30 on the 30th Baby!

The big 3-0 has come and gone and, I have to say, it was one of my better birthdays. Thanks to a lovely family gathering up in Yorkshire where I was spoiled with presents more than I had any right to be, and an amazing boyfriend who organised not one but TWO! surprise outings for me, I am feeling exceptionally loved and happy. Oh and Nin came out of retirement to make me this awesome skate cake:

She did this without anything to work from and even added the check from my real skates. We’ll ignore that the wheels caved in from the weight of the shoe rather quickly…

I woke up Monday morning at 4.45 am, which is the time I was born 30 years ago. It happens most years. Then I woke up again when Max woke up, saying happy birthday and trying to get me to engage, but I was still sleepy, as well I should be since when I looked at the clock it was 6.30! He went downstairs to play Call of Duty and I passed out. I think he was anxious that everything would go ok. He came up later with breakfast and I opened my cards I’d saved from home. We had to be somewhere for 10.30, but he wouldn’t tell me where, only that we had to get the Northern Line. I had no idea where we were going and tried to guess. I figured we must be going to Camden since it didn’t matter which tube we got on, but then he fake made me get off at Euston and then was all ‘PSYCHE!’ I couldn’t think what could be in Camden which makes me extra special slow since we had talked about going to the zoo a few weeks ago.

I finally realised and then wondered who was meeting us. It was his mum and Becca and Chris and Caitlin. And it was a lovely day, we had gorgeous weather while we were there and I had a great time just wandering round and trying to keep up with Caitlin. She was less interested in the animals and more in climbing steps but still, much fun. We had to leave there around 2pm to make it to the next surprise, and we were early so dawdled a bit and as we walked down Haymarket Street I drove him mad asking him if we were going in every building: ‘Are we going to Planet Hollywood? Are we going to that theatre?’ I asked about every one except the one we were going in, which turned out to be a hotel for afternoon tea. And when I walked in there was a table full of friends, and as I took that in I turned and saw another table with the Brits Abroad! I had an inkling there would be a point in the day where we met up with people I knew, but I didn’t know what for and I didn’t expect so many people. It was such a lovely thing for everyone to do, and I felt very loved. I will admit to being a bit overwhelmed when I sat down though, like, oh my god, all these people are here for me! But then I opened presents and calmed down.

Not only was there tea and cake, but there also a birthday cake with a candle and the singing of happy birthday. The only slight downer to this part of the day was the service at the hotel. They’d messed Max around a few times with the booking and then the waiter wasn’t very good, and he’d asked them to take the cake away and cut it up for people to take away but they brought it out on plates and I think it was cake overload. But I think everyone had fun, and I certainly did. It really was a brilliant birthday.

And here is the list of books I got:

Life of Pi – Yann Martel
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Michael Chabon
The Small Hand – Susan Hill
Grace Williams Says It Loud – Emma Henderson
The Passage – Justin Cronin
My Name is Memory – Ann Brasheres
The Lying Game – Sara Shepard
The Last Vampire 7 – Christopher Pike
Winter’s Bone – Daniel Woodrell
Blood Red – Moira Young
Whip It – Shauna Cross
Where She Went – Gayle Forman
Live Wire – Harlan Coben

There’s a fair bit of teenage fiction in there. I am a bit addicted at the moment. It’s just so easy to read. And I couldn’t resist the Pike book, as he was the author of my teens and I still have all his books at Mum’s, and the vampire series was so neatly tied up I am curious as to how he’s written another one. He’s just cashing in on the vampire trend I’m sure. I also got book tokens and amazon vouchers so will not be short of books for a while. Just need to pick one to read first.

After the excitement of the day we went back to Max’s and watched the new ep of Game of Thrones, and then I gathered all my many belongings together and went home. I had been smart enough to book Tuesday off also so got a much needed lie in.

I think 30 is going to be ok you know.

The Cake Smugglers

I am home. And it’s my birthday! I am 29. Holy crap. I am spending my birthday mostly in bed, since we landed this morning at 3.30, and didn’t get home til about 6.30 am. I had managed to sleep a little on the plane, but was still wrecked, and slept a few more hours when I got in. And I have done washing, but that’s about it. I am now catching up on things I have missed in Internet Land (Dennis Hopper died people, did he die today? Is he going to be on the wikipedia entry for my bday? Pop quiz hotshot!) (Note, this entry may make little to no sense with the way my brain is right now.) Oh and I have opened my birthday cards and I have book vouchers, woot! I have read about six books on holiday, which is grand, but that also means I have to write up reviews of them. Bah.

