Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Birthdays and history

It is 20 years today since the ANC were unbanned in a monumentously historic announcement by then-president, FW de Klerk. It was my 15th birthday. I remember being incredibly proud that it happened on my birthday, and have to admit, that I still feel a little shudder of pride about it. Even better was when, 9 days later, on my mother's birthday, Mandela was released. In my up-your-own-arse teenage mind, I was directly involved in these wonderful moments.

Which, of course, leads us to the fact that I am 35 today. Middle aged. I'm not actually all that perturbed by age. It seems a silly thing to be hung up on because, really, what are you going to do about it? Stop time? A friend of my mother's has never told anyone her age. Bizarre. I plan to grow old gracefully (well, ok, I'm not exactly the most graceful creature* but you know what I mean) and be brazenly honest about my age.

Unfortunately, regardless of my Birthday Girl status, I have to be at Real Work, but I am not being particularly productive and am answering lovely birthday calls instead. I just got one from Aisha, my personal banker. Hmm... Funny thing is: I didn't even know I had a personal banker. I was going to say: "Thank you, but it might be better for you to spend more time improving the service at your bank, and less time phoning people to say Happy Birthday", but then I thought that'd be ungracious. Then I felt a little bad about not knowing when HER birthday is, to return the favour. Luckily another friend phoned, so my guilt flitted away like confetti on the breeze. Shows you what a solid character I am - focused is the word I like to use.

So, happy birthday to me. Who could ask for more than to wake up on one's birthday, loved, and be able to look forward to a lovely meal, al fresco, with delicious friends and delightful food, later?

*Understatement of the year

5 comments:

Angela said...

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Shiny! Oh, 35 is wonderful! Funny thing is, even when you`ll be my age one day (muffled noises)(so much to being always honest), you won`t feel much older in your mind. Your hands look somewhat different, but that`s about it. So, never worry about age.
And I`m sure we all owe you the big happenings on your birthday. Well done, Shiny!!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday!!

Rambler said...

I missed your birthday!!!

Yesterday was CRAZY! Hope it was insanely happy and look forward to the next 35!

xxxxx

fAMILY AFFAIRS said...

Happy Happy Happy birthday lovely shiny person Lx
ps I can't seem to leave a message from my new blog so still old link on comment - ignore. New link is http://familyaffairsandothermatters.com
Lx

Shiny said...

Thank you all, it was a lovely day xxx