Did I also mention:
"It's ma birthday - it's ma birthday. Dancing 'cos it's ma birthday!"
Forty three! Forty bloody three! Hells bells, how did that happen?
No - quite literally, how did that happen?
Roll back five years and I was making snow angles and eating steaming cheese in Switzerland.
Back four - can't remember so it must have been good.
Back three and I was walking out of my own 40th birthday party because no one's food had turned up (I didn't pay and I took my cake with me!)
Back two and I was in the thick of stem cell harvesting and growth factor injections (which didn't work) prior to my life saving stem cell transplant for Anaplastic Large T-Cell Lymphoma. I'm touching wood as I write 'Life Saving'.
Back one and I was signed off from work after being plunged straight into a redundancy situation directly on returning from sick leave, which I didn't have the robustness to deal with.
Today - absofriggingbrilliant (I'm touching wood again). I don't need to tell you why, just read my previous 180 blogs!
So forty three - did you hear that I'M 43. It's a piggin' miracle. Who'd have thought it. I'm not going to hide my age, I'm going to celebrate it as my major achievement. Staying alive for 43 years.
YIPEEEEEEEE!
The day's got off to a very good start. I've been awake since 4.06am - squeezing everything out of my 24 hours because it's is also the time that I was born (roughly).
I've had breakfast in bed, opened cards and presents. The cat's got me a fit ball, I have a book which tells me I need to 'Bake for Britain' - OK then!
And Tris has got me a fabulous new camera with a zoom so powerful I can see right into the wheelie bins of the shops opposite, which will be very useful for when I become a private detective.
It has special effects too - though sadly not one to make me look like a super model!
So - 17th February. It's a very special day you know. Full of death, murder and uprisings. In fact the todays news is full of the first anniversary of the Libyan uprising.
Your quick history lesson on important things that happened on the 17th February is as follows (thanks Wikipedia):
1600 – The philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive, for heresy, at Campo de' Fiori in Rome.
1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: The Battle of Mormans.
1838 – Weenen massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus.
1864 – American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
1865 – American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina, is burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
1871 – The victorious Prussian Army parades though Paris, France after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
1964 – Gabonese president Leon M'ba is toppled by a coup and his rival, Jean-Hilaire Aubame, is installed in his place.
1979 – The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
1998 – Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian troops kill 70–90 Azerbaijani civilians in the village of Qaradağlı.
2003 – The London Congestion Charge scheme begins.
2006 – A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126.
2011 – Libyan protests begin. In Bahrain, security forces launched a deadly pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the day is locally known as Bloody Thursday.
It's not great is it. Not a particularly happy day. People must get a bit testy in the middle of February. Thank goodness for my birthday, to cheer things up a bit. And it isn't all bad:
1904 – Madama Butterfly receives its première at La Scala in Milan.
1933 – The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
2008 – Kosovo declares independence.
Music, booze and freedom - hurrah!
And I also share my birthday with an abundance of notable writers, poets, composers, musicians, explorers, scientists and innovators.
Ron Goodwin (b 1925) composer of 'The Trap' which is more commonly known as the theme tune for the London Marathon. Which co-incidentally is the music I walked down the aisle to at our wedding!
Patricia Routledge (b 1929) or as we all know her, 'Mrs Bucket' from Keeping Up Appearances.
Ruth Rendell (b 1930) crime writer extrodinaire.
Alan Bates (b 1934) illustrious British actor.
Barry Humphries (b 1934) the wonderful Dame Edna Everage.
Gene Pitney (b 1941) the American singer of '24 hours from Tulsa' and 'Somethings gotten hold of my heart' fame.
Rene Russo (b 1954) who could forget that dress and that dance in 'The Thomas Crown Affair' with Pierce Brosnan.
Larry the Cable Guy (b 1963) whoever he is???
Dee (b 1979) Puerto Rican pornographic actress.
Paris Hilton (b 1981) American actress??, singer??, and heiress (or at least that's what Wikipedia says!)
Rebbecca Adlington (b 1989) British Olympic Gold Medal winning swimmer.
And of course me! (b 1969) Zoologist, charity fundraiser, Womble, Giant Oven Chip, world traveler and explorer, swimmer with dolphins, wearer of wet suits, Manchester to Blackpool cyclist, climber of Ayres Rock, cancer surviver (touch wood), writer, soon to be media tycoon and generally all round good egg.
Happy Birthday to all of us!
