Oh help, I'm thirty!

Yes, the end of youthfulness has finally come....I half expected to wake up on Monday with my first grey hairs, new aches and pains, and perhaps some wrinkles too!  Thankfully none of this happened, it was instead a wonderful day. 

It had been raining like mad the day before so my first summer birthday was not looking like being very summery.  The morning was a bit misty but thankfully it cleared into a beautiful sunny arvo that was almost hot-ish! 

I've never had much of a habit of advertising upcoming birthdays, but since this could have been a rather depressing milestone it was actually good to have everyone knowing and helping celebrate. 



The day began with a skype call to Dad and Alison, then my sister Renae and her hubby Adrian. I opened the pressie from my sis when chatting..it took a lot of resisting to not open it earlier! I also got special gifts and greetings from big sis and friends too :)

"How much tape did you use?"

"Oh wow! It's a...."





"Aww...lovely card :) "

"Wait, there's more....."

At lunchtime I got a birthday cake cooked by Anja, the Abbey cook. Very yummy!

In the arvo I persuaded a group of vollies to go swimming with me to fulfil my number one birthday wish!  The calendar says it's summer so that's enough of a reason to swim I think :)  The sky was blue but the water was freezing!  With lots of screaming we managed to get in and stay for 15 mins before deciding it really wasn't so warm.  It was great fun though, and not half as cold as I expected :)

That evening I went out to dinner with Gail, who shares the same birthday.  Together we turned 95....quite a milestone....only 5 more years until we get a letter from the Queen!  We had yummy fish and chips before 2 other ladies came and joined us for a chat. 

Gail, Dawn, Maddie and I :)

So all in all, a very special day!  It's quite interesting to celebrate with people I've only just met, but living in community speeds up the 'getting to know you' process quite a bit!  Here are some other random Iona pics.  Enjoy your week :)