So what's been going on? Well I turned 40 and had a party to celebrate/commiserate. The lead up to the day was rather harrowing because 40 for me seemed to be the point at which I'd start to become old. All the TV ads and the pamphlets in the doctors surgeries kept telling me I had to ramp up my health checks and instead of having certain things done once every two years suddenly they all seemed to be needed on an almost weekly basis. I don't know whether those guidelines were written by GP's wanting to line their coffers and saw old people as a way to do it or if it really is necessary to have your boobs prodded, your eyes peered into, your blood pressure measured, your hormone levels monitored and your toenails removed as often as they claim. It seems to me that spending so much time in a doctor's surgery waiting room would expose you to so many germs you'd probably die from flu before you'd die from the effects of unbalanced hormones.
Anyway I turned 40 and I'm still here. The party was a hoot I have to admit despite my misgivings. I was worried I'd not be able to stay up past 11PM, that there wouldn't be enough food and that I'd be too tired the next day to clean up. That's what getting old does to you - you no longer think you're capable of having a good time. Apparently I even looked ok - not a minute past 40.
The party was a protest party and of course I was protesting about being 40, others just protested - like my friend Liam. As he left the party at 2.30AM he took some of the protest signs from the garden and he and his partner took some photos of themselves protesting with them outside a popular city nightclub. I'm not certain whether or not they were joined by anyone who supported their cause.
Henry has started swimming lessons again now that the weather has warmed up. At first he was hesitant and not really keen to join in use his "big arms" as they call them to fasion a stroke. He was happy enough to be in the water as long as the swim instructor expected nothing of him. By the third lesson he was like a fish following the leader. Now he can't get enough. Every day he asks if he can go to swimming lessons. He prefers to spend his time sitting on the bottom of the pool or "diving" as he calls it. When the instructor aks him to show her his "big arms" his little body doubles over but his arms and legs are moving rapidly. He can't quite get the hang of keeping his body stetched out straight. As far as he's concerned though he's swimming like the strongest shark in the ocean.
We took him to see his first movie on the big screen this past weekend. I'd been thinking about doing it for quite some time to see if he was up to sitting still for that amount of time. Thankfully a Thomas the Tank movie was showing which was only 1hr long and it was cheap so if we had to hot foot it out of their nothing much would have been lost. In the lead up to it he'd found a swim costume that had been a hand me down from his older cousin. This was one of those all in one type swim suits designed to protect from the sun as much as possible - long sleeves, knee length shorts and a nice long zip at the front and very body hugging. It's ugly and it fit him perfectly and as soon as he had it on he was transformed as Sportacus - a superhero dedicated to saving children everywhere from the evils of laziness and obesity. Once he had that on he wasn't taking it off. I pleaded with him and bribed him but he would not hear of it so off he went to the movies with his swim costume on. He thought he looked like a superhero and that the suit gave him special powers so I let him go on believing that for the whole day.
1 comment:
Happy 40th! I actually love being in my 40's so far. I'm having fun and most of those annoying self-esteem issues seem to have gone away.
You look great, by the way.
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