70

I'm not quite done with posting about our road trip yet; but I've kind of been taking a break from that this weekend, to celebrate my own 70th birthday. 

Somehow any birthday marking the end of a full decade tends to cause more "fuss" than those in between.

One friend of mine (living elsewhere), who also turned 70 in August, celebrated by escaping with her husband, children and their respective parnters, plus a bunch of grandchildren, to the Canary Islands. She said she was not planning to have any extra party when they got back; but whether she succeeded in keeping that intention, I don't know.  

Another friend (living in the same town as I) who also turned 70 in August, decided early on to take the bull by the horns, so sent out invitations six months in advance to a big party in mid August - which I blogged about earlier this month. Considering how early she sent out the invitations, I suspect she must have started the planning shortly after her 69th...

As for myself, I probably started "worrying" at least a year in advance as well. But I arrived at the conclusion that my friends these days are so spread out that trying to gather them all at the same time and place would be impossible. And even if by some miracle I'd manage it with some of them, it wouldn't give me the time to catch up with them all properly anyway. So for my own part, I arrived at the compromise of an escape trip earlier in the month (the road trip with my brother); then kind of took advantage of my friend's party to catch up with some mutual old friends; and then spent the Actual Day just answering phone calls and messages and whatnot...

The friend who escaped to a  far-off island for her big day visited me at the end of July; and another friend, just recently retired from work in connection with her own 65th, took the bus here from from another town a few days before my actual BD for lunch + also came home with me for a while. She's another one I've known for nearly 50 years, and we managed to get a good long undisturbed conversation about all kinds of things. 

--- Having come that far in writing this post, my phone rang. It was the friend whose party I attended two weeks ago; wanting to come by. Visitors wasn't in my plan for today (either); and at 2 pm I still I hadn't even had lunch yet, nor been out. Hard to say no, though - and I had some photos (paper prints!) for her from her own party anyway. (She's one of those who miraculously still manage to get by without neither smartphone nor computer.) 

So I had a hasty lunch; and shortly after, she turned up, bringing a pretty pink begonia. Luckily at least I was able to offer her a cup of instant coffee (tea for myself) and a piece of cake. (I did bake one earlier in the week, a sort of mix between cake and pie, that can be eaten with whipped vanilla cream.) ... And a bit later I accompanied her part of her way home, and then extended my own walk a bit on the way back to mine - so got my own exercise in too, after all.

Now it's evening, and I can no longer recall my original plans for this post (if I had any). Ah well. I guess I'll just post it anyway. 

Tomorrow is a New Month. Remains to be seen what that will bring! (If nothing else, I  have some thank you notes to write...)