I love celebrating birthdays, other peoples birthdays.  When it comes to my own, I like to disappear for a week.  Normally in the lead up to my birthday I withdraw and just want to hide away.  I guess there is a part of me that likes to stop and reflects upon life.

This year, more so than others, I wanted to just have a quiet one.  I'm not sure why 40 is a big deal.  I feel great at forty.  I feel good physically, although I'd love to have a regular exercise routine, but I feel good.  Mentally, well I'm really moving forward in many ways.  I feel like I'm in a good place in life.

G said he'd booked dinner for us.  I told him I'm happy with an easy dinner at our favourite Japanese Restaurant but G insisted we dress up and not wear jeans.  I couldn't convince him otherwise.  So I got home, got changed, relaxed for a bit.  G wouldn't tell me where we were going or much about dinner and picking the restaurant.  It had been a week of rain so it was great that we had a clear night to go for dinner.

It was the perfect night for outside dining  The sky was clear, the stars were out, it was a lovely balmy evening.  We ate at Aqua at North Sydney, with the perfect backdrop of Sydney Harbour.  It was magnificent.  In I strolled to find my closest and dearest friends at the table waiting for me.  A huge, huge, huge surprise.  They looked gorgeous as always and I'd secretly wished I'd worn some thing nicer, I laughed to myself at this thought.  A very wonderful G had organised the surprise.  I was shocked.  I would never had guessed, it was a school night, busy lives...  that this was all organised, wow.  Naturally, I then felt overwhelmed, embarrassed and uncomfortable with all eyes on me.  As I said thank you and thank you and thanks for coming we then slipped in to laughter and stories for the evening.

As we ate and drunk under the stars at Aqua Dining it made me realise how blessed I am to have these two wonderful friends in my life.  We reminisced and laughed so much the boys just shook their heads and laughed with us.

 

I was so overwhelmed by the evening.  G had organised a wonderful night.  The most memorable birthday I've every had.  It was truly beautiful and a lovely surprise.  He really out did himself.