So I'm a year older

Gosh, it's only been 4 days since I last wrote but it  feels like forever.

I intended to write last night but my ISP told me I was out of bandwidth - impossible since I should have had about 12 GB left.

All manner of troubleshooting didn't fix it so eventually I went to bed. I was quite calm about the whole thing. I think it's loadshedding that's made me a bit blase about stuff working...

Anyway, back to the birthday.

I worked from home on the actual day - Thursday - which was fabulous. Best decision ever (if you can't go to the beach!). I could fetch the kids from school and go for a walk with them and do a bit of decluttering/ organising in my "tea" breaks.

I had lovely phone calls, messages, and such, which is always very, very nice.

Went to Spanish in the evening and home to takeaway pasta. So a lovely day all in all.

At my work, people are not really "into birthdays" so nothing ever happens unless it's instigated by someone like me. We've had one colleague with a birthday (and another ex-colleague) since I started, and I bought a present and card for both people without anyone else expressing interest. No-one else really cares.

So obviously no fuss was made of mine but I didn't expect anything so I was still happy (my key to happiness is to have low expectations!). I brought in cakes and chips and sausage rolls and festive party plates, etc. which was looked at with .... incredulity :)

Anyway, that is ME! And my rule is to be ME at all costs.

Right?

Temp tattoo - the only kind of tattoo I am ever going to have, so I took a picture.

And then yesterday I had a lunch for a few friends.

Last year I invited a ton of people and ended up with 18 guests. This year there was a third of that. Very different but very nice.

I hesitated for sweet forever about whether to have a lunch or not and I only finally decided 10 days before Saturday. It felt VERY last-minute to me but this is what most people do and things end up fine :)

And so ends my birthday week :( And my family's birthday month!!!

an old photo but I love it! taken during Superhero Photo --->>

I didn't get any fiction this year so I've earmarked a few on Amazon to buy for myself :)

I want to write a post about the kids' birthday party, about things I've learnt over this last year, and other such navel-gazing posts, but it's late and my bed is calling!

How's your weekend going?
Do you buy yourself birthday gifts?

PS Two people asked me if we'd redone our kitchen. HA! (no way do I have patience for such an endeavour) Maybe the light looked different or it was cleaner?