't really matter all that much even if it was a milestone one. Once my head and "bits" were working again I did lots of activities later on in the year like shopping trips and spa days and my slight "miffed at myself" phase was gone.
The final one of these activities was last night. Yes, strange as it seems on the eve of your 41st we went out to celebrate my 40th!
Well the meal was for my birthday but I was still 40. Convoluted? Me? Surely not. I just think it proves that celebrations are moveable feasts.
As was last night's dinner!
We went for a beautiful Chinese meal with Lemon Cake Lady and Lemon Cake Hubby. We were given a table at the back of the restaurant, ordered and had our starters at that table. There was plenty of room for drinks and food which was a good job because the table also contained a vase of flowers and a lit candle. Both were positioned between myself and LCL and after 10 minutes of trying to talk through both flame and flora we got fed up of risking getting our new hair do's singed or peeking through foliage like David Attenborough on a nature programme so we had them moved.
Then a waitress explained that we'd been seated by mistake at a table that takes 6 people and actually ours was the next one along. Would we mind moving? So we shifted up to a slightly more cosy table for 4 for the duck course and mains!
Not a problem and it seems that, after checking the bill this morning, we got a few free drinks for the inconvenience, but I realise it was significant. Not to the restaurant, not to my fellow diners, but to me!
I celebrated my 40th with sesame prawn toast, seaweed and won tons on one table, then we moved and the rest of the meal was for my 41st. In my mind I got the best of both worlds as I shifted from one phase of my life to another, especially if being 41 is going to taste like Hoi Sin sauce!
So now I'm in my 40's officially. Life has begun.
But then I already knew that the moment I laid eyes on the boy.....
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