Decades of birthdays
Apr. 17th, 2021 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustI don't remember my tenth birthday, nor my 20th either. Of course, the big deal was not 20, but 21, and I posted about my 21st not long ago.
The thing about having an April birthday is that Easter dances about, and sometimes you benefit, and sometimes you don't. My 30th fell on Good Friday, which is memorable only for the devout Catholic friend who declined to join us for dinner. But my mother took us to a restaurant, and I ate my first lobster.
My 40th was a working day, anddurham_rambler picked me up from work and took me to lunch at 21 Queen Street - my one and only visit to what was then Newcastle's best restaurant. I didn't go back to work after lunch. Thet was the Wednesday, but it was bracketed by a party at home on the preceding Saturday, and a party organised by my mother and the Bears in London on the following Saturday.
We celebrated my 50th with dinner at the Creel; we booked houses in Stromness to accommodate as many guests as were prepared to travel to join us.
My 60th was a smaller affair:durham_rambler and I went to Antrim for a week, to visit the Giant's Causeway. By that time I was keeping this diary, but I barely seem to have posted about it. Which is odd, because I have a clear memory of returning to the cottage after a day walking, taking a hot bath and then sitting down and writing. But the only record I have of that day is a handwritten note in my little book "the Causeway Coast in 106 pictures." The previous day is another matter, and I've been having a lovely time sorting the photos of that, so that may be a post quite soon.
So what would I do for my 70th? Something, surely. Even last year, newly locked down, I was philosophical: I could wait, this would be the special birthday when I would celebrate... So much for that! And the sun shone (more or less) and we went out, and walked along the front at Roker, and ate langoustines and chips sitting outside, and it's all good.
And I can smell the potato wedges in the oven: time to have a look at those, and to open that bottle of Uruguayan marselan...
The thing about having an April birthday is that Easter dances about, and sometimes you benefit, and sometimes you don't. My 30th fell on Good Friday, which is memorable only for the devout Catholic friend who declined to join us for dinner. But my mother took us to a restaurant, and I ate my first lobster.
My 40th was a working day, and
durham_rambler picked me up from work and took me to lunch at 21 Queen Street - my one and only visit to what was then Newcastle's best restaurant. I didn't go back to work after lunch. Thet was the Wednesday, but it was bracketed by a party at home on the preceding Saturday, and a party organised by my mother and the Bears in London on the following Saturday.We celebrated my 50th with dinner at the Creel; we booked houses in Stromness to accommodate as many guests as were prepared to travel to join us.
My 60th was a smaller affair:
durham_rambler and I went to Antrim for a week, to visit the Giant's Causeway. By that time I was keeping this diary, but I barely seem to have posted about it. Which is odd, because I have a clear memory of returning to the cottage after a day walking, taking a hot bath and then sitting down and writing. But the only record I have of that day is a handwritten note in my little book "the Causeway Coast in 106 pictures." The previous day is another matter, and I've been having a lovely time sorting the photos of that, so that may be a post quite soon.So what would I do for my 70th? Something, surely. Even last year, newly locked down, I was philosophical: I could wait, this would be the special birthday when I would celebrate... So much for that! And the sun shone (more or less) and we went out, and walked along the front at Roker, and ate langoustines and chips sitting outside, and it's all good.
And I can smell the potato wedges in the oven: time to have a look at those, and to open that bottle of Uruguayan marselan...
no subject
Date: 2021-04-18 01:54 am (UTC)Meanwhile, langoustines and chips, and a pleasant seafront are just fine.
Nine
no subject
Date: 2021-04-18 09:57 am (UTC)