50TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

It's been a while since my last blog and so much has happened. I won't write much in today's blog as I'd really like to send it out as I've been wanting to since May 2nd which was my 50th birthday party (birthday May 7th) and Mum's May 3rd.

About 4-6 weeks prior to the party I became very ill and got progressively worse. I was due for my bi-annual treatment for the disease on April 30th so as always I organized a full blood test 2 weeks before. It turned out that my iron levels were 8. Need to be at least minimum 30! It turns out that all the symptoms I had were due to the low iron.

I had my first iron infusion on May the 8th and was severely ill for the following 4 weeks. I couldn't get out of bed, lost all my strength so I couldn't sit up or move my legs, transfer to the wheelchair or even sit in it for longer than an hour 2 weeks after the infusion. No one can or was able to explain it however 5 weeks later I'm 99% back on track. Thanks to all the exercise I do on my legs daily and weights etc. Yeyyyyy!!!!

Having said all that, let me focus on the fun and positive part of May, me turning 50...huh??? LOL. I don't feel 50 and I never worry about birthdays, numbers or age. It was necessary I felt to have a fabulous celebration and party especially for me, Mum and my brother Tim. As well as sharing it with people that have played and mostly currently play a big part in my life now. I had wonderful friends some new friendships and some older. My wonderful friends who just happen to drive taxis and always look after me. Especially my gorgeous friend Sunny who used to drive me in Point Cook. My carers came along and it was great to meet their partners and husbands. And so many more fabulous friends and special family, especially my brother who came down from Sydney. It was a fabulous night!!

There were 65 people including me and we had it at Hellenic Republic restaurant in Kew. I am a frequent flyer there so the fabulous functions organizer gave me both function rooms upstairs. It has it's own kitchen as well so you can chat to the chef and watch him preparing the food. In the photos it looks as though the room is brightly lit but there were tea light candles on every table and the lights were dimmed so that it created a fabulous atmosphere. I also found this fabulous balloon company that provided these stunning large helium balloons that had tiny lights hanging down. They were all hanging down from the ceiling and looked amazing. The kids (and some adults) loved these.

The food was incredible, the mood, everyone got on and there was that "9 degrees of separation thing" going on all night with people knowing each other that I didn't know about and all kinds of things. I made several iMovies showing a timeline of my life as most people there didn't know me before we immigrate to Australia in 1980 from South Africa. The one movie was longer and ran throughout the earlier part of the night throughout dinner. Then I made another one on which I narrated and that is on YouTube as well as in this blog. There was a brief speech from me afterwards, 1 from my wonderful friend Bernadette who I have just reconnected with after 18 years as we lost contact. And another from my brother Tim who wished my Mum a happy birthday for the next day at which time I realized I'd forgotten to tell him I'd organized a surprise birthday cake for her! She'd given me strict instructions NOT to mention her birthday. Her face was priceless when her cake came out after mine!

It was a wonderful night spent with special friends and family. I got into bed at 2pm with a smile on my face and in my heart.