Turning 30!

Today is my 30th Birthday.
30 years ago today at 1.15am in the morning I joined this world. It was a Sunday and my Mum had been in labour for two days. In fact in the early stages of labour on the Friday after her waters broke she wanted to go out with my Dad to get some dinner instead or going to the hospital as she knew the labour was going to take a while! Eventually I did arrive, and actually 2 weeks earlier than expected.

This is one of the earliest photos taken of me. My Mum is holding me and by the looks of the sofa she is at home which means I am about 2 weeks old as back in those days new mum's were kept in hospital for a couple of weeks after having a baby. I do have a few photos of me in hospital with my Mum and Dad but none of us look very good and I don't think they would thank me for sharing them!

For the first 7 years of my life I grew up in a normal 1980s household with my Mum and Dad. They owned a few curtain shops around Essex and spent a lot of time making them work. I can't remember many of my birthdays from then, although I know I had a Wimpy birthday party when I was about 4 or 5 and a party in a hall with a magician and a disco when I was about 5 or 6. I don't really remember them but I have seen the photos and heard the stories.

Then about 2 months before my 7th Birthday my parents divorced. I cannot remember my 7th birthday at all. For my 8th birthday I remember I had a McDonalds party which included for some strange reason getting to run into the big freezer they used to store the food in and getting a tour of the kitchens. Nope, I don't know why either! This was the last birthday party I had. Future birthdays were spent going out to places, visiting relatives and a few depressing times going fishing. I spent my birthday's alternating between my Mum and Dad, so parties were never really possible. Plus money was not exactly flooding in and parties cost money!

When I was 13 I was taken out for a meal, like a proper grown up birthday celebration! It was with my Dad, Ann and my lovely Aunt Gina. Our table had loads of balloons on it and after dinner they brought out a cake and sang Happy Birthday. It was a really lovely occasion. I don't remember my other teenage birthdays. I know that I didn't have a party for either my 16th or my 18th. In fact I think I ended up going bowling with a few friends and family for both of these! My birthdays were always celebrated just not with a "do".

One of the biggest problems with celebrating my birthday is that it falls right in the middle of summer. It was always difficult to organise anything with people going on holidays, invites needing to go out in July before the end of school, etc etc. When I went off to uni I had similar problems as everybody went home from June until the start of the next academic year at the end of September. When we lived in houses a few friends did come back for my birthday and we would go out for drinks.

When I was 21 I did have a party, well a barbecue at our house anyway! I shared my 21st with my close friend Andy who was also turning 21. Our birthdays are 8 days apart so we picked the weekend in between the two to celebrate. We had a great day and laughed a lot. Needless to say I can't remember much of that one either but that was for entirely different reasons!! Hahaha!

Since then I have had my "birthday outings" which as I mentioned in a previous post, were a special day out to do something different on my birthday to make it different from all the other day's of the year. Previous outings have included Hampton Court Palace, Dover Castle and Canterbury. I have some fantastic memories from these days and also got to tick things off my ever growing to do list!

So how will I be celebrating my 30th? Well today I am having my usual "outing" although its not a big deal as it usually is due to circumstances. Instead the emphasis is on spending the day with my Dad and enjoying some father-daughter quality time. We are going out shopping (he is getting me a new mobile phone for my birthday as my one is so old it is powered by coal!) and we are going to have lunch out. Then in the evening he is cooking me one of my favourite meals. My Mum has also sent me a very large parcel which I will be opening later! I wonder what it can be!

My birthday celebrations do not end there. On Sunday my bezzie mate is throwing me a birthday party and barbecue at her new house. We have got decorations, balloons, gazebos, music, fairy lights, even games and karaoke! Plus of course food and drink! I am really looking forward to Sunday as I really wanted a party and didn't think I was going to be able to have one, so its a wonderful gesture. I am so grateful to her for doing this.

If these celebrations were not enough a week later I am meeting up with my close friend Andy who is back visiting from Singapore and we are carrying on the tradition of celebrating our birthday's together as he too of course will be turning 30 in a few days time! So really I am going to have something like 3 birthday celebrations for my 30th! Perhaps that is one for each decade! Teehee!

I am sure I will have plenty of photos and lots to tell you about my celebrations which I will try to put on my blog as soon as possible.

So for now, I am off to enjoy turning 30!