Six Decades and Going Strong
Comments(3) Just spent a few days up at Byron Bay for Mum’s 60th birthday celebration. We had a great party on Saturday, starting at lunch time and continuing well into the night. It’s hard to imagine being alive for 6 decades but seeing Mum happy and healthy, dancing and celebrating, was an inspiration and made me reflect on life a little. We tend to think as we get older we can’t do as much and it does usually come to that eventually for most people but seeing Mum, Dad and their friends on Saturday showed that life can still very much be a lot of fun at any age.
We spent a couple of days beforehand in the kitchen, each of us making different dishes. Ian made vegetable curry, lasagne, white chocolate cheesecake and a lemon cake. I made a Moroccan lamb stew and an apple crumble and Mum did a coffee cream roll and a couple of salads. We didn’t go hungry.
We had a couple of surprise visits as well. Gill, my cousin from NZ, planned to arrive on the Friday as a surprise but my great-uncle inadvertently let the cat out of the bag and told Mum beforehand. That was a bit of a shame but we had a fantastic time with her. She’s really positive and spirited so added a lot of spark to the party, let alone the champagne cocktails she concocted for all the guests as they arrived. Then, Dad showed up on Saturday as a surprise – from Bangkok, where he is working voluntarily for a few months. He rang in the morning from Byron pretending to be calling from Thailand and Mum was saying ‘You should be here’ etc. Then, half an hour later he stepped off the bus and walked across the grass. Mum and Gill were stunned. Mum was in shock and said she went numb!
The party was really energetic with a great, happy atmosphere. We danced to 60s and 70s music, talked, drank and ate. It was a great way to celebrate the event.
The next morning, we had a champagne breakfast because Gill had brought over some expensive champers. Ian made pancakes and we ate outside with the people who had stayed, Bev and Les from Taree, Gill, Ian, Mum, Dad and I. Then, Gill and I walked up to the lighthouse at Byron, an uphill 2.5km hike. I didn’t exactly feel fit but was glad I did it and got to spend some time with her as well as work off some of the indulgences from the day before.
I don’t think you’re too old for anything……well maybe not anything because today a lady Dr suggest
I learn to swim when I was at the heated pool for exercise. I said, “I think I’ve left my run a bit late!.”
She disagreed. It doesn’t really feel any different when you reach 60 as I still think I’m about 40 in my
thinking……Thank you for your thoughts, Ruth. I think you’ll be a lively 60yr old one day too!! Yes, I’ll
never forget my 60th birthday party, thanks to you, Ian and Gill and others.
Happy Birthday!
Parties are a blast, especially when there’s Retro music involved. Sounds like a great night. I hope Neil blasted from the setreos at some point!
He certainly did though I can’t remember which songs we put on. I did try to put on Forever in Blue Jeans at one point but not sure if I managed to. We were picking and choosing songs from CDs so it was a bit of a mixed bag.