Staring the year with a bounce

Thanks to everyone who left comments on my whiny self-indulgent pre-birthday blog post last week. I spent the day pondering whether or not to tell my colleagues, who appeared to have forgotten, and moped around a bit for no real reason. By Friday, when my colleagues did remember and I also had a gorgeous birthday lunch and gift-buying trip to Fortnum & Mason courtesy of Topper, I was feeling much cheerier and ready to tackle the blog post I promised you. Then the weekend happened. Thankfully, the delay has meant that I can now adorn this post with this delightful birthday image, sent to me by the fantastic starinmelbourne. Wonderfully smile-inducing for a Monday morning!

Elizabeth left a rather moving comment on my last post, regarding the problems of birthdays that are wedged firmly in a time when everyone is Thinking About Other Stuff. She tells us: “As you know, I am a fellow sufferer of being an early-January baby. It has totally sucked hairy balls over the years. And I know my story is probably no different from anyone else born from Christmas Eve onwards. I have had best friends drop out of my 18th birthday night on the town at the very last minute! I have had joint Christmas and Birthday presents. My mother still wraps my birthday present in Christmas wrapping paper.

“But I think the saddest year was when no-one, literally no-one turned up to my 8th birthday party. I had even gone out with my Mum to buy all the party decorations, we had blown up balloons, hung streamers and I had made up 10 partybags for my ‘friends’. After half an hour of no-shows my Mum started frantically calling everyone she knew with kids to try and drag them out. In the end, a couple of kids down the street came by and we played about with balloons. But the scar still runs deep… However, I refuse to ignore that it is the day of my birth even if everyone else does. In my ideal world I would get a bouncy castle like all my siblings did, because 28 or not, I can still find pleasure in jumping on a giant inflatable castle!”

Elizabeth is a woman whose interests are as varied as the English weather. She blogs anything from outfits and recipes, to car boot finds and photographs from her day-trips/travels. Visit her blog Rosalilium for an insight into whether or not the 8th birthday party incident has had a lasting effect on her life (you could even enter her generous Birthday Giveaway!). Perhaps she’ll order that bouncy castle for next year. If so, I shall most definitely be inviting myself round as it sounds like the perfect way to banish those winter blues and cheer up a birthday week that can so often be disappointing. It’d be a great way to warm up too! But first… let’s get on with 2011, eh?