It was my Birthday Day

I have been living such an unusual life these past few years and I felt an urge to share it with whoever wants to read my blog. 

I love birthdays, they have so much meaning and importance.  The one day in the year when you are treated special, when you get loved more and spoilt a little and you have the feeling that life ahead is a new beginning.  I always love wishing others special birthday and I love when people remember mine.  My birthday is the day after William Shakespeare's birthday. I love telling people that, drives them nuts as then they have to google William Shakespeare to find his birthday, or just look on Facebook. I have just had my 55 birthday. The day came and went with no pomp or pageantry or celebration of any sort. I am shy so pomp & pageantry isn't really my thing anyway but a card or gift is always welcome.  Nothing of that sort this year, loving messages from a few family and friends but the importance of the day had been forgotten in my partner's busy and self focused life. 

I cannot remember ever experiencing such a hugely emotional and stressful day. Besides suddenly realising that I am getting older, my cat had bitten my face two nights before.  

That sounds like the beginning of a horror film but what happened was that I was holding her when the next door dogs broke through the fence to attack her.  She attacked me in her panic and streaked away with nothing but her fur ruffled.  I had a bite on my cheekbone, ripped nostril by a claw and she had bitten through my index finger, amongst numerous other scratches.  It happened so very fast I cant remember anything except trying to protect my eyes from her claws!

I am one of those people who never show pain, rarely feel ill, don't often hurt myself badly (touch wood) and hate bringing attention to myself in anyway.  This was bad and I was in pain but laughed it all off and carried on as normal.

The next day I woke up to extreme pain and a face that looked as though Mike Tyson had had a couple of punches at it. I went for all the necessary jabs; tetanus, rabies - we live in the bush, jackals & hyenas walking around and the cat may have walked where they walked. Then I travelled 160km to the next town to collect the remainder of my life's memories & furnishings from the storage where it had been for 9 months.

By that evening I was on my own in a strange town with a finger which wouldn't bend and feeling extremely ill.  Didn't know what to do about it so just carried on as normal and went to bed.  

The next day I waited for the truck to pack my belongings, thanked the people who had wished me happy day, then travelled back to set up in my new home.  We hadn't lived in a house for 9 months so this was an exciting feeling. Even though my face was swollen, painful & burning, I couldn't hear out of that ear or see very well out of that eye, I was looking forward to at last having a "home" again, I missed all my "stuff".  

Being the "not make a fuss" type of person I quietly cleaned my wounds with an expired antiseptic ointment I found in my never looked in medical kit, and popped painkillers.  Did I mention I hate taking meds, hate antibiotics, only take aspirin or paracetamol if the pain gets dizzy making.

Arrived home mid afternoon. We live in the bush, in a valley next to a huge river and the road to get there is very bad, dirt, potholed & rocky.  The sprinklers were going around happily on the front lawn where the truck was to offload, my laundry was still on the line from the previous day, the next door chickens were roosting on any perch they could find in the lounge and had messed slippery yucky piles everywhere and my partner was busy repairing his boat.

Said a quick hello to him then had to rush around to the front of the house to warn the truck driver not to drive on the lawn - too late. Now I had this massive UD bogged down facing the wrong direction under an overhanging mahogany tree! Nothing for it we had to just start offloading & trekking the distance into the house.  I was now feeling shattered, sore, dizzy and altogether not right - popped more painkillers & carried on as normal.

As we were coming to the last few items, beds, fridge, mattresses, disaster struck.  A swarm of bees, disturbed perhaps by the noise or the amount of hot sweaty bodies moving around, attacked us. Everyone rushed for cover in the house. Determined to finish before dark, they set fire to sticks covered themselves in removals blankets used to cover the furniture and proceeded to offload & carry things inside again, with one hand from what I could see.  

Most of the bees had flown on but there were still a few very angry ones around.  I couldn't leave the house or go near a doorway, it seemed the bees were angry with me, or maybe they could sense my pain or something. Every time I went to the doorway I would be stung.  Luckily I don't react in any way to bees but it was painful and I remember wondering if I was maybe dreaming.

That was my birthday this year.  I would like to postpone it but don't think thats possible.