Celebration Month

 Hi folks!

Look at this, it’s not even April and I’m writing again. What?

We have had a month of big birthdays, so I thought it would be fun to record some of the festivities here in the old blog.

It began back on the 7th of March where we left off, with my 60th birthday.

Here I am with my big pressie, a magical flute. I am wearing the “Quing” crown (Queen/King said ‘Kwing’)we get as the birthday person. The Quing gets to call the shots for the day.

Cutting my birthday cake on our night picnic in our campervan ‘Brumhilda’.

The next big celebration was Aiden’s on the 19th. He turned 18. His big present was an electric mountain bike. Man, was he looking forward to this one. He had already selected it as we had to make sure he liked it, and then had to wait…………!

Still clean

Glamour shots

Look at that smile

What it was made for…all dusty.

The very next day we had our 35th wedding anniversary. Yes, Cris had to restrain himself from urging me to hurry when pushing out Aiden. He just squeaked into his own day at 11pm. I was going as fast as I could.

To celebrate our day we took ourselves to the ‘Feared and Revered’ exhibition at the Nation Museum, which was in collaboration with The British Museum. We got to see some lovely statues and historical finds relating to ancient goddesses and mythological beings.

Some of my favourites were:

Sekhmet

Aphrodite/Venus rising from her bath

You know you have seen the real thing when you have seen the back.

Aboriginal Yawkyawk (complete with baby inside). I also love the shadows they made on the wall.

And coming in fast at the end of the month on the 24th, was Miles with his 21st birthday.

Here he is (looking very saintly) with his main present, a commuter ebike complete with belt drive. Can you tell he is studying engineering?

A family tradition on my side has been to be given an engraved knife on your 21st birthday.

Which then becomes the birthday knife. Up until now we have used mine, but here is Miles with his very own golden knife.

So that night at our night picnic we used it on his cake.

Even though it took a bit to light the candles on the windy night.  (We ended up only managing

half.)

I told you he looked saintly. Even his bike can walk on water.

The day after my birthday I wrote a poem. So I will leave you with these thoughts.

Here I sit

In a little patch of sun

Hiding from the wind 

The day after my 60th birthday 

And I feel my life 

Settling back around me 

Realising how much

It has loomed large 

In the distance

And now here I am

Safely on the other side.

The sun is still shining on me

And though the wind is blustery 

I can weather the storm.

All those swirling emotions 

Of gratitude and expectations 

And fear

Can all have a seat.

Big birthdays are full

Of ‘Do people love me?’

‘Will I die soon?’

‘How can I have the perfect day?’

‘Time is running out. How can I make

the most of the time left?’

‘My family is so precious 

and lovely to me.’

‘How can I not be a burden to them?’

Only now afterwards

Can I get some perspective 

And drop back down 

Into normal life.

Ahhh…

8/3/23

Til next time,

Keep on creating!

Love Jazzy Jack

60th Birthday and Blue Mountains trip

 Hi all!

Can you guess what I am doing today? I am turning 60! Right this minute in fact.

Turning and turning until I’m all 60ified. By midnight I’ll be all done. 

It’s quite something this moment. Apparently if you and your spouse make it to 60, at least one of us has a 90 % chance of making it to 90, according to our Superannuation expert. So now Cris and I fight it out?

I remember turning 50 and it felt super old. Almost older than this to be honest. I’ve got used to being semiretired and menopausal and all the ailments starting to creep up. It doesn’t feel nice, but I’ve got a bit used to putting myself in the older bracket now. I think menopause really changes things, duh!

The fun part of today has been receiving a flute. I used to play quite well as a teenager, and then it was put on the back burner while I learnt the violin which I received for my 21st (notice a trend here?)

So now I get to revisit old times like an old timer does. It’s amazing how much it has stayed in my fingers.

I managed to get through the whole first book in one day, reminding myself how all the notes are played. And now I just have to become better at moving between them. My emboucher could use a little work!

Now to the Blue Mountains.

Aiden and I went off for a jaunt a few weeks ago, so I thought it would be nice to record the moment for posterity in the old blog.

I’m not sure how I will choose the photos to show because it was one of those times when you couldn’t take an ugly shot.

We stayed in a cute BnB, with leadlight doors to the kitchen (which blocked the front door, but who’s counting?)

Super cute overgrown garden (Aiden looks happy to have arrived)

Built in verandahs with mad vintage items

A toilet and bathroom down stairs. I felt like I was making a great dramatic entry every time.

And cute little ‘Adventure Island’ chairs, (as we used to call them after a favourite TV show), sitting on a pint sized verandah overlooking the bush.

While there we spent our first day at ‘The Three Sisters’. It has grown dramatically in tourist numbers since I was last there. I can’t say I enjoyed that part of it, but the scenery can’t be faulted.

We climbed down some very steep stairs to explore the first ‘Sister’. Pushing past people on a steep precipice with a back pack on is not my idea of fun. We decided to leave and move on to other areas, where we found some quieter but no less enjoyable beauty.

On our way home we explored Wentworth Falls from a lovely lookout we had all to ourselves, just arriving when people we were leaving, and leaving when people were arriving. Such a treat to feel all that majesty in silence. We may or may not have carved our initials in the railing paint. Amazing we could find a blank spot!

The next day we headed off down the end of our street to explore the pathway in our local ravine behind the house. I thought we would take 20 minutes but we arrived home three hours later!

But what views we had. We could have happily just done our local valley and called it a successful holiday.

And with that we were on our way home again.

A swift break from our daily routines which we plan to repeat throughout the year, introducing Aiden to the wider world. (At least the world we can fit in between trampoline lessons)

Til next time,

Keep on creating!

Love,

Jazzy Jack