It's My Birthday!

Happy birthday to me!

49 today. Only twelve more months till I can move up into a new age group!


Today is turning out to be a lovely, glorious day. A day when you are forced to admit that there are a lot of wonderful people in the world that you're privileged to have in your life. I have been flooded with birthday wishes and hugs. I have spent the morning breakfasting with the running girls and Tom. I have been totally spoilt by my husband. It's everything you could want from a birthday.


Except maybe for the special birthday zit.

But even a pimple can be a nice reminder that even though you're chronological age is pretty significant, you're biological age is not much more than a teenager. (I know I'm fooling myself but it's fun to be truly delusional)

So how have I spent this auspicious day so far? (It's only 9:30 but I've managed to cram a lot in a morning.) Up at 4:30 am to find a special birthday present from Nelson - a clean house. No little doggy accidents!! He really cares. 

Iven was up early too and gave me a lovely card and a very generous present. A few weeks ago he asked what I'd like and I threw off a very sarcastic "expensive jewellery" reply. But he took me at my word an now I'm sporting this ...

... with a matching pair of earrings and pendant.

By 5:15 it was time to go to training. March is a busy birthday month so there were a few cakes to deliver. And even better- all the recipients were there.

Then they took off one way and I took off the other. Then we joined up again around 3.5k. That's the best part of the session for me because I get to catch up with a lot more people and get to still feel like I'm part of the group even if I can't do the session.

After the session I met up with some of the girls and Tom (the lone male representative) and had breakfast. Lots of laughter. Lots of talking. Lots of eating. Good times.

I came home to find my phone full of messages and my Facebook wall covered with birthday messages. I've got an enormous day of work ahead of me but I'm in a very happy place today and I don't think that anything could take that away.

And because I'm in a happy place I'm going to give all you young things out there a little gift - an insight into how it feels to be nearly 50. 

#1 Be prepared for parts of your body to make strange, loud noises. My hips pop. My neck cracks. I sometimes come out with unexpected burps. And if I have dairy I can pass enough wind to make the dog leave the room. (For anyone planning on visiting rest assured - I've given up dairy)

#2 Your skin will sag more than when you were 16. Some lights are particularly cruel and will convince you that you're covered with cellulite. My advice here is to leave the lights off if you want to make a good impression - unless you have a dog that has random unexpected accidents around the house and in that case only leave the lights off if you're an adventurous soul who likes to gamble and clean up ground-in messes.

#3 You will forget a lot of stuff. People's names. Important events. Where you put your keys, or the sugar, or your car. But you will retain interesting snippets of information so when you forget a name you can make it into a guessing game by providing clues. Who am I? I was a famous Australian Prime Minister who decided to go for a swim and never come home. Or - I won a bronze medal for sprinting at the Olympics in 1976, then won a gold at the Commonwealth games for the 400m in 1980, survived breast cancer and work as a gardener in Melbourne. 

#4 You will still have a lot of the hang-ups that you had when you were a teenager but you've learnt to live with them and work around them. You will still feel a lot like you did back then - except for the strange noises emanating from your body, the random pains that you've discovered, and the fact that staying up after 9:30 pm is almost impossible. 

#5 You will enjoy using the age thing as an excuse if you don't want to do something. But on the flip-side you will impress younger people that you can still move and think despite being so old. Yeah, I know 49 isn't that old but when I was young I didn't think any further past the year 2000 when I'd turn 37 and I thought that was pretty old back then.

Now off to work. The birthday carousel has to stop for the next 8 or 9 hours because the real world has to intervene. And then we can crank it up again tonight - till 9:30. Do I know how to live or what?!!!