Happy Birthday to meeeee 🎈

Birthdays are a weird one when you’re single. From going to bed the night before, to waking up alone with no one to greet you singing “Happy Birthday to you”, having no one there whilst you open cards, or to have a “birthday breakfast” with. 

Then there’s the pressure on what do you do for the rest of the day? Do you go to work so that you’re at least surrounded by people? 

I can’t expect friends or family members to take the day off to celebrate with me.

It was my birthday on June 9th (you can all mark it in your diaries for next year if you wish) and here I am writing this blog whilst sunbathing in Rhodes…

After a pretty disasterous 33rd birthday- thanks to a guy I met online- I decided I wouldn’t let anyone ruin my birthday ever again. I asked myself  “if you could do anything on my birthday, what would it be?”

The answer: be on holiday in the sun drinking gin. So that is what I’ve done for the past few years & it’s the greatest decision ever! I’d like to thank the guy that ruined my 33rd birthday as it inspired me to do what I’m doing right now!

The only obvious problem with this is… as a single girl, it’s tricky to find someone to go on holiday with… and as I said, I don’t expect friends to take a day off to spend my birthday with me… yet I expect them to take a week off & come on holiday with me!!!

Luckily I have amazing friends who love holidays as much as me, and it’s a perfect time of year to go on holiday (that’s my selling line to them!) The past 2 years I’ve managed to find friends to go with, however one of them I convinced to come to New York with me earlier this year & the other one has an actual husband & selfishly she chose an amazing holiday to the Dominican Republic with him over a cheapy all inclusive week somewhere with me. (How dare she!!)

A few weeks ago I had the “birthday panic” of realising I hadn’t booked anything & I hadn’t asked anyone to come with me. 

Whilst on a hen do, I realised my mate Sam may be free & may want to come with me… I asked her there & then & after a few wines we shook hands & made a deal. We’d go away together. Wooo! However she could only do 4 nights. 4 nights was better than no nights & one of those nights was my birthday! I decided I’d stay on 4 extra days on my own (being the sun junkie that I am) because I’d only be on my own in rainy Manchester so being on my own in Rhodes was no different- just a bit better.

The night before my birthday we sat, drank gin, (“free gin” too as it’s all inclusive!) played cards & had a proper good giggle. She took the last photo of me as a 35 year old & we went up to bed. I was shattered (from too much all day free gin drinking action) but she told me I HAD to stay awake til midnight. She said she had something she needed to do & shut her bedroom door. I presumed to write a birthday card. But I could suddenly hear her giggling, sellotape noises & her blowing up balloons.

Midnight arrived & Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday” came blasting out of a speaker on the balcony. I went out & there were banners, balloons & twinkly lights all over the balcony!!! Perfect start to being 36!!

Do you know what else was perfect on my birthday? A child tripping up with a hot bowl of onion soup & me being her accidental target. Yup. It was the feeling of being shat on by a bird (which happens often to me) But a massive bird & it smelt quite nice.

The other shock of the day was opening a bottle of bubbles & it exploding EVERYWHERE… 

It was a lovely day filled with sun, Greek salad, soup & fizz. Oh, and many birthday cakes because Sam had pestered reception so much about cake that everywhere I went, there was cake! Perfect birthday!!

But they say things come in threes… right?? 

The 3rd shock was the day after my birthday, I was sat casually sipping on a FREE gin in the evening & my friend Anna appeared in front of me. Anna was not meant to be here. Anna was meant to be in Cornwall. Where she lives. 

I’m not really sure how I reacted other than staring at her for a while confused why a girl was in the same hotel as me looked like Anna… then I think I said “what the f***” followed by “what are you doing here???”

She came to surprise me for my birthday & to keep me company so that I wasn’t going to spend the last 4 days on my own! 

Aren’t friends bloody brilliant?! Who needs a man?? Best birthday gift ever?! (I’m still mainly sitting looking at her confused wondering how the hell she’s here)

Of course it would have been rude of me not to open Tinder whilst here to see what beautiful Greek men are on offer. They are typically mainly called Dimitri & Stelios. And their english is very broken. I chose not to travel 11km across the island to go on a date. I rarely travel that far in Manchester to go on a date!

Mental message of the week:

T****: hey shell, I’m naff at this & especially introducing myself but I thought I’d say hi. I don’t have any face pics public for a good reason but happy to send privately. T xxx

His current profile photo is of his naked torso… of course. I decided not to ask for further photos. His torso wasn’t my type 🙈