‘I’m officially 70 and it totally rocks!’

Fun and games for two days, what a birthday! Being 70 totally rocks. I had two days of festivities and the final friend left the building close to 5:30pm that second day.

I am tired but joyful and totally chuffed at how it all went together. There were 15 friends at the party I had on Sunday and I also had two sets of visitors on the actual day of my birthday, we sat and had a couple of wines.

This lady hasn’t had a drop of wine for more than 30 years. I usually don’t like the stuff and how it used to make me feel (light-headed and the room used to spin, those were the good old days), but I decided to try just a little for such a momentous occasion. I also used my mother’s champagne flutes from her glory box in the 1930s. They are very pretty, lightly coloured tall flutes with flowers etched onto them. We drank champagne!

It took me three days to prepare all the food and everyone ate heartily, so I was very pleased. My dining room table was positively groaning from the food. Chilli con carne, rice, potato salad, avocado dip, crackers and pate, a selection of cheeses, club sandwiches, the traditional party foods, two pavlovas (using a traditional New Zealand recipe!), fresh fruit salad … There was so much food the entire table was covered. Everyone found a seat and ate on their knees.

I am lucky to have an outdoor patio with about eight chairs, so there was definitely enough seating. When we were about to start the festivities one of my friends said a prayer and also blessed the food before we ate. He is such a special friend of 30 years and it was totally appropriate for him to do the blessings and prayers. He read out my favourite psalm. The 23rd psalm. I cried as it took me back to when I was a little girl and we used to go to church — nice memory for me, made my day even better.

My Tongan family treat me like I’m their grandmother, I am a godmother to two of their four children. I have known them for such a long time and the children have now all grown up, the youngest turned 21 about three months ago. Their eldest is 35 and he lived with me when he came to New Zealand for about five years. From the moment they moved next door we all bonded, which was such a blessing and now they look after me beautifully.

I received many flowers from my friends, and presents too! So many thoughtful gifts. It was lovely to receive such warm well wishes from friends and family, namely my nephew who lived in Sydney. He put a photograph on social media of me when I was 20 years old. I remembered that photograph being taken. I was at the Hotel InterContinental, which was where I worked as a secretary to the general manager. A flood of memories long forgotten, all from one photograph.

The two days of celebration for my birthday are something I’ll never forget. It was such fun! I’d definitely encourage anyone approaching a milestone birthday to throw a big celebration!

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