The big 50

It isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It's just a number. I don't feel any older than before - if I am honest, inside I am still only 21 - it's just the outside that is showing evidence of the years passing. I was instructed NOT to appear at work before 9.30 at the earliest on Friday - and when I did arrive I could see why. I was amazed that they had gone to so much trouble just for me, but it was a good feeling inside, and I truly appreciate the effort they made to make it a special day. The students who I had to interview seemed quite guilty that they were making me work, but hey, that is the reason I get paid, and it wasn't actually my birthday until the day after, so I didn't mind. Early doors was down in Lichfield this month for my birthday, and it was a happy time. I got home some time - but I can't remember quite how - I think I had a lift...
Saturday morning was breakfast in bed [on a tray, complete with 5 red roses in a vase!], and then I tore into the cards and pressies which had been arriving all week through the post. It was great - birthdays are good, and I am glad we have one every year. I was still in bed when my sister rang from New Zealand, so by the time I had finished there wasn't much of the morning left! By the time I had vacuumed, put the cards up and put all my flowers in water, it was time to meet one of my oldest friends [we met on the first day of secondary school...] and giggle all the way through tea and cakes in a teashop in Lichfield. Even though we had cake, we did walk in and out, so I think we can justify it! We may both be 50 now, but we are not old like our mothers were at 50 [thank god!]. A meeting at 7pm for my New York trip was not my idea of spending my birthday evening, but it went fast enough, and I did get another card [how DO people find out these things? I know I didn't tell anybody...]. I then took Steve to a pub in Burton, which sells the most divine beer, and enjoyed watching him sample several brews - I drove, so stuck to J2O [which was sensible after the night before, and the night before that...]. The pub hasn't been touched since god knows when, so is really old fashioned - especially the ladies - an outside loo - froze my ass off! - but the beer makes up for it. I was taken to this pub a few weeks ago when one of my colleagues came over to do a session for me on my Burton course. Lets go for lunch he says, in this great pub I know - my treat. Well, it was [and is] a great pub, great beer, but he had forgotten his money, so I ended up buying beer and what I can only describe as 'man cobs' - no namby pamby fillings and niceties such as salad, just great wodges of cobs stuffed full of cheese, ham etc, and nothing as sophisticated as a knife to cut it in half to make a ladylike attempt to get it in my mouth - such a refreshing change!

So, yeah, 50. No problem - it's all in the mind!