Every year, for as long as I can recall, I have always looked forward to my birthday no matter how horrid everything else was in life. It was the one day I could feel good about because it brought back sweet childhood memories of this special day. As I grew older and circumstances in life changed, I just stopped celebrating my birthday. I got best wishes from my loved ones but I guess that’s about as far as I’d get. I missed having a birthday cake and thought that perhaps once you ‘grow up’ you’re not supposed to be doing things like that. Of course that’s all a matter of perception. If someone thinks their birthday is special enough to be celebrated, it really shouldn’t bother anyone, should it?

So last week it was Birthday Week and for some strange reason I couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm for it. I usually like to dress up extra nice, maybe wear new shoes and do something different but this year it just wasn’t the same. At exactly midnight, I got a phone call from someone very special and that was quite sweet. My kids were super-excited. On the day, they woke me up with hugs and kisses while I was still in bed and that was a shocker because it takes me ages to wake them up for school! I was gifted chocolate by my daughter and my son bought me the most beautiful butterfly earrings. They get money for household chores when they help so they had saved up quite a bit to buy me presents. My waterworks started there and then.

Then I was blindfolded and taken downstairs to the kitchen where they’d decorated the place with banners and balloons and they’d baked me a cake too. I was really overwhelmed and the tears threatened to spill over again. I’m becoming a softie in my old age, I must say. The cake was beautiful, sunk in the middle because they must have opened the over door too soon, decorated with what looked like chocolate sauce but turned out to be chocolate ice cream, lots of sugar flowers and bang in the middle where the cake had sunk was the top of my fancy Jean Paul Gaultier perfume bottle top!

I got numerous phone calls, text messages and loads of birthday wishes on social networks too and I was really humbled and touched at the love pouring in. At work, my colleagues spoilt me with fantastic presents and then the waterworks started up again because Maina Kageni had ordered a huge white forest birthday cake just for me and I couldn’t stop the tears. My colleagues are like family to me and it was an absolutely wonderful feeling to be sung Happy Birthday to by a whole floor of celebrities and singers!

There are times when I feel low and think of the past but this time I kicked myself for it and gave myself a good telling-off. I’m surrounded by so many people who love me and care for me and I seriously must stop delving in the past if it’s just to think of bad times. I’ve challenged myself to think of the past only if it brings a smile on my face and out with all that nonsensical stuff of getting sad over what has already happened. I have great plans for my birthday next year and I am already looking forward to it. The plans might involve me selling a kidney to fund what I want to do but I know it’s going to be worth it because it’s something I have always wanted to treat myself to. And no, I’m not talking about a new pair of shoes.

Here’s a great big thank you to you for being part of my life and making it so beautiful. I’m becoming a soppy git with age and no, I’m not telling you how many candles were on my cake this year. Let’s just say if I’d have lit them all, the fire alarm would have gone off.