37 years ago today the world was gifted with me.
How terribly conceited is that?
As I get older my birthdays get better.
Gone is the stomach churning terror no-one would come to my midwinter birthday party.
Gone is the mid-twenties depression that saw me hiding under the duvet waiting for the day to pass.
Now I just enjoy them.
I like being serenaded.
I like getting pancakes in bed made by eager little children.
I like that my husband remembers my birthday meal – roast lamb, roast potatoes and butternut.
I received a joint birthday and wedding anniversary gift of an exquisite full length jacket from Tiger of Sweden from the Husband.
Brilliant man – be brought it back from his last trip to Stockholm and managed to hide it from me and three would-be 007s.
My mother took me to lunch at Chez Girard where Girard made me a crème brulee exactly as he did for my 21st birthday.
He used to be the chef at the Inanda Club during its heyday. As a small child I used to check out his desserts before choosing anything to eat.
The trick was to get to the desserts first or they’d disappear in about 0.2 of a second.
My belly full of good food we spent the rest of the day at An Evening with John Cleese at MonteCasino.
I did not know his name is really Cheese. Apparently his dad changed it when signing up to go to war. Not a bad thing.
He was truly brilliant and it was incredible to have this man whose work has been so much a part of my life and my yardstick for judging other people, right in front of me.
If you can’t pick up a Monty Python reference you are dead to me. I went home and watched Fawlty Towers, Clockwise and a Fish Called Wanda.
For all its faults, social networking and FaceBook have made my birthday a truly wonderful day with messages from people far and wide.
I also have a sparkly new laptop. She is as yet unnamed, I shall have to think about her moniker.
Now, all I need to make this day perfect is for my court date to be issued against The Man Who Won’t Pay Me.
Now I am going to finish my very large slice of chocolate fudge cake that my lovely colleagues bought for me this morning. Even better – they’ve given me the day off!
Thank Mom and Dad for having me, for being the best parents any child could have hoped for. For showing me the world and giving me a sense of humour with which to view the world.
Most of all thanks for putting up with me for 37 years!
The Blurred Line 