THE THING ABOUT MY BIRTHDAY

So here’s the thing… I skipped a year at school.  No, no don’t get too excited, I’m not some sort of child prodigy who was in need of more intellectual stimulation than my age group could provide, I actually just wanted to move schools when I was five and it was decided that the measly 20 days left of September until my sixth birthday were not enough to warrant a whole extra year of school fees. So when all is said and done, I pretty much missed a year of colouring-in and hop-scotch.

Although my colouring skills have always been slightly below par, there have been many benefits to being the youngest person in my school and University year group and my favourite side effect has been the fact that I am probably the only person on the planet over the age of eighteen who enjoys getting older.  When every single one of my friends goes through and overcomes the progressively more traumatic experience of adding an extra year to their age, by the time late September comes around the whole aging thing has rather lost it’s depressing edge and I am proverbially (and yes, sometimes literally) rubbing my hands together in greedy anticipation of presents, cake and champagne.  

At the grand old age of 26, this year has been my best birthday yet!  Spanning a total of two and a half weeks, my celebrations have included a girl’s night in, a family feast, a night out in Soho, a champagne picnic in Hyde Park, a surprise Birthday dinner with all my University friends in attendance and a long weekend in Paris!  How my 30th is ever going to live up to this I don’t know...

Thanks must go to my family for what might be the first and only time where they have managed to keep something quiet; all my wonderful friends for taking the time and money to be in the same place at the same time; my two best friends for being so organisationally helpful and of course my lovely boyfriend for making the whole thing possible.