OK, to the holiday details. I had an excellent time. The hotel was fabulous, the staff were so nice and helpful – though bordering on overly helpful at times, since we are not very good at being waited on and no, please, I really really don’t need anything else thank you, and in fact would you like to sit down, you’re working very hard. I am not remotely tanned, except for a patch at the top of my right arm and shoulder, which is a lovely colour. And I somehow managed to burn my forehead and nose a little yesterday, even though I was in the shade most of the day AND had factor 45 lotion on. Figure that one out.

On Wednesday, after becoming pissed off with never being able to get a sun lounger since everyone got up at the crack of dawn and put their towels on them to stake a claim (you’re on holiday people, lie in! – Actually the only problem I had with the holiday was the other people, who could be loud and rude and shove in etc.), I stomped off to Reception and booked us a private cabana for the next day, one of my better moves. The cabana came with waiter service and so we had Tarek at our beck and call all day, bringing us smoothies and ice cream and way too much fruit, and Max wanted to marry him as he made him ice coffee, which you couldn’t get anywhere, and he is obsessed.

In the early hours of Thursday morning I woke up with a migraine. It wasn’t too unexpected since I’d been living on orange juice and had cried that night*, both triggers for me. It wasn’t too bad though, thankfully, but it did linger for the next day or so.

Later on Thursday we went snorkelling, just around the reef off the hotel beach. I was surprised at myself to be honest, as I was very unsure about it and felt panicky about not being able to breathe through my nose, even though I was on the damn surface! I had to take a few minutes to calm down. But once I had and put my head under it was amazing. Fish swim right up to you, and so many colours! We went on a sunset boat trip on Friday to another reef to snorkel, and it was very nice, but with it being so spread out there wasn’t as much to see really. Though I did see a stingray.

On Friday I said to Max that the theme at the hotel restaurant that night was Egyptian, and he said it didn’t matter as we weren’t eating there anyway. I asked if we were going to the other restaurant instead, and he said ‘You’ll see.’ Apparently the day before when he said he was going to find some papers he’d actually been organising a meal and we were going to Casa Taba, an Italian restaurant. And I wore a dress! I know. When we got there they’d arranged flowers in the shape of a heart, bless em. The food was delicious, but we weren’t going to have dessert since when we’d come back from the boat trip there was a cake in my room with ‘Happy Birthday!’ written on it. But then the restaurant staff were huddled around something and had brought dessert plates and it suddenly dawned on me that I was going to have another cake. I saw them lighting candles and a bunch of them came over singing Happy Birthday and then stuck a sparkler in my cake which we had to awkwardly watch burn out before I could blow out the candles. God I was stuffed.

I tried to eat some of the other cake the next day, since they’d gone to all that trouble and I didn’t want them to think I hadn’t liked or appreciated it…but I couldn’t. We both just could not face it. I had a little bit but felt really sick. So we smuggled it out. Max shoved some of it into a suntan lotion box, and I dumped it in a bin in the ladies. And I wrote them a thank you note and I pray that no one saw the box and it just went into the bin fine and dandy. Yes, we’re weirdos.

And now I shall go watch new Glee, and Doctor Who, and maybe have lunch, and sort out my photos. And sleep some more.

*I sobbed my heart out at the Lost finale. It was pretty much everything I could have hoped for.

Birthdays are nature’s way of telling us to eat more cake

Since we were talking about birthdays, I was inspired at the weekend to scan photos of my past birthday cakes. When I was little, part of the lead up to my birthday excitement was going to Nin’s and choosing my cake. She had stacks of books with all sorts of designs in them, and I would sit there for hours looking through trying to decide on the perfect one. Of course, we have photos of these cakes (although some are missing, where are they??) and I said I would scan them. One of the ones that is missing is my Sylvanian Family house. Nin did a perfect replica of the house I had (it looked like this.) I remember that I wouldn’t let anyone cut into it and ruin it, and I moved in my families and played with it, and then it went off and all stale and had to be thrown away. I was not happy. Neither were the homeless bunnies. I swear I haven’t made this up, have I?

