Watching Others Get Old and Loving It More!!

After my birthday celebration, came 'round two' of birthdays and probably one of the most hectic weekends of my life! In the space of one week I know four people who celebrate their birthdays AND one wedding anniversary! Three of the said birthdays were to be celebrated in the same weekend.

On the Friday Night, with the prospect of two brithday parties I decided to get all sensible and not drink. Boring I know! And if I had known that all the 'party animals' attending the party on Saturday, were going to be so tired and hungover from the mad Friday party, I would have happily got drunk on Friday too! At the time, I thought it madness to get suicidally drunk two evenings in a row (boy am I showing my age now!) but then I realised it was just typical me, always picking the wrong night to drink!! Humph.

So, anyway, the first party was a fancy dress or formal dress evening, so I got my best glad rags out of the wardrobe. I had a mini celebration as I discovered the 'tight' dress I had kept in my cupboard as a goal for several months finally fitted!!! Hurrah!! Funny really... must be eating myself thin cos all I've done these past few weeks is eat chips and other crap and I've even started getting the bus to work instead of walking. Bad bad Racheal..... but hey, who cares!? I'm getting thinner!! I then put my fake hair in - a real pain to get in but damn, it looks great (long mermaid type locks). Gets me all depressed cos it is the best thing ever to help pull blokes and it only leaves me wishing my hair really looked like that. Anyway, how awful would that be if I actually pulled wearing the hair?! I take a bloke home and tell him to wait whilst I slip into 'something more comfortable'... and then the next minute I return with the hair out!! He'd bloody scream the place down and run out of the door! Have decided extra hair is a great ego boost to make me feel more attractive but definately to be left at home if I seriously intend to pull!!

Back to the story. I get to the first party, celebrating 30 years of life with my mate Claire Bear, where I end up entertaining my parents most of the night! I then get asked to look after a young woman who doesn't know anyone and I take my duties very seriously!! I chat and dance with her and then offer to let her tag along to the second party I have to go to. I feel all philanthropic and good about myself! Then, and I'm putting it down to the hair again, I pull a bloke in a maid's outfit!! It certainly doesn't happen every day....

After making myself hoarse from singing along to rock songs the party ended and sad with the knowledge that I didn't get enough time to chat to my buddies, I moved on to the next party! This one was in town and celebrating the advancing age of Mrs Earl - our infamous punch poisoner!

It wasn't until I arrived at Fuel (the pub/dance club on North Hill) that I realised how utterly inappropriate my outfit was for a club on a Friday night! Ah well!

After a disasterous visit to 'Revolutions', a club for posers and dolly birds and, it seems, people with no decent musical taste, we moved onto the very cool Ride 2. Ride 2 is a chilling pub that plays soul and motown type music and is probably the coolest pub I've been to, which isn't saying too much I know, but I'm sure you get the gist I liked it!

By 2.30am the rest of the gang moved on to the Earl's residents for a few nightcaps and I went home to prepare for a second night of parties.... it turns out that the 'nightcaps' went on until 7.30am for some, which did not bode well for the next night!

Saturday night was Neo's birthday and I didn't hold out much hope for a wild night out when the birthday boy called at 11amish to mumble about how tired he was... or at least I think that was what he said, what I actually got was "mmm, mm, mmm, mmm, urgh, ach, mmm, mmmmmmm".

Sat night was a quiet, yet very pleasant night. Everyone was too tired to really go mad with the drinking or the celebrations but this actually made for a nice night. Everyone got just tipsy enough to loosen up but not so drunk that they couldn't hold a decent conversation. We all had a stellar meal at the Tap and Barrel pub (I am so eating there again!) and then moved on to The Mannamead on Mutley Plain. The birthday boy seemed to enjoy himself and seemed pleased that everyone was willing to listen to his 'fascinating' information talks about watches of all types! Bless him. Neo left early as the rest of us unwittingly found ourselves glued to our comfy chairs....It was a bit like that episode in Buffy where no-one could make themselves leave a party after a spell was cast on everyone to stay where they were forever! Jason was the only one who seemed to even try to leave, with half hourly reports that it was 'definately about time to go', though no-one seemed to respond to these announcements with more than a nod... and another drink. We finally all agreed to stand on the count of five and walked out of the pub at 1.30am, after trying to leave for 3 hours.

Getting Old and Loving It!

Am so so sorry I have been really tardy as far as my blog goes these past few weeks but life has been a little hectic! Will try to do a few catch up blogs today.

Well, my 31st birthday has been and gone! It was actually less depressing than I expected! Hurrah! Decided to see the 'day of doom' in with me dressed like a teenager - big black trousers, chains and a bra! In fact, thinking about it, when I was a teenager I dressed like my mother and was far too fat to be showing off my belly, so it was not in remembrance of my teenage years but the teenage years I would like to have lived!

When I was 'young' I was basically the living embodiment of Saffy from Absolutely Fabulous... yes, there really are teenagers/young women like her out there. I remember reaching 20 and regretting I had not coloured my hair blue, at least once, or pierced parts of my body my father would have totally disapproved of, or worn baggy black clothes with chains everywhere, coloured my eyes and half my face black and generally spent most of my weekends in a haze of alcohol and smoke.

Unfortuantely here I am at 30 and still not a lot has changed... except for that one time when, like a naughty schoolgirl, I pinched some of Neo's tobacco when he went out for a night and tried this smoking lark. I remember liking the heady feeling I got the first few puffs and so decided to try it again (I was going through one of those 'Smoking looks sexy' phases, which I now blame on Neo and young love!). The second cigarette did not agree with me as well as the first and I promptly spent the next hour considering how dirty Neo's toilet bowl was! A walk in the fresh air did not improve matters. By the time Neo returned I was looking very green... of course, I was too embarrassed (in my goody-two-shoes tower) to admit what I had done, so Neo, for our entire relationship, believed I had been struck by a freak sudden illness - an illness which really only seemed to resurface every time he lit up... it may have been the beginning of the end for his personal vice!

Anyway, back to the point. My birthday. Everyone met at the Bank where we had a sociable drink or two and I was pleased to see quite a few people make the effort! We all sat around talking about Horror movies and sex... that was around the later part of the evening if I recall! After that we all went to JFKs. For some it was a trip to their own teenage years, but to me the place has been a new discovery. One of the few places I can go in and feel one of the more normal people there! I love it! Not only does everyone wear black and chains but the music is AWESOME - bit like walking into a street in New York. Rock, metal, grunge etc etc all night. Can a girl ask for anything more on her birthday?! One of my last memories of the night was cutting a rug on the dancefloor to Killing In The Name Of and then i was off to Goodbodies pub for a fantastic and much needed fry up.

I looked like a banshee when I looked in the mirror before going to bed... the sign of a great night!

Thanks to everyone who turned up!