The Curse of Penny's Birthday

I had thought that the Curse of Penny's Birthday was at an end!

Over the last few years I have been fortunate enough to have enjoyed birthdays with friends and, sometimes, with family who have made the trip to wherever I happen to be living. It was over a birthday dinner for example, that I was asked if I would like to take up scuba diving, which has since become my passion. I have been lulled into a false sense of security by fun and frivolity!

Over the years my birthdays have been characterised by such delights as food poisoning; on a trip to Malta, family forgetting the day; husband nipping down to the corner shop and my being presented with a hastily bought box of chocolates in a white paper bag with the price label still attached, receiving such interesting and wonderfully thoughtful gifts as a frying pan, an ironing board cover and a jar of instant hot chocolate mix (that birthday was a laugh a minute) and many other such super surprises to make me think that birthdays really are not for me. All of these have combined in my really wanting to forget the day.

This year is no exception. As my birthday looms on the imminent horizon I am full of the most grotty cold and hacking cough I have had since the last time I was sick, back in October. My father has gone down with Shingles and is not at all well and the family get together I had looked forward to has been scrapped. Good, eh?

It would appear that the Curse of Penny's Birthday is alive and well after all!