Anyway, here are the cakes we do have photos of. I think these were mine, but if not, let’s pretend:

I think this is my first birthday cake. You can tell because the hands are at 1 o’ clock. I can’t imagine I was that fussed, but since I was a porker, I probably did like cake a lot.

Mr Men! Which Mr Man is this? I was all about Mr Men that year. I had this guy as a hot water bottle too, all smelly plastic stuff and wiggly arms. This may be second or third birthday. Mum would know.

Smurfs! I am showing my age here right?

This one is the first of mine that’s on our infamous home videos. Not the one where I throw a strop and go play with dirt in the alley. True story. I was always throwing a strop. Before the cake was cut we were allowed to take a dolly mixture sandwich off it.

My Little Pony, all skinny and bony. I’m going with my seventh birthday for this one, going on the bows on the pony’s bum, but if she actually had seven bows, then I don’t know.

Does this Care Bear look shifty to you? His head kept falling off. It was held on by cocktail sticks but every now and then you’d just hear a ‘thunk’ and his head would be rolling across the table. Again Nin has kindly added nine hearts, so I am assuming I was nine.

Apparently I was all about Edd the Duck yo. I do not know why. The Broom Cupboard was a big deal. If you’re not British and not my age you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, and I feel bad for you.

Oh yes, ha ha. My whole family thought this was hilarious. About this time I was known for my chair sitting and being in charge of the remotes. I swear I wasn’t as bad as they made out, but maybe I was since Nin went so far as to make me a cake commemorating it.

I did not have a special cake this year, but Nin did make lemon cake I have yet to taste. And this afternoon we are having cake at work. I am going with proper Marks & Spencer bday cake with dolly mixtures on top, none any of this fru fru Patisserie Valerie stuff for me.

Birthday Weekend!

My birthday this year was lovely, and thanks to various celebrations seems to have gone on for a week, which is extra nice. I went home this weekend to see the family and have them love me lots. We had beautiful weather, which makes a change and meant our barbecue could go ahead as planned.

But before the party could start I needed to go shopping. Yes, shopping, that hateful word. But miracles do happen, and it wasn’t actually that bad. I even bought stuff! Quite a bit of stuff! I now have jeans that fit (wow, what a revelation), 2 pairs even, t-shirts, underwear and a new bag. It was worth the trip and it was a good thing I took my big case home with me.

So yes, barbecue. All the family was there, we had lovely food and people got drunk. Ah family. My cousins wanted to watch the Britain’s Got Talent final, and since I am lovely I let them. Then half of us were in the living room cheering people on. Although I haven’t seen any of it and only know about Susan Boyle, who was totally overrated and is now in The Priory of all things. I did like Diversity though. But having watched it I was a bit stunned. This is the final, that means these are the best of the bunch? Good lord, some were rubbish. That little kid, Shaveen(?) right wound me up.

Earlier in the day Russ had said he’d put a bet on for me on the football, since he was going anyway, and what did I think the score would be? So I told him and I won! I don’t really like having to cheer Chelsea on, but I won 16 quid. Ha. Russ did not win. Double ha.

And now I’m back in London, and back at work. If only time could slow down as you got older, instead of speeding up.

27

Seeing as I am 27 now, I thought I’d get to know this number a bit. Maybe it’ll be insanely lucky, right? Maybe this is the year everything falls into place and I figure it all out? It’s possible I say this every year. It may help me remember I am not in fact 28 if nothing else.

So what do we know about 27?

• Twenty-seven is a perfect cube, being 3³ = 3 × 3 × 3. 27 is therefore the second smallest cube of a prime number. I probably should not have started with maths, but maybe someone can figure out some sort of mathematic equation for how amazing 27 is going to be?

• The 27th moon of Jupiter is Sinope. I just liked this fact. It has no relevance.

• The number of completed, numbered piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his birthday (27 January 1756). This one just makes me feel lazy.

• There are a total of 27 books in the New Testament. I really have nothing to add to this.

• The total number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet (22 regular letters and 5 final consonants)

• The current number of Amendments to the United States Constitution. Because if you don’t get it right the first time, no one will care.

But if you really want to make yourself feel bad, or at least, like you’re not making the most of what you’ve got, look up what others have done by the time they were your age:

• Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. dropped out from his job at General Electric to become a full-time writer.
• Henry David Thoreau went off for two years to live alone in a cabin at Walden Pond.
• Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space.
• Ernest Hemingway published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises.
• Albert Einstein published five major research papers in a German physics journal, fundamentally changing man’s view of the universe and leading to such inventions as television and the atomic bomb.
• Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Italy.
• Orson Welles co-scripted, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane.

