This week saw the start of the school summer holidays. I have been so looking forward to the holiday but in reality this was a pretty dull week prior to my birthday. It was a week to catch up on lots and do the essential life admin, there have been visits to the doctor, dentist and hospital for routine appointments, a couple of football training sessions which mean a 40 mile round trip and holiday nails and treatments. The weather was also pretty poor, grey and drizzly so not the most inspiring way to start the holiday. I was feeling a little despondent with my week but then listened to a teacher podcast and it seemed my week was pretty normal for most teachers.

The highlight of the week was my birthday, as I celebrated my 50th. I’m not someone who gets stressed about my age, I’m happy who I am and how I am, and there’s no desire to try and be a younger me. I did feel a pressure from some parties to do something for my birthday when I was really quite comfortable with a quiet day with loved ones. I am the organiser and planner in our family and really did not want the stress to do this for my own celebration so left all the planning to my husband. I appreciated my day, it was me and who I am today. We started with breakfast at my favourite cafe in town and it was dry and warm to be able to sit outside in their colourful courtyard. It was here I was presented with my present, a certificate of ownership of a personalised plaque on the pier. Of course, our first stop after breakfast was to find my plaque on the pier. It is in a lovely spot and I am so made up with my gift. My husband did tease me that he knew I would question the u instead of you, but did explain there was a character limit and he couldn’t write the full word. I am so happy with my gift, I have been saying that I have been immortalised on our town’s pier. I love the thought of my grandchildren finding my plaque in the years to come, or friends passing and seeing it and thinking of happy times together. After our visit to the pier, we then walked the length of the beach, the sun on our faces and just chatting together ‘en famille.’ After a lovely al fresco lunch, I sat in the garden whilst friends and neighbours popped around, flowers were delivered and many messages exchanged. My neighbours bought me a rose in my name so Mr S planted this for me in our garden. As he did this, I also found the time to finish my book in the sunshine, these simple pleasures made my day. In all of this we also had a visit from Dyno Rod as we had discovered a significant leak the day before, happily it was easily fixed. The day finished with a Chinese dinner.

As it is now carnival week, there was a party feel at our parkrun on Saturday morning and I dressed up. I did keep my birthday quiet as I don’t like the fuss but had such a lovely morning with the carnival atmosphere and community fun.

Following our week of life admin, our future weeks look so much more exciting and fun, now we just need the weather to improve.