The Big Three Five

It’s been a pretty big week here. Last Thursday, this happened: My littlest fella started school. I’d posted here before about some of the concerns I had about it. He’s shy and lacks self confidence and he’s going to an extremely large school. There are fifteen classes of kids his page, that’s about 250 kids in his year alone and the school goes to year 9. So it’s super big. The first morning he was excited but when we got to school he was very nervous and unsure. Unfortunately for us, the first morning was a bit of a disaster. When we had to leave, he was sobbing  – basically our worst nightmare. We felt that everything that could go wrong for him in the first few minutes did and sometimes he can be hard to bring back once he’s lost his confidence in what he’s doing. They had someone with him (an aid or helper teacher maybe) when we left and we thought he was going to have the worst day. But when we picked him up he was beaming and full of excitement, babbling about all the things they did. Thankfully once he calmed down he obviously had a fantastic day. The second day routine was much better for him and now he’s had four awesome days. He seems to really enjoy the learning aspect of school, which we expected. He’s genuinely excited to go and he loves his teacher.

He looks so grown up in his school uniform. I could just about cry every time I see him to be honest.

But it’s not all bad. Yesterday I turned 35 and had the first “child free” birthday with my husband since 2008! We decided – well to be honest I decided – to go out for a “grown up” sort of lunch! A nice bar/restaurant place opened a couple weeks ago nearby, I’d been hearing a few things about it, seeing a few pics on social media so I thought we might go and check it out. I’m not much of a drinker – never have been. But I’d seen pics of the martinis they do. There’s a huge range, from espresso to nutella to white chocolate to apple to lychee and probably a bunch more. Originally I’d really wanted to try an espresso one but when we got there I changed my mind and went for the apple martini. I wanted something fresh and this was a perfect choice. This is literally the first martini I’ve ever had in my entire life and I thought it was delicious. I can’t wait to go back and try more! Although can I just say how unsteady those glasses are? Every time I picked it up I had to be incredibly careful or I’d have worn that drink. Maybe it’s a ploy because there’s no way that drunk people don’t spill half of every drink they buy in a glass like that!

Food was amazing….I had a club sandwich with beer battered fries. My husband had a Moroccan lamb burger with onion rings. He doesn’t even like onion so I thought he might give me the onion rings and I’d hand over my fries. But no. He ate them! That’s how good they were.

And another pic of my drink, because why the heck not?

Turning 35 felt kind of weird. Normally I don’t really care a whole lot about my birthdays. Some people find turning 30 hard but I didn’t think anything of it at all. In fact I can’t even remember my 30th birthday. Don’t even think I did anything in particular for it. I had a 4 month old at the time, so maybe that’s why! But for some reason, turning 35 felt like one of those ‘milestone’ birthdays. Perhaps it was triggered by a message from my younger brother who advised me that I was now on the path to 40. Technically it’s true although I do have a few years to go before I get there! It’s funny, there’s 3 years and 7 months between us and when we were kids, I adored the time of the year I was 4 years older than him. I would have a birthday in Feb and then until September I would be 4 years older. Then he’d have a birthday and I’d only be 3 years above him in age. Now it’s kind of the opposite! He always hated being the younger one, now he loves reminding me how much older than him I am!

It made me think about things….like what do I have to show for 35 years of existence? I don’t feel 35. Recently a friend of mine tagged me on facebook in an old school picture she found. It was year 7 and we are both 12. The thing that struck me about it was my oldest kid is only four years younger than I was in that picture. It didn’t seem possible that it’s been 23 years since that picture. The fact that I have an 8yo is what cemented how long ago it truly was. I can remember the days when 40 felt positively ancient and now it’s my next “milestone”. I understand the whole 40 is the new 30 thing, because when I was younger 40 felt so positively grown up, like you were almost retired or something. Now I suspect 40 is going to feel very much like ‘now’ does. And half the time I still live like I’m 21 and at university, eating inappropriate food for breakfast.

What does this have to do with books? Well, there’s a connection. What do you get a book blogger for her birthday? Books or money to buy books! The Friday before my birthday I went shopping with a few things in mind that I would’ve liked. Mostly it was a fail but I did find this:

Victim Without A Face by Stefan Anheim. This is the first in the Fabian Risk series. I received the second one for review but I’m a bit precious about reading series books out of order or with no background when they contain the same characters. I’m okay with it in romance series connected by a town or something where the ‘couple’ changes each book. But with crime series’ quite often there’s continuity and background. This was a bit of a random find, I wasn’t really looking for it but when I spotted it I decided to grab it. I’ve already started reading it….I’m about 100p or so in and it’s gruesome and quite intriguing. Scandinavian crime is decent.

I was intending to hunt down Traitor To The Throne by Alwyn Hamilton but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Nor did I have much luck in finding the types of clothes I wanted to buy (shorts that didn’t have half my ass hanging out, maxi skirts) so I think I’ll plan a trip into the city at some stage soon to buy lots of books and things to wear. Well that’s the plan anyway. How come when you have money to spend you can never find anything to buy but when you don’t there are so many things you wish you could?

 

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