27 is famous for something else though, and that’s being the age that many musicians have popped their clogs, shuffled off this mortal coil, ceased to be. I wonder what it is about 27, that so many have died at this age? Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain (totally spoiling the J thing there) are all part of the 27 Club.

So maybe I should be thankful that I have no musical ability whatsoever. And maybe I should also think about how at 77 John Glenn became the oldest man to go into space, at 80 Jessica Tandy won an Oscar, at 87 Francis Peyton Rous won the Nobel Prize, at 90 Pablo Picasso was still producing drawings and engravings.

I guess it’s never too late to do something great.

Birthday Post!

In a couple of days I turn 27. For some reason my brain thinks I’m turning 28, cos that’s what number keeps popping into my head whenever I’m asked. I don’t know why I feel the need to skip a year, I’m sure 27 won’t be that bad. But to acknowledge the kind of non-year that 27 is (as perhaps all birthdays are until you hit 40 – ye gods), here are some journal entries from days of yore, in which I moan about getting older and want to stay 25 forever. What the hell did I know?

1997

I hate getting older. What could be better than being 15? This is my last few hours of being 15 and I think it’s strange that today I’m 15 and tomorrow I’ll be 16. I don’t get excited about birthdays anymore. I just feel old…I won’t be able to get the bus for 30p anymore. And I bet I won’t get used to it until I’m almost 17.

Is it wrong to want to pummel your former self?

1998 (I was on a trip to Pakistan, it was basically a nightmare from start to finish)

We’re probably going home tomorrow – the students and teachers that is, because of all the nuclear tests and frictions here between people. It’s not been a wonderful birthday, in fact, I’ve kept forgetting. I haven’t actually thought about it that much, it’s too depressing. We went into the hills today, it took ages to get there and I never imagined there would be so many people living there, villages, shops and houses are dotted everywhere.

(And there’s much more of me whining about being in Pakistan and how much I hate everyone involved and want to go home, but I’ll spare you.)

2000

11.38pm. I’m almost 19. My last year of being a teenager and everything I thought I would have done I haven’t. I still worry about everything.

But I’ve had a good day today. I’ve got lots of presents and cards – Buffy season 1 boxset, yippee! I’m looking forward to tomorrow but I feel so old. I don’t ever want to get to 20. 20 is a grown up for sure. I don’t want to grow up or get old ever. How about I reach 25 and just stop? I think that’s a good deal.

Hmm…I’m not sure I agree with the ’20 is a grown up for sure’ statement there. Hell, I don’t think I’m ever gonna feel like a grown up.

2002

My birthday! Pretty good day actually. Woke up at 4.45am again this year. Weird. Then was woken up at 8am by my phone. I tried to go back to sleep but it was pointless so got up, checked my post, loads of cards and a present from Mum. It was a box with a happy 21^st birthday bear, very cute. She’d put all these glittery 21s in too, and they were all over the porter’s lodge. I did a bit of revision this morning and then had my exam, it went ok. Freaked out a bit at the beginning but calmed down. Went back to L’s for a cup of tea and opened my present. Came back to the flat, M was in the window shouting at me to hurry up and where had I been, they were all waiting for me. I walked into the kitchen and everyone was squished by the kitchen sink so I couldn’t see them. They jumped out, ‘surprise!’, party poppers, cameras flashing, as usual I looked a mess. There were brownies and a candle and I made a birthday wish. Then I opened my presents…And I go home tomorrow. Yay! I am done! My degree is over. How bizarre.

I suppose at least we end on a positive note. That’s the last birthday entry from time gone by. So what’s changed? Well, I don’t mind that I got to 25 and didn’t stay there. In fact, I was bloody glad to see the back of it to be honest. 25 was not my most fun year. I seem to have lost my dread of getting older too. I don’t know what I was worried about really, except on days I have a flash forward of myself at 80, then I worry. Shudder. But in general getting older is not that painful, and I have no idea why it seemed so awful at 15. Silly, silly younger me.

This year I will be celebrating in the company of family, a whole army of chickens, and a sweet faced dog named Lucy. Who says you don’t know how to rock when you’re old?